Grassroots in San Cristobal de las Casas: Sna Jtz'Ibajom and Zapatistas

The performativity of ritual, theatre, and spectacle give credence to all three being viewed as a type of social action. Not only do these representations involve enactments, as such, they also involve social interaction among participants. There is an intersection between art and ritual, both as a formalized practice. This paper argues that in grassroots theatre the intersection occurs within community representation. The enactment is thus similar to other rituals and ritual-like traditions, such as commemorations, that involve creating or invoking a sense of community.

"Concerning social memory in particular, we may note that images of the past commonly legitimate a present social order. It is an implicit rule that participants in any social order must presuppose a shared memory." (Connerton, 3)

The group Sna Jtz’Ibajom, or the Writers’ Collective, is a locally based grassroots theatre group that began in 1981 in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. The Writer’s Collective (also known as The Writers’ House) performs and enacts grassroots productions that represent localized, regional traditions and, at the same time, create a sense of community within ritualistic space and practice. When viewed within the sphere of social action, Sna Jtz’Ibajom share common objectives with the Zapatista movement of Chiapas, and within its own history shows how art mirrors sociopolitical realities and performance holds ritual value during cultural revival.

Historical Background

The Writers’ Collective started as part of community effort to promote and protect Mayan heritage in the area of San Cristóbal. As became general public knowledge with the Zapatista movement and the communiqués to the world from Subcomandante Marcos:

"Surrounding San Cristóbal is a mutitude of Mayan townships, each distinguished by its own dress style and language or dialect." (Frischman, 214)

Frischman (Duke, 1981) attributes the formation of the Collective to renewed interest in Taotzil/ Tzeltal culture and Mayan heritage. He also traces this cultural revival among the people of San Cristóbal in part to contact with the Harvard Chiapas Project. This project spans the years 1957- 1975 and involved the work of anthropologists and archaeologists, graduate students, and locals aiding in translation and research. Basically, what has been identified with the Writers’ Collective was a community effort and ties into other types of social action in this area during the last decade, most notably the Zapatista movement and the formation of separate autonomous states within the region of Chiapas.

As reported in Frischman, a group of local families (Perez-Perez, Lopez-Mendez, and De la Torre Lopez) formed the original Sociedad Cultural Indígena de Chiapas (Chiapas Indigenous Cultural Society) in 1981. (217) This was possible with the financial aid from outsiders, specifically from Cultural Survival, Inc. When viewed chronologically, as described above, the efforts of various organizations helped to foment what became a grassroots movement that eventually resulted in international recognition. Currently, information on The Origin of Corn/ El Orígen del Maíz, one of the more recent plays created by The Mayan Writers’ Collective (or “Sna Jtz’Ibajom”), can be found on the internet. This play was produced with the aid of Ralph Lee (artistic director) and Robert Laughlin (anthropologist). The group now travels to various venues as part of its artistic representation. According to the La Jolla Playhouse website, The Origin of Corn:

"Is the story of a young man named Pedro, whose town is in need of food. The gods appear to Pedro, offering him the opportunity to help his town in the form of magical corn seeds. However, when Pedro tells a lie, the corn is turned to stone. Pedro must learn the lessons of truth and teamwork before all is made right." (Website)

It is interesting to trace the establishment and progression of this particular group and its art in relation to the other events, namely social action in Chiapas within the last decade. When studying ritual as social action, or simply as social, analysis of metasystems are necessary, as expounded in Mauss:

"Mauss argued that a total social phenomenon such as gift-giving can be analyzed in its totality and essence only through a specifically sociological method of analysis, that is, the study of dynamic metasystems that include legal, economic, religious institutions as well as persons in their sense of themselves as individuals and as a group." (Bell, 50)