Juan Diego at Work

Listen above to A Day in the Life of a Zapatista Settlement. Back in August, Myles Estey and I hand-delivered a letter to the Zapatista Good Government Board, asking for permission to enter a Zapatista community and spend some time with its residents. We awaited an answer for two days while they put us up in a cave-like concrete structure and fed us beans. Finally, they said yes. But the access they gave us was far less than what we wanted. So we waited another full day. And our persistence finally paid off. 

We spent about 24 hours in the autonomous village of Juan Diego, Chiapas. This is what we found. Also watch Myles’ slideshow to see photos of daily life there.