The Bridge Called Zapatismo

Abstract

Study of a social movement in Los Angeles called Casa del Pueblo reveals the limitations of current theory on transnational social movements and advocacy networks. Whereas current theory tends to view the diffusion of political culture as a one-way process whereby Western ideas diffuse from the wealthier North to the Third World, Casa del Pueblo was born out of a transnational activist network created by the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (Zapatista National Liberation Army—EZLN) in Mexico, a trailblazer of the global justice movement. Casa del Pueblo is a multiracial, largely Latino community group that organizes undocumented immigrants in Echo Park on a variety of issues. It borrows from the Zapatistas an expressive politics focused on consensus building and the active participation of all members and shares with them an emphasis on cultural and political autonomy. The record of Casa del Pueblo and similar transcultural movements in the United States and elsewhere suggests the need for a more interdisciplinary and multicultural approach to the study of transnational movements and advocacy networks.