I read Dangerous Border Crossers by Guillermo Gómez-Peña. This section of the book is titled, “IN SEARCH OF A NEW TOPOGRAPHY: PART 4.”
(He defined himself as a mere “sup” diminutive for subcommander, a kind of secretary of public relations, a humble “interpreter” to the outside world.) His serious but nonchalant demeanor (the rockero), adorned with a pipe (the intellectual), and a Zapata-style bandolera (the rebel) with huge bullets that didn’t match the model of his weapon (the actor), made him extremely photogenic. His persona was a carefully crafted collage of twentieth-century revolutionary symbols, costumes, and props borrowed from Zapata, Sandino, Che Guevara, Arafat and the IRA, as well as from celluloid heroes such as Zorro and Mexico’s movie wrestler, “El Santo.”
This quote stood out to me because it unpacks the complex “types” we might identify within the layers that “performatively” paint El Sup. Although I would like to think that El Sup wouldn’t analyze his costume and way of moving through the world as anything more than what it was, this unpacking and commentary within this pieces about how his attire might reflect certain identifiable types, especially in relation to preformative tropes, is interesting. El Sup was apart of the Zapatista National Liberation Army which at the time had declared war on the Mexican army. Pena sheds light on the fact that El Sup planned his relationship with the media very carefully.
“The international press was a priority, of course. Le Monde, Der Spiegel, Le Figaro, the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, NACLA, and Vanity Fair were immediately welcomed into the jungle. With regard to the Mexican press, he was a bit more cautious. He favored two independent dailies, La Jornada and El Financiero, and developed a direct line of communication with them. He also put a lot of emphasis on radio, since for most of the indigenous communities of Chiapas and throughout rural Mexico, it is still the main source of information.
The pro-government media conglomerate, Televisa, was banned from press conferences and peace talks. This, of course, was an act of defiance that Televisa couldn’t resist.”
I believe that El Sup used the media, both American and Mexican, to his advantage when it came to inviting and simultaneously excluding, very blatantly, certain news networks. This tactic not only reads to me as strategic but intelligent, it sent a message to these very popular Mexican news outlets that they were not invited nor welcome in relation to their movement.
This social political movement that he was apart of was attempting to be seen and heard, they wanted their presence to be felt and identifiable. Through costume and strategic navigation of the media, El Sup was able to curate this moment. Not something I would label as performance, but the demonstration of bodies as a collective who wear some sort of similar ensemble, read somewhat similar to that of prefromers. Performers who fight for the political and social rights of marginalized bodies and communities and culture. Not by putting anything on but exposing themselves in a more preformative manner which shifts attention away from their own identities and in the direction of a more profound moment. This interests me because it is naked and tender yet calculated and protected.
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