The Benjamin Franklin Library

I found an English language library today during the lunch hour (or two). The library which is part of the US Embassy was established in 1942 to promote friendship and understanding between Mexico and the United States, if only it were that easy.

There is a limited fiction section, though plenty of books I haven’t read; a large reference section; and I was most excited about the periodicals. I can read the latest edition of The New Yorker, The Economist, The New York Times, and even MAD magazine. I look forward to some jaunts on the pink metro line to do some reading in the air conditioning.

Now, if I could only get all of the documents needed to get a library card so that I could actually take out a book.

My New Neighborhood

I have lived in my new apartment for less than a month, but already I have a list of things that I appreciate about my new neighborhood. Over the next few months as I explore the neighborhood more, I hope to add many more points of interest and appreciation.

1. The market

The Portales market is a 10-15 minute walk from my place. The market comes alive especially on the weekends, but everyday, I can buy an assortment of fruits and vegetables, any and every kind of baking good from the old school Alpina store, and fresh coffee from Lina. There are shops selling party goods to tools to furniture.

2. The park

A few blocks from the apartment is a great run for running, walking, or just enjoying a green space. Mexico City can get plenty cold in November and December as I’ve experienced, but with the recent heat of these months, I’ve enjoyed the early morning runs in the park.

3. Proximity to Coyoacan

One of my favorite neighborhoods in the city is Coyoacan, and as I found out yesterday, it is now within a leisurely 25 minute walk. The highlights of the walk include the Olympic pool, the oriental store that sells every kind of spice and all the fixings for great sushi, and Calle Londres where the Frida Kahlo house is located.

4. Geography lesson

The metro is a five minute pesero (bus) ride away or a 10-15 minute walk, which I prefer. Sevilla, Bulgaria, Rumania, Filipinas are just a few of the street names that I pass.

5. The merchant at the corner store

La Manzanita is the name of the corner store near the apartment. The man behind the counter is always jolly and always quick to remind me of his time that he spent in the Washington DC area. He feels like there is a connection since Pennsylvania is so close.

House Updates

My apartment is accessed by the stairs, and it is the only apartment on the second floor. The window on the far left behind the spiral staircase is the office. The spiral staircase is the access point for all eight apartments in the building to the roof where there are laundry clotheslines.

The far left window is the bathroom, next is the main bedroom window with an access door. The next window is the guest room. Two steps up is the living room window and another door. The open door is access to the kitchen, which I use as the main entry way.

On Wednesday I made the three new beds in the apartment. I now have a double bed in the master bedroom. In the guest room, there is a bunk bed that has a double and single bed. Guests welcome!

The guest room now has an table as extra work space.

The main bedroom now has a dresser to add to storage space.

I hung up some decorations - very Mexican with the pots of barro.

Today, the final major purchases were made to furnish the house. I shifted around a few pieces of furniture to accommodate the new lounge suite which was delivered this afternoon.

Process Work

About 200 of us from all over Mexico and a few from the US listened to the husband and wife team, Amy and Arnie Mindell of Portland, Oregon, describe the need for leaders who are able to reach their Process Mind so that conflict is understood and worked through in a healthy manner. Within the first 15 minutes (and this included English/Spanish translation) of this two day conference, of which I only attended Day 1, I knew that it would be difficult if not impossible for me to keep a straight face through this workshop.

As Amy was guiding Arnie through his energy X (pain or uncomfortable feelings) and energy u (a comfortable state) dance to reach an altered state where he might be enlightened, I looked around for anyone else in the room who might laugh with me. I kept thinking, “Really? Am I really going to sit through two days of this?” I was in complete awe that people were taking this seriously. I am sure that this says something about my inability to express myself in some way, but I truly am at peace with what that says about me.

When it was our turn to do the exercise – this dance of energies where we can find our Process Mind in an altered state – you will be happy to know that I didn’t burst out laughing. I merely smiled, chuckling internally, as I made my movements of my different energies which were to become a dance. And probably due to lack of belief, I failed to reach an altered state. I did however, reach enlightenment. Those charlatans might take the conference fees, but they wouldn’t take my time. I’m not going to return tomorrow.

Retracing My Steps

San Cristobal was dark and quiet, when we began our journey to the border at 5am. Still struggling to wake up, I sat in the back of the car as Ricardo practiced driving, a standard shift car, and the ever energetic and cheerful Martin chatted away. Our destination was Chamic, the closest border town to San Cristobal, about three hours away.

Chamic is where the 10 hectares of land that the Chihuahua colony Mennonites with the help of MCC purchased for the Mexicalapa community after they became landless due to the 2005 hurricane that destroyed parts of southern Mexico and Guatemala. During the summer of 2006, I spent a few brief months based in Motozintla in southern Mexico working with MCC on their disaster relief projects. During my time I worked with a group of pastors and also had many an adventure with the campesinos of Mexicalapa driving the countryside in search of appropriate land, though at my departure in August 2006, no land had been purchased.

In 2007, MCC entered into an agreement with an ever dwindling group from the original Mexicalapa community in the purchase of land in Chamic that was part of an ejido. The idea of ejido dates back to the Mexican Revolution and the agrarian reform. The land is owned by the group, not individuals, and there are obligations to the group including meeting attendance and fees. At Chamic, we met with the comisariado (leader) of the ejido, to discuss the situation with the group from Mexicalapa, who during this three year period had struggled to work the land and to meet the obligations of the ejido and of MCC.

After our brief meeting and a breakfast of mushroom quesadillas, we returned to the road full of topes (speed bumps) to meet with the Mexicalapa group. After the hurricane, the government built simple houses for the community in Aguazarca, an hour away from Chamic and their land. As we drove to their houses, it became apparent why the group had difficulties working the land and meeting the ejido obligations as it was so far from their homes.

I was excited to meet the group, hoping that I might recognize some of the members from my time in 2006. However, my excited turned to disappoint when I realized that none of the people that I worked with remained in the group. The original group included close to 20 families, but for various reasons, people left the group which was now a mere seven families. Our meeting with the women representing the households was brief, simply discussing the current obligations and creating a plan to meet the repayment obligations in a timely fashion. By 1pm with the sun high in the sky, we had to leave in order to return to Tuxtla by the evening to make our flight to Mexico City.

On our return trip, I wished I could have slept as soundly as I had this morning. Sleep would have avoided the sudden braking for topes or, failing to see them in time, taking the topes at high speeds. Instead, I listened as Martin held forum on a range of subjects from his marriage to a woman twelve years his senior to the history of the Zapatistas. And if I concentrated hard enough, I could ignore the grinding of gears and the groan of the engine as Ricardo continued to practice his standard shift driving.

Instituto de Estudios e Investigación Intercultural (INESIN)

Last night I met Martin Ernesto Guerrero in the Tuxtla bus station at midnight, completely by coincidence. Ricardo and I arrived with neither a plan nor a place to stay. As we huddled to discuss where best to sleep for the night, Martin, proudly wearing an INESIN t-shirt, called out a greeting of welcome to Ricardo from across the people filled bus station. On the day of their anniversary, which I found out later, Martin was waiting with his wife who was traveling to Oaxaca to visit family.

We had planned to meet Martin this morning in San Cristobal at INESIN (Instituto de Estudios e Investigación Intercultural), where he is the director, and MCC worker Eliesio Soares works. After an exhausting day and wanting nothing more than to fall asleep, our chance meeting was as welcome as his invitation to sleep at his house. A man of unending energy, he happily chatted as we piled into the old beat up car with his daughter and her boyfriend, as we ate tamales and tacos at a road side stand at 1am, and as we finally decided where everyone, including his three twenty something children and friends, would sleep in his house.

The five hours of sleep did nothing to rejuvenate me and did nothing to drain Martin’s unending reserve of joy and energy. Through my half open eyes, I was amazed at the hop in his step as we walked to the combi (public transportation van) that would take us to San Cristobal, 45 minutes away.

Martin’s energy and enthusiasm serve him well as the director of INESIN as well as his work with the Nazarene churches in Tuxtla, one of which he has been interim pastor for about a year. Martin has been in leadership at INESIN for the last five years, after two MCC workers who were part of the initial work of the organization left. INESIN was established in San Cristobal in 2002 in attempt to create a space for study, dialogue and mediation among the highly contentious groups of Catholics, Evangelicals and indigenous in Chiapas.

For years, communities have been in conflict as evangelicals have made small inroads in traditionally Catholic communities. Due to the integrated Catholic traditions in community life, it is not so simple to separate community life and Catholic customs, which has led to conflict within the community. Families have had to flee communities and in extreme cases have been killed. However the situation is much more complex than religious conflict due to political, economic and international pressures that have muddled the picture. It is within this context, INESIN, under the leadership of a positive and active director, work to find peaceful solutions and initiate forums for dialogue.

Immigration

Just after midday, the hot humid air hit me in the face as we walked down the stairs of the airplane in Tapachula, a border town in southern Mexico in the state of Chiapas. The hour and a half flight from the altitude of Mexico City did not prepare me for the change in scenery and climate as I descended into the bustling border town.

Luis, a Guatemalan who has been living in the border town for the last five years, met Ricardo and I at the airport. The beads of sweat running down my back quickly condensed with the air conditioning at full strength in the Toyota pickup in attempt to beat the 36°C or 37°C heat. The road to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) office was lined with banana trees and the lush greens of the tropics.

Luis works for the IOM in Tapachula, whose office opened in 2005. He is a humble man with a clear dedication to his work. The IOM is an international organization with two offices in Mexico. We visited the Mexico City office in early February and were on our way to the Tapachula office to discuss the work of IOM in southern Mexico and to gain a better understanding to the reality of migration in Mexico.

The IOM creates a network of organizations among all sectors, churches, NGOs and consulates working to create a more humane migration process. Their approach to the issue of migration is to recognize that it is impossible to stop migration. People will continually strive to improve their living situation and their opportunities which will lead them to migrate. However, the barriers and high costs to migration include abusive treatment, loneliness and lack of choice and resources. The work of the IOM is to create an environment of safety and dignity for those who migrate.

The question of migration in Mexico is as diverse as the landscape. There are Mexicans migrating internally, to tourist areas or large cities. There are Mexicans migrating to the United States, both legally and illegally. There are Central Americans on their way through Mexico to the Unites States. And in this variety of transit there are numerous reasons for moving and innumerable potential dangers for migrants, both Mexicans and those from other Central American countries. Too often the focus of migration is from the perspective of the developed countries that receive immigrants; however the reality for thousands in Mexico and along the southern Mexican border is not portrayed in the media which is quick to focus on and criminalize the migrants crossing the militarized and dangerous northern border.

As MCC Mexico investigates the potential for work in the area of migration, it is helpful to remember that multiple types of migrants in Mexico.

1. Internal Migrants

According to the 2009 Human Development Report most of the movement in the world does not happen between developing and developed countries, rather within countries. A conservative estimate is that approximately 740 million people are internal migrants in the world; almost four times as many as those who have moved internationally. According to the same report there is almost double the amount of people in Mexico who move internally than internationally.

2. External Migrants

The public is most familiar with the immigrants who are crossing borders in search of better conditions and economic opportunities. Communities across Mexico are faced with a varying degree of emptiness as youth, men, and women leave behind their families to attempt crossing the much militarized US and Mexican border. Among states with highest expulsion rates in Mexico are Guerrero and Chiapas, where MCC Mexico has worked and built relationships with communities.

3. Migrants in Transit

In comparison to the overwhelming number of people who move within countries, the number of immigrants who cross borders in the world, 214 million, looks relatively small. Among those who move internationally, just over a third moved from a developing country to a developed country, fewer than 70 million people. In 2008 according to the Migration Policy Institute, an estimated 11.4 million people migrated to the US; however in light of the recent recession, immigration trends are slowing.

There are Mexicans who migrate to the North, with all of the dangers at the northern border, as well as migrants from Central and South America who are in transit through Mexico. With the militarization of the northern border, some migration workers suggest that the southern Mexican border is the new US border. Many Central American migrants face a host of dangers and potential traps as they progress through Mexico. The chance to attempt a northern Mexico border crossing means that the migrants have completed a lengthy and difficult journey through Mexico that most likely included violence and aggression of some type, be it theft, sexual aggression or labour exploitation.

4. Migrants who Return

The economic crisis in the US has forced many migrants to return to their communities. These migrants have spent time away from their community and have been exposed to a variety of new ideas and experiences. There are positive and negative consequences to this separation. At best, the migrants work to improve the services in the community; however, there is a real danger that the separation makes it difficult for the migrants to integrate into family and community life. The families who remain and the migrants lose a valuable connection that provides the stability that can strengthen and build the community. Communities lose the cultural norms and traditions that unite and fortify the community with continual leaving and returning. This disruption has the potential to lead to a disintegration of families and communities.

5. Circular Migrants

Finally, circular migration is a topic of importance especially for those living along the border. Long before borders were established through wars, treaties and governments, communities who now live along country borders maintained trading and communication routes which were disrupted by arbitrary boundaries.

Agreements between Mexico and Guatemala provide border residents legal passes to cross freely through the borders for temporary agricultural work or temporary visitor passes. However, there is also a marginalized sector who work in domestic service and factories that are exploited and experience grave abuses of human rights. This sector is difficult for organizations to work with as they are often invisible due to long work hours and hesitant to speak out against their exploitation.

After less than six hours in the southern town, it was time to migrate north. As I climbed the steps of the bus for the five hour trip to Tuxtla, the capital of Chiapas, I was reminded of how easy my country traveling was despite my exhaustion.

Somewhere to Sit

I went shopping yesterday, and this evening was rewarded with new furniture for the kitchen and dinning room. I now have somewhere to sit in the house!

Dinning room - My prized four chairs and new table. The china cabinet is great for storage.

Dinning room

Kitchen - I now have a work space and storage in the kitchen.

Third Time is the Charm

Since late November I have not lived in one place for more than two weeks at a time, alternating much of my time between Olinalá in Guerrero and Mexico City. Four months later, I am finally going to settle into an apartment in Mexico City in the Portales Norte neighborhood for the last four months of my time with MCC Mexico.

This will be third apartment in less than six months, not including the MCC Guesthouse where I have spent many a night, and hopefully the last. Unlike the other two apartments where I moved into upon the departure of other MCCers, I, along with the help of others, am setting up this apartment new. This is very exciting, but a process that takes time.

So, here are some pictures of my new place after one weekend of fast and furious work with the grand help of Natalie, a SALT participant here in Mexico who graciously helped during her Spring break. Last night was the first night in my new home, a second floor apartment. You will have to use your imagination and wait for more pictures in a few weeks of the completely furnished apartment.

Kitchen - The first of three entrances into the railroad apartment.

Kitchen - Natalie and I are pretty proud of the spice rack and storage shelf above the stove and sink. We bought them in the Coyoacan market.

Kitchen - small but functional

Dinning room - I really like my drink station in the corner with my prized coffee pot and water jug.

Dinning room

Living room - Notice the plants on the plant stand that Natalie gave me as a house warming gift. You also see the second entrance.

Guest bedroom - Two steps down from the living room is the guest bedroom, where I am currently sleeping for lack of another bed.

Master bedroom - The next room is the master bedroom that is empty awaiting a bed. Notice that one has to walk through all the rooms to reach the only bathroom. Lots of privacy to be had! There is another door to the outside on the left.

Master bedroom - There is plenty of storage which is a definite positive.

Bathroom

Laundry room - The laundry room is accessed through the master bedroom. The water heater is also in the left corner.

Office - Through the laundry room, I have a small office.

Office - There is room for a desk and bookshelf.

Did you notice anything missing in all the pictures? A chair, or anything to sit on, is the correct answer. I did not remove all the chairs to improve the picture composition; rather, I currently have no seating except for the guest bed. Sitting on the balcony stairs is my favorite alternative. The balcony and windows line the entire apartment and provides good lighting and outside access.

In training

I have about a month and a half to learn the responsibilities of the country representative before I assume the role for MCC Mexico from mid May to mid August. For three months, while the couple currently in that role returns to South Africa to have their second child, I will be interim Country Representative for MCC Mexico. I am not sure what all this new position entails, but I know that MCC has wonderful workers in Mexico who will laugh and guide me through this leadership position.

I look forward to this transition, though I will miss the daily interaction with community members in Olinala and Zacango. I recognize that my new role will be more administrative which will bring its own adventures, but the days of rural living are over for the time being.

Thank you Oak Grove Mennonite Church

While home in the United States for Semana Santa (Holy Week, referring to the week before Easter), I had the opportunity to visit my sister’s church in Ohio. For the last several months, the primary department has been collecting school supplies and offering for the children and programs in Zacango. Yesterday I had the privilege of meeting the children and youth of Oak Grove and receiving their generous donations which I brought back to Mexico. Their donations of two copies of the Rosetta Stone program, crayons, markers, tablets and other school supplies, along with money will be greatly appreciated by the children and youth who are eager to learn in Zacango.

Muchas gracias Oak Grove Mennonite Church.