COMPAÑERAS

Guerrilla insurgents. Political leaders. Promoters of health and education. Members of economic cooperatives. These are just some of the prominent, everyday roles held by women in the Zapatista autonomous region in Chiapas, where women's participation has proved indispensable to the creation and maintenance of an alternative, democratic society.

COMPAÑERAS is the untold story of the women of the Zapatista movement, gathered by longtime community organizer Hilary Klein. The Zapatista women's own recollections of their lives, struggles, and critical involvement bring to light the tremendous transformation of gender roles that has occurred in this culture of revolution, and are instructive for everyone committed to examining how existing grassroots alternatives to global capitalism can guide the way toward justice, equality, and democracy.

Hilary Klein has been engaged in social justice and community organizing for twenty years. She spent six years in Chiapas, Mexico, working with women's projects in Zapatista communities. She currently works at Make the Road New York, a membership-based community organization that works with immigrant and working-class communities to achieve dignity and justice.