Going Home

This past week has had a wrapping-up quality about it, but also a sense of unreality that everything can be over.

On Tuesday, we spoke with a panel of youth activists working in the larger Cuernavaca area. All of the speakers were fascinating, but I was the most inspired by Vera, who had been involved in, among other projects, the fight to keep Costco from replacing a historic area in Cuernavaca. What inspired me in particular was the joy she seemed to take in activism despite her very busy life.

On Thursday, we gave our final presentations. I was really impressed by the work each person did. I know that Ashley, Anna, and I are excited about the energy between us being directed toward the School of the Americas protest in November and working on these issues.

Friday was an odd combination of relaxation and emotional stress. We got the chance to hang out and be together swimming and playing on the water slide at the water park, but we also had to face being together as SJGELA for the last time. A lot of people cried. Libeth spilled water all over herself. It was a mixture of laughter and tears, reminiscent of our time in Guatemala as well.

To me it seems, you can take the woman out of the class, but you can’t take the class out of the woman. On the airplane ride home I started reading the in-flight magazine. First I read a letter from the president of the airline saying that Continental had been named by Forbes as one of the top ten most admired global companies in the category of community/environment. That made me think back about Libeth’s presentation on globalization and corporate ethics and made me want to learn more about Continental, and about the Forbes rankings. Later, I read an article about offshore oil drilling which explained that one of the platforms was named after the octopus-god once worshipped by the residents of the Georgian islands. This made me wonder whether anyone had thought to ask the native residents of the Georgian islands whether they wanted the oil drilling platform to be named after the god. Furthermore, if no one on the islands still worships this god, why is that? Could it not be the forces of imperialism and globalization that probably also brought the drilling platform to the islands in the first place?

Leaving everyone was rough, especially finally having to say good bye to Sarah and Brooke in the Houston airport. At the same time, it’s a little bit like the “Lord of the Rings”, the fellowship has disbanded, but the daunting work of living out our hopes still lies ahead, and the sense of solidarity between us that developed by the end of the semester will never be forgotten. Here’s to the hope of seeing each other again, and the dream that the world might be a little better by the time we do.

Guatemala: Human Rights and the Environment

Pre-Guatemala

At the airport: We had a torta (Mexican sandwich) emergency(we were told we couldn't take our tortas on the plane with us, so we began to eat our tortas like mad...but then realized we had a good hour before we had to board the plane)...
SJGELA left for Guatemala City May 4th. We met up with Ruth and Fidel, CGE staff in Guatemala, at the airport (along with Gloria, fidel’s daughter who stayed with us to practice her English). We spent the first few days in Guatemala City then we left for the East coast Wednesday, staying with families in Livingston one evening and sleeping in the jungle along the Río Dulce at Ak’tenamit (cooperative school for indigenous youth living along the river). The next evening before our long road trip back to the capital, we survived the four-hour, sometimes six-hour winding mountainous van rides. Our group really came together during our time in Guatemala. We had discussed our hopes and fears before leaving – not only with regards to the content of our visits, talking about the 36-year long civil war in Guatemala, but also how we as SJGELA would survive together in such close quarters! We supported one another, we listened, and we definitely came back to Mexico on may 12^th exhausted and overwhelmed. Fortunately, we’re still debriefing and preparing for our return to the States, and despite the rush to finish up final projects, things are looking up.

Political & Economic Update

Our first evening in Guatemala a speaker came to la Casa de los Amigos, where we stayed while we were in the capital, for this talk. He shared information with us about Guatemala to situate us politically, socially, culturally, and historically. During our debriefing most of us agreed that this talk deeply moved all of us. He began by conceding that we all understand reality from different perspectives, with different lenses and that he carries with him various lenses; those of a theologian, a psychologist, an historian, a marxist, and a christian for peace. I think we could dedicate a whole blog to this speaker, but there are still several more talks and visits to mention...However, he did share a few stories with us that we all continue to discuss, and I think it is appropriate to spread at least one of those stories through this medium. He was expressing the importance of women in society, and how women organize much more easier because they organize from the heart, and then he told us about "mamá nieves".

"Mamá nieves" is 54 years old and has 12 kids. She now has eight kids – four are in la "mara salvatrucha", an urban gang, and four of them are in la "mara dieciocho" (another gang). Mamá nieves is a woman who defends gang members in her community where almost every family is affected by gang violence. "Mamá nieves" doesn’t have a lot; every morning she sells coffee and tortillas from her wheelbarrow in her neighborhood. When she makes beans at home, first she feeds her family, then she leaves the other food out for all those who pass by. It’s “la comida de la comunidad” and all kinds of people eat it: the police, the gang members...While she lives in a neighborhood where violence is a daily reality, she has a lot of hope, and believes that we are all invited to do small things for all of humanity... and that is resistance.

Speakers Galore in Guatemala

We moved from meeting to meeting: Victor spoke with us about mining; Leonorilda spoke with us about gender and women’s rights;

Calixta invited us to participate in a Mayan ceremony; there was lots of smoke involved - and the four candles: white, black, yellow, and red represent the four directions.

SJGELA after the ceremony at Iximche.

A representative from FAMDEGUA (Association of the Family Members of the Detained & Disappeared in Guatemala) spoke with us; we met a woman from the URNG (the Guatemalan guerrilla movement that signed peace accords with the government in 1995 that is now a political party); another woman from CONAVIGUA (National Widow's Association) took us to meet with four women whose husbands had recently been exhumed and their bodies returned to their families.

We also visited the largest garbage dump in Central America.

We toured the Dole shipping plant at Puertos Barrios on the Atlantic Coast.

This is the SJGELA at the plant.

We met Gloria and her cousin in Livingston to learn more about Garifuna culture and spirituality.

We traveled by boat while we were along the coast - from Puertos Barrios to Livingston, from Livingston to Siete Altares, from Siete Altares to Ak'tenamit...

SJGELA at Siete Altares with Gloria's cousin who spoke with us about garifuna history and spirituality.

Then we traveled to Ak’tenamit where Sandino was a great host, and we were fortunate enough to see "Proyeto Payaso", o "Payasos sin Fronteras, skits designed to share information about HIV/AIDS with those who do not have access to that information.

Ak’tenamit

Ak’tenamit was founded in 1992 because villages along the Río Dulce did not have access to basic services such as education and health care. Fifteen years later, Ak’tenamit provides services to 32 of the 100+ indigenous villages along the Río Dulce focusing on community development. Ak’tenamit offers programs in health, education, income generation (sustainable agriculture, vocational training, and eco-tourism), environmental conservation, community development, gender equity, and Mayan culture. While we were there, we ate in the restaurant/cafeteria where students studying tourism work to prepare the food, and attend to visitors in order to gain practical lived experience about the career they are studying. We walked around with Sandino and learned about their sustainable agriculture projects and how the students help to grow what they eat. We learned about the yuca plant and how the yuca feeds the 400+ students who study at Ak’tenamit. we had an amazing time walking around with Sandino learning more about the students, the school, and future projects – we’re all excited for a return so that we can all sleep together in hammocks and bathe in the river...o.k., also so we can spend more time at the school talking with the students there.

Showing us how to sleep in hammocks without hurting our backs...we tried to perfect the position but most of us weren't successful!

Debriefing and bringing it back

Obviously we have a lot to think about after all of these amazing visits. As a group, we talked about what we felt were some of the common themes, and we all agreed that many of the people we met with were working towards breaking the silence around fear and violence while working toward justice and reconciliation. and the struggle for peoples’ rights to their culture is familiar to the majority of Guatemaltecas (e.g. Garífunas y indígenas).

Right now we are in our last week and focusing on how we will be able to share these experiences when we get back to our communities in the U.S. Many of us are still struggling about how we will do this, and at what levels we should be doing our work. We met with young activists from Cuernavaca this week. Most of us feel relieved after hearing about their decisions to do the work they do. It helped us to realize the many opportunities we have in our own communities, and gives us hope that other young people are working toward social justice – and we are learning from their strength.

Eco-Feminism & GMOs

This week the SJGELA group had a talk on eco-feminism by Patricia Hume, an eco-feminist who shared with us her views on environmental issues through a feminist perspective. She talked about the differences between nature and the environment, describing the term “environment” as the scientific form of what we know as “nature”. Nature, the more spiritual term, is what we need to be aware of in our everyday lives. Awareness is, in fact, the ultimate goal of eco-feminism according to Ms. Hume--the practice in our everyday lives and complete awareness of the world around us is what eco-feminism strives to accomplish.

Eco-feminism is also based on the idea that nature and women are both put down by a system of patriarchy. In this system, the power structure that exists in the world puts nature down by feminizing it, and puts women down by naturalizing them. In this way, both the environment and women are dominated.

SJGELA also visited a woman named Catherine Marielle, who works in Mexico City with a group called Grupo de Estudios Ambientales (GEA), studying the effects of transgenic and hybrid corn on the Mexican population. She told us about a program called the Sustainable Agro-Food System (SAS) Program, which was developed to as a way to promote agroecological alternatives and information on transgenics, biosafety, biodiversity, and food sovereignty in the Latin American region. The group also researches the patterns in corn crops and lobbies to see change in what they find to be a flawed and damaging system.

This talk highlighted the issue of food sovereignty in the lives of the people here in Mexico. We learned about how the use of transgenic and hybrid corn seeds are part of a system in which transgenic and hybrid seeds are sold to indigenous farmers from large companies. These seeds have been altered, either naturally (hybrid) or in a laboratory (transgenic), and are designed to no longer reproduce. This leaves indigenous Mexican farmers who have been gathering seeds with no choice but to continue purchasing seeds from these companies, year after year, planting a crop that does not grow without chemical fertilizers. This lack of seeds is just one of the problems that ensues with this system, in addition to a lack of water, pollution, unfair commerce, and often forced migration when a farmer loses his land when he is unable to purchase seeds for the following year. The talk on the system of hybrid and transgenic corn stressed the importance of a sustainable system that produced secure, healthy and diverse food.

It was also emphasized that the issue of corn is at the root of the struggles for food sovereignty, not only because it is one of Mexico’s largest crops but because maize is a basic part of life in Mesoamerica. The culture of maize is thousands of years old, complete with myths, legends and rituals. As we have seen while living with families in Mexico, the people here eat tortillas on a daily basis. Mexico has one of the world’s most diverse biosystems, complete with a unique maize population that is very diverse--there are at least 60 different landraces of maize in Mexico--and that could reproduce continuously when planted and harvested naturally.

Traditionally, the farmers of Mexico planted using an ancient policultivated system called MILPA, which combines corn, beans and squash crops with chilies and tomatoes to naturally complement each other, eliminating the need for chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Since the early nineties, food sovereignty has gone down in Mexico- the country now has to import native crops like corn and soy to survive.