Cerro de San Pedro is a town and municipality in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí. The town started as a mining town for gold and silver. It was the founding town of the state, and its figure is prominent in the state's coat of arms. As of 2005^[update], the population was 95.^[1]

Panorama of the village San Pedro to the right and the San Pedro mine behind it.

Location[link]

The village is located in the central part of the state. The coordinates of the city center are 100° 49’ west longitude and 22° 13’ north latitude, and 2,040 meters above sea level. The city borders Soledad de Graciano Sánchez on the north and west, Armadillo de los Infante on the east, and San Luis Potosí and Villa de Zaragoza on the south. It is also known as the "Pedro's Kiss."

History[link]

In 1583, in the town of Mesquitique, Brother Diego de la Magdalena met with some of the Guachichil natives. Among them was one named Cualiname or Gualiname, who called their attention to golden outlines in their face paintings. The friar asked him where he had obtained this pigment. The native told him that there was much of the powder to the east of their present location.

Brother Diego told Brother Francisco Franco about this discovery, who told Captain Miguel Caldera, who took possession of the place. Captain Caldera sent Gregorio de León, Juan de la Torre, and Pedro de Anda to prospect for minerals. The latter named the place San Pedro del Potosí, to honor his namesake saint and in memory of the famous mines of the Potosí in Alto Perú, today Bolivia.

In and around the hill was much gold and silver, but there was not enough water to make it worth mining. The nearest water was towards the north, in a region still dominated by several native Chichimeca tribes, and where the city of San Luis Potosí would later arise. The historian Primo Feliciano Velázquez y Basalenque included extensive descriptions of the place in his accounts.

Contemporary history[link]

The mines were operated by, among other companies, Metalúrgica Mexicana, ASARCO. During its time, a mining strike was called (1948), which was lost by the miners; the company decided to leave, not before collapsing the main shafts and tunnels. The mines were never declared exhausted.

Towns[link]

This Municipality includes several towns and some colonies, as follows:

Map of Cerro of San Pedro

• Cerro de San Pedro (Cabecera Municipal)
• Portezuelo
• Real del Potosi
• Monte De Caldera
• Cuesta de Campa
• La Zapatilla
• Divisadero
• Calderon
• Jesus Maria
• Joyita de la Cruz
• La Florida
• Granjas de San Pedro
• Granjas de la Florida
• Planta del Carmen

Names of selected mines[link]

La Descubridora, San Pedro Celestial, Bisnagas, Barreno, Socavon Aventurero Mina la Victoria,5 de Mayo, San Pedro el Alto, San Pedro el Bajo, Catillas (located on Bufa Hill), Begonia, Socavon del Rey, Dorotea, La Encantada, La Flor, Tiro San Pedro, Tiro Juarez, Cañon de las Mulas, Salon Colorado

Main shafts[link]

San Pedro shaft, Juarez shaft, Begonia shaft

References[link]

Coordinates: 22°13′N 100°49′W / 22.217°N 100.817°W / 22.217; -100.817

v t e  State of San Luis Potosí San Luis Potosí, SLP (capital) Municipalities and municipal seats Ahualulco Alaquines Aquismón Aquismón Armadillo de los Infante Axtla de Terrazas Cárdenas Catorce Cedral Cerritos Cerro de San Pedro Charcas Ciudad del Maíz Ciudad Fernández Ciudad Valles Coxcatlán Ebano El Naranjo Guadalcazar Huehuetlán Lagunillas Matehuala Matlapa Mexquitic de Carmona Moctezuma Rayón Rioverde Salinas de Hidalgo San Antonio San Ciro de Acosta San Luis Potosí San Martín Chalchicuautla San Nicolás Tolentino Santa Catarina Santa María del Río Santo Domingo San Vicente Tancuayalab Soledad de Graciano Sánchez Tamasopo Tamazunchale Tampacan Tampamolón Corona Tamuín Tancanhuitz de Santos Tanlajás Tanquián de Escobedo Tierra Nueva Vanegas Venado Villa de Arista Villa de Arriaga Villa de Guadalupe Villa de La Paz Villa de Ramos Villa de Reyes Villa de Hidalgo Villa Juárez Xilitla Zaragoza

San Pedro is the Spanish language form of Saint Peter. It can refer to:

Places[link]

Argentina:

• San Pedro, Buenos Aires Province
• San Pedro Partido
• San Pedro Department, Jujuy
• San Pedro Department, Misiones

Belize:

• San Pedro Town, a town on the island of Ambergris Caye

Chile:

• San Pedro de Atacama, a village in the Atacama desert of northern Chile
• San Pedro de la Paz
• San Pedro, Chile
• San Pedro River (Chile)
• San Pedro de Inacaliri River
• San Pedro (Chile volcano)

Colombia:

• San Pedro, Valle del Cauca, a town and municipality
• San Pedro de Cartago, a town and municipality in the Nariño Department
• San Pedro, Sucre

Costa Rica:

• San Pedro, Costa Rica, a city in the canton of Montes de Oca, in San José province
• San Pedro de Barva, a village and district in the canton of Barva in the province of Heredia
• San Pedro de Montes de Oca, a city and district in the province of San José
• San Pedro de Pérez Zeledón, a village and district in the canton of Pérez Zeledón in the province of San José
• San Pedro de Poás, a city and district in the canton of Poás in the province of Alajuela
• San Pedro de Santa Bárbara, a village and district in the canton of Santa Bárbara in the province of Heredia
• San Pedro de Turrubares, a village and district in the canton of Turrubares in the province of San José
• San Pedro de Valverde Vega, a village and district in the canton of Valverde Vega in the province of Alajuela

Côte d'Ivoire:

• San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire, a coastal town

Dominican Republic

• San Pedro de Macorís Province
  • San Pedro de Macorís, capital of that province

Guatemala:

• San Pedro Carchá (Alta Verapaz)
• San Pedro Ayampuc (Guatemala dept.)
• San Pedro Sacatepéquez, Guatemala (Guatemala dept.)
• San Pedro Necta (Huehuetenango)
• San Pedro Pinula (Jalapa)
• San Pedro Jocopilas (Quiché)
• San Pedro La Laguna (Sololá)
• Volcán San Pedro

Honduras:

• San Pedro de Copán (Copán)
• San Pedro Sula (Cortés)
• San Pedro de Tutule (La Paz)
• San Pedro Zacapa (Santa Bárbara)

Mexico:

• San Pedro, Baja California Sur
• San Pedro, Coahuila, a municipality
• San Pedro Cholula, a municipality in the state of Puebla
• San Pedro Garza García
• San Pedro de la Cueva, in Sonora
• San Pedro Ocotlán, in Zacatecas
• Cerro de San Pedro, San Luis Potosí

Nicaragua:

• San Pedro de Lóvago

Paraguay:

• San Pedro Department, Paraguay
• San Pedro de Ycuamandiyú, the capital of that department
• San Pedro del Paraná

Peru:

• San Pedro de Lloc, city in Peru

Philippines:

• San Pedro, Laguna, a municipality in the Laguna province
• San Pedro, Bagabag, a barangay in Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines
• San Pedro, San Pablo City, a barangay in San Pablo, Laguna, Philippines
• San Pedro Cutud, a barangay in San Fernando, Pampanga, Philippines
• San Pedro Bay (Philippines), at the northwest end of Leyte Gulf

Spain:

• San Pedro de Alcántara
• Peñas de San Pedro, Albacete
• San Pedro, Albacete
• San Pedro, Viveiro, a parish of Viveiro, Lugo
• San Pedro De Zamudia, Zamora
• San Pedro del Pinatar, Spain, in Murcia

United States:

• San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, home to the Port of Los Angeles, located in San Pedro Bay
• San Pedro, New Mexico, a former village across the Rio Grande from San Antonio, New Mexico
• San Pedro Bay (California)
• San Pedro or Nacimiento Mountains, New Mexico
• San Pedro River (Arizona)
• San Pedro Valley (Arizona)

Other[link]

• San Pedro cactus (Echinopsis pachanoi), native to South America.
• San Pedro, the name of the American gunboat in The Sand Pebbles (film)
• The San Pedro, a ship that was intentionally sunk off of Honolulu, Hawaii by the Atlantis Submarine Company for an artificial reef; the wreck lies alongside the YO-257
• The San Pedro, a sailing ship that sunk in 1733 off the coast of Florida with circa $400 million worth of treasure on board. It was rediscovered in the 1960s.^[1]
• San Pedro, a song from Mogwai's 2011 album Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will

See also[link]

• San Pedro Island (disambiguation), the name of a various islands worldwide

References[link]

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Subcomandante Marcos
Subcomandante Marcos in black balaclava.
Other names	Delegado Cero (Delegate Zero)
Website
http://www.ezln.org.mx/

Subcomandante Marcos is the spokesman for the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), a Mexican rebel movement fighting for the rights of the indigenous peoples of Mexico. On 1 January 1994, when the U.S.–Mexico free trade agreement became effective, Subcommander Marcos led an army of Mayan farmers into eastern Chiapas state, to protest the Mexican federal government's mistreatment of the nation's indigenous peoples.^[1] Subcommander Marcos is a writer, a political poet, and an anti-capitalist who advocates the amendment of the Political Constitution of Mexico to formally and specifically recognize the political and the human rights of Mexicos's indigenous peoples.^[2]

Journalists have described Marcos as both a post-modern and new Che Guevara.^[2][3] In his military capacity as a Subcommander of the Zapatista Army, his Marcos nom de guerre is that of a friend killed at a military road-block checkpoint.^[4] In his political capacity, he is Delegado Cero (Delegate Zero) for participating in the matters of La otra campaña (The Other Campaign), concerning the communitary autonomy and the socio-political rights of los indios de México, the indigenous peoples of Mexico.

Background[link]

Subcomandante Marcos, smoking a pipe atop a horse in Chiapas, Mexico.

As a young man, Subcommander Marcos was politically radicalized by the Tlatelolco massacre (2 October 1968) of students and civilians by the Mexican federal government; consequently, he became a militant in the Maoist National Liberation Forces. In 1983, he went to the mountains of Chiapas to convince the poor, indigenous Maya population to organize and launch a proletarian revolution against the Mexican bourgeoisie and the federal government.^[5] After hearing his proposition, the Chiapanecs "just stared at him", and replied that they were not urban workers, that, from their perspective, the land was not property, but the heart of the communities.^[5] In the documentary A Place Called Chiapas (1998), about his early days there, Subcommander Marcos said:

Marcos learned the culture of the Maya civilization. After the intramural politics of the FLN, the outlook of the indigenous peasants of Chiapas, and the failure of the initial Chiapas uprising, he modified the social revolution to the actual social, political, and economic conditions of Chiapas and the people; the adaptation parallels the approach proposed by Antonio Gramsci, whose political theories are popular among Mexican intellectuals. A Place Called Chiapas presents some of the powerful political rhetoric of the Zapatistas. Subcommander Marcos addressed the camera only with his eyes and his tobacco pipe, and said, "It is our day, the day of the dead", whereby he revealed that the Zapatistas believe that he is a dead man, as are the other Zapatistas.

Identity[link]

"Marcos, the quintessential anti-leader, insists that his black mask is a mirror, so that ‘Marcos is gay in San Francisco, black in South Africa, an Asian in Europe, a Chicano in San Ysidro, an anarchist in Spain, a Palestinian in Israel, a Mayan Indian in the streets of San Cristobal, a Jew in Germany, a Gypsy in Poland, a Mohawk in Quebec, a pacifist in Bosnia, a single woman on the Metro at 10 p.m., a peasant without land, a gang member in the slums, an unemployed worker, an unhappy student and, of course, a Zapatista in the mountains’. In other words, he is simply us: we are the leader we’ve been looking for."

—Naomi Klein, Socialist Register ^[5]

Subcomandante Marcos (center, wearing brown cap) in Chiapas

The Mexican government alleges Marcos to be one "Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente", born June 19, 1957 in Tampico, Tamaulipas to Spanish immigrants. Guillén attended high school at Instituto Cultural Tampico, a Jesuit school in Tampico, which was, presumably, where he became acquainted with Liberation Theology.^[6][7] Max Appedole, a high school colleague, played a major role when the government revealed his identity.^[8] Guillén later moved to Mexico City and graduated from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) majoring in Philosophy. There he became immersed in the school's heavy Marxist rhetoric of the 1970's and 1980's and won an award for the best dissertation (drawing on the then recent work of Althusser and Foucault) of his class. He began working as a professor at the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM) while finishing his dissertation at UNAM, but after a couple of years left. It is thought that it was at UAM where Rafael got in touch with the Forces of National Liberation, the mother organization of what would later become the EZLN. Guillén's family is unaware of what happened to him and refuse to say if they think Marcos and Guillén are the same person.

Guillén's family is deeply involved in Tamaulipas politics. Guillén's sister Mercedes del Carmen Guillén Vicente is the Attorney General of the State of Tamaulipas, and a very influential member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party which governed Mexico for more than 70 years. During the Great March to Mexico City in 2001, Marcos visited the UNAM and during a speech said that he had at least been there before.^[9][10][11]

In an interview with García Márquez and Roberto Pombo, Marcos spoke of his upbringing: “It was middle class. My father, the head of the family, taught in a rural school in the time of Cárdenas when, as he used to say, teachers had their ears cut off for being communists. My mother also taught in a school in the countryside, then moved and entered the middle class: it was a family without financial difficulties.” His parents fostered a love for language and reading: “In our family, words had a very special value. Our way of approaching the world was through language. We learnt to read, not so much in school, as in the columns of newspapers. Early on, my mother and father gave us books that disclosed other things. One way or another, we became conscious of language—not as a way of communicating, but of constructing something. As if it were a pleasure more than a duty.” When asked how old he was, Marcos replied: "I'm 518" and laughed.^[12]

Political and philosophical writings[link]

Flag of the EZLN

Marcos has written more than 200 essays and stories and has published 21 books documenting his political and philosophical views. The essays and stories are recycled in the books. Marcos tends to prefer indirect expression, and his writings are often fables, although some are more earthy and direct. In a January 2003 letter to Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (the Basque ETA), titled I shit on all the revolutionary vanguards of this planet, Marcos says "We teach [children of the EZLN] that there are as many words as colors and that there are so many thoughts because within them is the world where words are born...And we teach them to speak with the truth, that is to say, to speak with their hearts."^[13]

La Historia de los Colores (The Story of Colors) is a story written for children and is one of Marcos' most-read books. Based on a Mayan creation myth, it teaches tolerance and respect for diversity.^[14] The book's English translation was to be published with support from the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts, but in 1999 the grant was abruptly canceled after questions from a reporter to the Endowment's chairman William J. Ivey.^[15][16] The Lannan Foundation stepped in with support after the NEA withdrew.^[17]

Marcos' political philosophy is often characterized as Marxist and his populist writing, which concentrates on unjust treatment of people by both business and the State, underlines some of the commonalities the Zapatista ideology shares with Libertarian Socialism and/or Anarchism. In a well-known 1992 essay, Marcos begins each of his five "chapters" in a characteristic style of complaint:^[18]

"This chapter tells how the supreme government was affected by the poverty of the Indigenous peoples of Chiapas and endowed the area with hotels, prisons, barracks, and a military airport. It also tells how the beast feeds on the blood of the people, as well as other miserable and unfortunate happenings...A handful of businesses, one of which is the Mexican State, takes all the wealth out of Chiapas and in exchange leave behind their mortal and pestilent mark."

"This chapter tells the story of the Governor, an apprentice to the viceroy, and his heroic fight against the progressive clergy and his adventures with the feudal cattle, coffee and business lords."

"This chapter tells how the viceroy had a brilliant idea and put this idea into practice. It also tells how the Empire decreed the death of socialism, and then put itself to the task of carrying out this decree to the great joy of the powerful, the distress of the weak and the indifference of the majority."

"This chapter tells how dignity and defiance joined hands in the Southeast, and how Jacinto Pérez's ghost run through the Chiapas highlands. It also tells of a patience that has run out and of other happenings which have been ignored but have major consequences."

"This chapter tells how the dignity of the Indigenous people tried to make itself heard, but its voice only lasted a little while. It also tells how voices that spoke before are speaking again today and that the Indians are walking forward once again but this time with firm footsteps."

The elliptical, ironic and romantic style of Marcos' writings may be a way of keeping a distance from the painful circumstances that he reports and protests. In any event, his literary output has a purpose, as stated in a 2002 book title, Our Word is Our Weapon, a compilation of his articles, poems, speeches, and letters.^[19][20] In 2005 he wrote the novel The Uncomfortable Dead with crime writer Paco Ignacio Taibo II.

The Fourth World War[link]

Subcomandante Marcos has also written an essay in which he claims that the neoliberalism and globalization constitute the “Fourth World War.”^[21] He termed the Cold War the "Third World War."^[21] In this piece, Marcos compares and contrasts the Third World War (the Cold War) with the Fourth World War, which he says is the new type of war that we find ourselves in now: “If the Third World War saw the confrontation of capitalism and socialism on various terrains and with varying degrees of intensity, the fourth will be played out between large financial centers, on a global scale, and at a tremendous and constant intensity.”^[21] He goes on to claim that economic globalization has created devastation through financial policies:^[21]

“Toward the end of the Cold War, capitalism created a military horror: the neutron bomb, a weapon that destroys life while leaving buildings intact. During the Fourth World War, however, a new wonder has been discovered: the financial bomb. Unlike those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this new bomb not only destroys the polis (here, the nation), imposing death, terror, and misery on those who live there, but also transforms its target into just another piece in the puzzle of economic globalization.”

Marcos explains the effect of the financial bombs as, "destroying the material bases of their [nation-state's] sovereignty and, in producing their qualitative depopulation, excluding all those deemed unsuitable to the new economy (for example, indigenous peoples).” ^[21] Marcos also believes that neoliberalism and globalization result in a loss of unique culture for societies as a result of the homogenizing effect of neoliberal globalization:^[21]

“All cultures forged by nations—the noble indigenous past of America, the brilliant civilization of Europe, the wise history of Asian nations, and the ancestral wealth of Africa and Oceania—are corroded by the American way of life. In this way, neoliberalism imposes the destruction of nations and groups of nations in order to reconstruct them according to a single model. This is a planetary war, of the worst and cruelest kind, waged against humanity.”

It is in this context which Subcomandante Marcos believes that the EZLN and other indigenous movements across the world are fighting back. He sees the EZLN as one of many "pockets of resistance."^[21]

“It is not only in the mountains of southeastern Mexico that neoliberalism is being resisted. In other regions of Mexico, in Latin America, in the United States and in Canada, in the Europe of the Maastricht Treaty, in Africa, in Asia, and in Oceania, pockets of resistance are multiplying. Each has its own history, its specificities, its similarities, its demands, its struggles, its successes. If humanity wants to survive and improve, its only hope resides in these pockets made up of the excluded, the left-for-dead, the ‘disposable.’”

Popularity[link]

"Subcomandante Marcos, a principal member of the Zapatistas in the Chiapas region in Mexico, eludes easy definition, has slipped in and out of media attention, but struggles on in his own small, bloodless, but eloquent ways. He’s issued essays, stories, books, and most recently more demands for indigenous rights as part of the 'Other Campaign' decrying Mexico’s election-system, a campaign he conducted on a motorbike in honor of (Che) Guevara’s travels. Marcos is a post-modern rebel, a local, non-violent guerrilla who’s still found many ways, often through technology instead of guns, to short-circuit the dominant network of power."

— Brian Gibson, Vue Weekly ^[22]

However, most would agree that Marcos is the man responsible for putting the impoverished state of Mexico's indigenous population in the spotlight, both locally and internationally.^[2]

On his 3,000 kilometer trek to the capital during the Other Campaign, Marcos was welcomed by "huge adoring crowds, chanting and whistling."^[2] There were "Marcos handcrafted dolls, and his ski mask-clad face adorns T-shirts, posters and badges."^[2]

Asked if it was a burden to be Marcos, he responded: "Yes, it's a great burden because the idea is still prevalent that the EZLN's mistakes are Marcos's, and the good ideas come from the communities. Although we've often been lightning rods, among the compañeros this division of labor makes people worry, because they say: 'In any case, if there's an attack, it'll be on you.'" Asked if this threat made him feel vulnerable: "Yes. Mostly when I go out on the Other Campaign. I feel ill at ease because it's not my territory, there's no media, no compañeros, resources.'" Despite the uneasy feeling of being a potential target, Marcos said, "if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing [...] if I did think about changing something, it would be this: I wouldn't have taken such a prominent role in the media."^[23]

Subcomandante Marcos knows of the possibility of being assassinated but stands committed to the cause: "We don’t fear to die struggling. The good word has already been planted in fertile soil. This fertile soil is in the heart of all of you, and it is there that Zapatista dignity flourishes.’”^[3]

See also[link]

• Zapatista Army of National Liberation
• Chiapas
• Anti-globalization
• Global justice movement
• Left-wing politics

Notes and references[link]

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Subcomandante Marcos

• EZLN and Subcomandante Marcos official web page
• Profile: The Zapatistas' mysterious leader, BBC News
• Subcomandante Marcos tribute web page
• A Place Called Chiapas - a 1998 Documentary by Nettie Wild about the Zapatista movement.
• Narco News: Subcomandante Marcos Pays Homage to Che Guevara and Praises Cuba October 11, 2006.
• Writings of Subcomandante Marcos
• Revolution Rocks: Thoughts of Mexico's First Postmodern Guerrilla Commander by The New York Times
• The Death Train of the WTO: The Slaves of Money and Our Rebellion by Subcomandante Marcos
• From Che to Marcos by Jeffrey W. Rubin, Dissent Magazine, Summer 2002

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