Word Count: 188, reduced by (1/3):
The Mexican government asserts that el Subcomandante Marcos is, in fact, Rafael Sebastian Guillen Vincente. They are wrong. He is a man in a black mask with a pipe. At sunrise on January 1, 1994, a small group of poorly-armed Mayan peasants leaked out of the Lacandona jungle in Chiapas, Mexico and, against all odds, took the major city of San Cristobal de las Casas. As the chaos of those first hours evaporated like fog a leader materialized: Subcomandante Marcos. He had no name, no face, only a nickname and a balaclava. He emerged like the peasants from the mists of the jungle, without a history. Since then, the government has attempted to pin him down with facts. He is supposedly Rafael Vincente, a well educated, middle class citizen. He is a philosophy professor at UAM, the Autonomous Metropolitan University, in Mexico City. But Marcos is a man without a past, without a history. He is a blank canvas, an unseen face. He is whoever the Mexican people need him to be. And though his birth certificate may read Rafael Sebastian Guillen Vincente, he will always be Marcos.
The Mexican government asserts that el Subcomandante Marcos is in fact Rafael Sebastian Guillen Vincente. They are wrong. He is a man in a black mask with a pipe. On January 1, 1994, a small group of poorly-armed Mayan peasants leaked out of the jungle in Chiapas, Mexico and, against all odds, took the major city of San Cristobal. As the chaos of those first hours evaporated a leader materialized: Subcomandante Marcos. He emerged from the jungle without a history. Ever since that day the government has attempted to pin him down with facts. He is supposedly Rafael Vincente, a well educated, middle class citizen, supposedly a philosophy professor at UAM, the Autonomous Metropolitan University, in Mexico City. But Marcos is a man without a past. Though his birth certificate may read Rafael Sebastian Guillen Vincente, he will always be Marcos.
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