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“Clash of civilizations” in Chiapas village

17 April 2007 · 2 Comments

The Mexican Constitution seems to be a progressive document. Articulo I grants personal rights regardless of national or ethnic origin, gender, age, financial status, sexual orientation, physicial condition, religion, personal opinion or marital status (and, adds for good measure… “any attribute used to depreciate or discriminate against personal dignity”).

On the other hand, in August 2001, the Fox Administration pushed through a change in the constitution at the behest of the Zapatistas. Article II, Secc. A gives indigenous COMMUNITIES the right to self-determination. This “settled”, at least temporarily, the Zapatista uprising. It was part of a negotiated settlement, brokered mostly by Bishop Samuel Ruiz of Chiapas. And, it illustrates the two currents that have run through Mexican though for at least the last 200 years: modernity and tradition. Respecting the rights of the individual is modern. Community control is traditional.

Modernity is not necessarily progressive – peonage and neo-colonialism were the result of Porfirio Diaz’ “cientifico” modernization program, and the economic disaster of the 1990s was the result of applying “modern” solutions to perceived problems. The traditionalists may not be reactionary: Lopez Obradór was calling for a return to the traditions of the Revolution… which were, for the most part “modernist” ideas drawn from the anarchists and socialists of the early 20^th century.

I’ve said before that my problem with the Zapatistas is that they are “traditionalists” and, by definition, are repressing individual rights. I’d like to believe that the right-on liberal ELZN directives to accept women as equals and to not discriminate against sexual minorities would apply to all Mexican, they don’t. By insisting on the rights of COMMUNITIES to determine their own “usos y costumbres,” the Zapatistas (and the conservatives that supported the constitutional amendment) are permitting communities to discriminate and abuse non-conformists… or drive them out of their homes.

We like to simplify the situation in Chiapas as just something involving “poor Indians” fighting outsiders who ride roughshod over local traditions. But, sometimes the local traditions are repressive (like childhood marriage) or the “poor Indian” is a non-conformist. But, by law, “usos and traditiones” are the law in Indigenous communities. Which leaves the minorites where?

The Mexican press reported yesterday on an attack on an Evangelical church in San Juan Chmula, Chiapas . The Tzotzil community is overwhelmingly Catholic Traditionalist (which is an independent organization from the Roman Catholic Church). According to the article in Jornada, the Traditionalists made a decision at a Saturday meeting to drive the Evangelicals out – and attacked the Iglesia Evangélica Pentecostés Independiente Tzotzil with machetes, bats and picks. The building was destroyed and two people were arrested. The news reports do not say which of the two congregations the arestees belonged to.

Iglesia Evangélica Pentecostés Independiente Tzotzil is affiliated with the Alas de Aguila sect. The American evangelical news service, Compass Direct News, has more details of ongoing persecution of the sect’s members:

Juan Mendez Mendez became a Christian in a village outside of this city in Chiapas state on April 7, and two days later local authorities put him in jail – for leaving their religious blend of Roman Catholicism and native custom.

A catechist or doctrinal instructor in the “traditionalist Catholic” church in the village of Pasté (pahs-TEH), the 25-year-old Mendez was released on Tuesday (April 10) after spending the night in jail. The previous Easter Sunday, political bosses in the Tzotzil Maya village noticed him missing from a church festival involving what Mendez considered to be idolatrous rites; they summoned him that evening.

…

The town leaders threatened to jail Mendez, and the following day they summoned him again after consulting with villagers, including other catechists. Mendez verified to them that he had heard the gospel in another community and now wanted to become part of an Alas de Aguila (Eagle’s Wings) church in Pasté, he said.

The report goes on to cover Pastor Antonio Vasquez’ history with the larger Tzotil community:

Vasquez, whose church has grown to 60 to 80 mainly Tzotzil- or Tzeltal-speaking people since he began it in 1996, is no stranger to area persecution from traditionalist Catholics.

In 1998, local political bosses (caciques) put him in jail for 24 hours without food. In 2000, he was released from jail only after the intervention of Chiapas Religious Affairs officials – who promptly demanded that he contribute to and participate in the traditionalist Catholic religious festivals, which the pastor said amounted to a denial of his faith.

“An attorney from the government told me, ‘You know what? I’m a Christian, but you have to do what we say,’” Pastor Vasquez recalled. “And I told her, ‘As an authority you cannot obligate me to deny my faith, because, as you know very well, that goes against the constitution. Secondly, as a Christian, you cannot obligate me to deny my faith and all the things that my faith requires.’ So she was left something ashamed.”

The state religious affairs ministry had more success forcing his congregation to commit to participating in the traditionalist Catholic rites, which bring caciques not only festival fees but alcohol sales income. The congregation subsequently abandoned him, Pastor Vasquez said.

“They said to me, ‘You like to get into trouble, and we don’t want trouble, so we’ve signed the agreement with the government,’” Pastor Vasquez said. He was going to leave the area, but he said God told him two things: “Cowards flee,” and “Cowards have no part in me.”

Hence he signed the government agreement, which allowed him to continue preaching as long as he contributed to and participated in the traditionalist Catholic festivals – something “very painful,” he said. The church grew so much, however, that by August 20, 2000, the caciques again jailed him, his father and his two brothers – and burned down his house.

Lyn, back when she was writing here (COME BACK, LYN!), criticized Evangelical missionaries for “stirring shit up” in Mexican traditional communities. I agree, and add that Catholicism, for all its faults, made more sense. Evangelicals, after all, believe in personal salvation… and that carries over into the sense of economic and political “salvation”. Catholics, since Saint Augustine, have talked about community, Civitas Dei (the City of God). The traditionalists rejected much of the Catholic reforms of the 1960s, and adapted others to their own community’s traditions.

This is a particularly sensitive issue in Chiapas, where about a third of the people are Evangelicals or Pentacostals. I have no statistics to back me up, but my sense is that the Evangelicals, being more attuned to personalism, are the most likely to emigrate. And I’ve met Traditionalists selling religious objects in Mexico City who were part of a Stalinist collective (a political community, and one that incidentally is about as opposed to Roman Catholic hegenomy as one can get).

I can’t just pick a side… this isn’t my fight (and none of my business, really). I’m too much a modernist and cranky gringo to ever think that the community has a right to tell me what to think or believe. On the other hand, the Evangelicals are the outsiders who threaten community cohesion. The only thing I can do is note that the troubles in Chiapas are never as simple, nor as black-and-white “good guys v bad guys” as we would like.

Categories: AMLO · Catholic Church · Chiapas · Communism · Courts · Crime and Punishment · Human Rights · LYN_2 posts · La Raza (Mexican cultures and peoples) · Legal system · Mayans · Mexican History 1910-20 (Revolution) · Mexican History 1921+ · Politica (Mexicana) · Protestants · Provincia · Real Mexico · Religion · Samuel Ruiz (Chiapas Bishop) · Traditionalists · Tzotzil · Vicente Fox · Zapatistas

The Sounds of Silence

13 November 2006 · 1 Comment

This is another of those posts that should be attributed to LYN_2 — when I imported from blogspot, they all carried over under my own name. We’ll get it straightened out eventually. (Richard)

Is the general population of Mexico City aging or what? Some politicos have gotten so cranky about the noise levels in d.f. that they passed a new ordinance to turn down the volume.

Antonio Olivio of the Chicago Tribune: http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/world/15999753.htm

Several wondered: Is it even possible to harness Mexico City’s carnival of sound? To quiet the roving mariachi bands-for-hire that sing about lost love until dawn? To silence the sidewalk barkers promoting the latest trendy bars? Or, in a 24-hour society that loves a good party, to undo the fact that one’s stature is often measured by the strength of his stereo speakers?

Government response is the new Environmental Standard for the Federal District, adopted in September, which cracks down on loud factories, bars, markets and other places of business in the capital.To show the government means business, higher fines associated with the new ordinance start around $90 and can climb to $900, Trujillo said.Sergio Beristain ascribed the problem to a mixture of erratic urban planning and a culture that loves to be heard. “The people, they’re used to noise,” he said with some resignation, calling the new law too limited in scope. “I’m not sure they have the resources they would need to enforce this ordinance. It would require a massive education campaign.When people write into Thorntree asking for suggestions of quiet places to stay (in Mexico) where they can relax and write a book, I just roll my eyes. There are no so such places. Mexico is all about noises!

I thought I found a quiet place to stay in Piste. It was a nah off on a dirt road. I had a thatched roof, a bed surrounded with mosquito netting, and a mirror… that was it. The only lightbulb in the room was burned out and no tv/radio or anything. I hadn’t taken into account the critter population. Dogs prowled around the nah all night and barked in unison. A rooster greeted the sun with his friendly call which woke up the mamma pig and her 5 offspring…. oink, oink. At about 6am, the church bells rang and at 6:30am, a big ol’ truck drove past with an impassioned man’s voice booming through a loudspeaker as he was trying to sell a load of mattresses (of all things).

When you’re in a Mexican city (anywhere in Mexico), your ears will be assaulted by belching buses, barking dogs (roaming gangs), honking horns, sirens, noisy vendors, jack-hammers, etc.

It’s not uncommon to be eating a meal in a local restaurant with two tv’s going, a mariachi band playing songs at the next table, a waiter trying to take your order and a cd vendor (with a sound system to rival ‘Twisted Sister’s) blasting away just outside the open doorway.

I’m ok with all of it with one big exception…. the obnoxious ORGAN GRINDER! That sound (noise) grates on my last nerve. It’s right up there with nails going down a chalk board or the sound of bagpipes. One afternoon, I bought a phone card, and walked over to a payphone to make a long distance call. Right after I heard my sister say, “Hello….” an organ grinder walked up and started playing. I looked over at him (thinking he would take a hint), and he just smiled at me and kept on turning the crank. Teaches me to call home from calle de Cinco de Mayo.

The mariachi’s, the barking dogs, the jack-hammers… they’re noises of a bustling society. Coupled with the aromas of grilled onions and cooking tacos, the burning mesquite, the perfume of incense wafting through the churches, and of fields of pointsetias growing in Xolchimilco, the noises in the streets, give Mexico it’s vitality/energy.

The only instance of long silence I experienced in Mexico was when I joined a group of about 100 onlookers (on a Puerto Vallarta beach) as we watched a large sea turtle lay her eggs in the sand. For about an hour, you could hear a whisper.

Babies and working men on the buses have learned to sleep right through the daily commotion. Only old men in suits, who are trying to distance themselves from their roots, want to muffle the noise. Noise is the music of the young.

Meanwhile, let’s have a little fireworks with that marimba band!

photo by: ogal

Categories: Health · Humor · LYN_2 posts · Little old ladies · Mariachis · Music

Season of the Spirits….

31 October 2006 · Leave a Comment

The following article isn’t meant to creep anyone out. It’s a description of a serious annual celebration in Mexico. Though it’s called a “celebration”, it’s not a fun celebration along the lines of Carnaval. It’s a highly ritualized tradition which reinforces the ties that bind generations together. Some of the practices may seem very strange to those of us who have completely differing views of death than most Mexicans. Try to keep an open mind as you read on.

The Day of the Dead is being celebrated by the people in Mexico. Nov 1 and Nov 2 are the days when Mexicans pay tribute to their relatives and friends who are no longer living. Traditions vary from region to region, but in general, it’s a time when the living make visits to the graves in honor of their dead family members. Some make altars in their homes and some take their elaborate altars directly to the panteons (cemeteries) . Arches are decorated with marigold pedals and ofrendas of homemade breads, candies (skull shaped), tamales, fruits, photographs of the dead, and calaveras (skeletons/skulls) etc. are displayed on makeshift altars under the arches. Candles or resin lamps are lit to guide the spirits along the path to the altar.

The first night is celebrated for the spirits of the dead children and the second night for the spirits of the departed adults. It is believed that once or twice a year, the spirits are allowed to travel back to their families for an evening of eating, singing and drinking. It is a religious and spiritual ritual that dates back to the pre-Hispanic era.

Poet laureate Octavio Paz wrote that the Mexican does not fear death but “chases after it, mocks it, courts it, hugs it, sleeps with it; it is his favorite plaything and his most lasting love.”

In some parts of Mexico (Michoacan for instance), family members spend the whole night in the cemetery whereas in other regions, the rituals are practiced more privately in the home.

There is a town in the Yucatan called Pomuch which goes much further in their rituals. Pomuch is a Mayan town (7,800 pop.) which is about 7 miles outside the town of Tenabo in the state of Campeche. In this town and a few others through the area, Mayans exhume the bones of their loved-ones and ritualistically cleanse their bones with soft cloths or small brushes in preparation for the Day of the Dead celebration. It is not macabe or ghoulish. Family members carry out the tasks with love and respect.

Here is The tale of the Pomuch Mayan ritual as reported by Greg Brosnan (Reuters)

POMUCH, Mexico (Reuters) – Eighty-three-year-old Maya Indian Cenorio Colli gazed lovingly at his wife’s long brown hair and recalled how carefully she combed it when she was still alive.
Then he went back to cleaning her skull and every bone she left behind.Grieving Maya Indians in a sweltering village deep in the limestone flatlands of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula painstakingly cleaned the remains of their late loved ones on Monday during a unique annual family reunion with the dead.

In a tradition dating back centuries, families in Pomuch exhume their dead after three years in the grave and transfer their dried bones and skulls — often with hair attached — to wooden crates on permanent display in open funeral niches.

Every subsequent year in a two-day ritual preceding the November 1 and November 2 Day of the Dead festival, families gather at the brightly painted tombs to replace the boxes’ embroidered cloth linings and give the remains themselves a spruce up.

The festival brings back floods of painful memories for mourning kin struggling with the loss of life companions.

“I was talking to her,” Colli, a widower of nine years, recalled as he lifted his dead wife Concepcion’s brittle pelvis from a large pile of bones and dusted it off with a cloth. “She lowered her head and that was it.”

But the retired farm hand said he took solace from knowing she was at peace. “I feel happy because she died happy.”

THE NEXT WORLD

According to Mayan beliefs, death is a stage in life in which the deceased evolve into higher, more spiritual beings. In Pomuch, the dead are believed to be “purified” during the first three years after their death. They are then exhumed and welcomed back as highly respected members of extended families in which past and present generations merge.

Old women in colourfully patterned traditional dresses chattered in the Mayan language on Monday as they fussed over the bones of long lost mothers and the skulls of babies who barely lived a day.

Marta Helena Chipool, 35, lovingly cleaned the remains of a mother-in-law she never met and the twin girls who died with her 40 years ago in childbirth.

“You go to the cemetery and you can see your dead sister, mother and father and talk to them,” said Lazaro Tuz, an anthropologist from Pomuch who has spent years documenting the ritual. “This keeps the family together.”

“The dead person is no longer dead because you can touch him,” he said.

“She is not dead to me, she lives in my heart,” Maria Euan, a 52-year-old woman with braids and bright cross-stich flowers spread across her white blouse, as she and her husband arranged her dead mother’s bone. “This is her party.”

The origins of the ritual, which is celebrated almost exclusively in Pomuch, are murky, and it is unclear whether the practice predates the Spanish conquest of Latin America. One theory suggests that villagers, faced with an overflowing cemetery, may have begun digging up their dead for sanitary reasons.

Some fear the tradition is dying out as Pomuch’s youth, increasingly hooked on video games, action films and racy reggaeton music, embrace modern culture.

According to village folklore, the spirit of a Pomuch native can become angry and wonder lost through the streets if proper care is not taken of his or her remains.

Martin de Porras cleaned his dead father’s thigh bone, still bearing the shiny metal prosthetic ball joint that made his last months after a road accident misery, and wondered whether his children would do the same for him.

“I can’t make them do it,” he said. “But if they don’t, I don’t know where I’m going to end up.”

Another link to a story about the Pomuch D.O.D. ritual : Mayans celebrate Day of the Dead

Categories: Cemeteries · Dias de los Muertos · LYN_2 posts · Mayans · Provincia · Traditionalists · Yucatan

The Mennonites in Mexico

27 October 2006 · 14 Comments

Someone on Lonely Planet brought up the subject of the Mennonites living in Mexico. Since one of my favorite uncles used to be a practicing Mennonite in Northern Indiana, and since I’m always interested in the subcultures who have settled in Mex, I’ve decided to write a bit about them.

Menonas (Mennonites) are a conservative Christian religious group which originally chose to live in communities which shun secular life. After being pushed out of Europe and Russia, they scattered to Northern Africa, U.S., Canada, Brazil, Paraguay, Mexico, and to Belize, etc. seeking religious freedom. The Mennonites pledge their allegiance to a higher power (God) and steadfastly refuse to pledge allegiance to a nation. They are pacifists and will not fight in wars. They still speak in low German (Plautdeitsch), which is an old unwritten language. It is the issue of refusal to join the military that often causes the most friction in the countries they reside in. Migration map from 1500’s to present

When Canadian laws changed, Mennonites, who refused to send their children to government schools, faced imprisonment. Mononas insist on educating the children in their own private schools. The strict rules of the Mennonite community prohibited conscription into the Canadian armies and the teaching of English. The believers didn’t want to interact with “outsiders” and rejected modern technology (electricity, automobiles, telephones, etc).

So in 1921, six elders left Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada for Mexico. Long story short, the exodus began in 1922 for many Mennonites to found two main communities near Chihuahua, Mexico. The government of Mexico signed an agreement with them allowing for religious freedom that complied with the groups needs. Today, there are approximately 65,000 Menonas residing in these two communities.

They dress in stark contrast to their fellow Mexicans. The men wear denim overalls or jeans with suspenders and flannel shirts, and straw hats with brims. Some of the women wear white mesh bonnets, full, modest blouses, and full pleated skirts. Inter-marriages are rare, so the Mennonites still retain their European appearance. Women spend most of their time inside the community, and most do not even speak Spanish…. men have more interaction with “outsiders”, and most do speak some Spanish… but little or no English. It’s a patriarchal society with work duties divided along gender lines. Bet I can guess who has diaper duty.

Today, you can spot differences between the two Mennonite communities which are a mere 40 miles apart near the town of Cuauhtemoc (west of Chihuahua). Both are located in the vast arid desert. El Sabinal maintains strict and pious lives in accordance with Biblical teachings. Radio, television, music, autos and electricity are taboo. In the eyes of these Mennonites, they represent the worldly consumer society. Tractors may be used to plow the fields, but they may not use rubber tires on them as they aren’t allowed for transportation.

The second community of El Capulin has recently opened itself up to the outside world and has begun to embrace technical innovations. Teenaged boys wear baseball caps and Levis. The group may use cars, listen to the radio, ect. The use/abuse of alcohol is creeping into community and has caused a rise in crime and is of great concern to members.

When I’ve spent time in Juarez, Mexico, I’ve seen groups of these Cuauhtemoc Mennonites selling their popular cheese to restaurants and to the public. That didn’t surprise me, but what did, was that I witnessed them being picked up around 4:00pm by ‘brothers’ driving shiny new passenger vans. No more horse and buggy for the more “opened ones”.

The Cuauhtemoc based Mennonites still stay connected with their Canadian groups and often make treks back to their origins. Although some men take menial jobs outside their communities, most families support themselves by farming the land. During periods of droughts, the Canadian brethren give their Mexican brothers financial help to get their families through the rough periods. It seems that the people are getting more exposure to the outside in the larger Mexican cities and it’s bringing in problems that the Mennonites have not faced in the past.

For US police forces, the entry point into the labyrinth of today’s Mennonite drug network came via a grandfather named Cornelius Banman. It was November 23, 1989, and the Old Colony Mennonite sat in an aging pickup truck that inched towards a busy US border crossing in El Paso, Texas. Banman had pocketed several thousand dollars to deliver a load of Mennonite-made furniture from Cuauhtemoc to Winkler, Man. He had made the long, monotonous journey often. This time, however, he was in for a surprise.

A drug-sniffing dog was in another lineup when it suddenly charged towards Banman’s vehicle, barking hysterically and furiously pawing the ground beneath his truck. When startled agents tore into the furniture, they discovered over 100 kilograms of marijuana ‘bricks’ hidden in the false bottoms of a few couches. The estimated street value of the haul was $1.5 million. A 52-year old farmer who attended church regularly with his wife and children in Winkler, Banman was a ‘mule’ paid to courier drugs.

Soon, a trickle of Mennonite mules holding dual Canadian-Mexican citizenship would be detained by US border agents who realized they were encountering an unlikely new breed of drug smuggler.

By the late 1990’s, a fifth of the marijuana sold on the streets of Canada could be traced back to Mennonite drug kingpins holed up in Mexico. The slew of arrests did little to deter a steady strean of willing new recruits from teenagers to the elderly. And as confidence in the smuggling apparatus grew, so did the quantity and size of shipments. Source: Mexico Symposium

What can I say???

There are other Mennonite communities established near the town of Hopelchen in the state of Campeche, some outside Merida, in Chiapas, and in the suburbs of Mexico, City. As far as I know the group in Hopelchen is just farming. I drove down the dirt roads to their community a few years ago while on my way to the city of Campeche. The farmhouses and barns looked just like the ones I’d seen in Northern Indiana…. white, large and well-kempt.

It’s saddens me to think that some of the groups are breaking down because of the same addictions and greed that afflict the rest of society, but it’s probably inevitable. I don’t know where these other communities came from before settling in Mexico or when they arrived. I do know that each has their own rules regarding acceptance of the things in the secular world. Some groups are stricter/ more traditional than others.

I have seen some Mennonite “tourists” in Merida who were taking in the city sites with their families. They did dress in their Prussian-influenced duds and were speaking in low-German, but I didn’t follow them around to see if they rode back home in a horse drawn wagon or in a Ford stationwagon.

I’ve spoken with indigenous Mayan mothers in the Yucatan who have lamented to me that their young teens insist on dressing in trendy clothes rather than traditional clothing and that they are concerned about losing their kids to big city ways, too. With the constant blurring of cultural boundaries happening at such a rapid pace, it’s nearly impossible to hold onto old traditional ways of living. Once the people, who maintained an isolated existance, began interacting with the “outsiders” their lifestyles are at risk of being forever altered in positive and negative ways.

This is why one Mennonite community has sequestered itself deep into the jungle in Brazil.

Categories: Chihuahua · LYN_2 posts · La Raza (Mexican cultures and peoples) · Mennonites · Real Mexico

Give me some space!

12 October 2006 · Leave a Comment

Mexico City has more than 25,000 streets and 2,150 colonias. Anyone who has driven in the city knows what a jungle it is. You share the streets with thousands of green VW taxis, belching buses, delivery trucks, pedi-cabs, hawkers, numerous pedestrians as well as hundreds of thousands of cars. Parking in the commercial districts is a nightmare.

The following is a story from El Universal (May 29, 2006) which describes the turmoil and stress you’ll find on any given day in the downtown areas of Mexico’s greatest city. The story focuses on some of the city’s most colorful hard working people…. the franeleros. They’re really the ones who ultimately “hold the power” midst all the chaos.

It is 10:30 a.m. Grimy green Volkswagen taxis grind forward, arms punching from drivers´ windows to wave away pedestrians

It is 10:30 a.m. Grimy green Volkswagen taxis grind forward,
arms punching from drivers´ windows to wave away pedestrians.
Horns screech. Somebody screams, “Muévete!” – Move it!

A man jumps frantically out of an ancient, exhausted Toyota and tries to edge it to the side of the road. Behind him, handcarts piled high with stringy green onions seem to lurch and stop on
their own, levitating amid the chaos, the drenched men who push them hidden by mountains of produce.

Gridlock.

Nothing moves.

At the edge of El Mercado de la Merced, Mexico City´s sensory feast of a downtown market, the
tangle is getting ridiculously tangly. But somehow, above it all, two magic words ring out: “Viene, viene!”

The meaning, in Spanish, falls somewhere between “Come on!” and “He´s coming!” But everyone in this spectacular morass knows what it means: A parking spot has opened.

Juventino Villegas Alvarez, 65, his jacket slung cavalierly over his shoulder, blows his whistle and shouts again, raspy and loud: “Viene, viene!”

Somehow, impossibly, order is restored. Villegas sternly halts one of the edgy taxis with his outstretched arm, pulls away an old crate and waves a brown sedan into a parking space. The
driver steps out, greeted by Villegas´ outstretched palm, and dutifully hands over 10 pesos, roughly about US$1.

Villegas is a “viene, viene” man, one of thousands in Mexico City. It is nearly impossible to park on public streets here without sliding a few pesos to one of his brethren or their counterparts, the “hombres del trapo rojo” – red rag men, so named because they draw parkers by waving a red rag.INFORMAL ECONOMY
Their work is not officially sanctioned. No government entity grants them domain over their
street corners. But they are universally accepted. Some get by on their charm, their rapid-fire shtick. But there also is a sinister undercurrent to their street-level economy: People who don´t pay often return to find their windshield smashed.

Villegas runs his stretch of asphalt – 100 feet of prime parking space across from a guy who sells scorching guajillo chilies by the kilo – with restless, mesmerizing efficiency. At 10:45, a lumbering delivery truck tries to sneak in without his permission. Villegas is apoplectic. “Para!” he blares. Stop!

His cheeks puff out, expelling a series of gusts through his whistle. A woman standing nearby covers her ears. For a split second, all is still. Vendors turn to Villegas. The truck driver pounds his brakes.

Eyes ablaze, Villegas points to his left. There, wedged next to a pole, is a baby stroller. Two tiny brown eyes are all that is visible amid the mass of blankets. “Somebody get that baby out of here,” Villegas yowls. “We´re going to have a tragedy.”

No one, including the truck driver, hesitates to follow his instructions. This is Villegas´ realm, and while he is not menacing, he is clearly in charge. He has worked this chunk of Mexico City for 15 years. When he leaves in the afternoon, a nephew of his takes over.

Villegas´ voice catches as he looks around his little empire, waxing about the generations he´s
rolled into parking spaces – fathers growing old and giving way to sons. “Everything that begins in life has to end,” he says, his eyes becoming red. “I´ll be here as long as God´s willing.”

A shrill horn shakes him out of his reflection. Villegas looks up and beams. Juan Zamora, a squat taxi driver, idles a few steps away. Zamora is an old pal, a customer from way back. He gets
special treatment.

Zamora tosses Villegas his keys. He´s not just handing over a car, he´s handing over his livelihood. “Eh, I just trust the guy,” Zamora says before dipping out of the sun and into the cool, dark market. Villegas double-parks Zamora´s green taxi. But within minutes someone wants
to get out from behind it. Villegas jumps into the taxi´s driver seat and turns the ignition. A weak, rattling sound stirs in the engine. He tries again. And again. Nothing.

Rubén Domínguez García appears. Domínguez works the streets by the market, too, carrying a bag of tools that he uses to hammer out dents on the spot. He is a busy man in this zone of constant fender benders. Two other guys run up. They lean into Zamora´s car, shoving it out of the way, giving it just enough momentum to coax the engine to life.EARNINGS
Villegas glows. He has 130 tax-free pesos in his pocket, more than twice the minimum daily wage of 48 pesos. It is only 11:30, but his day is almost done. He claps Domínguez on the shoulder and the two break out in song. They croon “Marta,” a melodramatic bolero, gloriously off-key. But their celebration is interrupted by a tooting horn. A man in a fat truck wants a place to park. http://www.mexiconews.com.mx/18507.html

Categories: Ciudad de México · Economy & Business · Informal economy · LYN_2 posts · La Raza (Mexican cultures and peoples)

They Got it Right the First Time….

11 October 2006 · Leave a Comment

I’m aware of the risk of putting up another animal article and having this site turned in the cyber version of the Animal Planet, but….

Small Mexican farmers are finding out that in order to compete, they need to bring back the mule. Tractors aren’t doing the job on all types of farmland.Exactly what is a mule? They are the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. That makes them a hybrid. Except in rare cases, mules (males and females) are sterile and cannot reproduce themselves…. donkeys have 62 chromosomes and and horses have 64. Their offspring end up with 63 chromosomes and therefore cannot be divided evenly.

Mules are thought to be stronger and smarter than donkeys and are somewhat easier to work with. People in third world countries around the world have used them to do the plowing and transporting needed on farms.

When farmers could afford, they’ve been upgrading by purchasing John Deere tractors and replacing their mules, altogether. The problem is that these tractors don’t work well on steep inclines and the cost of gas has risen so much that they aren’t cost effective.

Sara Miller Llana reports in: http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1011/p07s02-woam.html that project leader, Leonel Gonzales Jauregui, wants a mule breeding center with donkeys from the U.S. The center is located near Tlajomulco, Mexico.“The Precious One”, a male donkey, was donated to the Cofradia Ranch, part of the University of Guadalajara, six months ago. Leonel Gonzalez Jáuregui, executive director of the research ranch, says he wants to create a breeding center that will turn out sturdy mules to help local producers work their fields and remain competitive.

In 2005, six Kentucky Jacks were brought in because they are taller and stronger than their Mexican counterparts. “These are work animals, the American ones,” says Sepulveda. “Not like the Mexican ones.”

There are those here who view the effort to revive the donkey population as regressive. “They see it as going backward,” admits Mr. Patrick Fenton, director of the Kentucky Agricultural and Commercial Trade Office. . “But a burro can be technology.”

The mayor-elect of Tlajomulco, Antonio Tatengo, says donkeys could help the 10 percent of landowners in his municipality with properties too small to necessitate tractors. He is quick to add that most would prefer them, though, over donkeys. “We are very modernized here,” says Mr. Tatengo.

It seems that modern technology isn’t always the best technology. The “Beast of Burden” is making a comeback!

Categories: Agriculture · Burros and mules · Economy & Business · Environment · LYN_2 posts · Real Mexico

Calling long distance….

10 October 2006 · Leave a Comment

Let’s cross our fingers that they don’t get a busy signal.CID=2 http://www.cio.com/blog_view.html?5660 is reporting that “Teotihuacan will be the launch pad for an attempt to communicate with extraterrestrial life”.

“In addition to the data being shot into space, some chosen submissions will also be projected onto the side of the 216-foot-tall pyramid for spectators and other Web surfers to view via a real-time, global Web broadcast, according to Reuters”

Interested parties from around the world will have an opportunity to contribute text, images, video and sounds that reflect human nature to be included in the message which will be sent off on October 25, 2006. Submissions may be submitted starting today.

Yahoo’s “Time Capsule” project will digitize and beam the messages up into space with a laser.

” We have this incredible ancient site and from that site we can project contemporary content,” Srinija Srinivasan Yahoo’s editor in chief, told Reuters. “What is new is the ability to capture this information in such scale.”

Maybe we should submit an image of the newly funded “anti-immigration” fence which is to be built along the U.S./Mexican border. It could send the message to extraterestrial aliens that the U.S. doesn’t take a liking to aliens coming up from the south. That way, if any Martians recieve the Time Capsule messages, they(ET aliens) can plan on entering the U.S. from its northern border.

Ain’t that a nice “How do you do“? I wonder if the INS captures any ET aliens wandering around Roswell, N.M. (as a result of the Time Capsule experiment)….. will they foot the bill to send them home, too….like they do the Mexican illegals???

Submit your own ideas to:http://timecapsule.yahoo.com/capsule.php

Categories: Humor · LYN_2 posts · Media · Technology · Teotihuacán

Get the fire department…

9 October 2006 · Leave a Comment

I’m married to one of these guys who loves to downplay the “heat” in his cooking. He’ll spend a couple of hours cooking up some green chili in the kitchen and he’ll offer me a taste. Inevitably, I’ll ask him if it’s too hot for my liking.

He comes back with something like, “Oh no, honey, I made it just the way you like it.” He has no tastebuds left because he’s burned them off. He’s the type who puts habeneros in his cereal. I like some spice, but I don’t get any pleasure out of a 30 min. afterburn on my tongue or from wiping beads of perspiration from my forehead.

Apparently, there was a gathering of kindred spirits (to my hubby) who voluntarily put themselves to the ultimate “test” in Dallas last weekend. And I bet I could guess which room in their house saw a lot of action the following two days.

DALLAS (AP)- A 62-year-old retired accountant from Nevada swallowed 247 peppers in eight minutes to win the Jalapeno Eating World Championship at the State Fair of Texas.
Richard LeFevre won $2,000 for prevailing in Sunday’s contest, which was sponsored by the International Federation of Competitive Eating.
“I love to eat, and I love to compete, so the two go pretty well together,” said LeFevre, the world’s eighth-ranked eater according to the federation.
LeFevre, who has also won the fair’s World Corny Dog Eating Contest three times, said his winning strategy was to mix three or four peppers in his mouth with a swig of milk before swallowing.
LeFevre was one of four professional eaters who took the top four places in the competition.
Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas said she had never eaten a jalapeno before the contest. Ranked third in the world by the federation, she downed 239 peppers to take second place and $1,000 in prize money.
Christopher Huang, of Arlington, entered the competition even though he doesn’t normally eat spicy foods.
“I eat mild salsa,” Huang said. “But there’s nothing like putting yourself through a lot of pain for no reason.”
The 26-year-old required several minutes of recovery time after eating 53 jalapenos.
“I cant feel my face,” he said when he was able to speak again. http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5514385&nav=1TjD

Categories: Chilies · Food and Drink · Gringo(landia) · Health · Humor · LYN_2 posts · La Raza (Mexican cultures and peoples) · Real Mexico · Urban legends

El Grito!

6 October 2006 · Leave a Comment

This last month we all heard and thrilled at the “Grito”. The celebratory Presidential proclamation made on the 16th of September, Independence Day. This series of Viva Mexico! that stirs the souls and hearts of the thousands packed into the Zocalo. But here I would like to pay homage to that more humble grito. This grito is not political nor is it making a nationalistic statement for the TV cameras. It’s the Grito of the individual’s depth of joy, that primal scream that rises from the child within all of us. Although unfortunately many people have stifled that child and when that happens the Grito dissolves into a whimpering murmur accompanied by a sheepish grin and, maybe, even embarrassment.
This grito accompanies the guitar and the trumpet at the wedding dance, aaaayyiiii! It bursts out from the dance floor at the Saturday night pachanga, AAaaYYiiii! It erupts when your team scores the winning goal, AAAHUAAYYYIIII! This grito is as humble as the family barbeque and the corner cantina, AAaaayYYyiiiII! It announces the ecstasy and the exaltation of that moment of sheer delight. It’s the scream that says we’re alive and loving it. This is not the primal scream of fear and pain, but the sound of indulgence with mirth and pleasure.
The exhilaration generated by el grito spreads throughout the crowd, the cantina, the dance hall, the arena; it burrows into the souls of all present. It does not discriminate: young and old, man and woman, some rich and many poor. It says good-by to hard days and promises tomorrows lottery wins; it pledges your woman a good night and tells your competition to step down.
El GRITO! QUE VIVA EL GRITO!

Categories: Folk art · Gringo(landia) · Humor · LYN_2 posts · La Raza (Mexican cultures and peoples) · Mariachis · Music · Politica (Mexicana) · Real Mexico

Looking for the Biggest Burp…..

6 October 2006 · 1 Comment

We’ve all heard about the “Big Bang” theory…. but have you heard about the “Big Burp”?

Leave it to Chiapas to become the center of yet another war….. the war between Coke Cola and Pepsi. A recent article in: http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2840/ by Beverly Bell tells us all about the ‘perfect storm’ taking place in the state of Chiapas right now. Politics, religion and commerce have taken up their positions and without the aid of “menthos”, the gases are exploding.

“Thousands of candles flicker in the dim chamber. The air is thick with the smoke from copal incense. On the altar, men in black wool tunics and white knee-length pants play solemn music on drums and gourds. Below them, a score of Tzotzil Indians chant in small circles on the pine needle-covered floor. In the center of each circle are candles, eggs, copal and pox—fermented corn mash—in an old glass container, stopped with a corn cob. And next to the pox is a half-liter bottle of Coca-Cola or Pepsi.
In the 484-year-old Church of St. John the Baptist, in Chamula, a town of 60,000 in Chiapas, Mexico, those bottles indicate the intersection of religion, politics, water and consumer markets.
In the United States, Coke and Pepsi vie for monopoly contracts with schools and universities. In Chiapas, the stakes in the soft drink war are as high as the purity of one’s soul.
Traveling through the cold highlands of the San Juan Chamula municipality any Saturday afternoon, one regularly encounters a scene resembling a battleground: dozens of bodies sprawled on the ground, arms and legs sometimes extending perilously into the road. At the epicenter of each of these scenes are plastic tables and chairs in front of a diminutive wooden store. There, men, women and children who are either on their way to collapse, or who have resuscitated themselves and are back for more, sit drinking pox, which means “mad dog” in Tzotzil. Along with pox, they swig Coke or Pepsi, depending on whose store they patronize; each store sells only one brand.
Like fireworks and copal, pox is a sacrament in a local religion that blends Catholicism with elements of native tradition. It is a sacred drink that cleanses the soul; the more pox one drinks, the greater the purification. Over the past several decades the caciques—local elites who wield economic and political power and control the soft drink concession—have convinced the faithful that pox should be drunk with Coke or Pepsi, depending on who is doing the proselytizing. They say the cola induces burping, which releases evil from the soul.
The caciques and their affiliated drink companies do a booming business—nevermind that the beverages sell for 50 U.S. cents a can, exactly the average daily income. Purchasing a soda often means not purchasing food, and Chiapas has one of the highest rates of both malnutrition and Coke consumption in Mexico. “

For the rest of this interesting story, click on the link (above) and find out how Coke Cola/Pepsi play into the politics and economy of Chiapas. It’s an excellent eye-opening article about the inner workings of commerce and power in Mexico!!!

Categories: Chiapas · Coca-Cola · Economy & Business · Food and Drink · Humor · Informal economy · LYN_2 posts · La Raza (Mexican cultures and peoples) · Provincia · Real Mexico · Urban legends

Light My Fire!

26 September 2006 · 3 Comments

The “missionary” season(summer) is ending and my own “virtual” hunting season has begun. The Christian neighbors to the north have been planting their ’seeds’ all summer long throughout Mexican cities and rural villages. The focus of most of their energies has been on the poor and uneducated indigenous villagers, young orphans, alcoholics, troubled teens, and the aged. Now I’m about to turn my focus on the Evangelicals and their management teams.

“I have no problems with Jesus Christ; it’s his fan club that disturbs me.” (unknown author)

Too many well-meaning Christians are piling into their vans to do “good works” south of the border in the Lord’s name. They claim to be rescuing souls so that they can enter heaven. The missionaries begin their mission by passing out candy and leaflets to unsuspecting villagers. Before they know it, the children and parents are invited to attend get-to-know-you parties which are sponsored by the missionaries. More candy and small toys are given to the kids, teens get to see Bible movies, and the group sings along to Christian music. Before you can light a candle, their new “friends” are building them an orphanage and a playground. “What the heck, you’re so nice, we’ll build a little meeting hall for your alcoholics to hold meetings in, too. “

“Gee, you’re such good people, we’ll build you a simple church and we’ll help you pray for answers to all your problems. If you’d like to go to heaven, someday, we can teach you how to be “saved”, otherwise, the devil owns your soul.” Simple as 1-2-3.

“Onward Christian Soldiers” They are soldiers, indeed. They are armed combatants who use Christ as a “front” for a diabolical goal. Christ, orphanages, food kitchens, toys, used clothing, and Bibles are there for window dressing. They will dress Christ up as a rock star or as Santa Claus in order to enlist these Mexican peasants into their army. They want numbers…. BABY!

Like TV ratings or “hits” on a blog, it’s all about numbers. It’s all about world domination! These missionaries are working Africa, India, China and the Phillipines as well as Mexico to ’spread God’s word’ and make conversions. According to the http://www.crusadewatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=337&Itemid=27 there are presently 395 foreign mission agencies in Mexico …., # of service agencies… 205, # of major missionary institutions… 1,500, # of minor missionary institutions … 5,000. These numbers are not insignificant!

Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s first elected Prime Minister (1963-1964) and President (1964-1978) said: “When the missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the missionaries had the Bible. They taught us to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible.”

Evangelical missionary work is a “glorified” pyramid scheme that keeps on giving! Their real goal isn’t to “save souls”, it’s to build their army. The real “mission” is to put up high numbers in order to influence governments for their own self-interests. The end-game is world domination. It’s a lobbying movement to end all lobbying movements. The Catholic Church did it in Mexico centuries ago and now the Evangelicals, the Mormons, the Muslims etc, are back (in Mexico) to increase their own flocks…. full steam ahead.

Evangelism is unethical. It is dishonest and arrogant to impose ones beliefs on another culture by the use of trickery and deception. Whether they come with guitars, or candy, on skateboards or in caravans…. they bring trouble. Every man, woman or child, peasant or scholar has the right to his/her own spiritual beliefs and practices.

“Most of the true Christian denominations are not involved in missions and evangelism. They strongly argue that missions is the corrupted and evil expression of true Christianity.” Crusade Watch

“Religion is sort of like a lift in your shoes. If it makes you feel better, fine. Just don’t ask me to wear your shoes. ” [George Carlin]

“In the fuss over the human loss and its political implications, what was largely overlooked is the extraordinary vanity and presumption that underlie the zeal of missionaries. They make it their goal and active business to disrupt the most fundamental ideals and values of the people on whom they inflict themselves. The measure of missionary success is how much dissatisfaction they can create among the often-poverty-stricken people they encounter. Missionaries only fail when their victims are holywaterproof.
Missionaries are frank imperialists. But because they operate in the spiritual realm, they continue to enjoy a fuzzy kind of permission to conduct a kind of business that is largely impossible in other less ethereal spheres of life.” New York Press~Nov. 22, 2005

Amen, brothers and sisters!

Categories: Gringo(landia) · LYN_2 posts · Missionaries · Protestants · Provincia · Religion

Sit Them In a Corner

20 September 2006 · Leave a Comment

The word of the day is “stupid“. Normally, I don’t spend my time running down the U.S. of A. (though I definitely could if I wanted to) .Only some of the people who inhabit it deserve that attention. Remember when there was a movement to teach Americans to get on board with other countries of the world by learning the metric system? It seemed pretty innocuous, but citizens resisted it with all their might.

Now, a Texas principal has learned just how fiercely some of his student’s parents would fight back when his school participated in some minor celebrations for 16th of September (Mexican Independence Day).
The “The Facts.com (Brazoria, Co., Texas) has reported about a flag controversy that has escalated into demands for Principal Sam Williams to be demoted. The flap is around teachers having the kids hold a Mexican flag in their hands while 6 parents read the Mexican Pledge of Allegiance aloud. The students were asked to stand (out of respect) as the pledge was read. Approximately 65% of the school’s students are Mexican American…. the principal of 18 yrs is black (if that makes any difference).

“We have stated in our mission statement that we are a campus that is a beacon of hope for a culturally diverse population,” Williams said.

I guess that doesn’t go over too well in parts of Texas! Apparently, teaching students about cultural diversity is un-American in these parts. Parents were outraged because they felt that the brief “lesson” subverted the U.S. ’s present stand against illegal immigrants. I kid you not! That’s what I would really call a big s-t-r-e-t-c-h.

I guess the climate has to be just right before teachers can give their students a lesson in diversity. Example: It’s acceptable to teach about Holland and tulips and wooden shoes, about England and Shakespeare or tea and crumpets, about Japan and Pearl Harbor, kimonos and the Cherry Blossom festival or China about the Great Wall and the Wu people who live along the Yangtze River.

Since Mexico is out of favor with our present-day politicos, parents want to vent their rage when someone teaches their children that Mexico is a neighboring country deserving of their children’s respect…. not to mention a country that justifiably has its place in Texas’s own history.

Our nation says that we as a people need to prepare ourselves for a global economy… yet some segments of our population resist even the tiniest sharing of a celebration belonging to a neighbor. Our students go into the workforce and the globalization period with such ignorance and with such a skewed view of the world they live in.

When my daughter was in high school (1986), I looked through her history book. It had chapters on the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, WWI and WWII. I asked her if she had ever been taught about the Vietnam Conflict (War). She said that her teacher told the class that it was too “new” and too “controversial”. It had ended ( for the U.S.) in 1975. I guess the “timing” wasn’t quite right, yet. George W. was the product of a similar education… wasn’t he?

If we can’t deal with “controversy” in the classroom, is it any wonder we can’t rationally deal with it in the halls of the ‘mentally challenged’ Congress?

Oh, let’s just line up the lame-brained ‘parent protesters’ in a neat row and put decorate their pointy heads with dunce caps and call it a ‘day’.