An interview with Sylvia Marcos on Chiapas and Palestine

It was an honor to be in conversation with Sylvia Marcos, Mexican intellectual of Palestinian roots and direct interlocutor with the Zapatista Army for National Liberation, for the NACLA special issue on Palestine.

Sylvia has been a “conceptual curandera” for me, the first to teach me how the Zapatista women battle patriarchy by understanding difference as complimentary and fluid, “together and side by side” rather than the “above/below” circulation of power.

Learn more about Sylvia and her work on her website. Here’s more about her, from the NACLA special issue:

Sylvia Marcos is a scholar committed to Indigenous movements throughout the Americas. As a university professor and researcher, she has proposed a new vision in the field of feminist critical epistemology, Mesoamerican religions, and women within Indigenous movements, while promoting an anti-hegemonic feminist practice, theory, and hermeneutics. Her most recent book is Una Poetica de la Insurgencia Zapatista (Akal/Inter Press, 2024).