Week 3 Febuary 11th-17th
Sextol sol, Numero Dos Feb 11th
Economics and Sustainability Feb 14th
Sextolsol, Numero Dos 
Feb 11th
I know we have already written a little bit about our experience at Sextosol and the work with Grupo Stan, but after having interviews with Tamara and Francisco, I just had to write more. As you know, Katie and I arrived in Motozintla on the 8th of February. We were welcomed in through the old wooden gate with wispy vines sweeping across a sign that read, ¨Escuela de Agroecologia y Permacultura Tierra Linda¨ by Tamara Brennen, the Director of Sextosol. Right behind her, Ghandi came bounding with a wagging tale and a sloppy wet greeting. Ghandi is the resident greeter and a new great friend of mine....he’s a sweet, hairy dog.
The name, Sexto Sol, comes from the Maya calendar which says we are now in the time of the 6th sun. It is a time of justice and of the emancipation of indigenous people across the globe. This is the underlying message of this organization. They promote collective action in communities so people solve problems together, sustainable food production, they help cooperatives find a fair price for their products, teach about the wise use of the environment and the effects of deforestation, and they use an appropriate technology approach to do this. At their school/demonstration site/home, they have had over 1000 students who have come to receive training. It’s the perfect site as it sits on a north facing slope, has no soil, is extremely steep, and is well....the perfect spot to show that even in the worst conditions, food can be grown, a harmonious landscape.
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The garden at |
Tierra Linda Sextosol |
Our short stay with Tamara, her husband Francisco Barrio, Program Director, and their 6 month old baby daughter, Nicole was much full of new information and inspiration to keep expanding our network of people whose vision it is to make the world a better place. Tamara is a woman whose interests in life are so close to mine that it feels as though our friendship was consecrated decades ago (although I can really only claim 2.7 decades). We stayed up until nearly 1 am one morning, talking about all the issues with which we both feel passionately toward.
Tamara worked in Guatemala in the 80´s, making a documentary of refugees who lived in garbage dumps atop the land that was once theirs for farming corn, beans, and squash. It the film, the lives and stories of the people who struggle to live each day, hoping to find a scrap of food to eat or plastic that they can sell, are featured in shocking reality. It is unbelievable to see the conditions in which many, many people live. Some people can struggle their whole lives, even organize themselves and create a common vision to create a better life for their families and friends, and still will remain oppressed. The people in the garbage dump scrapped together a table and documents asking the Guatemalan gov´t if they could buy the land where they were living (the dump). At least they would have something. These are people who riffle through the trash, looking for anything that can be eaten (even days old meat which they cook over a fire of burning plastic bags and rub an old, moldy lemon on it to kill the rotten flavor). They spend every day looking for things that can be recycled and which would give them a few centavos...it would have taken some of them their whole lives to earn enough money from the dump to buy the land...but it was a hope. The documentary crew filmed their request and they sent it to gov´t whose response was to move in with guns and try to kill the leader who came up with the idea to buy the land...the DUMP!
We spoke about Fair Trade and whether or not it really is fair, indigenous rights, deforestation, Hurricane Stan and its physical and emotional effects, sustainable agriculture, community organizing, and more. Francisco had a good deal to say about trading fair and that many of the orgs who claim to carry FT, are really not even providing the coffee farmers with a living wage. He said drinking a cup of coffee that was not bought consciously, through an org that works directly with the farmers and makes sure the farmers are getting paid for their work, is like drinking the sickness, and death, and parentless children who have worked themselves to death in some cases. Tamara says a good way to determine whether something is fair is to see whether people have food to eat, a roof to sleep under (many of which are asbestos roofs), and whether all the members of the family are together (instead of one or more members risking their lives to work in the US so their family can survive). About 90% of families here have at least one member working in the US to send money home. Something is greatly amiss here, and political borders are a lame excuse to turn a blind eye to our fellow human family members in Central and South America. I learned as much from Tamara and Francisco in those three days as I have at times, in an entire quarter of school.
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Tamara, Francisco, and Baby Nicole |
COSTA
Feb 13th
Our network of connections has been an incredibly indispensable gift in helping us find the groups in Mexico who are trying to change the world around them. Before leaving the states, Katie and I both sent out extensive emails, letting people know what we were planning and asking for connections with anyone they knew here in Mexico. One of my friends has a daughter-in-law from Veracruz (but who now works at a University in North Carolina at the Program for International Understanding), who has an uncle who works with cooperatives in Veracruz....phew, that’s the wonder of networking! Her uncle, Helio is the President of an organization called SENDAS, which creates pathways to a more sustainable world. Helio and his colleague, Demian invited us to attend a historical event in Monte Pio wherein 10 organizations of 61 people met together to sign papers, which would link them and unite them under the umbrella of the new org., COSTA or coast.
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Member of Costa at the beach clean-up directly after the meeting |
We drove through spectacular jungle bioreserves and extensive farms and ranches to get to Monte Pio, a little seaside town on the coast of Veracruz. This bioreserve is one of the largest in Mexico and the last major jungle this far north in Mexico. We introduced ourselves (having arrived in advance of Helio and Demian), passed out our translated brochures (thanks to friends in New Orleans who helped translate) and were welcomed warmly by the groups. I set up the camera and by noon, everyone had arrived to fill up the little gazebo at Montaña y Mar de los Tuxtlas. Immediately, we began filming as the board introduced itself one by one. Each group had a representative on the board who talked a bit about their projects and the issues of importance facing the area. Most of the community projects are within a 20km radius of one another and included a wide variety of projects initiated and run by the people who live there.
Some of the projects of Catemaco and San Andres Tuxlas are aquaculture, ecotourism, crafts, women groups, human rights groups, cattle and goat ranches (using a smaller space to raise and graze them), and a biology station and bioreserve extension with over 50 projects of its own. Katie and I felt blessed to be a part of this occasion and even had the opportunity to interview the President and a member of the Montaña y Mar de los Tuxtlas group. We drove out along the coast to a breathtaking beach with tall eroded hills that drop suddenly off into the ocean. It reminded me of Oregon’s Pacific coast, with palm trees. But because it was raining, we decided to do the interview at the goat ranch of Aliza, right in the beautiful field with the goats and kids (the furry kind).
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Reyna choosing seeds to share with the community |
Demian spent the day with us and acted as our translator as well as taking his own footage (with a real video camera!) for SENDAS. We asked Reyna and Aliza from Montaña y Mar questions about the meeting and also a bit about their organization. Instead of interrupting them, we decided to ask the questions at the beginning and let them talk. It was another emotional interview amidst bleating baby kids (some only 4 days old) with umbilical cords tangling. I’ll have to translate this interview before giving specific details.
Economics and Sustainability
Feb 14th
I remember a line form a movie I saw once, one of the characters was visiting a rich family, and they were having a discussion at dinner. The women of the house said something like "oh we don’t care about money" and the man who was visiting said, "That is because you have it." The feeling that this scene provoked in me was similar to how I am seeing our situation in the United States, even within the sustainability movement. We met a man from here the other day who spent a year working as a gardener in California. He told us that after a day of working in the states he could buy, new pants, shoes and a shirt, after a week of working here in Mexico, he could only afford a shirt. This is the reality of Mexico.
I believe one of the reasons the sustainability movement has gotten so far in the US, is because of the wealth that is available to us. If we want to make money, for most of us, we can. In Mexico this is not so. A lot of people live without knowing where their food is coming from day to day. That is why when we look at sustainability movements within Mexico it is imperative that we keep this in mind.
Today we interviewed Rosamond Coates, Director of a field station, for the University Of Mexico’s Biology Department. This field station, a 640-hectare biological reserve, has over 50 projects going on, of those 3 of them are directed at working with the community and reforesting cleared land. Monte Pio is where the Field station is, and in this area only 10 percent of the forest is left. The rest has been cleared over the years for cattle.
Rosamond was telling us that the people of the area know that the forest is important and some would like to see it restored, but the reality is people cannot afford it. Even projects of replanting that promise financial returns through selective harvesting are very difficult for people to adopt because they might not see a return for 10 to 15 years. What needs to be developed is short-term projects that complement the reforesting as well as provide income that can replace the money they are making from their cattle. However, even short-term projects take some time to set up, so it’s a very difficult situation. For better solutions, Rosemound told us that they need Economists that are also Biologists. I feel the same about the sustainability movement here, as well as in the world.
Unfortunately, as they say, money makes the world go round. I Have always tried to deny this statement with in myself and with in the world, because I don’t want to believe it. And when I am in the US, it’s easy for me not to see, because I don’t have to worry about money on a day-to-day bases to the extreme that people here in Mexico do. However, now I see a little more clearly things I did not understand before and it is good. So what do I do with this new perspective? Well I guess I am doing it by sharing with you what I have seen. Everything I see adds depth to my experience here in this world, and I use these experiences to work and play with others in hopes of a better understanding and creating more meaningful relationships. My hope is that the result of this is a better world.
UCINAP
Feb 17th
Britt and I had such an inspiring weekend. Unfortunately, since most of the weekend was spoken in Spanish I cannot give you all the details I would like, but I hope you can still glean some of the things we experienced.
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The Sierra Santa Marta |
We spent Saturday and Sunday up in the Sierra Santa Marta in the south of Veracruz, learning about the work of a group called U.C.I.N.A.P. In English it stands for Union of Nahua and Popaluca Indigenous Peasants. They are a group of people dedicated to rediscovering ways in which they can regenerate the jungle while also being able to make a living from it. They are doing this by focusing on five plants that are indigenous to the area, that provide food, fiber, and timber. These plants, as was described to us, make up the three layers of the jungle, the canopy, the middle layer, and the ground cover.
One of them, a middle layer plant, is a kind of palm. It produces two main edible products, the tender inside of the flower and a small coconut like seed, and takes up to five years to fruit. This particular palm reaches about 20 ft when mature and depends on the canopy of the jungle for shade.
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Papaluca man telling us about this hardwood tree that makes up the canopy of the frorest |
The plant they harvest for fiber |
Another of these plants, ground plant, is a member of the Aloe family. The leaves of this plant are harvested when they reach at least three feet. The long fibers that are contained in the leaf are then extracted, processed, and sold to people who use them for making crafts like belts and jewelry.
They had several nurseries where these plants were growing, in their backyards and also under the canopy of the jungle. To give you a better understanding of this project, I should mention some of history behind this organization. Much like the Monte Pio area, where we were last week, about 18 years ago the Jungle swiftly disappeared and now only 10% of it remains. In this particular area most of the Jungle was destroyed by a fire that raged for three days, the rest was cleared for pasture. After the fire, the Jungle never came back because it was replaced by pasture for grazing cattle. The people who started UCINAP, are an older generation that knew the jungle in its wholeness, and they observed that their children did not. So they took the initiative and started this group.
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Processing the leaves of the plant to harvest the fibers |
The completed fibers which will be sold at 80 pesos kilo (about $8US)for making crafts |
Some small patches of the jungle remain and this is where they are planting plants like the Palm and the Fiber plant that I mentioned earlier. The other areas they are planting in are pasturelands, and in those areas their goal is to restore the canopy of the jungle. As you could guess this is a project that takes a long time before there is any return in the form of goods they can trade or sell. Like I said, the plant with the shortest time to fruiting is five years, and the timber could take as many as 10-20 years. In the mean time these families need to eat, and so the men often find work on other people’s land, and in their spare time they work on the jungle project, which is a large amount of work. It is a challenge, but they do it for their children and for themselves.
I wish I could tell you more about what these people said to us, because, from my observation, I could tell they were speaking from their hearts and believed in what they were doing, but again the language barrier remains. My hope is that the footage we got this weekend will be able to portray the project in a way that inspires others to do similar things.