The electrifying effect the Zapatista peasant rebellion has had on leading figures in the intellectual, political, and literary world since the Zapatistas woke them up on New Year's Day, 1994, has provided inspiration for activists all over the world. A remarkable synergy has also developed between leading writers, novelists, and journalists and Subcomandante Marcos, the enigmatic, pipe-smoking and balaclavered leader of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, who seems like a character out of a "magical realism" novel. This reader includes a wide sampling of the best of the writing to emerge on the subject. The book is a journey through an insurgent and magical world of culture and politics, where celebrants and critics debate what Carlos Fuentes has described as the world's first 'post-communist rebellion.' Included are essays by Paco Taibo II, Octavio Paz, Carlos Fuentes, Elena Poniatowska, Ilan Stavans, Carlos Monsivais, Jorge Castenada, Jose Saramago, John Berger, Marc Cooper, Andrew Kopkind, Bill Weinberg, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Alma Guillermoprieto and Eduardo Galeano. In June 2001, President Vicente Fox declared that the revolutionary conflict in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas was over and that the world should focus on other challenges facing Mexico. Hayden, a longtime civil rights activist and former California state senator, doesn't agree. In his introduction, he suggests that, despite the worldwide disintegration of the traditional Left during the last decade, the message of revolution is back owing to the Zapatista movement. This movement has set an example by breaking with the traditional Left and focusing not on the transfer of political power but on the protection and continuance of native culture and tradition. Collected here are short articles about the Zapatista movement taken primarily from translated newspaper articles, documents, and a few unpublished works written by many cultural and political writers from Latin America and the rest of the world, including Jos‚ Saramago, Ilan Stavans, Elena Poniatowska, and Enrique Krauze. Much of what is included is not easily available in the United States and will be of value to libraries with Latin American collections. Mark L. Grover, Brigham Young Univ., Provo, UT Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. This is a sprawling work that serves as both a primer to, and advanced analysis of, the Zapatista revolution. The contributors include literary luminaries (Gabriel Garcia Marquez), participants (Subcomandante Marcos), and journalists. Edited by longtime leftie Tom Hayden, a Progressive California state senator who was once a member of Students for a Democratic Society, the material is predictably sympathetic and left-leaning. Though it is also moving and exciting, this is not propaganda. Particularly interesting are passages that claim the forces of globalization made the revolt in impoverished Chiapas inevitable, posing "a genuine death sentence for a way of life." Furthermore, in an age when the planet seems to lack many clear-cut conflicts--when guerrillas are likely to be as corrupt as the governments they war against--the Reader helps us understand the romantic appeal the Zapatistas hold for so many. They express themselves eloquently; conduct themselves with dignity; and fight, not for power, but for self-preservation. There is a liveliness and intellectualism to this compilation that has been missing from accounts in the mainstream media. Keir Graff Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Tom Hayden has been a leader of anti-war, civil rights, and environmental movements in America since the 1960s. He drafted the famous "Port Huron Statement" for Students for a Democratic Society. A California State Senator for eighteen years, he is the author and editor of many books including Reunion: A Memoir ; Irish Hunger ; and Irish on the Inside: In Search of the Soul of Irish-America ; Trial ; The American Future , and The Lost Gospel of the Earth .