Last week we had the rural homestay. I stayed with fellow-student ¨Goose¨ (real name Josiah) at the house of Raul, a former migrant to the U.S. (he worked at Wendy´s during his time there) and current repairer of electric appliances. He was happy to have us stay with him, so that he could review his basic English vocabulary.
His son-in-law, also named Raul, was the commissioner for the ejido. A note of explaination: An ejido is a piece of land given by the government to rural residents. Under current laws they can be bought and sold. Raul´s job is to co-ordinate local and national policy´s governing the ejido. He always followed our group wherever we went and whomever we talked to during class sessions in his town.
In short the groups that we talked to and visited included government officials, small-scale commercial farmers (of shugarcane, figs, and, tomatos) and cooperative workers who raised various animals, most notably organic chickens. We talked with a group of people who had migrated (with varying legal statuses) to the U.S. It struck that the one who had worked in Agriculture in Salinas had never heard of Cesar Chavez, but he did say that he hadn´t worked there very long.
At the town center I played basketball with some local children. It struck me also that basketball seems more popular here than in the U.S.
The town was generally supportive of PAN (Mexico´s more ¨right-leaning¨ party, which encourages trade with the United States). It wasn´t for any large reasons though, mostly just because of the loans for tomato greenhouses they had recieved. Antonio, one of my professors explained that Mexican politics is very personal and paternalistic, relying on what we in the U.S. would call ¨handouts.¨
We also met with some recipients and local leaders Madres de Opportunidad, a group of mothers who recieve government assistance. They cannot recieve money if they have children in the United States. This has less to do with legality and more to do with money. Due to the rate of the peso to the dollar, people can work for very small amounts in the U.S. and come back with more money in Pesos for their family.
My own host family (perhaps due to work in the U.S.) had a synthesizer (keyboard) a DVD burner and a PS2, but no shower. It was alright with me. I learned to prefer bucket baths anyway.
His son-in-law, also named Raul, was the commissioner for the ejido. A note of explaination: An ejido is a piece of land given by the government to rural residents. Under current laws they can be bought and sold. Raul´s job is to co-ordinate local and national policy´s governing the ejido. He always followed our group wherever we went and whomever we talked to during class sessions in his town.
In short the groups that we talked to and visited included government officials, small-scale commercial farmers (of shugarcane, figs, and, tomatos) and cooperative workers who raised various animals, most notably organic chickens. We talked with a group of people who had migrated (with varying legal statuses) to the U.S. It struck that the one who had worked in Agriculture in Salinas had never heard of Cesar Chavez, but he did say that he hadn´t worked there very long.
At the town center I played basketball with some local children. It struck me also that basketball seems more popular here than in the U.S.
The town was generally supportive of PAN (Mexico´s more ¨right-leaning¨ party, which encourages trade with the United States). It wasn´t for any large reasons though, mostly just because of the loans for tomato greenhouses they had recieved. Antonio, one of my professors explained that Mexican politics is very personal and paternalistic, relying on what we in the U.S. would call ¨handouts.¨
We also met with some recipients and local leaders Madres de Opportunidad, a group of mothers who recieve government assistance. They cannot recieve money if they have children in the United States. This has less to do with legality and more to do with money. Due to the rate of the peso to the dollar, people can work for very small amounts in the U.S. and come back with more money in Pesos for their family.
My own host family (perhaps due to work in the U.S.) had a synthesizer (keyboard) a DVD burner and a PS2, but no shower. It was alright with me. I learned to prefer bucket baths anyway.
What town did you go to?
ReplyDeleteIxlilco, I'd forgotten it when I wrote the entry. I'll go more into detail later.
ReplyDelete