In resolution to the fact that I have been eating the equivalent of about a loaf of bread a day from going to the panaderia (bakery) I went to the market and went on a fruit buying spree. For $4 I got a banana, a mango, a peach, carrots, a handful of string beans, two apples, a half a kilo of peanuts, and a yellow pepper. cheap eats man...
the anti gold mining conference poster
View of the main church
This past weekend we went to a village called Calpuluapan de Mendez in the Sierra Juarez region of Oaxaca. It's a really beautiful area surrounding by mountains reminiscent of Vermont. The town is called a "pueblo magico" an official designation from the national tourism bureau as a popular eco-tourism spot. The pueblo sits in a "cloud forest" with its low level clouds that make the forests heavily moist and almost tropical. A few weekends ago, I took a colectivo (like a taxi) with some friends to Calpuluapan for an international conference against mining. The community had in the past let companies in to harvest gold but with the destruction of their natural springs, they decided they wanted to stop the mining. Their forests are now protected, they bottle their natural spring water, and have a strong and admirable resistance again gold mining. However, they are worried about keeping the mining companies out because although the community is in agreement and the land belongs to them, the national government has final ownership over what is beneath the soil. Furthermore its a conflict of belief because the people of the community believe that the sky, the soils, and the earth below are all connected and communally shared, not a commodity to be sold.
big tree..
I of course forgot my camera so I don't have pictures, but we got to on a quick hike up to see their water bottling facility that's run by two women and a man and hear what's going on with the mining while sitting in this crazy forest (^where that picture is from). A man named Francisco from the community was telling us everything with Luisa as usual translating for us. Luisa is from Oaxaca and got involved with the UVM program through the school of an old professor named Gustavo Estava that co-founded a school called Universidad del Tierra that functions on a hands-on alternative learning method. She had been training to be a traditional healer but realized she was more interested in other types of healing so decided to stop studying it and do other things. She's about one of the nicest people I've met..
Also while in Capulaupan, we did a temamezcal (a sweat lodge). It's supposed to be for physical and spiritual cleansing and was a pretty intense experience. It was also major bonding time because we were sitting naked in tiny wooden chairs in a clay hut for an hour, sweating our butts off, with leaves on our chests (to take away the bad energy) and attempting to sing songs in Spanish while bawling our eyes out for one reason or another. I think I'm still recovering haha..(just kidding..it was amazing but brought a lot of reality to the trip with hearing about things that are going on in people's lives)
Here's a naked man mumbling one of the songs (start at like 2:06). For my non-spanish speaking homies, it's about purifying the body and reconnecting with mother nature. The temazcal itself is in the shape of a womb in honor of mother nature and the ceremony draws on the four elements; wind, water, fire, earth.
Back in Oaxaca, everyone spent all Sunday in a cafe drinking cafe Oaxaqueno (Oaxacan coffee which is black coffee with cinnamon in it) and busting out our literature reviews for our independent study projects. I'm doing mine on a Zapotec women's weaving cooperative called New Life/Vida Nueva or Galbain Cuy (in Zapotec) and how they have been able to successfully maintain their culture in a globalized economy and improve their rights as women. Then Monday was Constitution day, a national holiday so there was no Spanish class. We had class with Oliver anyway and talked about the dangers of getting a single perspective, I'll post the TED talk he had us watch...
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