"Nick Henck's meticulous research and careful rendering of the myths and facts behind Subcommander Marcos's life and rise to prominence as a guerrilla leader and media darling is a major accomplishment in biography. This intriguing and insightful portrait of the man and his times will interest anyone seeking a greater understanding of recent Mexican politics."--Roderic Ai Camp, author of Politics in Mexico: The Democratic Consolidation "In this encyclopedic biography, Nick Henck draws on almost everything ever published on Subcommander Marcos. The result is an analysis that first highlights Marcos's intellectual and political formation prior to his entering the Lacandon jungle in late 1983, and then illuminates the Subcommander's unique cultural and political flexibility, which ultimately served to let the EZLN be directed by the priorities of the indigenous communities of Chiapas. As Henck points out, this flexibility is what distinguished Marcos from other twentieth-century guerrilla leaders; it was pivotal in permitting the EZLN to play a central role in the democratization of Mexico after seventy years of one-party rule. This is a valuable reference book for all those interested in a detailed account of the rise of Subcommander Marcos and the EZLN in Chiapas."--Lynn Stephen, author of Transborder Lives: Indigenous Oaxacans in Mexico, California, and Oregon "This biography of Rafael Sebastin Guilln Vicente, better known as Subcomandante Marcos, is the product of thorough investigation of all kinds of records of the Zapatista movement in south-eastern Mexico, and as such should be welcomed by everyone interested in this rebellion. Author Nick Henck presents us with an almost complete background and history of the charismatic 'man with the mask' and attempts to analyse the reasons for his impact as a revolutionary leader.

Henck's painstaking and exhaustive collection of everything that has been published about Marcos provides us with a book that answers almost all the questions one could think of about the history of the Zapatistas and its leader. It is only a pity that Henck never personally interviewed him. The author describes Rafael's youth, his family background, the years at school and at the UNAM (National University) and the UAM (Metropolitan University of Mexico), where he taught philosophy until he went to Chiapas in 1984. Year by year we are shown how the Indian villages were visited, how combatants were recruited, who was in charge of special tasks and what progress was made or what errors were committed. As such, this book is a Fundgrube for social scientists and journalists alike and is highly recommended."-- European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 84, April 2008.