Greetings From Zapatista Land

It is not every day that a California software engineer gets to grill a gathering of masked Zapatista rebels about their method of trash collection. That an Iowa State professor can draw them out about the "dreams and hopes" of their children. That a New Jersey high school teacher can query them on how they cope with paramilitary threats, or that a Seattle grant writer can talk to them about women in combat.

But so it was, deep in the cloud forest of southern Mexico, as 15 members of the town council of San Andres Sakamch'en, bedecked in ribboned sombreros and crimson tunics, welcomed a gaggle of nosy tourists. Tzotzil Indians who have broken off from the Mexican government, they patiently answered questions about their village of rutted streets and shuttered shops, donning ski masks and bandannas only when it came to picture taking. "As indigenous people, we are threatened and exploited," said council president Lucas Hernandez Ruiz. "We are happy you have come from afar to witness our resistance."

Weary of sun, shopping and sightseeing, tens of thousands of Americans are venturing abroad as "reality tourists." Got no appetite for that pastrymaking jaunt to Provence? For $1,665, including room, board and air fare from the U.S., you can spend a week in Guatemala to "learn about the history of repression and political violence," courtesy of the Center for Global Education in Minneapolis, Minn. Does scuba diving in Hawaii leave you cold? For $3,299, plus airfare, you can travel through Southeast Asia to meet with land-mine victims and "learn how the secret CIA war on Laos affected the people," a three-week tour organized by the group Our Developing World in Saratoga, Calif. Says Thomas Johnson of Cloudforest Initiatives in St. Paul, Minn., who has led 150 reality tours: "The experience is indelible. It gnaws at the back of the mind."

Unlike eco-tourism or adventure tourism, these close encounters with the Third World are overtly political. Popular destinations include Cuba, Nicaragua, Northern Ireland, Iraq, Iran, South Africa, the Palestinian territories--and Mexico's Chiapas state. There the Zapatista uprising has subsided into a seven-year stalemate punctuated by sporadic violence, and 38 municipalities, including San Andres Sakamch'en, have declared themselves "autonomous." "Do not be alarmed if the group is questioned at immigration or military checkpoints," advised the confirmation letter from Global Exchange, a San Francisco human-rights group that sponsors two trips a year to southern Mexico. Guides don't promise face time with Subcomandante Marcos, but two of his top lieutenants happened to meet with a tour group last year.

Churches, academic institutions, unions and nonprofits have jumped into reality tourism in part to raise money and in part to spread an activist message. The tours are proving attractive to ordinary Americans seeking to put a human face on the headlines. Two years ago, Howard Lipoff, 37, a New Jersey teacher, went to the Palestinian territories with Global Exchange and met with both Israeli settlers and a spokesman from Hamas, the radical Islamic group. This year he signed up to meet the Zapatistas. "We find out how they live their lives," he says. "It's history in the making."