14. The beginning of the New Year for 2004 marked the tenth anniversary of the Zapatista armed revolution in Chiapas Mexico. It was in the dark, cold, early hours of 1994 that the Mayan peasant soldiers captured several towns in revolt of the oppression they had endured since Cortez wandered into Southern Mexico. Their complaints were that they were given no autonomy to preserve their culture; no political or judicial rights to fight confiscation of their land and freedom; and no fair division of government services to educate and provide medical services. They argued that their ability to provide food and shelter for their families by farming, as they had for centuries, was taken from them by domestic patronage and later international agreements. They argued that the schools, infrequently open, were more interested in convincing their children to abandon their culture than teaching them.