EL REBOZO PALAPA EDITORIAL ON UNDERGROUND PRESSES: FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM AND LIFE

El Rebozo Palapa Editorial is a Mexico-based publisher that actively challenges and seeks alternative modes and structures to the existing heirarchical systems in literature and society, at large. Here, they explore some foundational inspirations and the values that lie at the core of their publishing program.

“Underground presses cannot survive within capitalist society . . . they are created in order to destroy capitalist relations”.

—Fredy Perlman

As we stood at Radix Media in Brooklyn, NY not many years ago, a printshop whose walls were peppered with posters and letterpress prints, this Fredy Perlman phrase stopped us in our tracks.

Immediately identifying with the poster’s imagery of an offset confronting Leviathan, we sought out and learned Fredy Perlman’s story. Displaced and stripped of his home in Czechoslovakia at a young age during the times of Nazi Germany, he was forced to migrate for his freedom. 

His first stop was Bolivia, where he lived with his parents before migrating north to the United States where later on he would help start The Detroit Printing Co-op. The co-op, rooted in the principles of cooperativism, developed a sharp criticism of waged work and the exploitation that surplus value represents. 

As we went deeper into Perlman’s story, we were struck by how much we identified with the co-op and his work. In 1977, it was Black & Red publications—the publishing arm of the co-op—who translated Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle into English. Debord was an author whom we considered part of our arsenal of critical thinkers. The work of Black & Red recognized the art of printing and bookmaking as a task of resistance, important in the construction of new, non-capitalist relationships.

We were reminded of the interconnection between generations and struggles, seeing our work as a small press and printer today as an inheritance from those who came before us. This tradition of independent publishing, of controlling the means to our own production has been carried out by those who dreamt of a free and dignified world, beyond capitalist society.

El Rebozo Palapa Editorial, our small press and printing cooperative, began back in 2011 in a completely free-spirited, de-professionalized, and informal way. None of us knew much about the editing process, about book binding, about margins and design; we learned by trial and error. Our work has been driven by the principles of autogestión: self-management with an implied collectivism; collective learning: seeing the book not as merchandise, but a form of sharing knowledge; and the creation of new relationships: seeing the book as a bridge to political/social relationships. It was no wonder we felt this kinship with our friends at Radix Media, who like us, also create and struggle under the principles of autogestión and cooperativism.

After almost 9 years, developing our practice of the art of printing, editing, and bookmaking, we believe that free and autonomous learning is a driving force to ensure that radical projects persist. We know that generating work spaces free of exploitation is possible. This of course has challenges of its own and demands serious discipline, passion, and commitment. Having to negotiate with capitalist society at times, or to co-exist with one foot inside and one foot out at others, is part of the challenge. But our experience has shown us that when we preserve our ethics and place the building of non-capitalist relationships at the center, we can create intentional spaces defined by our own collective terms. 

Our work is the continuation of a long tradition of the printing and the spreading of ideas and proposals for liberation. For Fredy Perlman, the oppressive machine was Leviathan, in southeast Mexico, the Zapatistas have called it the Hydra, and for the Revolution of Rojava and the Kurdish people, Patriarchy and its Modern Capitalist State. 

Today, there are signs that the capitalist patriarchal regime is wavering. History shows that whenever Power feels threatened, it’s chokehold becomes tighter, provoking killing and repression on a larger scale. We remain determined to carry on, and not only print and publish but actively exercise mutual support, free learning, and direct democracy. It is our task to continue to sow the seeds of rebellious publications in order to harvest hope in times of chaos and uncertainty.

Four years after coming across this poster, we hope to live up to the name of “underground press”—to preserve and defend all that exist and lift them up . . . because a good seed, once planted, is very difficult to uproot. Just like the maíz, whose seeds our pueblos have been defending for centuries, these are the seeds that in the end will continue to feed us.

After almost 9 years, developing our practice of the art of printing, editing, and bookmaking, we believe that free and autonomous learning is a driving force to ensure that radical projects persist. We know that generating work spaces free of exploitation is possible. This of course has challenges of its own and demands serious discipline, passion, and commitment. Having to negotiate with capitalist society at times, or to co-exist with one foot inside and one foot out at others, is part of the challenge. But our experience has shown us that when we preserve our ethics and place the building of non-capitalist relationships at the center, we can create intentional spaces defined by our own collective terms. 

Our work is the continuation of a long tradition of the printing and the spreading of ideas and proposals for liberation. For Fredy Perlman, the oppressive machine was Leviathan, in southeast Mexico, the Zapatistas have called it the Hydra, and for the Revolution of Rojava and the Kurdish people, Patriarchy and its Modern Capitalist State. 

Today, there are signs that the capitalist patriarchal regime is wavering. History shows that whenever Power feels threatened, it’s chokehold becomes tighter, provoking killing and repression on a larger scale. We remain determined to carry on, and not only print and publish but actively exercise mutual support, free learning, and direct democracy. It is our task to continue to sow the seeds of rebellious publications in order to harvest hope in times of chaos and uncertainty.

Four years after coming across this poster, we hope to live up to the name of “underground press”—to preserve and defend all that exist and lift them up . . . because a good seed, once planted, is very difficult to uproot. Just like the maíz, whose seeds our pueblos have been defending for centuries, these are the seeds that in the end will continue to feed us.