This week’s entry into our ever-expanding Radical Library is Our Word is Our Weapon, a collection of captivating and beautifully poetic political writings from the masked guerilla leader and spokesperson of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN).

Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente, better known as Subcomandante Marcos, burst onto the world stage in January of 1994 as part of the Zapatista Uprising in Chiapas (Mexico’s southernmost state), when the indigenous insurgency group declared war against Mexico and led a 12-day revolt against the police and Mexican Army in protest of the signing of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement).

Chiapas’ population is predominantly made-up of indigenous Mayans who had long been subjugated and violently suppressed by the landowning class and their paramilitary dogs of war. The Mayans began militarizing in the 1970s, and after a decade-plus of squabbles with the landowning elites, the indigenous militia appointed Marcos, a former college professor turned radical organizer who wanted to follow in the footsteps of his hero Che Guevara, leading the EZLN in their liberation struggle for indigenous autonomy, civil liberties, and land reform.

As revered as Subcomandante Marcos is as a military leader, he may be an even more impressive literary figure, authoring hundreds of polemics and numerous books on everything from political theory to detective stories to children’s tales.