“The Media Spectacle Comes to Mexico” OCTAVIO PAZ

Media Spectacle Media Spectacle Comes to Mexico The appearance of the national and international stage of the Zapatistas, or EZLN on January 1, 1994 (the date NAFTA went into effect), brought the media spectacle to Mexico. Nature of Media Spectacle: 1) Religious Liturgy 2) Civic Ceremony.

Media Spectacle Nature of Media Spectacle: The media Spectacle is “enchanting” in the sense that performs a sort of “magical spell”: It is romantic, live, and at the same distant and thus staged. We Watch, We Don’t Participate Defining the Performance It is civic and religious through the use of the following: 1) Symbols 2) Rituals 3) Images …It is ultimately based on belief.

Media Spectacle Society of the Spectacle In such a circumstance, events occur in the real world, but are experienced by most only as bystanders, as observers. “In the world of spectacles, things occur as they do in the real world and at the same time, they occur in another way, in the magical space and time of representation.” “what sets apart our era from the preceding ones is the double preeminence of news and the image over reality.”

Media Spectacle Society of the Spectacle: “What sets apart our era from the preceding ones is the double preeminence of news and the image over reality.” Modernity? Religiosity? “the ancients had visions, we have television.”

Media Spectacle Society of the Spectacle: Implications There is a cruelty implicit to observing, and not acting. “The civilization of the spectacle is cruel.” The Great Yawn: Reduced to an audience, which begins to sees more than experience humans struggles, the public is afforded the luxury of disinterest. Moreover, the complexity, and frequency of the challenges people face induces boredom.

CHIAPAS: THE WORDS AND THE GESTURES The EZLN movement “has been the cause of little spilt blood but much flowing of ink.” Image of the Zapatista It captured the “intellectual” imagination, the global, and certain Mexican educated, cultured, and urban middle class.

CHIAPAS: THE WORDS AND THE GESTURES Zapatista: Post-Modern Revolution? No. It is neither by its scope, limited as it was (initially) to Chiapas, or demands, revolutionary, or post-modern. Zapatista Goals: 1) End injustices against indigenous communities 2) Create real democracy, locally and nationally

CHIAPAS: THE WORDS AND THE GESTURES Zapatista Style: Ultra Modern “The Chiapas rebels are indeed decidedly ultramodern in the most precise sense: through their style.” Zapatista Public Image Through their creation of an image, and an a set of ideas, the Zapatistas have been able to their media image. Zapatista Attire: The Black Mask

Zapatista Public Image

CHIAPAS: THE WORDS AND THE GESTURES Zapatista Message: Rhetorical, Imaginative Zapatista Spokesmen: Sub-Commandante Marcos “Marcos, stands out as well through an art forgotten by our politicians and ideologues: rhetoric.”

Sub-Commandante Marcos

Sub-Commandante Marcos: Pop Cult

CHIAPAS: THE WORDS AND THE GESTURES Zapatista: Post-Modern Revolution? No. It is neither by its scope, limited as it was (initially) to Chiapas, or demands, revolutionary, or post-modern. Zapatista Goals: 1) End injustices against indigenous communities 2) Create real democracy, locally and nationally

CHIAPAS: THE WORDS AND THE GESTURES Zapatista: Post-Modern Revolution? No. It is neither by its scope, limited as it was (initially) to Chiapas, or demands, revolutionary, or post-modern. Zapatista Goals: 1) End injustices against indigenous communities 2) Create real democracy, locally and nationally