Most respectable Commander Marcos:
My name is Oliviero Toscani, and for twelve years I have conceived the communication of United Colors of Benetton. For a long time United Colors of Benetton has chosen to use a large part of its advertising budget to address the most dramatic problems of this century: AIDS, war, racism, intolerance. It's a way to create a different dialogue with the "consumers," who for us are first of all "men and women." We have always chosen to photograph "true persons"—not models—in the places where they actually live. In this way, we have highlighted the beauty of the Chinese, of the Turks, of the inhabitants of a little Italian village, and, recently, of the Palestinians of Gaza.
Today, we address ourselves to you because we sense that you know that communications can be a form of struggle. We ask you to give us an opportunity to photograph you with the men, women, and children of your group, the Zapatista National Liberation Army. We would like to give you a chance to show the beauty of the faces of those who struggle in the name of an idea. We believe that an ideal brightens the eyes and lights up the faces of those who fight to realize it. We do not believe in the beauty myths propagated by consumerism. For this reason, we ask you to receive us among your people and to give us the opportunity to find another way of making your lives and your history known.
Oliviero Toscani
[Ed.: Oliver Stone reportedly visited Subcommander Marcos in connection with a possible film about the Chiapas rebels. Marcos gave Stone a rebel's ski mask, which Stone wore as he rode with Marcos on horseback into the jungle. Of course, there was no need for Stone to conceal his identity, since everybody knew who he was.]
