Life in Latin American Countries is not easy. However, some individuals live worse than others. Some wake up to gunshots, another wake not knowing what the day has in store for them, others wake up without their children next to them, or worse waking up and your mother is not there. I wake up every morning and not worry about these things, but the people in the state of Chiapas in Mexico do. The Indigenous people that reside in Southeast of Mexico wake up every day terrify and fear of the worse. Why is that? Because these people want to improve their living condition, they want to be recognized by the government, they want back, what was taken from them. They have started their uprising through the Zapatista. Characters that have come together as one because of a common belief, they have been able to give a «voice to the voiceless».

Indigenous people are humble people. In Mexico, they reside in the jungle. As you may imagine living in the jungle is not easy. Their living conditions are not great, they do not have plumbing, for running water, to wash clothes, etc. Also, these people barely receive an elementary education. According to the book Shadows of Tender Fury The Letters and Communiques of Subcomandante Marcos and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. «Seventy-two out of every one-hundred children do not finish the first grade». Many indigenous children do not attend school because they are out helping their parents.

Health, for the indigenous people, is at its worse. They do have nearby hospitals they can go to in case of emergency. Their people are dying from common diseases. Due to their poverty level, the people are malnourish. «In the mountains and jungle 80percent of the people are hungry. A standard diet for Campesino is coffee, corn, tortillas, and beans». The Indigenous people land is so rich, but sadly enough they do not benefit from the wealth of their land.

As a result, these people have been able to express their demands through the government. What they want is what we take for granted, an education for their young ones, better housing, better jobs and to sell their products at a reasonable price. The land of their ancestors that was stolen from them, they want back.

The reasons for the Zapatista movement came to form the injustice of the Mexican government. The Zapatistas feel that the government has allowed foreigners, to come to their land and buy their wealth. At the expense of the habitats of the jungle, the land they once call theirs has to be sold. But they do not profit from the economy of the lands. The government shares it among themselves. The people lost their land when the government excluded Article 27 of the Constitution, that stated that the land belongs to the people. Because the government was bad, they took Article 27 out of the constitution. That how they were able to sell land. This is one main reason for the uprising. Other things that play into facts are that the government does not want to help the indigenous people, the people ask for better living conditions.

The Zapatista have been able to get the attention of many people, such as the government, the military, and the media.

The government is the Zapatistas main target. The government is responsible for the movement. The government has violated the indigenous people human rights that are to be happy and live in a communal place. The government has ignored the demands that the Zapatista has requested. The Zapatista just ask the government to be heard, to receive their land.

The military plays an important part in the movement. They are the ones that act for the government. They kill innocent women and children that live in the jungle. They have no mercy, they break families. The role of the military is to intimidate the peasants. Often time its get out of hand that they kill people at the command of the government.

The media are the Zapatistas main source of communication with the outside world. They do not trust every source of media, because of fear of the words being misrepresented. They have selective media sources. For example, the Tiempo a magazine that has published a letter sent to them by Subcomandante Marcos, they trust them because they feel that their message would not get lost and people would be able to understand why they are fighting the war that they are fighting. They are aware that the message would create controversy and receive mix messages, they want someone that would be able to control the tension.

The Zapatista do not interview because of fear of the government. They have to be careful about who they can trust. They know the government can send someone to pretend to be a reporter and kill one of them, to avoid that they do not do interviews. Also, the Zapatista use the media to ask the outside world to view them and help their government come to understanding with them. They do not acquire any military help from the outside country; they state that they know they have gained from a previous war hero.

Overall, the Zapatista is a group of individuals with a common goal. They want to government to understand their needs. As a result, these people do not show their faces, because their words and action speaks louder than their faces. They are just looking to be treated are a decent human being, to be given the basic human rights, they just want a better life for themselves.