Jesus H. Street!

It's neither the most scenic nor the most ugly street I have seen. It was all orchards once, even Now, the trees all grow behind courtyard walls. Such walls are often guarded here by shards of glass on top. It's not as though people avoid each other though. With sidewalks on both sides of the street, you're bound to meet people anyways.

Such is the street on which I have all my classes, spread out through three buildings. Jesus H. Preciado in full, but H. Preciado to just about anyone referring to it. It sits somewhere in the middle class, or what I might consider middle class, compared to the mansions a ways above and the shacks a ways below. When I use above and below, the terms are almost literal. H. Preciado is the place I will start this blog-tour of Cuernavaca.

The courtyards can be a whole different world sometimes, gardens resembling jungles.

The road is lined with small shops. "Abarrotes," mostly, "corner stores" as one might say (except that they aren't just on the corners). Others specialize in school supplies, perhaps knowing full well that students attend classes here.

The owners live in apartments above. Signs are often hand-painted, with a fair amount of skill, I might add, but still the use of actual paint on walls threw me off at first.

It was once part of its own town. Despite being so close to the center, it was divided by a deep ravine, until Puente dos mil (the 2000 bridge) was built.

The houses are cheaper down in the ravines than up here on H. Preciado. They are closer to a river containing raw sewage and trash from above. Also, they have no road, just stairs, which one has to climb in order to reach the top.

Ravines like this can be seen all around Cuernavaca, a city where nature seems to have decided the zoning laws. Unlike some other travelers, I perfer not to ignore poverty, these barrancas (ravines) remain on my mind.

Many of the people who live there migrated from other parts of Mexico. They may soon find themselves heading to Mexico City, then on to the border, before migrating often to the United States. Such ravine houses are nearly always hidden from view, until you start crossing the bridge. As seen here, trees take over whatever spot the humans don't claim.

Just beyond the bridge is the spot that the orchard town of San Anton once ended.

I wouldn't have recognized it as a significant spot were it not for its almost meaningless marker, the shrine to the Virgin of Guatalupe. In legend, this was a miraculous image of Saint Mary that appeared to an Aztec in Mexico City. Strictly speaking the one here is just a copy, larger than the original, I think.

Some Mexicans call her "Our Mother" or Tonanzin, rather than the more orthodox "God's mother" which explains her psychological appeal. She is sort of analogous to having a mother around to to help you through the tough times. An effective opiate of the people one might even say. She is the symbol that people put in front of towns as protector and welcomer. In the war against spain, Hidalgo, himself a former priest, grabbed the image and improvised by usning it as a flag.

When I came here, I found her to be just another foreign obsession, but now she seems familiar somehow. I can set aside the rather annoying insistance on virginity that for some she embodies. It's probably a sign of how long I've been here.

How can I not feel inspired?

As a follow-up to that last blog about the neo-Zapatistas being over-romanticized, I realize that I am a hypocrite. Why? Because I find myself admiring and idealizing the people of Atenco, themselves supporters of the neo-Zapatistas. Maybe it was just because I met them. I already wrote about Atenco, but I didn't explain it well, perhaps.

How they stood up, at the signal of fireworks, against the people who wanted to buy parcels of land for the price of a Coke. How the government was willing to stop at nothing to get this land, including the cemetery, before finally changing its mind.

How they went on to help flower vendors in Texcoco defend their space from a coming Wal-Mart. Sure it turned brutal, they had gasoline bombs with them then, I won't lie. Yet these were people defending their space that they used. I can admire their conviction, even if I have doubts about their claims to "non-violence."

How the police (or possibly army dressed as police) took its vengance on the town. All the accusation (not explained in detail at the time, but easy to find on the web) of rape and sexual torture. All to defend a Wal-Mart. How the government placed a toxic waste dump there, out in the Atenco fields, literally.

I saw the land they were fighting for, from up on a hill. It's too bad my camera wasn't working well. Sure it looked like desert, where once it had been the swamps surrounding the lake. Yet that was it for them, the Mexico City people were trying to expand here to take their water. That was the real purpose of the airport in some peoples' view.

Okay, Okay, I need to chill out. I already wrote about Atenco, didn't I? Well, that was a bit too long, and too dry in terms of only presenting information. What struck me in Atenco was the sense of a community rising.

It's a far cry from the U.S. world of web petitions, or of Che Guevarra's "vanguards" coming in and waiting for the people to support them. Or of people back at Warren Wilson College being "in solidarity" with people that they may not have even met.
Anyways, in short, I am a hypocrite who can't help admiring rebels in other countries, even if their cause, I know, is not truely mine. I'll write about something more calm next entry, I promise!

Who is this Subcomandante Marcos dude I keep mentioning?

Above: Subcomander Marcos shows that he is not afraid of cancer. courtesy of http://kassandraproject.wordpress.com/2008/05/14/el-subcomandante-marcos/

I am studying Spanish. Yet I write these entries in English so that people back at home can read them. I also spend some time here taking classes about history and current and past issues facing Mexico, along with the rest of the world.* So, when I refer to these things, people may get confused.

I've made at least two references to Subcommander Marcos though, without explaining who he is. For my blog's two official followers, I assume this is not a problem. For everyone else, it might be.

Actually no one really knows who he is. Like all of the EZLN (Zapatista Army of National Liberation) officials he nearly always appears in ninja-type ski-mask outfits which he regrets making the norm for his appearences given the Mexican heat.

Marcos is not his real name. I've also heard that he decided to change his name to Delegate Zero. He claims the mask isn't just to hide himself but to make more people identify with him by not making himself a specific person.

The Mexican government believes that he is Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente, a former philosophy profesor in Mexico City. He denies this, but it does fit the popular account in which he came into the state of Chiapas trying to tell the local Maya "workers of the world unite!" and that they should grab land from the evil greedy capitalist thieves etc. The Maya "just stared at him."

They told him that the land wasn't property and they didn't consider themselves workers. This is the version that Wikipedia believes in. So, it has to be true. In any case, he claims to have been converted to their way of thinking.

He's a spokesperson for the "Zapatistas" The name comes from Emiliano Zapata, a leader in the 1910 revolution.

One of the ideas behind the EZLN was that the NAFTA trade aggreement and other policies of were favoring big plantations over small farms. There were many other issues of course, but if I had to pick one, that would be it.

I find it telling that, according to my teacher Antonio (himself a gay-rights/AIDS activist), Marcos is on record as saying "transgenic" instead of "transgender" when trying to talk about LGBT rights. It probably means he often can't think about anything besides corn.

They captured control of a series of towns in 1994, and still hold control of some areas.

They claim to be an organization of direct-democracy with Marcos acting only as a spokesperson for the Mayan communities which he represents. I can admire the idea, if it is in fact true. My friend Rudy Rodriguez-Vivero thinks that they are pawns of Europeans who want mineral rights in Chiapas. The EZLN often gets labeled as a foreign group of armed terrorists,especially here in Mexico.

Which is why Subcomandante Marcos and other Zapatistas have, more or less quit trying to expand militarilly in Chiapas and are now doing speaking tours around Mexico, and apparently writing childrens books.

Mexico has, however, moved on. Many leftists now support Lopez-Obrador (whom Marcos hates). I get the feeling that most ordinary Mexicans would rather run across the border than fight the system. After all, they get better results from that usually.

Idealizing foreign rebels is exactly the wrong strategy for people in the U.S. right now. We have "indigenous" people in our own country too!** Supporting rebels in foreign countries (also including his holiness the Dalai Lama) sends the message that we just want to save some random exotic race and not ourselves. The left is just as guilty as the right on this.

If there's anything I've learned here from studying Atenco, or the 13 Pueblos movement,*** or even the "Zapatistas" it's that these movements draw strength from being rooted in Mexican or more often local identity. People in the U.S. should seriously take the hint already.

*Unlike when my sister did this program I am not going to Guatemala on any official visits (people said it was too distracting). However, we have discussed U.S./United Fruit Company interventions in El Salvador and Guatemala, we just haven't been there.

**The term "Nativo Americano" never caught on in Mexico, because literally interpreted it includes nearly all Mexican Citizens.

***A group against the creation of the landfill in Loma de Mejilla.

I'm staying!

So, if it doesn't surprise you, I am staying. Yes! I'll be doing a summer program here, including an internship promoting Center for Global Education programs and more spanish classes. I may also sit in on the art history class offered this summer. I've got a full week before all that starts. Meaning? Hopefully more blogging, especially now that it's rainy season

How (not) to present NAFTA

What happened last week? Why did people quit hearing from me then? Swine flu? Are you joking? You've got more chance of catching it than I do, like I've said!

No,I had a 10 page paper and presentation to do on a subject that I could present back at home. I chose NAFTA (North American Free Trade) and globalized trade/debt in general as far as it impacts here in the state of Morelos.

The night before it was due I stayed up late in Casa Cemal and the little sleep I got was on the Cemal couch (for any number of reasons. Safer not to be in the streets with a laptop computor at 5:00 AM, desire to put finishing touches on my project in the morning etc.)

I asked for suggestions afterwards from classmates. People said it was too scattered (I was trying to relate it to everything I saw).

They thought it was weird that a writer such as myself would do my presentation as a powerpoint with no prepared script.

They were expecting a series of monologues,like my earlier show about this neighborhood's tap water and sewage disposal history (Yes! One can do a series of monologues about water issues!). Judy Shevilev criticized that earlier presentation for presenting my interview subjects' views but not mine.

I should have just done a rap video like my friend Josiah ("Goose") Guzik did.

I may put up some more on NAFTA and/or water issues later, given the variety show that is this blog (nightclubs and landfills?).

Dirty Politics (imported from CGE Blog entry by me).

lunes 20 de abril de 2009
Dirty Politics?
By Ben Pounds
Please note: the version on the CGE blog has pictures, which I'm to lazy to include here. Also because of the more academic nature of this entry, I only dealt briefly with being attacked by bees after getting briefly separated from the group. My arm was swolen for a while after that.
That blog has a strict policy of having to ask permission of people before showing their faces, a rule that I should have followed here.

We were going to see Cuernavaca’s new landfill. We had left the edge of the city and now saw cows grazing. Then we hit what could only be described as a homemade checkpoint. A barb wire fence stretched across the street. After a few residents serving as guards opened the gate and our van passed, I had no clue what to expect.

The farmer who owned the land was happy to show us around. He opened yet another fence and let us walk through.

So, without setting foot in the landfill itself, we saw it. A grey hill above the canyon with trucks coming and going.

The gate had not been meant to stop us from entering government property. It had been built to stop the government or its allies from coming in and coercing the residents out of their land. Really its main purpose, now that I look back was to prevent trucks with garbage from coming in.

I had not intended for this entry to be about politics primarily. Our partners, the bloggers in Thailand, had been writing about human rights and government accountability rather than environmental concerns. Politics here though is tricky as is politics everywhere. It may involve bribery, alliances, networks, and (if I am to believe what some people have told me with regards to the landfill) physical threats. In short it is like politics everywhere else. I would hate for what I write here to be misinterpreted as an insult to Mexican politics particularly. However, one can broadly say that the “perfect dictatorship” described during the years of one-party domination continues in some ways in today’s multi-party Mexico.

The landfill was itself an improvement on the previous open-air dump near an indigenous community. Not everyone has access to the services of the privatized, new garbage collection company, PASA (the privatization of garbage collection was a controversial move on the part of the government in recent years).

The rivers in some ravines, already places for dumping sewage, hold a great deal of garbage put there by the residents whose houses cannot be reached by garbage trucks. In some ways one could say that the landfill is an improvement over that system.

Studies say that the soil is too porous to protect the below-ground aquifers from possible leaching. Thus, the project deprives neighboring communities of the right to clean water as their water is now contaminated. The local government representatives that we met with countered by saying the lands do not contain very much fertile soil. They may not be very fertile although that does not stop people from raising corn, cattle, chickens, and (as I found out the hard way) bees.

Despite the vocal opposition all the political parties are in favor of the landfill, including the “Ecological Green Party” (a party here famous for its support of the death penalty).

When they proposed other sites, government officials said “go research them yourselves.” Perhaps the greatest motivation for the current site is that the contamination that results from the landfill flows into smaller, poorer communities and doesn’t directly affect the city of Cuernavaca.

Some local citizens have found their own solution in setting up recycling centers and small-scale water-treatment plants. Despite, or possibly because of, their general distrust of the city government, these people have received some government support, including the filming of a public service announcement. Yet they remain cynical. When asked about the sewage treatment plants in Cuernavaca created directly by the government, the creator of a small scale plant at a local school was quick to point out that they did not work.


As I watch the local citizens in the Cuernavaca area so actively engaged in their communities, I remain aware of my role here as a foreigner. The last thing I want to be is another invader in this country, so my own involvement has limits. However, in learning about the struggles of this place and of the people here working for a more just world, I am convinced that my involvement back in the U.S. will always be affected and inspired by the activists of Mexico.

Don't Panic!

Share this anyone who is worried about me and/or about the swine flu.

Yes I am in Mexico. In Cuernavaca, Morelos to be specific, the city of eternal spring (to me more like eternal summer). I have been to Mexico City recently, but not recently enough for that to be a problem.

As far as I know there have been no reported cases in Cuernavaca. A few in the state of Morelos.

Yeah, I was freaking out at the first warnings. Now I just find the people with their surgical masks (cubrebocas) to be funny. Not only that but we here at Augsburg's Center for Global Education have way too many of our surgical masks, for what its worth. Also I've heard that there's more cases in the U.S. right now than here in Mexico.

The fact is THIS IS A NON-FATAL ILLNESS. NORMAL FLU KILLS MORE PEOPLE! People always get scared of new things because they're new.

Please check out this site if you want some real information. If the link doesn't work for you, copy and paste the adress
http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/news/20090501/putting-swine-flu-in-perspective

Our classes aren't closed because we're all from the U.S., even if we're running out of Mexican guest speakers at times who are willing to come to our classes. Some people are leaving but this'll probably be over as fast as bird flu or West Nile Virus. I'm still staying.

The real issue is that some Mexicans aren't educated enough to wash hands before eating and other such preventative matters, often try to auto-medicate with useless anti-bacterials and don't see doctors soon enough. However, I can assure you that none of the above applies to me or my friends down here, including my Mexican friends. Also I've temporarily suspended my involvement of

One girl here called her friend in Mexico City, who said that he didn't know anyone who actually had it (neither do I) and that it's all a conspiracy by the government. I don't know about the Mexican government, but I think that the U.S. government and media may be trying to distract attention from Osama bin Ladin's death, as announced by Pakistani officials. I heard that in passing here in Mexico. I'm not sure if any of you did. I still believe that it's real, but not really a threat. I may have already had it and gotten over it actually.

Oh, and eating well-cooked pork will not get you sick. I just thought I might add that.

And I might mention my favorite Mexican flu remedy I've heard, this from back when I had, and got over a different strain of flu (or possibly the same one, but unlikely, because it was earlier):
Have someone experienced put alchohol and lime juice (probably some other ingrediants too, I've never actually seen it done), burn it, and then put it out before it actually hits your feet. It's used by Indigenas (as we say here in Mexico, the term "natives" being too ambiguous) from the state of Puebla. I assume it's a solution they figured out after the Spanish destroyed their sweat lodges (which I've seen in the ruins here).