Fanons Three Stages Related To The Indigenous People Of Chiapas :: essays research papers

Fanons Three Stages Related to the Indigenous sight of Chiapas     The passage Shadows of Tender Fury by Subcommander Marcos of theZapatista Army explains that the people of Chiapas ar currently facing a periodof revolution. The Zapatista army (consisting of Chiapian campesinos) has risento storm the intolerant system of oppression by the Mexican government and has act to create a better lifestyle for the campesinos of Chiapas. FrantzFanons three stages to national glossiness assimilation, self discovery, andrevolution, relate to the struggle of the campesinos of Chiapas. In the last500 years, the native people of Chiapas have faced all three of Fanansstages during their struggle for the evolution of a national culture.     Five-hundred years ago when the first Europeans came in reach with theMayan Indians, the first stage of Fanons theory, assimilation, beganformalizing. Throughout history the colonizers of Mexico were moretechnologica lly go than the natives. The Europeans had guns, cannons andmassive ships. Not only did these possessions enable them to have greater beastforce, but it took the white man to the level of the gods in the eyes of thenatives. The colonizers could slow take advantage of this reverence. Fanonstates "The effect consciously sought by colonialism was to study into thenatives heads the idea that if the settlers were to leave, they would at oncefall back into barbarism, degradation, and bestiality."(Fanon 211) Thecolonizers, believing the natives were savages that call for enlightenment, forcedEuropean culture upon them. The Europeans believed that to assimilate thenatives to European culture was to assist them progress. Therefore, to return tothe old ways would have been regressing. When the natives objected to theforced assimilation, the colonizers smothered the insubordinate efforts withstronger, more lethal weapons. Fanon compares the colonizer to a mother whorestrains her "perverse" shaver so that he will not commit suicide.(Fanon 211)The analogy implies that the settled must be protected (by the colonizer) fromself-destruction. In the minds of the European colonizers, this idea of egis justified forcing assimulation onto the natives.Although the native campesinos (the poor people of Chiapas) haventfully assimulated, they have choose particular aspects of European and presentday Mexican culture. The campesinos have knowledgeable the Spanish language andjoined the catholic religion. An example of Fanons first kind is when thecolonizer tries to calm the angry, poor and exploited colonized people bypromising social reform.(Fanon 207) These reforms promise things such asemployment, welfare and education. check to Fanon, the government rarelyfollows through with pledged social reform. They find it easier to alone