The last 3 weeks have been almost non stop travel. After leaving Guadalajara, we headed straight for the coast of Michaocan. After a few days of hitching and hiking, we land ourselves in La Ticla with the intention of finding contacts for Xayakalan.
La Ticla is one of the larger villages on the coast of Michaocan with a population pushing 200. I immediately get good vibes. Moises, an old man who gives us a ride the 3 miles from the highway into town takes us into his house and lets us try all of the fruit from his numerous fruit trees. Mangos, coconut, tamarind, plums, it was amazing! Moises whole family shares the house where he lives. They tell us to look for Trino for permission to enter Xayakalan.
We wander around the village. There are so many fruit trees everywhere and everyone is friendly and tries to help us find Trino. Evenutally, around sunset, we arrive at his home. Trino is one of the village eldes of Xayakalan. He is also part of a council of elders that represents the Ostula people of the surrounding area. He is excited about the radio project, and invites us to go to the village with him the next day. His son, Freddie, invites us to camp at his cabanas for free.
The next day, we finally make it to Xayakalan. It is surprisingly laid back, considering it's history of conflict. There are 20 houses and about 40 people. The houses are simple 8'X16' mud and brick structures with one light bulb each and a wood burning stove outside. The land is covered by orchards of papaya, coconut palms, tamarind, and mangos, which lead into a pristine stretch of white sand beach. After lunch and a siesta, Trino calls a town assembly to discuss the radio project.
The town assembly is held under a large palapa. Nearly all 40 members of the town attend: men, women, old, young, all to have a voice in the decision. After about an hour of working out logistics and talking abut the risks of having a radio station, a consensus is reached: the town unanimously agrees that they want it!
To celebrate, Pedro, one of the locals, takes us down to the beach to go fishing for dinner. Josh, Trino, Pedro's wife, their child, and I stroll down the beach at sunset as Pedro casts his net into the shallow waters. The full moon rises behind the mountains. It has been a truly magical day.
The next few days we relaxed in Xayakalan and got to know the people there. Josh was pretty ill and slept through a lot of it. After meeting with Xayakalan´s lawyer to discuss the final details, we head back for La Ticla and start on our next mission: heading to Oaxaca to find an antannae.
Actually, we didn't start it right away. Not before hiking more of the beautiful Michoacan Coast, spotting giant sea turtles laying their eggs at night, crashing a Mexican wedding, enjoying some spectacular beaches, and hiking to the pools of a deserted hot spring. Somewhere along there our cameras got stolen, and I lost the pictures from my favorite part of this trip which I'm pretty devastaed about. Now, after 4 long hot slow days of hitching, we are finally in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca!
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Detective Work in Guadalajara
Last week, armed with our contacts from the cultural tienguis, we headed out on a search for groups that could offer us help with our radio project. It has been rather arduous, and although we have met some pretty cool radicals here, we seem to be hitting a wall in terms of our larger goal.
On Monday, we set out with a card for what appeared to be a communist radio station. To our surprise, it turned out to be a gay/lesbian/trans rights organization/support space/HIV testing clinic. The friendly guy we met there told us of one indigenous rights group on their contact list. When we arrived at the given address, it turned out to be a missionary: the group had switched locations. Luckily, the missionaries there had their new address. We decided to stop by an Anarchist library that was recommended to us, but it was closed.
On Tuesday, we stopped by the new address of the indigenous rights group. We were led through a beautiful colonial era building full of posters and banners for various leftist political groups, it seemed as if we were on the right track. On the second floor was the office of Alma Rose. Alma explained more about the group and the various areas where the worked. There was only one catch: they're jesuits. But after days of searching, this was the best we had found. And maybe working with a religious group would offer us more security as far as transportation of our equipment. And anyway a lot of the indigenous groups in Mexico are heavily Catholic. So we agreed to come back on Thursday to meet some of the crew.
On Wednesday, the Anarchist Library was finally open. We were met there by a friendly group of radicals who had maybe sort of friends of friends who might not be in Guadalajara right now contacts with Xayakalan. We also learned why the library was so under the radar, and why the radical scene in Guadalajara is so small: They are all scared shitless. Apparently a large protest took place there in 2004 against the Third Summit of Latin America, the Caribbean, and the European Union. In short, during the demonstrations, tons of kids got brutally beaten and a few were taken as prisoners for years on some pretty gnarly felonies. Cops came down hard on the anarchist scene, nearly squashing it completely. In 2007, the radical scene started to gain momentum again, only to be crushed again by a heavy hand from the cops in 2008: more brutal beatings, more political prisoners, all radical spaces shut down. And now the are scared and tired and radical culture "almost doesn't exist anymore."
Of course we were crushed to receive the information, but there still may be some hope in finding contacts here, and the people who were at the space seemed pretty down if not a little cautious.
On Thursday, we headed back to the indigenous rights group. They weren't there. The secretary wouldn't even let us through the door. We got stood up by the Jesuits. Seriously, who gets stood up by Jesuits?
And Friday, we headed back to the Anarchist Library for a discussion group which didn't actually happen. But we did meet some other pretty cool people there, and we are starting to feel really good about this group. Unfortunately, we still have no contacts involved in radio or with Xayakalan, and we are starting to get pretty frustrated.
After another week with little progress, we decided its time to move on. We are about to leave for the coast of Michoacan to do some hiking down the beaches and [hopefully) visit Xayakalan. Time permitting, we will then head for Oaxaca, where there seems to be a way stronger radical movement. Everyone keeps hooking us up with more and more contacts there, maybe it would be a better space to start.
On Monday, we set out with a card for what appeared to be a communist radio station. To our surprise, it turned out to be a gay/lesbian/trans rights organization/support space/HIV testing clinic. The friendly guy we met there told us of one indigenous rights group on their contact list. When we arrived at the given address, it turned out to be a missionary: the group had switched locations. Luckily, the missionaries there had their new address. We decided to stop by an Anarchist library that was recommended to us, but it was closed.
On Tuesday, we stopped by the new address of the indigenous rights group. We were led through a beautiful colonial era building full of posters and banners for various leftist political groups, it seemed as if we were on the right track. On the second floor was the office of Alma Rose. Alma explained more about the group and the various areas where the worked. There was only one catch: they're jesuits. But after days of searching, this was the best we had found. And maybe working with a religious group would offer us more security as far as transportation of our equipment. And anyway a lot of the indigenous groups in Mexico are heavily Catholic. So we agreed to come back on Thursday to meet some of the crew.
On Wednesday, the Anarchist Library was finally open. We were met there by a friendly group of radicals who had maybe sort of friends of friends who might not be in Guadalajara right now contacts with Xayakalan. We also learned why the library was so under the radar, and why the radical scene in Guadalajara is so small: They are all scared shitless. Apparently a large protest took place there in 2004 against the Third Summit of Latin America, the Caribbean, and the European Union. In short, during the demonstrations, tons of kids got brutally beaten and a few were taken as prisoners for years on some pretty gnarly felonies. Cops came down hard on the anarchist scene, nearly squashing it completely. In 2007, the radical scene started to gain momentum again, only to be crushed again by a heavy hand from the cops in 2008: more brutal beatings, more political prisoners, all radical spaces shut down. And now the are scared and tired and radical culture "almost doesn't exist anymore."
Of course we were crushed to receive the information, but there still may be some hope in finding contacts here, and the people who were at the space seemed pretty down if not a little cautious.
On Thursday, we headed back to the indigenous rights group. They weren't there. The secretary wouldn't even let us through the door. We got stood up by the Jesuits. Seriously, who gets stood up by Jesuits?
And Friday, we headed back to the Anarchist Library for a discussion group which didn't actually happen. But we did meet some other pretty cool people there, and we are starting to feel really good about this group. Unfortunately, we still have no contacts involved in radio or with Xayakalan, and we are starting to get pretty frustrated.
After another week with little progress, we decided its time to move on. We are about to leave for the coast of Michoacan to do some hiking down the beaches and [hopefully) visit Xayakalan. Time permitting, we will then head for Oaxaca, where there seems to be a way stronger radical movement. Everyone keeps hooking us up with more and more contacts there, maybe it would be a better space to start.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
