Those who provide the information have a great deal of power to influence the public and the decision makers. When we obtain information it is important to identify the author and the other sources so we can determine the perspective and even the intent of the information. Anyone interested in news from Mexico, for example, faces the challenge of finding information that represents a variety of viewpoints.
Primary sources are participants in an event or first-hand observers.
Secondary sources include analyses and second-hand accounts. With the advent of the Internet, the number of sources has vastly increased. Although this lesson is about obtaining and analyzing information, it concentrates on one event-the uprising in Chiapas, Mexico's southernmost and poorest state, that began on January 1, 1994. By focusing on a specific event, students can examine perspectives and ideologies lodged within reports about the uprising. We have chosen the Chiapas uprising because it is a milestone in Mexican history and because it was widely chronicled throughout the world from a variety of sources.