Letter from CASA Board

Increasingly turbulent times call for committed activists with deep cultural and historical perspective, humility, critical analysis, and fluency in more than one language. Over the pastfive years, CASA has provided a space for members to develop these qualities while workingside-by-side in solidarity with partners in southern Mexico. CASA continues to provide a radicallearning space where members hash out what it means to live in collective, live abroad, and livein the globally repressive structures of the 21st century.Over the past year, repression and militarization have continued unabated in Chiapas andOaxaca, and in some cases have even increased. In Chiapas, the rise in militarization can be seenin a quick glance at the events of June 2008, when the army invaded the Zapatista Caracoles of La Garrucha and Morelia. The military aggression is particularly aimed at capturing land andterritory. Displacements, arbitrary detentions, imprisonments, and acts of torture occur daily.Even so, the popular and indigenous resistance in Chiapas continues, and CASA is actively participating in human rights accompaniment brigades to the autonomous communities.In Oaxaca repression has continued. Individual activists have been wrongly accused of crimes inorder to discredit them publicly and compromise their political involvement. In April, two youngindigenous women, ages 16 and 18, were murdered because of their participation in a communityradio in their village. Those who created the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO)continue organizing in their affinity groups, in rural communities and in neighborhoodassemblies, demanding attention to issues such as economic and political marginalization,environmental degradation, discrimination against women, and widespread racism againstindigenous peoples.Throughout the past year, CASA volunteers have aided in protecting activists and communitymembers from persecution, recorded the testimonies of Chiapas and Oaxacan political prisoners,trained education promoters, and assisted radical organizations with essential tasks.CASA continues to stand beside our

compañeros

in Chiapas and Oaxaca as they make another world possible today. Thank you for supporting us through another great year.In Solidarity,The CASA Board of Directors:

Katherine Golub, Diego Merino, Melissa Mundt, Yakira Teitel, Andrew Willis, Rachel Wallis,and Simon Walker.Our two staff members are Diana Denham and Leila Saraiva. (2007)

Report from CASA Chapulin, Oaxaca

Diana Denham, Field Director

Since the statewide political violence and consequent social uprising of 2006, CASA Chapulínhas facilitated the work of independent journalists, volunteers for grassroots organizations, andhuman rights observers. This summer, the collective will publish

Teaching Rebellion: Stories from the Grassroots Mobilization in Oaxaca.

Accompanied by photography and political art,

Teaching Rebellion

is a compilation of testimonies from longtime organizers, teachers, students,housewives, religious leaders, union members, schoolchildren, indigenous community activists,artists and journalists—and many others who participated in what became the Popular Assemblyof the Peoples of Oaxaca. Members of CASA Chapulín spent more than a year collecting,transcribing and translating testimonies, as well as accompanying local activists to marches,demonstrations, and assemblies in order to document the movement through photography.CASA's members have come from Finland, England, Italy, Turkey, Argentina, Brazil and theU.S, and we are now in the process of translating the book into several other languages. Thisyear, CASA Chapulín formed a Oaxacan advisory council in order to better direct our work andhold ourselves accountable to our goals and those of the broader social movement. Our work now falls under six priority areas: community-controlled media, women's rights, human rightsand political prisoners, immigration, community-based economies, and urbanagriculture/environment.Some projects CASA volunteers have been involved in over the past year include: collaboratingon initiatives to increase the effectiveness of and access to community radio, creating pamphletson breastfeeding and prenatal nutrition for an indigenous midwifery training program, facilitatingworkshops on non-violent concepts of masculinity, offering computer classes in rural Oaxaca,and painting a mural addressing the social, economic and political factors that push people toleave their homes at a shelter for Central American migrants.We have also conducted a media analysis of reported human rights violations, participated inelection observation, translated human rights documents, and offered a safe space to threatenedactivists. Together with a local environmental education center , CASA Chapulín offered aworkshop on the construction of a composting toilet. Responding to the pressing issue of water scarcity in Oaxaca, we are now recycling gray water (water from the shower or washing dishes)as well as enjoying our rooftop composting toilet. CASA Chapulín plans to continue developingour work according to our established priorities and with the guidance of our locally-basedadvisory council.