Hello from Oaxaca!

It is hard to believe that we arrived in Mexico only a week and a half ago, stumbling into our hotel, Casa Arnel, with our bags, overcome by the heat that hit us as soon as we came out from the small plane onto the runway tarmac in the small Oaxacan airport. There’s an aspect of flying that definitely felt quite alienating, plopped into a place with no real context of where we were, surrounded by the dry mountains and driving past bustling street vendors and through honking cars. We spent the first two nights at Casa Arnel, in a neighborhood called Jalatlaco, with cobble stone streets and – as the whole city has – many colorful homes squeezed next to each other. Casa Arnel felt very tropical, with an open courtyard area filled with trees, flowers, and birds in (or outside of) hanging cages; there were also cocoon hammocks, an open patio overlooking the ancient church across the street, and spiral staircases going up to our rooms. In the full day that we had in the city before leaving for our retreat, we had our first group meeting and were introduced to Gustavo Esteva, Sergio Beltran and Luisa Hernandez, who are all affiliated with the Universidad de la Tierra and “CEDI”, the Center of Intercultural Encounters and Dialogue. We spent the rest of the day wandering around the city. It was neat to orient ourselves, filling in the area around Casa Arnel like a mental map with street names and images. We walked around the center (called the zócalo), Parque Llano, which hosts a fountain in the center and food vendors along the outer path; we walked past the vibrantly colored walls of shops, fragrant flowers and trees that shaded us from the heat, street vendors (and often their children) armed with piles of beaded necklaces, wooden bookmarks, embroidered shirts. People sit and talk around the square while the vendors sell food and newspapers, couples kiss on benches, dogs play Frisbee, kids play and run. We were bombarded with the many different smells around every corner (of hot empanadas, tamales, corn sprinkled with lime and hot chili powder), the music streaming from the various bars and street performers.

Friday morning we packed all that we’d need for the retreat into smaller bags (it’s cool to realize how little you actually need when you’re encouraged to make it all fit into a small day pack) and got picked up by the “Millennium Falcon”, i.e. the most inspiring bus in the world – it’s painted like a jaguar, runs on vegetable oil, and political bumper stickers hang over our seats. Sergio gave us a tour of the city, bringing us through different neighborhoods, explaining their history and showing us the village centers, all of which have both a Catholic church and either a library or a public school. It’s incredible how much the city of Oaxaca has expanded since different land reforms have come into affect. San Felipe was just one example of this; what was a rural community known for producing tortillas is now not agricultural land but wealthy homes, and of course the sprawl of pavement that accompanies development. This has not only effected those displaced farmers, but also the ecological situation of the city. Water (which, we’ve learned in numerous settings, is a constant struggle here) is not absorbed into an aquifer and flows towards the city to provide what the people need, but instead slides down the hillside and floods a city that's thirsty. With a bit of maneuvering, Christian (the driver of Millennium Falcon, equally cool) brought us up to Cerro del Fortin, a park that overlooks the city in the valley surrounded by mountains, although the growth of the city was evident as the hillsides were dotted with many blocks of more homes (or areas known as the slums, a whole other story). We spent four nights at a "retreat center" called Hacienda El Encuentro, in the historically Zapotec community of San Lorenzo Cacaotepec, which we’d walk through during our free time, talk to some of the people we’d pass on the dirt roads using our varying levels of Spanish, and watch goats and cows herded by us. There were a few small tiendas, which sold packaged cookies and cold bottles of Corona, and a beautiful church in the center. The days at the retreat center were spent getting to know each other and having sessions with Gustavo, Sergio, and other lecturers, learning and discussing different aspects of Mexican history, community, politics, etc. In the big room with shiny wood floors that felt like a yoga studio, we’d sit in a circle on pillows listening to Gustavo’s soft-spoken voice. We all were taken aback, in the absolute best sense, by how much information and ideas we took in – how Mexico is a country whose traditional Indian societies have been greatly destroyed and altered by the imposition of Western culture, and this of course led to much greater questions. Who defines “development” and who is it actually benefiting? What forms of resistance have emerged, and what strategies have been employed successfully? These lectures provoked a lot of really interesting conversations among the group, and certainly left us with a lot to think about and discuss for the rest of the semester. We also participated in group-building work with Sergio, using what’s called “appreciative inquiry” to learn more about each other and where we are at this point in our learning process (both within the education system and outside of its limits). We have a wonderful group with lots of different majors and interests represented, which definitely leads to conversations with varying perspectives and angles. There are nineteen girls and one boy, so we are rocking the powerful feminine energy, but Russ is a good sport and, as somebody put it, “the rooster in the henhouse”.

We also went on field trips. We went to Monte Alban, incredible Zapotec ruins that date back to about 500 B.C. and are located on the mountains where the earth’s magnetic lines intersect. It’s incredible how much has been restored or replicated, so we were able to get a clearer sense of what the civilization was like so long ago; moving figures carved into stones, giant stone steps leading to places of worship, a slender ball court where it’s believed the captain of the winning team was sacrificed. It’s believed that the Zapotec people eventually abandoned the area due to lack of water, and it certainly felt desert-like, although Morning Glory trees once covered the mountain in white. After lunch back in the city (being mistaken for being a vegetarian group for the second time, we were fed lots of squash and beans), we went to the museum of Santo Domingo, which had a lot of artifacts found in one of Monte Alban’s discovered tombs, as well as other items from prehistoric Mesoamerican civilizations. It’s incredible how the different perceptions and elements of lifestyles can be seen through artwork, although – as we’ve been discussing – perhaps they are not meant to be understood by us. It’s clear how much the history and progression of these cultures is still so present and relevant today. Louisa took us to a village called San Agustin Etla, which felt much more lush and ecologically thriving, located near various springs. We were guided around a paper making studio, which produces not just the paper itself but also kites, earrings, origami, and other things. We learned, and felt, the different types of cotton and natural dyes, and saw the process of how they make the paper, in one slender, open room with wet concrete floors, wood blocks to create prints, a few men involved with different parts of the cycle. One woman made paper earrings, rolling tiny sheets of paper around a cylinder, while one man cleared off his workspace of paints that he scraped together. Up the hill was the Centro de las Artes de San Agustin, an ecological art center that hosts workshops and exhibits from all over Latin America, producing art using non-toxic materials; the exhibit we saw included many ceramic and glass bowls in various colors and designs, and the upper area was a sprawl of still water in shallow pools. The whole place felt very surreal and calm (and of course, the sunset over the hills of Oaxaca helped).

We are all in our home stays now, and the entire group seems to be having positive experiences; many of the homes have other guests from different parts of the world. We are all relatively close to the zócalo and Solexico, the cultural center where we will be having our classes (and they give salsa lessons!). We were introduced to UniTierra, which hosts not just a bike to pump water, a composting toilet, and a rooftop garden, but also a library of really interesting looking books, which we can check out. Just our one class there, around wood tables with an enormous buzzing moth overhead, sipping on ceramic cups of coffee, felt like a very different way of learning. It seems evident that positive alternatives to many of the systems we have in our world today are necessary, and it’s clear that Oaxaca hosts a lot – ideas, initiatives, examples. We are getting settled, seeking out adventures, looking forward to everything ahead. With love and gratitude, Page and Jessie :)