With the passing of the North American Free Trade Agreement on January 1st 1994, the indigenous municipalities of Chiapas in Southern Mexico rose up to demand an end to the unregulated cycle of abuse they had been subjected to since the arrival of the Spanish Crown. Under the name of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), the armed organization declared war on the Mexican State, demanding “work, land, housing, food, health, education, independence, liberty, democracy, justice, and peace”.

Chiapas has since become a symbol of the resistance to the peculiar form of globalization that grants priority to capital (and the private tyrannies that control it) while leaving the interests of the people as incidental. The argument put forth by the Zapatistas painted a future for an alternative model of ruling structures that moves away from the conception of a Western modernity — one in which a globalized system would allow for the multiplicity of identities, conceptions, and ideologies.

Mexico 44 acts as a catalyst for the collective redefining of our relationship to these prevailing structures of coloniality. Through the elaboration and execution of speculative critical narratives, the project proposes a space for contemporary design practices to engage in the spatial transformation of individual identities with hopes of fostering a dialogue that translates the argument put forth by the indigenous communities of Chiapas.

The talk will present a brief overview of the Zapatista movement, introduce the opportunities and challenges presented by Latinofuturismo, and will go over the execution of Mexico 44 as case study.