Uprising of Hope

The Zapatistas of Chiapas, Mexico, have often been portrayed in reductive, polarized terms; either as saintly activists or dangerous rebels. Cultural anthropologists Duncan Earle and Jeanne Simonelli, drawing on decades-long relationships and fieldwork, attained a collegiality with the Zapatistas that reveals a more complex portrait of a people struggling with self-determination on every level. Seeking a new kind of experimental ethnography, Earle & Simonelli have chronicled a social experiment characterized by resistance, autonomy and communality. Combining their own compelling narrative as participant-observers, and those of their Chiapas compadres, the authors effectively call for an activist approach to research. The result is a unique ethnography that is at once analytical and deeply personal. Uprising of Hope will be compelling reading for scholars and general readers of anthropology, social justice, ethnography, Latin American history and ethnic studies.

Duncan Earle is an applied cultural anthropologist who is currently Associate Professor of Anthropology and Chicano Studies at University of Texas, El Paso. With over 25 years of continuing field experience in research and development in Chiapas, Guatemala, and on the U.S.-American border, his vita includes extensive publications pertaining to that work. Recent publications include 'Menchu Tales,' in The Properties of Words; 'The Boundless Borderlands: Texas Colonias on the Edge of Nations,' in New Perspectives on Migration(2000); and 'The Border Colonias and Communication: Applying Anthropology for Outreach,' in Public Health and the US-Mexico Border; Asi es la Vida.(1999) He is Co-Director of the Maya Study Program, which teaches undergraduates to do field research. Jeanne Simonelli is an anthropologist and writer who is currently Professor and Chair of Anthropology at Wake Forest University. Her field experiences are united by the broad theme of change and choice in difficult situations. Her principal publications include Crossing Between Worlds: The Navajos of Canyon de Chelly(1997); Too Wet to Plow: The Family Farm in Transition(1992); and Two Boys, A Girl, and Enough!(1986). She continues to work in the areas of development and conflict resolution in Chiapas, and will take this research to Israel in 2005. She received the 2000 Prize for Poetry from the Society for Humanistic Anthropology, and has published both poetry and short stories based on her field experiences. Simonelli is the new editor of the journal Practicing Anthropology, and is Co-Director of the Maya Study Program. Earle and Simonelli have co-authored several monographs concerning Chiapas. These include 'Help Without Hurt'(Urban Anthropology, 2000), and 'Meeting Resistance' (Qualitative Inquiry, 2003). They have also written a number of articles for the popular press. In addition, Simonelli is author of 'The Scent of Change in Chiapas,' a book chapter published in October 2002.