«We have arrived in the land of light, in the endless mountains, where the valleys are a state of mind, lagoons of feeling, land of Chiapas, of mountains and slopes, of cold and heat, land of indigenous people, Mayan world that has given birth to a sixth at the same time as a revolution.» Thus begins Guiomar Rovira's brilliant account of the Zapatista uprising.

On January 1, 1994, Mexico and the world woke up in a different place. The assault by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation on five municipal capitals in Chiapas shattered the national narrative that viewed with a mixture of contempt and paternalism the populations that, at the same time and with great hypocrisy, claimed as the cradle of national identity. The EZLN not only launched speeches with astonishing lucidity against the economic model that would devour the entire planet, but also managed to consolidate a movement that shows that a world in which many worlds fit is possible.

Guiomar Rovira was one of the first people captivated by the indigenous uprising. The triad of books she has written about Zapatismo cover the origins of the struggle, the complex relationship between fire and the word orchestrated by the EZLN itself, the place of women in the struggle and the telluric force of this movement, which set in motion a historic mobilization of civil society. Putting the perspectives of its protagonists in the front row, Rovira allows us to hear the voices that took over the consciences of Mexico and the world, creating a beacon of hope for millions. Zapata lives is a recounting and a tribute. An essential document to understand one of the most important social struggles of modern Mexico.