Here is a quick update from a few of my days in Chiapas. I'll post more later.
12 june 2006
I�m at an internet cafe in San Cristobal de las Casas. The flight was relatively uneventful. I met our trip leader, Chris, at a restaurant in Tuxla. From there our driver, Julio, took us west up through the gorgeous highlands to San Cristobal. Us consisted of an anthropology student from Michigan, Chris, the driver, and myself. Two other students, Dan and Kevin, were already at our hotel. Two professors from Michigan are in the group as well (John and Evette), and two other students missed their flights and will be joining us tonight.
Turns out Julio�s brother was the only person killed in the uprising in SC in 2001, and through his research into finding out what the uprising was about he joined the Zapatista movement and is now the chosen driver for Subcommandante Marcos in the Other Campaign in the Chiapas region (more on that later).
Our first night was spent eating and drinking at a restaurant called Casas de la Pan. Everyone has been very friendly (and my co-delegates are awesome and interesting people, conversation has been consistently stimulating), and I have yet to hear anyone yell 'gringo!' at me (unlike in Dakar, where calls of 'tuubab! were an hourly occurance). The infrastructure in Tuxtla reminded me very much of that in Dakar, except better kept. Newer paint jobs, less shitty roads, nicer cars, people bicycling, etc. SC is an older city, with more colonial design. On the whole it is very clean, and smells wonderful. SC is up in the highlands, not quite mountains. Very scenic, very calming. The weather is awesome, warm but not too hot, warm rains in the afternoon. Everything seems so relaxed here, I could spend a lot more time here than I have available this time around. Everywhere you see spray paint on walls talking about resistance and photos of Marcos and other Zapatistas litter the walls of every interior space I�ve been to...
This morning we had breakfast at the hotel, followed by an orientation session. Orientation detailed the Zapatista movement in this area and the work that Higher Grounds is doing & a lot of info about fair trade in the area and NAFTA, etc. I haven�t time to get into it all right now, but I�m trying to take diligent notes and am thinking about setting up a presentation somewhere when I get back into town. Hopefully I can find some co-conspirators in the Mpls community, do something talking about this area and it�s history and what`s going on currently.
After the orientation, we visited an old NGO (operating since 1969) called Desmi. They basically listen to the community (autonomous farming communities, some declared Zapatista, some not) and help them achieve their desired goals. The goals are very holistic in terms of agroeconomy, health, education, etc. Basically they think that we must achieve equilibrium in all things, and this will give better health and fertility for all life. ...shit, there`s so much to cover and I�m a little fatigued, so I am not doing a great job of it...anyway, the decision making process is very bottom-up. This is not the IMF/WTO NGO model where some asshole decides what projects are good for a place and tell them to do it or they will lose funding, this is totally independent work that doesn�t accept any government funding what so ever and it is the people who decide what is important for them. Being here, it really brings into sharp contrast just how ailing our world is, and how things could be.
Hm...we learned more about the governmental structures of the autonomous communities, and farming methods, worker migration, etc.
We had a long lunch with shots of tequila on the house and went to a museum about coffee history in the world and this region. Dinner is soon (we are in the same time zone as you).
Our schedule has been altered some, because the Zapatistas are on a Red Alert. Essentially, on May 2nd, the government came down on the city of Alteca and systemically raped many women, over 200 were imprisoned for resistence and many beaten and a few killed. In 2002, the city resisted the development of an airport that would have displaced many, and the govt decided to try to take over the area again. The locals resisted and the Other Campaign was suspended so that the Zapatistas could join the resistence in solidarity. The resistence is said to last as long as the prisoners remain emprisoned. This Red Alert also means that all the development projects (self-determined) are on hold and the Zapatistas have retreated to their various communities for consultations. Outsiders are not welcome at these consultations, because they don�t want to be responsible for what might happen to the outsiders due to government action against the Zapatistas. So...we may or may not get to visit a Zapatista community and meet some of the community members. The only reason we potentially might be able to is that Higher Grounds has such tight relations with these communities that one of them is holding a special meeting to approve (or disapprove) our arrival.
All in all this has been absolutely amazing so far, and there are many of you that I wish could be here with me. Chris is a fantastic teacher and host, and his company is part of the next generation of fair trade, pushing the model to a new place and doing unique and necessary work.
15 june 2006
So! After spending some time out of the city, I am back in San Cristobal, where they have many high speed internet cafes for me to send my love with. The cafes are complete with webcams and internet phone (or something, some people here are talking into headsets and waving at the cameras and such) and cost about six cents an hour. The internet has helped a good deal in connecting with the international community and is well invested in here.
So, I think I�m going to do a quick run-down of what my schedule�s been the past couple of days.
Tuesday: Drove out to Centro Indigena de Capacitation Integral (CideCi). This is a free school on about 20 hectares of land, for indigenous communities. Students are chosen by their community to go there and learn a specific skill, which they then are expected to teach to their community. Skills learned are computer technology, electronics, shoe making, agroecology, architecture, furniture building, weaving, and some others I�m sure I�ve forgotten. The learning style is non-formal education, and the students don�t receive any certificate of any sort. There is no drugs, alcohol, or disorderly conduct allowed. If these rules are violated, the student is sent to work in the fields or care for the animals. This is seen as a period of reflection rather than a punishment, meant to help the student learn why a person shouldn�t behave in that manner. I have more info on this but I want to move on...
We then drove back to the city to visit a group called Catas. This is an amazing small group of self-driven DIY engineers and architects, funded mostly through self-written grants, etc. Basically what they do is go to various autonomous municipalities and state they can complete a water project for a community. The AM decides which community is most in need, and they meet with that community and let them know what they can do. If approved, they survey the land to find out where the water is. They find a spring and build a gravity fed pump & tank there, and find the highest point in the community that needs water to build a reserve tank there. The distribution system is for public areas, like communal areas and farm land, etc. If private distribution is desired (ie water for a specific household), a small fee is collected to cover the costs of extending the system to that household. All other work is entirely free for the community. They use appropriate technology (ie something the community can afford to fix if it breaks) and do extensive training with at least two community members so that the community can maintain the system without reliance on outsiders (Catas is comprised of two people from elsewhere in Chiapas, one from England, and one from Italy). They then bring paint and they and anyone else interested paint a mural on the water tanks.
We then walked to lunch, and to a meeting with Centro de Investigaciones Economicas y Politicas para Accion Communitaria (CEIPAC). This group focuses on researching, analyzing, and distributing alternative news for grassroots folks via print and oral medias. They have several videos and pamphlets out in many languages, including a few indigenous languages dealing with subjects like Plan Pueblo Panama, the WTO, NAFTA, PROCEDE, etc. We spent our time there getting a much clearer picture of the political situation in Mexico and Chiapas concerning the elections (July 2nd, I believe), political parties, political history of Mexico, migration, and the Other Campaign.
Afterwards we ate, and walked to a bar for a drink. I�ve learned more in the past few days than I have in the past few months, I think. Not just from the various people we�ve visited with, but from my co-delegates. There are four students and four professors on the trip, and the professors have various expertise in biology, paleantology, agroecology, and geology. Conversation has been superb, and everyone is very laid back. We get along very well and I expect to stay in contact with them in the future.