Momostenango and Laguna Chicabal!

           This weekend was quite eventful!  Saturday morning we all went to a town called Momostenango, or Momo for short, which is about an hour outside of Xela.  We went to the house of a family that runs their own business of making chumpas(sweaters), alfombras(rugs), bufandas(scarves) and mantas(blankets) out of wool that they actually shear off of their own sheep.  Luis the father, explained that all of the family members work at every step of turning wool into selling items and has been going on for 5 generations.  He explained the process of making a rug from the very beginning of shearing the sheep, washing the wool, letting it dry in the sun, carding and spinning the wool, dyeing it using natural dyes and then the wool is ready to be woven on gigantic wooden looms.

One of the sons working on a large rug

Another son working on a smaller rug

            The natural dyes are used by soaking the yarn and color source in cold water, letting it dry and then fixing the color with ash or calcium.  The color red is from an insect, yes the blood of an insect found in Mexico.  Yellow is from paloamarillo which is a type of wood.  Bark called Aliso is used to make beige, cinnamon and coffee color.  Anil makes two different blues.  A plant called Chilca makes green.  Berries of Sauko make purple.  Achote makes a rust color and white, grey and black are natural colors from the sheep!  Luis walked us through every step and we all got to try each step.  Boy is it quite the process!  It gave me a lot of respect for what their family and many other families do to make a living.  After the little tour was over, Luis’s wife Thelma made us some delicious tortillas with guacamole and salsa for a snack and some tea.  I really wanted to buy a woven blanket from the family but unfortunately do not have any room left over in my already overstuffed backpack to take it home.  

All the different colors of the wool!

The color sources for the wool; bark, plants, ash and chalk

My turn to try and turn wool into yarn with the help of Luis

Thelma making tortillas!

            Saturday night I went out with some friends to a local soccer game, Xelaju vs. Juventud Retalteca.  It was unbelievable how many people were there supporting Xela!  And only in Guatemala would fireworks, beer, and colored smoke be allowed to be brought in!  Although our team lost 2-0 it was fun to watch the crowd get riled up.  There was one fan section that had people jumping, dancing, yelling, and lighting off fireworks throughout the entire game!  It was also fun to watch some of the Guatemalan’s reactions when our Gringo (American) group started yelling in English when a play went well…or rather not so well.  Typically there are always after parties after the games, but because we had to be up at 5:30am the next morning to go on a hike we went home to get some rest!

On our way to the Xelaju soccer game!

Lucky to find seats!  Lizzy, Neil, Snow, Me, Amish, and Jen on our laps :) 

Soccer stadium

Little kids supporting the team with fireworks

            Sunday morning came WAY to quickly.  I have not been up at 5:30am in a very very long time…but hey I guess its preparing me for PA school!  We all met up at 6am to catch a mircrobus to take to the main bus station to catch another bus that would take us to San Martin Sacatepequez where we would be able to hike up Volcan Chicabal and down into the crater to see the sacred Laguna(Lake) Chicabal.  The very first microbus that picked us up asked us where we were going and said he would take us all the way which was very convenient for us.  However, the police made us stop on the side of the road because apparently he saw all of us gringos and knew that this microbus didn’t have a tourist license to be taking us around so I think the driver just got a “warning.”  We hiked about two hours to get to the entrance of the protected park and then another 40 minutes to El Mirador (the lookout).  This hike was definitely tough!  I have never hiked something so steep for such a long period of time and at such a high elevation, but once we made it to the lookout it was absolutely beautiful.  On one side of the lookout you could see the sacred Laguna Chicabal and on the other side you could see three volcanoes off in the distance. 

Can't really tell how steep it is from the picture but trust me it was REALLY steep!

Entrance into the Volcano and Laguna

The entrance where you can stay in cabins and camp

At the lookout!  The beautiful Laguna Chicabal!

            We then had to hike down a long path of 615 awkwardly placed stairs to the laguna.  The laguna is quite small and only contains a few fish.  However it is forbidden to swim in the lake because it is sacred to the indigenous.  While we were there we saw a group of indigenous doing some type of ceremony with songs and prayer.  There are also several small altars around the lake that people could gather around.  After we rested a bit and ate some yummy red bananas and muffins we hiked back down.  As we started leaving the fog started rolling up over the volcano and into the lake and was absolutely gorgeous.  The hike back down was rather interesting because I almost ate it about 5 times.  It was so steep that I would start to slip a little and then to try and catch myself from falling all the way down I would have to run a little but then I would pick up too much momentum and oh boy it was quite a site to see.  Luckily I didn’t eat it though!  Once we got to the entrance again there was a man with a truck saying he could take us down to where we would have to catch another bus back to Xela.  We were all pretty tired so we hopped in the back of the truck and rode down.  It was so steep even in a truck, that I was a little nervous and was holding on for dear life, hoping that the brakes didn’t burn out.

Lizzy and Cat maneuvering down the awkward stairs

Group of indigenous having a ceremony of some sort

Clouds starting to roll in

View of San Martin on our way down in the back of a pickup truck

            We then had to wait for a bit to catch either a chicken bus or a microbus, and of course the first bus that came was a chicken bus.  It was already pretty crowded when we got on, and we all had to maneuver through people’s legs, children, bags and live animals….yes, one woman was caring a live chicken on her lap.  I was lucky enough to be able to squish into a seat even though my knees got pretty banged up from the seat in front of mine. (Riding buses here in Guate really make me wish I was short and didn’t have long legs).  It’s not uncommon for about 3 to 4 people to squeeze onto each small bench because the drivers are trying to maximize their profits.  Good thing I took some Dramamine!!!

Chicken Bus!

            Overall, it was a great weekend and it’s always nice to get out of Xela for a bit and see the countryside, even if that means having to take a crowded, smelly chicken bus! J   

International Women's Day!

International Women's Day:
Celebration and Struggle in Guatemala

Honestly until today I did not know this day existed all over the world.  March 8th in many countries is a  day to celebrate women and bring awareness to the struggles of women worldwide.

From the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission:

March 8, 2011

Today people around the world are celebrating the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, a time to recognize the economic, social, and political achievements of women.

In Guatemala, despite continuing high levels of violence, there is still a lot to celebrate. From rural villages to government offices, Guatemalan women continue to lead their communities in organizing efforts, health initiatives, and sustainable local development projects. They are often the strongest voices in defense of human rights, land rights, and indigenous rights. In December, Guatemala elected its first woman to the office of Attorney General. Claudia Paz y Paz is well-respected in the human rights community and understands need to overcome the country's history of gender oppression.

Last March 8, GHRC staff marched with women from across the country. Some were union leaders. Others demanded rights and access to services for HIV positive women. The streets of downtown Guatemala city were filled with the chants and energy of women empowered to make a difference. 

Today, women and solidarity activists are taking to the streets again, seeking to hold their government accountible for addressing femicide and gender violence. Although the atmosphere is upbeat, these issues are some of the most complex, gruesome and heartbreaking of Guatemalan society's current challenges. Guatemalan women continue to earn far less than male counterparts, have less access to education and legal services, and suffer high rates of domestic violence. Furthermore, the number of women who are tortured and killed each year is staggeringly high. In just January and February 2011, 104 women lost their lives.     
Year after year, one woman has been a leading voice of the women's grassroots movement. Sandra Moran, a Guatemalan lesbian activist, feminist, and artist, has been organizing women and working for gender equality for over 20 years.

Women in Santiago, a town on Lake Atitlan

After 14 years in exile, Sandra returned to Guatemala in 1994 to participate in the formation of theWomen’s Sector, an alliance of 33 organizations throughout Guatemala. As a representative of the Women’s Sector, Sandra was the driving force and founder of the National Women’s Forum, a body that generated participation and proposals for women’s public policy after the Peace Accords.

In 1995 Sandra founded the first lesbian collective in Guatemala- We Are Women. She was a central organizer of Guatemala's first gay pride parade at a time when being openly gay was almost unheard of. "We were really afraid," she says, "but we marched anyway."

In 2006, along with Andrea Barrios, Sandra founded Artisan House as an alternative meeting place for women and other diverse groups who face discrimination. It is an artistic space for developing sustainable and creative solutions to support incarcerated women and their families.
Sandra, like so many women in communities across Guatemala, has had the courage to demand gender equality and an end to violence against women. Her resolve to create change extends not just in Guatemala, but to women around the world.
Hear Sandra Moran speak in the US. From March 26-April 8, GHRC welcomes Sandra on an east coast speaking tour. She will address audiences at the Ecumenical Advocacy Days annual conference, as well as universities and community groups from Virginia to New York. She will speak about the causes of such extreme violence against women, the struggle for gender equality, and how the grassroots women's movement has confronted these challenges. See the GHRC website for a full tour schedule. We hope to see you at one of the events!
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***
Learn more about violence against women:
Epicenter of Violence: Guatemala Combats Brutality towards Women (PBS Newshour report, March 7, 2011)
GHRC Femicide Factsheet (2011)
Guatemala's Femicide Law: Progress Against Impunity? (GHRC, 2009)

See recent news on violence against women in Guatemala

Oaxaca continued...

          The next day we went to Monte Alban, which is a very large pre-Columbian archaeological site.  Monte Alban is about 10 kilometers from Oaxaca City and has an elevation of 6,500 feet.  It is one of the earliest cities in MesoAmerica beginning in 500 BC with the Zapotec Civilization and ending in 750 AD.  Dr. Alfonso Caso, an archaeologist led the first exploration to the site and began restorations in 1931 and finished in 1953.  The restored area extends more then 20 square miles.  Monte Alban was absolutely beautiful.  It was much bigger then I had first imagined and it gave a great view of Oaxaca.

Great View of Monte Alban!

Thought the ruin and purple tree were beautiful!

Gigantic steps to the ceremonial site

Jen, Cat, Me, Bailey, Snow at the top

View of Oaxaca in the distance

            In the afternoon we had an awesome speaker named Simon Sedillo, talk to us about the politics between the US and Mexico.  It was one of the best speakers I have heard in this program because he kept things very real and to the point.  He is a filmmaker and works to protect the rights of indigenous communities, immigrant communities and communities of color.  He explained many factors that have led to the various conditions and situations in both the US and Mexico.  It would take me all day to write down everything he said but I will point out some of the highlights or things I found most interesting.  He began by explaining how the US military from day one has tried to displace/extinguish indigenous communities including the Native Americans in the US and the indigenous in Mexico, and they have always tried to privatize communal land that is sacred to the indigenous.  He also talked about the School Of Americas, which is a school that was supposedly created to provide professional military education and training to Latin American countries.  It is now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.  This school has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers and many graduates of this program have returned back to their countries and have committed horrendous human rights violations.  There is an organization called School of Americas Watch, which protests the training of these Latin American military officials.  There is going to be a large protest in Washington D.C. this April to lobby Congress to shut down the school.  Simon also talked about why there has been an increase in immigrants to the US especially immigrants from the state of Oaxaca.  The increase is due to the North American Free Trade Agreement which was signed by Canada, Mexico and the US in 1994. The goal of NAFTA was to eliminate barriers of trade and investment between the US, Canada and Mexico. The implementation of NAFTA on January 1, 1994, brought the immediate elimination of tariffs on more than one half of U.S. imports from Mexico and more than one third of U.S. exports to Mexico. Within 10 years of the implementation of the agreement, all US-Mexico tariffs would be eliminated except for some U.S. agricultural exports to Mexico that were to be phased out in 15 years. Most US-Canada trade was already duty free. NAFTA also seeks to eliminate non-tariff trade barriers. Many argue that NAFTA has only been beneficial to business owners and elites in all three countries, but has had negative impacts on farmers in Mexico who saw food prices fall based on cheap imports from US agribusiness and negative impacts on U.S. workers in manufacturing and assembly industries who lost jobs. Critics also argue that NAFTA has contributed to the rising levels of inequality in both the U.S. and Mexico.  This negative impact on Mexican farmers has given them no choice but to move north in hopes of making a better life for them.  It was a very interesting story and I hope all of you will do some researching of your own about all of these topics and form your own opinions.  I am privileged to live the life I do in the US but after this lecture I am very disappointed in many actions of the US and hope to one day make a difference in poor communities that are underprivileged. Here is Simon’s website and the website for the School of the Americas Watch:

http://elenemigocomun.net/banda/simon/  

 

http://www.soaw.org/

            The following day we visited La Clinica de Promotores de Salud al Servicio del Pueblo.  This clinic focuses on health using medicinal herbs and their own beliefs.  At the clinic we had a group Limpia, which is believed to be a cleansing of the soul.  A limpia is an ancient spiritual healing practice.  The cleansing began by the “healer” using a clump of basil and gently beating it against our bodies from our heads to our toes.  I’ll be honest, it was very hard to keep a straight face during it because I had never been hit with a plant before.  Afterwards she took humo(smoke) and waved it around our bodies.  I’m not sure how the smoke is suppose to be cleansing because it only made me cough but it was definitely an interesting experience! 

Humo (smoke) used for the cleansing

My turn for the cleansing!!!

The healer with her Basil and Miriam being a brave soul to go first 

            That afternoon we went La Unitierra and had a workshop with RASA.  This organization promotes urbiculure which is agriculture in the city.  The lecturer, Sergio talked about the importance of people being able to grow their own fruits and vegetables regardless if they live in a city.  He talked about the importance of people being able to sustain their own source of food because it is cheaper and healthier.  He also explained that there are 4 mega companies that control 80% of the world’s food and how this is absolutely ridiculous and people should be able to have more control over their own food.  It was quite interesting and he gave us a tour of his roof where he was growing various vegetables and fruits.  http://unitierra.org/09/index.php 

Roof of Unitierra

Neat way to grow plants

"Please don't put food in the boxes of the worms"

            The last morning we visited La Clinica del Pueblo and had a closing session with CASA Chapulin.  The clinic was very nice and offered many different types of medical care including a pharmacy and housing for patients and their families.  This clinic works with COMI and allows illegal immigrants to have medical care.  At the closing session with CASA, we watched a video on the importance of standing up for what is right through peaceful community activism.  We also got to hear two females play jaranas which are small wooden guitars.  Overall, I felt this trip to Oaxaca was very eye opening and allowed me to learn about many different things I would have never been able to before.  It really opened my eyes to the many injustices of the world and how it is important to play a positive active role in my own community.  

Entrance into the Clinic

Mission: We are a civil nonprofit institution that offers comprehensive health services with quality and warmth in a community dimension to people primarily of scarce economic resources to contribute to improving the quality of life.  

Playing the Jaranas

Week Long Trip to Oaxaca, Mexico!!!

         To get to Oaxaca, Mexico we had to take a microbus to Tapachula, Mexico from Xela and then take a larger greyhound type bus to Oaxaca.  The microbus is always an interesting mode of transportation.  There were a total of 14 of us that had to squeeze ourselves into the bus, including some of our bags that did not fit on top of the roof.  Luckily we have a really awesome driver named Oscar! It took about three hours to get to Talisman, which is right at the Guatemalan/Mexican border.  Once we got to the border we all had to go inside and get our passports stamped.  While we were in line, Oscar watched our bags on the roof of the bus.  Mexico and Guatemala are countries were corruption is at its finest.  We were told by one of the border protection “officials” that we could either pay him off (I don’t know the amount) or we had to take down our bags so they could search them.  We of course did not pay them off, and had to go through the hassle of taking them down, only to have them skim through the bags and not really care what was inside of them.  Oh well, I have learned that in Latin America you have to just go with the flow or else you will go insane constantly questioning why some things are the way they are.

Mexican Flag in the Zocalo (Central Park)

            Once in Tapachula, which is a few kilometers from Talisman we boarded a larger bus to Oaxaca.  The bus ride was a long 12 hours but luckily it was overnight so I was able to sleep a decent amount.  We arrived to Oaxaca around 9 in the morning and then took taxies to the Don Antonio Hostel.  An extremely nice family and their cute little dogs run the hostel.  The rest of the day we ventured around the city of Oaxaca and rested a bit from the long travel.  The following day the family made us all a delicious breakfast of chilaquiles, which are a traditional Mexican dish that consists of tortilla chips simmered with a sweeter red salsa and topped with cheese. Son muy deliciosos!  We then had an Orientacion (orientation) and Taller (workshop) at CASA Chapulin.  CASA (Colectivos de Apoyo (Support), Solidaridad (Solidarity), y Accion (Action)) Chapulin is a solidarity organization comprised of allies organizing with grassroots efforts in Oaxaca, Mexico  http://www.casacollective.org/casa-chapulin .  They collaborate with indigenous communities, women’s cooperatives, political prisoner advocates, human rights organizations, community radio projects, and popular education centers.  Their work began in Oaxaca in 2006 in the time of extreme repression and resistance during the popular APPO movement, which stands for Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca ( Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca).  This movement was a public demonstration and a teacher’s strike calling for the resignation of the Oaxacan governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.  For more information on this movement I highly recommend seeing the film “Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad”  (A Little Bit of So Much Truth).  Oaxaca is known for its people being strong activists.  While we were there, there were several marches and peaceful protests about various things.

One of the many marches in Oaxaca

More signs to promote justice

The group with one of the hostel family members

Courtyard of the CASA Collective

            The following day we had a charla (chat) with COMI (Centro de Orientacion del Migrante de Oaxaca). http://comi.giving.officelive.com/english.aspx  This center is a non-profit organization that supports illegal immigrants from other Central American countries.  They offer housing and food for three days in order for the immigrants to get back on their feet.  They also provide medical assistance through the collaboration with La Clinica del Pueblo (The clinic of the people), which we visited on Friday.  It was very interesting to see the same issues in Mexico that we have in the US in regards to immigration and it was nice to see the compassion these people had to start this organization.  In the afternoon we had another Taller (workshop) with an organization called Nueve Lunas – Parto Humanizado http://nuevelunas.org.mx/  .  The woman who spoke with us is a Comadrona (midwife) and she works with women rights and sexual rights as well as focusing on birth and certain birthing options.  She explained how Oaxaca has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Mexico and that many factors play into it.  She also explained how birth (parto) has become very dehumanized and it is important that the woman’s culture be taken into account when giving birth (dar la luz – giving the light).

COMI entrance

COMI

Really neat painting of Mexico and the reasons why there is immigration

I have so much more to say about my week in Oaxaca…to be continued manana (tomorrow).