The structure and style of the second part of the book gets even more unconventional than the first. Marcos constantly switches up who he is talking to and about but he often ties things back to the main point of the book, either directly or indirectly by alluding to it or with symbols. He writes about himself is many ways and plays several different characters. The Subcomandante, the simple soldier, and the writer to name a few. There is a lot of symbolism used to the point where you have to stop and think about who Marcos is actually talking about. There is also a lot of magic realism in the second part with most of the pages we looked using so much magic realism is like reading about a dream or fairy tale. What he is writing about is not a light topic but Marcos does not fill the book with doom and gloom. He puts in little jokes, has light little stories like the ones about the children at the camp and Durrito, and tells little side creation stories. There are several cracks about his big nose that I thought was funny and shows a bit of insight into Marcos. He has a sense of humour and can laugh at himself.

I was surprised that Marcos mentions characters and events and elements from the Popol Vuh. I was just expecting for him to keep on the topic of the Zapatista resistance and the Mexican government’s abuses. He talks about the houses of the underworld like the House of Darkness, Xibalbé and the warrior twins. The stories are not told the same and the Popol Vuh was much more detailed but it’s the same core idea. I wonder why Marcos decided to much these stories in his book. Maybe it was a show of defiance to throw in these indigenous stories when indigeneity is under severe attack. Having them written down in his book helps to keep them alive. Or maybe it’s not that deep and Marcos was just smoking something interesting in his pipe.

One line that really stuck out to me was “there exist at least two things greater than borders: one is the crime disguised as modernity, which distributes misery on a world scale.” There is such an emphasis on modernity and moving forward. Modernity is always framed as something everyone everywhere should strive for and that it makes things better. Modernity has been used as an excuse and a justification by many governments and corporations to do what they want to make a profit and to protect their interests.