It just seems like we are doing one thing after another here!It makes the days fly by.
Las Grutas
On Saturday, about half our group took a side trip to Taxco, a town famous for its abundance of silver and silver mines. Me and two of my companeras went to Las Grutas, which are huge caves located in a national park an hour and a half away from Cuernavaca. We took a bus for 47 pesos to Las Grutas that left at 8 AM. We arrived around 9:30 AM. We bought our tickets for 63 pesos and waited in line until the caves opened at 10. We were part of a big group of people. The caves are huge! We walked 2 km into the cave which took about an hour because we stopped frequently so the guide, speaking only in Spanish could tell us about the stalagmites and stalagtites. After the caves we went down to el Rio de las Bocas which is located under the caves. No one was down there and it was very peaceful and serene with some huge magestic trees. I kind of felt like I was in Avatar! hahahah, that's for you Steve Heinz! Getting back was pretty difficult though. We thought we were going to be able to buy a bus ticket to return at Las Grutas but we were wrong. We probably spoke with 5 people asking them how to get back to Cuernavaca. Most of them told us that the bus might stop at Las Grutas on its way back towards Cuernavaca or it might not. Then we had some pushy taxi drivers try to get us in their taxis, telling us that they could take us for 100 pesos to the nearest bus station where we could buy a ticket back to Cuernavaca. I was getting a little frustrated at the entire situation and didn't know what to do so we took a moment to decide and we decided to take a taxi for 100 pesos or 33 pesos each to the bus stop. This worked out fine and the bus ticket back to Cuernavaca was 30 pesos.
Okay so skipping Sunday which was a relaxing day in which me and two of my other companeras watched Grey's Anatomy! I felt like I was with Sahara and Kate! It was awesome. I also washed my clothes by hand which I actually really like doing it is relaxing and monotonous, although I know I have the privilege of doing just my own laundry and not anyone else's.
Monday - Amatlan
We left as a group of 24 students to Amatlan, a small town located an hour from Cuernavaca at 9 AM. This is where one of our professors and her partner live.
We arrived at the home where, Nacho, the partner of our professor, Lisanne, was born. We sat outside in a circle and Nacho began to speak. Nacho is indigenous, Nahuatl. He grew up very poor but worked his way through university in Mexico city to become a veterinarian. The history of the conquest is extremely important in Mexico, particularly to indigenous peoples, as it should be. The conquest forever changed their lives in a detrimental, extremely negative way. Culturicide and genocide were committed by the Spaniards who attempted to Christianize the indigenous who were seen as less than human. As Juan de Sepulveda of Spain said in 1530, "They are as inferior to Spaniards as children to adults, women to men, the cruel and inhuman to the gentle, . . . finally, I might almost say, as monkey to human beings." Indigenous peoples were tortured and burned alive. They were forced to build churches and palaces on top of ancient ceremonial centers. They were forced to give up everything that they valued and mattered to them. These things such as nature and duality of the gods and life meant nothing to the Spaniards who only wanted their gold and labor.
So, many times when an indigenous speaker gives a talk, they start with ancient times because this is where it all started, where things changed for the worst. One cannot start from 50 or so years ago because it does not make sense without understanding the conquest. Most schools in Mexico only teach history from the conquest on, pretending as if there were no indigenous peoples and cultures prior to Spain "discovering" the new world. This is like learning that Christopher Columbus was a benevolent explorer when really he came to the new world to Christianize "barbarous indians."
A big fight still being fought today is over the land of Mexico. This is what the revolution of 1910 was about in which Emiliano Zapata led peasant farmers in a revolt against the government. Cuernavaca is the birthplaces of Emiliano Zapata and is therefore called the cradle of the revolution. There are two phrases of the revolution and one is "Land and Liberty" the other is "the land belongs to those who work it with their own hands."
So, obviously the Spanish took away the land of the Indigenous people, even though Indigenous peoples do not believe in land ownership. The revolution of 1910 ended in the constitution which in Article 27 declared that ejido land would be returned to the peasant farmers, mostly mestizos, but the true owners for they were to work the land with their own hands. This was a great victory for the people although not everyone benefited from it.
Then, with the presidency of Carlos Salinas in the 1990s and the initiation of NAFTA, parts of Article 27 of the constitution were changed so that ejido land, land that could not be bought or sold, could now be privatized. At first I was confused at what this meant and why it was bad that it would be privatized. But here it is: when ejido land could not be bought or sold but solely worked by the people, even if there was a bad crop season or drought, they would not feel like they needed to sell their land, it would always be there. However, now peasant farmers feel that they must sell their land when there are economic downturns or droughts or similar things. Then they sell their land which is bought by multinational corporations who then use the peasant farmers for cheap labor.
So Nacho spoke about this and the effect that it has had on the people of Mexico. It combined with many other factors including colonialization and the conquest have created so much poverty in Mexico.
So then Nacho took us on a walk to a sacred ceremonial site in the woods. We were going to do an introduction to a traditional Nahuatl ceremony. I did not know what to expect at all.
We walked for about 20 minutes and then arrived at a place where two huge rocks/boulders met, forming a narrow passage between them. It was an area of dirt and trees and rocks. These rocks are sacred rocks, they are in the North, the direction of the dead. On one of the rocks were some pictographs dating back to over 5000 years ago approximately (there are varying dates). The pictograph we could see was a human/animal looking head with a stick body, stick arms and stick legs. The feet were equilateral crosses, signifying something much different from the crucifix in Christianity. The equilateral cross signified the four directions, signifies duality and balance.
We created a circle of about 40 people because some other people who were also with an Indigenous guide came as well. Nacho and the other indigenous guide led the ceremony. We placed offerings in the middle of the circle as well. I placed the journal that Sahara made for me for Christmas which I have been using every day and has become something very special to me. I placed the journal there because it reminds me of Sahara, and it is the only journal that I have ever actually wanted, desired to write in of my own volition. And when I have had a journal I tend to write superficial musings but in this journal I am real. So after we placed our offerings we held up our hands into the middle of the circle and shook them to create good energy and open our hearts. We then faced North, only turning in a clockwise direction to get there. We raised our hands up again and shook them. Nacho blew on a caracola, or conch shell and after he stopped blowing, the sound resonated for a few seconds and were were left in silence with out hands and arms still raised. We repeated this with all 4 directions, N, S, E, W.
After this we sat down on the ground and Nacho began to speak. He spoke about a lot of things such as race and how it has been constructed as a tool by those in power to divide the people, to keep them from demanding what is right. He also spoke about corn. I never understood the importance of corn in Mexico or indigenous life. Even when I went to the grocery store on Sunday the longest line was at the tortilleria. Corn is more than food, it is life. Corn here is red, white, black, and yellow. These colors represent the four directions. Nacho placed corn in the middle of the circle as an offering and the corn needed to have 40 kernels in each line and 10 lines total for a grand total of 400 kernels; this in line with an ancient myth.
While Nacho spoke I was able to be in the moment, something I have tremendous trouble with. I am always thinking about the next step, the next day. I am never still or at peace in my mind and I know it may sound hokey but I was at peace while he spoke. I never thought of myself as Latina, always as white. I had a conversation with one of my professors and I think I do consider myself Latina. I am not only white and I think to deny my Latina side is to deny a past of not only my family but of my indigenous past too, of the fact that I do come from a group of people who endured. I must acknowledge my privilege but also my condemned past and these can coexist. It is not either or. It is not just the way I am perceived by others in the now, as a guerra, a white girl. So in this moment that lasted quite a while I thought about things painful to me such as my father. I have to think about it to break the silence that has surrounded him for so long. Because if I do not I remain silent, I am oppressed. I internalize this silence and turn it against myself through anxious obsessive behaviors that do not allow me to fully live.
So yeah, I never thought I would be saying this stuff but I am and I glad for it and I am very thankful for Nacho.
At the end of the ceremony we each hugged every other person in the circle. I had never hugged so many people in my life!!!! I really liked it actually, it made me smile.
We went back to Nacho's childhood house and had lunch. Two wonderful women cooks made us sopes which are fried corn tortillas with cheese. Then you put various toppings on them such as salsa verde, salsa roja, frijoles, and cebollas or onions. We were also served agua de jamaica or hibiscus water. It was excellent!
