Musical Collection The Fire and the Word

Any social movement that leaves its mark on time has its background music: its songs, anthems, a soundtrack. In other words, the sounds that capture and evoke its spirit. The national and international mobilization generated by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) has its own music, and it was gathered in a four-CD collection edited by the magazine Rebeldía with the title The Fire and the Word.

The collection gathers 82 songs that talk about and celebrate the Zapatista uprising and its social and political impact. The collection and selection was done by Ignacio Pineda and remastered in the studios of Foro Alicia, an emblematic center of Mexico City’s Zapatismo. Each CD in the collection has a different title: Fire, The Word, Resistance, Dignity.

Fire, explains Pineda, contains “international groups that have been supporting the Zapatista cause: Basque, French, Spanish, Chilean, Argentine, Brazilian, Venezuelan, Chicano and other US American.” It includes names such as Fermín Muguruza, Mano Negra, Sargento García, Manu Chao, Hechos Contra el Decoro, Aztlán Underground, Kortátu…

The Word includes Mexican or international authors and composers that, while not necessarily alluding directly to the Zapatista movement, reflect the social context within which the EZLN arises and evolves. The volume contains songs by Lila Downs, Café Tacuba, Joaquín Sabina, León Chávez Texeiro Arturo Meza, Gerardo Enciso, León Gieco, Rafael Catana, Pedro Guerra, Real de Catorce, and Nina Galindo, among others.

The third CD, Resistance, contains Mexican ska and reggae groups that, contrary to the trends established by the large commercial music industry, combine their musical creation with social commitment: Salario Mínimo, Los Rastrillos, La Tremenda Korte, Tijuana No, Panteón Rococó, Salón Victoria, La Sonora Skandalera, and Maldita Vecindad.

Dignity, the fourth CD, includes musicians from Zapatista communities in mixed and remastered field recordings. In this CD, the protagonists of one of the most important social movements in recent years tell a musical chronicle of their own struggle, especially through cumbias and corridos. The musicians include insurgents, comandantes, and bases of support of the EZLN.