Professionals of Hope: The Selected Writings of Subcomandante Marcos

Impassioned stories, speeches and self-reflections from a modern Mexican revolutionary
Professionals of Hope: The Selected Writings of Subcomandante Marcos is an anthology by the prolific and brilliant former spokesperson and strategist for the Zapatistas, who countered the Mexican government's bloody attacks on Indigenous people by staging an uprising in the name of “democracy, justice and liberty” for all. And by “all,” Marcos really means everyone, including identities that resist ready-made categories. These poetic letters, speeches and folktales counter oppression by challenging governments that plunder their own people, and declare the basic desire to bestow dignity upon the Indigenous people of Chiapas through grassroots revolution. By no means exhaustive, this book is meant to introduce readers to a sliver of Marcos' output and provide context for a struggle that still exists in Mexico, and whose existence is mirrored wherever tyranny flourishes.
Subcomandante Marcos was the nom de guerre of the leader and primary spokesman of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente (born 1957). Known for his trademark ski mask and pipe, and for his charismatic personality, Marcos led the EZLN during the 1994 revolt and the subsequent peace negotiations, during a counter-offensive by the Mexican Army in 1995, and throughout the decades that followed. In 2001, he led a group of Zapatista leaders into Mexico City to meet with President Vicente Fox, attracting widespread public and media attention. In 2006, Marcos made another public tour of Mexico, which was known as “The Other Campaign.” In May 2014, Marcos announced that the persona of Subcomandante Marcos had been "a hologram," and ceased to exist.