Classrooms of Hope

In her early 50s, Guillermina Tinoco has been with MCC Mexico for almost fifteen years. Having the longest tenure in the organization, she is a living history of MCC Mexico’s work. She has interacted with her fair share of interesting and unique MCC workers and country representatives, but her generous spirit fails to ever convey a word of judgment or criticism, only kindness and compassion. She remembers working for MCC when the offices were in Cuernavaca in the 1990s. When she began as accountant, she came into the office about everyday to complete the extensive accounting requirements for Akron and for the state. While she continues to do the same work, I see her in the office only three days of each month, due to the changes in technology, speed of current communication and new operating systems.

When she is not in the MCC office, she volunteers in Naucalpan, an at risk neighborhood in the northeast of Mexico City, at least two hours from the MCC offices. She teaches literacy to adults at a Baptist church through the governmental program INEA (Instituto Nacional de Educación de Adultos, National Institute for Adult Education). In the fall, Guillermina, along with two other women, began Aulas de Esperanza (Classrooms of Hope) for children with different abilities. MCC is financially supporting Aulas de Esperanza through a monthly grant from MCC’s Global Family education sponsorship.

Aulas de Esperanza began after a discussion with Maria, one of the women who attended literacy classes with Guillermina. Unique to many in her situation, Maria is a devoted advocate for her son who is mostly deaf. She recounted to Guillermina the continual struggle that she has encountered to obtain a decent education for her son who is more than falling through the cracks of the public education system.

In cooperation with the local school, Aulas de Esperanza welcomes six to seven students in the small but adequate classroom twice a week in the morning. There is a brief group instruction time, and then individual work stations. The women volunteers receive daily petitions to participate in the program; however, due to limited resources, space and volunteers, Aulas de Esperanza can only attend to the fifteen students that currently attend.

Today as I shared lunch with Guillermina, I sat in complete disbelief as she shared with me the experiences of some of the students who attend Aulas de Esperanza. With my experience in the US public education system, my teacher training emphasized the importance of teaching to all types of learners and to accommodate students with special needs. Differentiated instruction was the phase du jour the last time I was in the classroom. I understood the mandate as a teacher to provide an equal education to all the students who walked through the door, and I was sure to receive a phone call or an email from the parents if I did not.

Maria’s son Luis understands school as a place where he is relegated to the back corner of the classroom. With no hearing in his left ear, and only partial in his right, Luis obviously needs special accommodations in order to learn. At best he is ignored. At worst, he is taunted by the other students, who have as their role model the teacher who is also insulting Luis, adding how stupid he is. He is not stupid, he simply can not hear like the other students. He is in third grade and can not read. He is passed along to the next grade because the teachers seemingly do not want to deal with him.

The 13-year-old Alejandro, one of the oldest children at Aulas de Esperanza, was expelled from school. He and his younger brother live on the streets doing odd jobs and getting food where they can as their mother has left to be with another man who does not want them. Carmen, labeled as dumb by those at school, has had excrement smeared on her by other students. And the stories continue. Since Aulas de Esperanza opened its doors in the fall, more students and concerned parents have emerged, each with their unique story.

Each of the students at Aulas de Esperanza has learning disabilities that hinder their learning in the standard school environment. I know from experience, that it is time consuming to plan and to teach to the diversity in the classroom, yet the treatment of these children is unacceptable. I do not doubt that there are dedicated teachers and administrators in the Mexican public education system. Unfortunately for the handful of students at Aulas de Esperanza, their few hours a week outside of the regular school system is their chance to learn.

What is the hope for these students? Guillermina hopes that they can attend a technical school or learn a trade so that they can eventually provide for themselves in dignity, and not resort to life on the streets that means violence, drugs and poverty. It is my hope that Aulas de Esperanza endures and grows so that more children have the encouragement and opportunity to learn.

Haz Sandwich

As I walked into the Plaza Hidalgo, one of the main plazas in the Coyoacán neighborhood this afternoon, I discovered several guys in the green Mexican soccer jerseys kicking around a soccer ball. There was a camera or two around, so my first thought was that they were going to film a commercial for the Mundial (World Cup) that is quickly approaching.

With Mexico playing in the opening game against host country South Africa on June 11, World Cup fever is alive in Mexico. A few weeks ago as I was wondering through the historic district, I came across the filming of a World Cup commercial with lots of people dressed as fans from Mexico, Spain, Brazil, Argentina and so on.

Today I decided to sit only a few feet from the action. As a spectator, there did not appear to be any direction to the action, and the guys continued to mess around with the soccer ball, showing off their ball handling skills. All of sudden a heavy beat boomed from the gazebo, and a young man and woman began a choreographed dance not five feet from where I was sitting. They were clearly invested in these dance moves. Several more apparent bystanders join them, and within 30 seconds the plaza was filled with dancers, swinging their arms and swaying their hips to the beat. It quickly dawned on me that I was in the center of a flash mob.

The photographer in red definitely has several pictures of me. He is standing where I was sitting before this all began.

I moved to a bench further back. A girl quickly jumped on my previous seat and continued the dance without missing a beat. A photographer that I had seen earlier was moving around the crowd taking pictures. He snapped several of me laughing at this experience. I laughed even more when an older woman who was walking through plaza decided to get in on the dancing action. She blended in pretty well until the end.

The last move of the dancers was to take off their shirt and swing it around their heads while doing some rebel yells of excitement. Before you get scandalized, all involved had a shirt that said “Haz Sandwich” underneath their top shirts. And as quickly as they appeared, they all scattered their separate ways.

“Haz Sandwich.” It did not click for me until on my walk from Coyoacán to San Angel, a neighboring area, I saw an advertisement at a bus stop for a popular bread brand, Bimbo.

Administration

Administration is an office job. It means that I answer a lot of emails and the periodic phone call at the office. It means that I handle the financial responsibilities like transferring money to workers, paying bills and completing reports. It means that I work with the MCC hired lawyer (check previous posts) on the frustrating process of obtaining Visas for all the workers. It means that I participate in worker evaluations. It means that some days I do what all office workers do with some of their desk time.

I knew that my new role would be in an office job. There are administrative responsibilities that are a necessity for an organization like MCC to function and to work smoothly so that there is clear articulation between the headquarters in Akron and the workers in the field around the world. However, after a weekend in Olinalá with the Friesen-Pankratz and the community of Zacango, it is evident to me how important it is for administrators to visit and interact with the workers, community members and the programs that MCC supports. Without that connection, administrators lose touch with the reality for which they are to advocate. While I enjoy my new role in Mexico City, with the activities and challenges that it brings, I am grateful for the several months that I lived in the Guerrero region.

Speaking Engagement

The teenage girl sitting almost directly in front of me was in a deep sleep, head lolling to the side. The two or three giggling preteens were huddled on the couch, clearly more interested in their secrets. The middle aged mom with her laptop wanted to be interested, but seemed more preoccupied by the lack of interest of her giggling daughter. The seven or eight adults displayed varying degrees of interest with good questions, but with their imminent departure to Cuernavaca for their remaining few days in Mexico, there was clear anxiousness that they finish their volunteer, work projects that they had started at La Casa de los Amigos (Friends’ House) two or three days ago. In rapt attention, were the coordinators of this volunteer group from Boulder and Fort Collins, Colorado, the 70ish year-olds, Paul and Mary McKay.

The McKays had lived in Cuernavaca, Mexico in the late 1990s when they worked with Bethel College’s Mexico exchange program. Though the years they have maintained close relationships with Lizy Maraquin, the director of La Buena Tierra, one of MCC’s partners in Cuernavaca that is supported both financially and with a SALT volunteer. I understand that with regularity the McKays organize work groups from the Mennonite churches in the Boulder and Fort Collins area to come to Mexico. Today, I met and spoke with the first of two groups, and I will meet with the second group next Tuesday.

Since there is no current Connecting Peoples position in MCC Mexico, one of the responsibilities of being the Country Representative, interim I might add, is speaking to groups who want to know about MCC Mexico programs. No doubt, I will be glad to pass off the responsibility to Luke and Sarah Roth-Mullet who arrive in August of this year to assume the role of Connecting Peoples.

For my first time on the speaking tour, I did a great job of providing a brief history of MCC in Mexico and our current programs, and of course, bragging about the cast of characters that is MCC Mexico. I thought I was brief and engaging, but I certainly have my work out cut for next Tuesday when I meet with the second group. I have no illusions that others find the work of MCC Mexico as interesting as I do, but I would like to think that I can hold a majority of a group’s interest for at least ten minutes. I have another chance to redeem myself next week.

Las Juntas

The heat is oppressive in Olinalá. I struggled to lift off the weight of the heat that kept me in bed until mid morning, the ceiling fan on high. At first I thought my lack of energy stemmed from all of the excitement of the weekend – long bus ride to Olinalá, art show, post art exhibition birthday celebration of one of the judges, German. But…no. No, it was definitely the heat.

By early afternoon, settling for fresh juice as breakfast and lunch as it was too hot to eat; I made my way to Zacango. I was just in time to join Bruce and the kids in shucking the last of their dried corn. Some will be used to replant this year, and the rest will be used to feed the animals. Since the rains have come late this year, the community has just started to plow the fields for planting, which takes a week or so as it is done with burros. We finished the task in the cool of their house with the windows and doors barring the sun and heat from entering our refuge.

One of the tricks to beat the heat that Bruce and Jaime have learned is to find water, scarce though it might be. Since I had not been to Las Juntas, a neighboring community, we decided to investigate the water level of their creek for potential relief. From Zacango, Las Juntas is about 20-25 minutes on a curvy, dirt road, in the opposite direction of Olinalá. Many community members from Zacango have family in Las Juntas, and the two communities often join together for celebrations. Being a community that is nestled in the mountains, the houses were scattered along the mountain edge as descended into the community.

Diana and Enrique, friends of Hizee and Zam, joined us on our search for relief from the heat. We would have had a lot more children join us, but they were skeptical of the amount and the quality of water that we would find at the creek. After about three months with no rains, the first rains arrived in the area only two or three days ago. So along with the low level of water, it was less likely to be clear due to the recent rains.

While the kids were right, indeed the muddy water was lower than usual; it did nothing to take away from the sheer joy of splashing in the water. We walked along the creek bank until we found a shady area where the water pooled. The kids were soon in the waist-deep water, while I settled on the rocks, legs soaking in the cool respite from the heat. The periodic pig, dog or farmer leading some animals wondered by, but they were the only disturbance to the afternoon water frolic.

Art Critic

Zacango hosted the community’s first Final Friday Art Exhibition this evening. The comisaria (community room) turned gallery displayed the work of a group of artists (12-15 years old) who were part of Jaime’s art class this semester. The exhibition featured art inspired by artisan work throughout Mexico, such as painted tiles, ojos de Dios (Eyes of God) and Aztec and Mayan designs. The evening highlighted the creativity and talent of the youth of Zacango.

The majority of these junior high artists are finished with formal schooling. With only a primary school in the community, most of the budding artists lack the resources or encouragement to continue at the secondary school in Olinalá, a 15-20 minute truck ride away. The art class provided this impressionable group with a rare opportunity to spend time together laughing, learning and expressing their creativity. In a school system that values rote learning, perfection and discipline, the weekly meeting encouraged the youth to use their imagination, which was difficult at first.

Mid afternoon, Jaime and I walked to the “suburbs” of Zacango, which means that we walked for 5 minutes on a dirt road away from the cancha (basketball court) and the central gathering area of the community, to the house of the community announcement maker. For 5 pesos, you can have any announcement broadcast on a loudspeaker to the community. Depending on where you are, you can hear the announcement more or less clearly. We announced the 6:30 art opening and the 8:00 movie premiere of Los Monstruos del Agua, a movie starring the children of Zacango and directed and produced by Bruce.

At 5:00pm Jaime and Bruce opened the gallery exclusively for the four art critics, and I was honored to be named among this distinguished group. Luis, the town mayor, German, one of the two teachers at the primary school, his wife Valentina, a lifelong learner and creative seamstress, and I were given the difficult task of providing our expert opinion. We were to rank the entries in each of the eight different exhibits that featured the work of eight to twelve artists.

With ethereal music in the background, we began our critique, each with his/her own judging notebook and ideas of art. We were specifically told that judges were not to collaborate on decisions. Awards for 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd were bestowed based on the averages of the four judges. I thoroughly appreciated the effort and creativity that each artist displayed. It was wonderful to see each judge take so seriously the task at hand. German, the school teacher, stood at the paintings of the churches for about as long as it took me to judge two or three exhibits.

Painted tiles

On the wall are pastel paintings of the church.

On the table are examples of the painted tiles.

The top exhibit is intricate string designs.

Ojos de Dios made with yarn

On the table are cement stepping stones with mosaic patterns.

Drawings inspired by Aztec and Mayan designs

Painted glass bottles a la stained glass windows found in churches throughout Mexico

The kids and youth were kept at bay until the art critics had finished, at which point they eagerly entered to see where the ribbons were placed. Almost all of the artists won a prize, but there were several repeat winners. One of repeat winners that most impressed me was Oscar, a humble and seemingly shy youth, who won several 1^st ribbons for his originality and effort. Having no other siblings and both of his parents in the United States, he lives with his grandmother. For all his creativity and desire to learn, he is finished with formal schooling, and I am left to wonder where will he be in ten years? Will he discover avenues to use his imagination and share his gifts?

It was wonderful to see the excitement of the artists and the energy in the room at this first ever youth art event. Several parents and assorted community members joined the artists to view the talent of the youth. The judges skipped the wine and cheese and opted for a cold Modelo as our reward, which we enjoyed in the evening breeze.

The energy mounting, the makeshift gallery reinvented itself again as a movie theater for the premiere of Los Monstruos del Agua, a movie starring the children of Zacango and filmed on location. The tables were pushed aside and chairs set up, which were all filled quickly. As the opening credits rolled and the music started, the giggles began when the children recognized themselves. The adults smiled, proud of their sons and daughters. The curiosity of the “too cool” youth playing basketball overcame them, and soon they were two deep at the windows trying to get a peek at the 5 minute movie.

The basic premise of the movie is that a meteorite hits Zacango causing the water to become contaminated. When the children drink the water they turn into monsters. With the entire community turning into monsters, our hero, Diana, discovers a cure. She vaccinates / cures the community in a harrowing and dramatic scene that includes her chasing the kids all over the basketball court. The end of the film includes lessons from the kids of how the community can care for their water.

I was not asked to be a film critic, but I have no doubt that there will be successful future films by the same director and starring the same talented actors. The actors are already requesting to see a film script about the effects of trash on a community. I hope that I will be invited to the limited screenings of future Oscar worthy films such as Los Monstruos del Agua.

Taking advantage of the large gathering, Jaime and Bruce decided to use the forum to acknowledge the prize winners of the art exhibition. In true Mexican form, each judge was asked to say a few words. While we all expressed our congratulations, admiration of the talent, and recognition that not everyone can win yet that should not take away from the individual talent and creativity of all the artists, the most inspired speech came from Valentina. She gave a rousing and inspirational speech that encouraged the children and youth to have a ¡Si puedo!(Yes I can!) attitude in all things. And with those words as a conclusion, the winning artists were announced and received their prize money.

Too often the new, naïve MCC worker enters the assignment with visions of changing the world. This small art exhibition and movie showing did not change the world, probably not even the community. It was one evening among many in Zacango. Bruce and Jaime recognize that their three years living in Zacango are a drop in the bucket in the life of the community. It is insignificant; however, like teaching, I believe that they made some small impact on these youth and children. I thank Bruce and Jaime for their presence in Zacango, and I thank Zacango for accepting them into their lives.

San Miguel

An hour away from Guanajuato, is another quaint town with picturesque streets of colorful houses. San Miguel is home to many expatriate retirees and a bohemian art crowd. And due to this large expat crowd, it is one of the areas in Mexico where you can eat cuisines from around the world and indulge in many luxuries from home. San Miguel is the birthplace of Ignacio Allende, one of Mexico's independence leaders, and the home to La Escuela de Bellas Artes, founded in 1951 that attracted many foreign students.

On Saturday morning the Jardin Botanico el Charco del Ingenio held the First Nopal Festival. The Jardin is a large botanical garden devoted to native plants, mainly cacti, located on a hilltop on the outskirts of town. At the Festival, I had the opportunity to buy everything imaginable made of nopal, ranging from beauty products to marmalade to earrings.

I'm considering my many options, though all with the key ingredient - nopal.

Nopal juice - The initial taste has a strong vegetable drink flavor. After a while, I forgot what I was drinking.

Tortillas made of blue corn filled with stews of nopal

The Aurora, once a textile factory, now houses a numerous art galleries.
The Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel is the main cathedral of the town dating back to the 17th century.

Designated a national monument, San Miguel maintains beautiful architecture along its cobblestoned streets.