Career
She remains active within the Zapatista community and currently resides in Mexico City. She also teaches at the Zapatista Center for Mayan Languages in Oventic, Chiapas. Benavides was born in the northern city of Monterrey, Nuevo León, probably sometime in January 1955.
She joined the movement in her teens.
She was first arrested in 1974, in a raid on a house. She was found alive, but next to her was her first husband"s body.
Early in the 1980s she was working as a translator with Catholic peasants in the small villages of Chiapas. She met Elorriaga when he joined the movement in the mid 1980s.
They were later married.
Benavides took charge of training the native Mayans. Sometime in the early 1990s she moved to Mexico City, and worked from the university spreading political information on behalf of the EZLN. In February 1994 she was arrested in connection with the Zapatista uprising, but later cleared of charges.
