August 9, 2021
To the Zapatista Army of National Liberation
To the National Indigenous Congress – Indigenous Governing Council
To the Civil Network for Human Rights Observation of the TdT Network
To the Peoples of Mexico and the world
To the media
Sisters and brothers,
We send a respectful greeting from the lands at the bottom of the Bolaños Canyon, from our autonomous Wixárika and Tepehuana community of San Lorenzo de Azqueltán, municipality of Villa Guerrero, Jalisco, Mexico. We continue to resist the invasion of our territory, fighting for justice and for life as we have done for 500 years. Acknowledging our roots, we send this word to the world to say that:
- Given the repression over decades of struggle, during which our parents and grandparents have been threatened, persecuted, beaten or killed by rich land thieves, whom we call caciques, we have understood that in order to be alive as Tepehuano and Wixárika people, but also as individuals, we must take care of ourselves and be able to dream collectively. For that we need our land, for which we fight and which we will defend with our working hands, even for another five centuries if necessary, in which we must be alive and strong.
- We have seen how health is not a right that Original peoples are allowed to have. Medical care is always a privilege, and preventable or treatable diseases would be lethal without the knowledge of traditional medicine of the elders. Well, for the governments and the rich, it would be better if we had already disappeared centuries ago when their ambition and violence invaded us. Only in this way can they continue to enrich themselves with the exploitation of the land and the people.
- We need life and health for our entire community and for our authorities who were on the verge of death after the attack by the cacique Fabio Flores, for our grandparents who were hanged or dragged so their land could be taken; as well as for our people who go out to work in fields every day, worrying that their land may be violently claimed by the rich who claim to have bought a property title from the government. We need life and health for the girls and boys who can only get care if they have the money to pay for it.
- Never again will we allow the capitalist disease, that turns health, territory, culture and everything it can into a commodity, to invade our Mother Earth, our own organization, our dreams and our bodies. Today more than ever, we know that only with autonomy and organization can we achieve this. Just as the autonomous health systems of our Zapatista sisters and brothers in Chiapas have taught us with their dignified example.
- That is why we have decided to heal our collective heart, to grow together with the life and autonomy of our community. Therefore, within the framework of the Campaign for Justice and Territory in Azqueltán, which we initiated on April 25, 2021, we called for the world’s solidarity on the Internet, and received the helping hands and support we needed to construct and equip a sacred dream that became an autonomous clinic. For this we have appointed health promoters who will be trained to save lives, attend medical emergencies and learn about the use of both “white coat” medicine, as well as traditional and herbal medicine.
We send a fraternal hug to all of those who have made this walk for the defense of life possible, and soon we will have the opportunity to thank them in a special way.
- Thus, a health brigade was formed made up of sisters and brothers in solidarity from diverse and distant geographies, who share the conviction that their ancestral roots are alive and that it is time to rebuild the community health systems based on them. It is time for those roots to meet and share in order to become the hope of this sick world. We salute the health brigade made up of women healers, nurses, midwives, herbalists, Cuban doctors and doctors from other parts of the world, members of the Sexta Grietas Del Norte network in the United States, the Semillas Collective in NYC, nutrition healers, artists who use art to heal and amplify peoples’ voices, coming from various expressions of resistance such as other sister communities of the National Indigenous Congress and from other parts of the world; Iran, Cuba, Los Angeles- California, New York, Chicago -Illinois, Seattle -Washington, Oakland-California, Tucson-Arizona, El Istmo de Tehuantepec (Oaxaca), Mexicali, Guerrero, Yucatán, Mexico City, Ecatepec -Mexico and Puebla. People of the Afro-descendant languages, Maya, P’urhepecha, Mixteca, Huasteca, Binniza, Shiraz Persian, Nahua, Japanese, English, Arabic, Yoreme, Wixarika and Tepehuano.
That is why, within the framework of the Closure of the National and International Campaign for Justice and Territory in Azqueltán
WE INVITE
the Originary peoples of Mexico and the world, solidarity and conscious collectives, artists, creators, human rights organizations and the media, to the:
INAUGURATION OF THE AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY CLINIC
That will take place in our community of San Lorenzo de Azqueltán, municipality of Villa Guerrero, Jalisco
August 27-30, 2021
The following themes that will be developed during these days:
• Training workshops and medical consultations on various areas of community health for community members;
• Swearing-in of health promoters and inauguration of the autonomous community clinic;
• Traditional spiritual ceremony;
• Cultural and artistic exchange (the community will have traditional music and crafts);
• Report by the Civil Mission for the Observation of Human Rights;
• Public statement before the closure of the National and International Campaign for Justice and Territory in Azqueltán.
Attendees are asked to donate medicines in good condition to the extent they are able to.
Access to our community, considering the danger of COVID 19, will be in strict adherence to the necessary sanitary measures, with the use of mandatory face masks at all times and maintenance of an adequate social distance. A prior registration is also required via the email address azqueltan@gmail.com, where we request full names, places of origin, as well as whether they belong to a people, community, group, movement, organization or media. The official information for this event will be disseminated through our website https://www.comunidadazqueltan.org/ as well as social networks and websites in solidarity with our struggle. People are asked in advance to bring a blanket or sleeping bag, personal hygiene items, their own cup and plate.
Sincerely,
August 2021
Never Again a Mexico Without Us
Long live Mother Earth!
Wixárika and Tepehuana Autonomous Community of San Lorenzo de Azqueltán, municipality of Villa Guerrero, Jalisco.
1 A person who exercises a lot of power in the political or administrative affairs of a town or region, using money or other influence to control the lives of the locals