Good afternoon brother and sister bases of support, brothers and sisters of the National Indigenous Congress, brother and sister council members, and invited brothers and sisters, as well as the free and paid press.
Indigenous brothers and sisters, the hour of the people has arrived. It is the moment for us to turn and look to our communities, to turn and look to our brothers and sisters. Whatever we’re suffering, they’re suffering too. Even if they are a different color than we are, even if they think differently than we do, we have to unite this pain that we have, this rage caused by all that has been done to us for years, to our ancestors, to our brothers and sisters, all that the capitalist system is doing to destroy our communities, to rob them, to dispossess them of all that our ancestors spent years fighting for.
Now is the moment to join these efforts and struggle together against this system. If we don’t unite these efforts, we’re going to keep suffering the same thing for years, and maybe worse. That’s why we indigenous peoples who have come together in the National Indigenous Congress said that it was important to walk together and take this step, in order to topple this gigantic monster that’s destroying us, destroying our lands, destroying our territories, our language, our way of organizing in our communities. Now is the time, brothers and sisters, to speak up, to come together, to come to an agreement about what we’re going to do so that our communities don’t continue to be destroyed. Now is the moment to make the effort and turn to face the brothers and sisters who are beside us and think together about how we’re going to organize to tear down this capitalist system, which isn’t only destroying our peoples; it’s going to destroy everything.
That’s why we say the hour of the people has arrived, because we have been here since this country began. As long as the earth has been here, we have been here. And others have arrived with bad intentions, seeing indigenous peoples and thinking only of how they can extract wealth, how they can take advantage of the riches that we have in our communities. That’s why we must forget those who have divided us and have made us fight among ourselves. We have to unite among indigenous brothers and sisters, we have to unite with the people of civil society who live in the cities and who are also suffering and also have been struggling for years. We have to think together about how we’re going to keep our communities alive. We who think there is a common enemy out there must unite. We must unite among those of us who can see that it’s that enemy out there making us fight within our communities, that it’s that enemy making us think that the person next to us is the one who’s destroying us. But it’s not true. That enemy is above! And it is that capitalist system that only wants to destroy us in order keep all the riches from our lands.
And we’re not going to allow it. That’s why we say the time of the people has come. It’s time for the people to raise their voices, for them to organize, and we’re going to struggle not only for indigenous peoples, we’re going to struggle for the whole world. And how are we going to do it? By uniting, speaking up, raising consciousness. And we’re going to be walking together. And we’re going to be fighting for everyone, for all Mexicans and for the whole world. That’s why we say it’s the time of the people, it’s the moment to come together brothers and sisters, it’s the time to realize that if we don’t take this step that we in the National Indigenous Congress see as so important, later we may end up asking, why didn’t I pay attention?
We need to walk together, and together be able to defend our communities, be able to defend those who live in our communities, the wealth that we see around our communities. It’s up to us to defend them, brothers and sisters, and only united can we accomplish this.
And right now women have to take an important step in this organizing process. If we women give it our all alongside our men, we are going to be able to topple this capitalist system that is destroying us.
Thank you, brothers and sisters.