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Mexico Archive

Sept 17 | Nov 14 | Field Study

Program Leaders: Kathy Taylor and Norma Salas

September 17, 2003

We are now in our fourth week of classes, a good time to look back and take stock of how far we have come. Many things that seemed strange and overwhelming at first are already second nature and part of the daily routine. The students all move around town with ease, shop, travel, talk to their families about many things, and speak Spanish (almost) all the time. This is a wonderful group of students, and I am proud of the progress of every one of them!

One of the great challenges in learning another language is that your goal becomes like a mirage in the desert. As students strive for the fluency they hope to attain, it seems to move ever out of reach. They sometimes get frustrated that their Spanish isn’t improving, or not fast enough. We have to remind them that we can see the incredible progress they are making, while they begin to take for granted things that were once very difficult. Their horizons keep expanding without their realizing it, and they find themselves comparing their Spanish to what they hear around them. Even the students who came with little facility are already recounting their daily experiences with relative ease. It’s wonderful to see!

In classes, they have been busy with conversations on a number of topics of daily life, vocabulary building, grammar, creative writing, and readings in literature, history and culture of Mexico. They have had to go out and interview people about important topics and figures in Mexican history, write observations and descriptions of daily life, and reflect on their own experiences and impressions. We have eaten the delicious creations of the cooking classes, learned to dance, and celebrated birthdays, holidays and family gatherings.

In addition to a rigorous class schedule, we have had some events, excursions and speakers. Following a talk on prehispanic Mexico, we visited Chalcatzingo, an archeological site with stone carvings from the ancient Olmec civilization. We also heard a talk from a young woman who struggled as a single working mother. We spent this past weekend in Cuernavaca, a beautiful city of 1 ½ million people an hour’s drive from here. While staying at the Cuernavaca Intercultural Center for Dialogue on Development, we heard a presentation about the Zapatista movement and we also visited a school for street children. Students had time to explore the city and visit a number of sites of interest. On Sunday we stopped in the village of Tepoztlán for a few hours on the way home.

In the coming weeks we will spend a few days visiting a project in ecological education and sustainable development, and then make a week long trip to the city of Oaxaca and a remote mountain village in the area. Students are now making plans for the week of vacation in mid October that will follow these trips. The will let you know their plans.

During these first weeks, students have begun to establish their ethnographic projects, which they will continue intensively in the second part of the program. I have included on a separate page a brief description of each project to give you an idea of the variety of experiences and interests they represent. Though they range widely in topic and worksite, each experience will include the opportunity for students to observe, participate and learn about some aspect of life and daily work through the eyes of their Mexican guides. They will each be focusing on specific skills or contexts, while at the same time trying to understand how that slice of life fits into the larger context of the culture.

Well, there is much to tell, and we have lots of plans ahead, but the most important part of all is that they are learning more than they even know and it is really a pleasure to work with them all. Each one brings something special to the group, and we all learn from each other. Even the tears, frustrations, and mistakes we make add to the richness of the experience. It will take a long time, though, for it all to sink in.

Best wishes to all of you