The Chiapas Rebellion: The Struggle for Land and Democracy (review)

Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 273 aggrandizing tricks are simultaneously galling and impressive. But in the book's obsession with Krens, the officials of the Pais Vasco are often painted as one-dimensional dupes, as mere prey. But by reducing the officials to hapless disciples to the visionary messiah of Krens, what the book gains in thetorical impact, it loses in subtlety of analysis. I was terribly interested in the politics and urban planning behind this project, but was disappointed the spotlight on Krens could not have better illuminated the subde dynamics of Basque governance. How might the Guggenheim Bilbao benefit the PaÃ-s Vasco? What alternatives existed for politicians seeking to burnish Bilbao's image ? Such questions wither under Zulaika's burning obsession with Krens and the cultural imperialism he personifies. "Deseo, estÃ-mulo, progreso, proyecto , futuro, ttascendencia... son palabras que no describen la geografÃ-a actual de los parados, de la cultura polarizada, de los polÃ-ticos oportunistas, del tiempo real," Zulaika powerfully argues, "sino que dibujan el mapa soñado de una sociedad del milenio" (289). Zulaika documents how the Guggenheim's dreams and desires were transferred to, became intertwined with, those of the PaÃ-s Vasco. This artful book will powerfully resonate with those interested in culture and urbanization in the postmodern city. For this tale of seduction is ultimately one of power, the power to shape urban space. Zulaika gives us a valuable look at how the "mapa soñado" of the Guggenheim and the PaÃ-s Vasco, both on the cusp of a new millennium, came to be drawn in titanium on the banks of the RJo Nervión. David Prytherch The University of Arizona The Chiapas Rebellion: The StruggU for Land and Democracy Duke University Press, 1998 By Neil Harvey An in-depth study of Mexico's southeast peasant movements is incomplete without The Chiapas Rebellion. Neil Harvey has the credentials and experience to write this book: he is coeditor of Party Politics in an "Uncommon Democracy," editor of Mexico: The DiUmmas of Transition, author of The New Agrarian Movement in Mexico, 19791990 , and has conducted ten years of fieldwork in Chiapas, Mexico. This scholarly, objective text explores the complex and changing ways in which the Zapatista rebellion increases our understanding of popular peasant struggle in Mexico. In particular , Harvey asks how the rebellion continues traditional forms of peasant revolt while also evolving in such a way as to facilitate political change in Mexico's modern state of government. Harvey answers this question in perhaps the most comprehensive study of southern Mexico written to date. Eight chapters of tightly packed prose chronicle three peasant organizations located in the Lacandon forest and the municipalities of Simojovel and Venustiano Carranza. The 24-page bibliography contains dozens of interviews conducted from 1987 to 1996— an invaluable resource for serious scholars. The list of primary sources (i.e., documents, pamphlets, communiqués, unpublished papers/reports) reflects extensive archival research and nods toward the many professional relationships Harvey has established with colleagues in the field over years of study. Chapter endnotes and the glossary of acronyms are equally thorough, although the index and chronology are so general as to be of little use. 274 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies This meticulously researched book has another strength worthy of mention: Harvey steadfastly refuses to reduce a complicated situation to an easy, round portrayal . Here are some brief examples. First, he does not "assume the existence of pristine native traditions" but recognizes a world in which many native tribes have been influenced by cultures othet than their own (65). Second, Harvey acknowledges that boundaries between indigenous and Udino communities in Chiapas are "never fixed" but "constandy negotiated and disputed" (37). I too have found this framework useful in my own work on literature ofthe USMexico border. Finally, he avoids portraying caudillismo as the dominant form of political practice that overshadows other constructions of power, community, and citizenship (69). In addition to doing an excellent job fleshing out the ambiguities of a complicated situation of political change, Harvey is also cautious about using an Eurocentric historical interpretation to universalize a study grounded and localized in Mexico. He writes: Although...