The teachers' movement in Chiapas was the pioneer of political mobilization by teachers nationwide. The militant support the Chiapas teachers gave to this pioneering movement was an example to teachers everywhere, and within a few months Chiapas was sending brigades across the country to win wider support for its campaign. The brigades discovered deep disquiet among the teachers themselves, but they sometimes received a hostile response from the sectional committees. As mobilization spread into other states, especially neighboring Oaxaca, the Chiapas movement became more difficult to contain, and it was a combined protest in Mexico City by teachers from Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Morelos that persuaded the SNTE to concede Chiapas's democratic congress. There is no doubt that this regional victory was partly a result of national mobilization, but, equally, the national movement never escaped its regional origins. The main reason for approaching this movement through a regional perspective is that it was always regionally based and driven.

Although nearly all Mexico's teachers had the same employer, and although they all belonged to the same union, their regional movements were different one from the other because “each of the states which have joined the struggle have done so for their own reasons, in response to a specific situation” (Reyes 1980). These specificities tended to supersede any more general commitment to the national struggle, so that the regional movements remained largely autonomous and the rhythm of regional struggles was driven by the beat of different drummers. In particular, the strength the movements drew from their directly democratic organization also constrained attempts to forge a more unified national strategy, and this was damaging at critical moments of national mobilization.