investigacion

this week I have started working a lot more, in a mixture of different things. I am still continuing the surveys and english classes, but I am also starting to research the foreign migrant worker programs that both canada and the US have, what types of rights they are entitled to and also pensions that they should receive once they turn 60. the tough thing, which I already knew from studying labor history and labor law is that farmworkers are not protected under labor law the same way as other workers. in ontario, where a lot of people go to work in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program they say this:

If you work on a farm that is directly related to
the primary production of eggs, milk, grain,
seeds, fruit, vegetables, maple products, honey,
tobacco or herbs, or the raising and keeping of
pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, poultry, deer, elk,
ratites, bison, rabbits, game birds, wild boar or
cultured fish, then you are not covered by the
following minimum employment standards:
• Minimum wage
• Hours of work
• Overtime
• General holidays with pay
• Vacation
• Vacation pay

and thats actually one of the better ones. if you are harvesting, you are entitled to the minimum piece rate wage, but only if you are harvesting more than 50% of the time.

Some people go to work in the United States through our agricultural guest worker program, H-2A. under these programs, people are supposed to get workers compensation and a minimum wage, but there is also huge abuse of the workers under this program as well. someone I know here has a husband in the US and has his documents, but he got appendicitis and spent 4 nights in the hospital. now the patron won't let him come home because he says he owes him money for the medical bills. also, I have a talked to some people who went to Georgia to plant pine trees, and were paid 2 cents per tree. as I am gathering this information, I am also looking for the organizations that support migrant workers where the most people from Amatlan go to work, and found that there is a class-action lawsuit representing thousands of workers who came to plant pine trees under H-2A and were underpaid. so I am currently trying to contact this organization in Virginia and ask about the progress of that case and see if it possible that some of the people I have talked to here could get compensated if they win the case.

also, tomorrow I am going to start helping out as well in the community clinic that uses traditional, indigenous medicine. I am going to wash dishes, sweep, and grind plants.. whatever they need me to do because only 3 people work there. one of my friends, Lety, works there. she is about 28 and for about half her life has been working with the clinic, even before they had a building and were just a group of young people who wanted to learn more about their culture and recover the wisdom of their grandmothers, who were healers. she talked to me about her struggles of working in this project.. as a woman she had to help build the building, wasn't working in the house, went on trips with the group.. and people in the community called her crazy, and eventually said she had turned into a man because she was doing men's work. she was going to get married when she was 20, but the day of the wedding her partner told her that after they were married she had to stay in the house and she couldn't work with her group anymore. so she was really brave and said no, and walked away from the marriage. now she is not married, but really wants to start a family but says it is hard to find someone that accepts her work.. which is really sad because she is really pretty and really friendly and has a lot of wisdom already at 28 to impart to her kids for the next generations to come. so, I am going to help her out, because even at the clinic the "women's work" is left to her, plus her regular duties of treating patients and giving massages.

and, in a few days I am going to drop everything and help out preparing for the town festival. well, more like everyone else is going to drop everything and work, so I will too, because no one is going to go to classes or have time to talk to me about migration. plus I want to help my family out, because there is SO MUCH WORK to prepare for the fiesta. basically, every family makes enough food to feed 300 people who will some to their house on the 22nd, and some families have to make even more food. the fiesta is in a week! I am really excited. i think i might start learning to dance salsa and cumbia tomorrow with my friend Lulu. it will be a super crash course.. I just need to know enough not to make a fool out of myself.

madrina del pastel

this week has been pretty busy with english classes, trying to get more surveys in, and Eymard's graduation from elementary school. the graduation was yesterday, and like other family events here, I was designated photographer. well, this time it was only with a digital camera, because the family has a camcorder that they bought with the money that their dad sends back from working in Chicago. he has been gone for 5 years, and they record important events and send him the videos so he can watch them, and see how his kids have grown up. but this video they are going to keep because he comes back in two weeks!! that is going to be a really exciting day too. with the money that he has earned working as a janitor, dishwasher, and cook, they also were able to build their own house over the span of 5 years. when I ask people about why they migrated, everyone says because of the lack of good work here in Mexico, that they money that they can earn is not enough to support their family, but also many people say that they worked in canada or the US to build a house for their family. its as basic as that. and these houses are not really fancy, they are basic houses so their family can have space and so that when their kids start their own families, there is room.

anyway, for the graduation I was dubbed the "madrina del pastel" or gothmother of the cake. it is really rare that people use the oven, so anyone that knows how to bake is revered and asked to make cakes and pizza. so i agreed to make a cake and two pies. it was an adventure for sure, because I had to buy the ingrdients in kilos, but the recipes were in cups and teaspoons. luckily, a cup is about 1/4 of a kilo. and i think they came out well! people here don't like really sweet things, at last thats what it seems like, so i think the icing on the cake was a little too sweet for them, but that means i think they should really like the apple pie, which we will eat today. there are godmothers and godfathers for a lot of events here, i guess one way of building stronger and closer relationships with the exended family, but also if you are a godparent it means that you provide some financial support for the big parties that people throw. like for weddings and quinceañeras, there is a godfather of beer, who buys the beer. and the parties are big, because the whole extended family is invited, plus friends, plus any others who they might bring. so for a family to throw a party for a wedding, graduation, baptism, etc, they need some help. two nights ago we stayed up until about 2 in the morning, preparing the food for the next day. that was the day that I also baked my cakes, so i slept really really well.

the english classes are going well. its a little hard because I want anyone who wants to learn to be able to come, but that means that I am not too strict about needing to attend every class or anything, because people can't always make a class and I don't want to shut them out. so I have one person who has been really consistant, but the others come when they can, which is most of the time, but I need to work around the fact that not everyone knows the same phrases and words. and soon we will be able to listen to music in english, which should be fun. the cable that I use to charge my computer does not work anymore, but Lisanne, my supervisor's partner, just got back from canada yesterday and I think has a similar computer as mine. hopefully that will work out. and mom, yes I know that I need to send Nick my model number.

oh, one last thing. the dogs really do provide for a lot of entertainment and conversation. last week, two of the little puppies died, and we had to bury them. but then Eymard bought a baby bunny who was really cute and soft, but then Duma (my favorite) ripped its head off. which i guess wasn't completly her fault, because she was pregnant and was really hungry. during the party yesterday she also stole someone's food, and they hit her in the stomach, and I don't know if it brought on early delivery or something, but Duma has three small puppies this morning, and as of now they are all still alive! they want me to bring a puppy back home with me. so far, i think I have been offered a puppy, dog, horse, or cat about 50 times. I say, I don't think customs would agree with that decision.

sembrando

for the past two days, I have set aside my encuestas and gone out to plant corn, beans, and squash with my supervisor Nacho and his family. I was a little worried that I wouldn{t get the opportunity to do this, and was really happy to get out there in the soil. and get dirty I sure did.. the people in Amatlan mainly plant the seeds by hand. first one of the two tractors in the town comes through to churn up the soil (barbechar) and then a second time to create furrows (surcar). then people walk up and down the rows, dropping 4 grains of corn and a squash or bean seed as well, and then cover cover them up. this is best done in bare feet, because the soil sticks to your shoes and makes it really hard to walk. so, many things happened to my feet, including taking a mud bath and getting bitten by red ants. the first day we planted it had rained the night before, and no joke, we were pretty much planting in mud. it felt good to walk in (if you didn't slip too badly) but I didn't realize until the next day when the soil was drier how much harder it is to plant in mud. the soil just doesn't want to cover up the seeds. the next day was beautiful, the soil more easy to manage, but I also stepped in a few ant hills. it actually hurt less than I thought. once we were done in our fields, we saw some friends planting across the street, and went to help out. and this is an example of why I really love Amatlan.. people will help each other out, because it is a community and the lands are communal, even if they are not going to reap the gains of that field. in exchange, they gave us some beer and pop after the sun went down. all in all, a pretty good day.

also, the dog here that had become my favorite, Duma, we think is pregnant. ! they had her operated on so she wouldn't have be able to have puppies, but i guess it didn't work..? everyone is like, want to take a cat home? want to take a dog home? want to buy my dog? because there are so many dogs and cats here. really Duma, we don't need more puppies!

asi es la vida

I've been in Amatlan for 2 weeks now, and things are starting to settle in. Not that they weren't settled in before, but I am continuing to meet more people, and now recognize a lot of faces when I walk around the streets. I am happy to report that my Spanish is good enough to joke around, which is nice because I have made friends with 4 jovenes (young people), who are my supervisor's nieces and nephews. The oldest one is 19, so they are a little younger, but it is still nice to be friends with people more my age.. or i guess people that aren't married and have kids. as for the people my age, I know there are some out there, but for the most part they are either married, or have left to go work in the United States or Canada.

the surveys are continuing to go well, and now have crossed 30 people off of my list. and in the middle of planting season, I might add, which makes it harder to find people. regularly, I get two questions. 1: "where are you from, Canada?" Most white people that come to Amatlan for longer periods of time are from Canada, and there are three people from the town who are married to Canadians. Which leads to the second most frequent question, which is: "and are you married?" To which I reply.. no, I'm not, but I'm not looking to get married quite yet. We will see if I can escape without a wedding... haha. But I always hear really good stories from people while talking to them about their immigration experiences.. just last night I talked to a guy who has been migrating to the US and Canada, legally, for about 18 years. a lot of people here go to Canada through a worker's program, and go for a maximum of 8 months a year, although sometimes they go for 4 or even only 2. and this man had a health problem from being in the sun so much, but the patron didn't want to take him to the hospital and pay some of the expenses, so this man called the UFCW in Canada's migrant worker help offices, and had a really good experience because the woman was able to advocate for him and forced the patron to bring him to the doctor. It gave me hope that workers do actually find those kinds of supports useful.

I am also going to be giving English lessons throughout the summer, which I am excited to have started. Its nice to be doing something concrete that gives back to the community that is hosting me and most graciously answering a survey taken by a United States citizen. I have one group of kids and one group of adults, with a special emphasis on those that migrate to work in the United States or Canada, so they can learn some English that can be useful to them. I had my first class with kids yesterday, and I think it went pretty well. I just went over some basics and tried to get them to participate.. although they speak really quietly and are kind of embarrassed. also, for not ever having taken an education class or taught English or any other subject I think I held my own. and I even developed my own pedagogy! its called the "how do you say..?" pedagogy. The kids ask a question in English and insert a Spanish word that they want to know. Then I will tell them what that word is in English and then we spell it, using the English alphabet. its good for several reasons: it involves the kids, letting them take a little bit of control of their own education because they get to choose what words they want to learn, they have to ask the question in English so it helps with pronunciation, and then we spell it, so they learn more of the letter of the alphabet. not very many adults came yesterday, but I am hopeful that Saturday people have more free time.

today, I spent a good amount of time "dis-graining" corn that they will soak in water, cook, bring to the maize grinding store, and then make tortillas out of. there are several different colors of corn, and sometimes they mix! which makes a really pretty dried ear of corn.

encuestas

this week was the first week of going out and talking to people about their migration experiences. Mario, who is the suplente (kind of like vice president) of the Ayudantia wrote me a list of more than 50 names of people who have gone to work in the United States or Canada, and what streets they live on. what makes it interesting is the houses aren't marked, and I really have no idea which family lives in which house so what I do is go around to the houses, knock on doors, show them the list, and ask if anyone on the list is a part of their family. I was a little intimidated at first to not even know which person I was going to talk to, but actually people are suprisingly helpful and do look over the list, and so far in 3 days I have done 12 surveys. also, i have gathered more information about who lives where, what times I should come back, etc, so I have some good prospects for today. I think actually I will have to do a lot of surveying on Saturdays and Sundays, because that is when people are around the house more. and even saturdays aren't ideal, because most people work.

In terms of what I have going against me (an outsider from the community, and not just an outsider but from the United States, and also asking about maybe a touchy subject) I think people have been pretty receptive. i have met a few more reserved people, a lot of people that are willing to help out, and a also a few who really want to talk about their experiences. most people want to know what is going to happen with the information, so I have gotten really good at explaining that what they say only goes to the Ayudantia and NOT to the United States (one woman wanted to make sure that if she told me her daughter's name, that her daughter wouldn't get deported) and that the goal is to use the information to help people from the town who migrate, immigrate, or are thinking about it. and truth be told, that is the part that I am really looking forward to, because gathering information is good, but not really if nothing is done with that information. I just hope that the surveying doesn't take so long that there isn't much time left for the second part.

a lot of people guess that I am from Canada when they ask where I'm from (I don't know, maybe Minnesota is really more like Canada than I thought) so one time I asked a guy who was really friendly why he guessed I was from Canada, and he said that Canadians are more easy-going and friendly than the US citizens that come to Mexico. so, at least to some people I am coming off as easy-going and friendly! today it rained hard for about 6 or 7 hours... and my rain jacket is still in Cuernavaca... got to get that soon!

also, the mosquitos here are unnaturally fast.. I think I have killed 3 the whole time here, and I usually have pretty quick mosquito-killing moves.

la temporada de lluvia

so, I think most of you know by now but if you don't, I decided to come back to Mexico for the summer and intern with the Communal Land Council (or Ayudantia) in Amatlan, Morelos. I have a grant from the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility at my school, and so was able to come back! I arrived in Amatlan yesterday after a full day of traveling, ate some amazing tortillas, talked with people at the Ayudantia, and slept really well. Everyone said when I came back I would be amazed by the beauty of Amatlan in the rainy season, and it is really true. The mountains are green and misty and when you walk around the streets there are many green trees poking out over people's walls. And I would know, because today I took a map and walked around the streets to familiarize myself with the town. Some of them I had been on before, but I went on a lot more back roads where people actually live. I only met one angry dog, and walkd the other way. People say that I should just say hi to the dog and everything will be fine, but I'm not ready for that yet :). I also visited Dona Chimina and Don Bonfilio, my homestay family from before and got to talk with them for a while, which was really nice. It seems like everything is bursting with life, with all of the green plants, rain, and the new puppies that my supervisor, Nacho, has at his house.

I will be continuing to update this blog all summer, so please keep tuned!

Ruth

la tierra de zapata

In the second to last weekend of this semester, I finally made it to Zapata's birthplace! And much much more actually, because I went with Jose and Juliana, my two internship supervisors, who have a car so we did not only go to Anenecuilco, but also Chinameca where he was assassinated and Tlaltizapan, which hosted the headquarters of Zapata's army from 1914 to 1918. Not only did we go to these specific historic places, but we drove through the mountains and farmlands of Morelos which was the land of the zapatistas during the revolution. This was the land that the original zapatistas fought to defend and redistribute to those who work it with their hands.

In Anenecuilco we saw Zapata's house where he grew up. There was also an amazing mural of the history of Mexico, Zapata, and the Revolution. Here is part of it:



Also, here is me with Juliana, Jose, and Alejandra who also works at La Comuna and La Comision:



Alo in Anenecuilco we wrote in the museum book, Alejandra in Nahuatl (the indigenous language of the area), Jose in Spanish, and Kelsey and I in English. My friend Kelsey who went along too said that it better be good, because 100 years from now someone is going to write their thesis on us, and US perceptions of Zapata's life. We also wrote in the book at Chinameca.. leaving our traces all around Morelos.

oh, this mural is in Anenecuilco too. if you don't know already, its of Zapata and Subcomandante Marcos, who is the one of the spokespeople for the Zapatistas today, in Chiapas.



In Chinameca, you can actually see the entrance to the Hacienda where Zapata entered and was immediately shot down by soldier positioned around the entrance. The bullet holes are still in the walls, and from how many bullet holes there are all around the entrance, you can tell there were a LOT of soldiers who all shot at the same time and Zapata had no opportunity to defend himself.



We also met two older men there, who I think hang around the arch and talk to visitors who come to see it. One of them gave me a "lucky" stone, to which other students are like, "yeah.. its really lucky, Zapata got shot there" but whether or not it is actually lucky, I really value it because it was out of the goodwill and friendship of people that live in Chinameca and really valued Zapata's life and the ideals of the Revolution.

I had an amazing day travelling around Morelos. Seeing these different towns, talking to the people, and seeing the land really gives you a better sense of what Zapata fought to defend, and it has been one of my most important and best days here.