MEXICO

I went to Mexico on Earlham College's program. Eight students from Earlham attended the program, along with two leaders. We each lived with a family in Cuautla, Morelos, two hours southeast of Mexico City. I took several classes (through Earlham and taught by local professors, not part of a Mexican school): Spanish, a cooking class, Creative Writing, and The Current Crisis in Mexico during the first half of the semester and Mexican Literature the second half. In addition, I visited a community called Huehuecoyotl two to three days a week during the second half. Huehuecoyotl is a community which used to be a traveling theater group. Now the members work with grassroots organizations in Mexico on a wide range of topics in the areas of ecology and social justice.

Cuautla

Three hundred thousand people live in Cuautla.

Public transportation is provided by modified VW buses. They call them 'combis'--short for combination. Rachael was in a combi with 25 people once. They follow routes, but there are no maps of the routes, you have to know where they go or ask the driver. They are coded by color, name, and number.

The markets are where most people buy their food.

Because jobs are scarce, many people sell on the street downtown, as well. Others, especially older women, set up a table and sell candy from their doorways.

The Group and Its Travels

The group of eight from Earlham was all women. For me, that was a wonderful fact. The challenge of being a group of women in a society of machismo was great, but our response was too. When harassed on the subway in Mexico City, we got together and came up with ways to deal with and confront the harassment. Thus, the eight of us were a support network for each other.

Rachael's mug says "Thank God I'm Female." Maryellen. Cindy and Briana.

Of course we couldn't have done it without our fearless leaders.

Caroline Higgins is a Peace and Global Studies professor at Earlham. This was her third and last time leading the Mexico program. Her sense of humor, understanding, and knowledge were invaluable.

Bill (Guillermo) Shorr went to Earlham and on the Mexico program in the 1980s. He is working on his PhD at the Harvard School of Education. He is writing his thesis on international education/foriegn study, specifically our group. I could not have done without his friendliness, funkiness, and vast wisdom about living in Latin America (and life in general).

As part of the program and on our own, we traveled a lot. We went to Taxco, an old mining town. We visited several archeological sites such as Chalcatcingo, Cholula,

Xochicalco, and Monte Alban.

Several of us also spent the night on the pass between the (active at the time) vocano Popocatelpetl and his partner Ixtacczihuatl.

In October we celebrated El Día de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) in Cuautla. My host mother Carmelita, host brother Gabriel, and I went to the cemetery with Earlham professor Kathy Taylor who was in Cuautla for a visit. This is a picture of Carmelita at the grave of her husband Dr. Gabriel Navarro. Almost everyone in town went to the cemetery that day. Most people sat at the graves of loved ones and talked to each other. The yellow flowers are the flower of the dead, and they cover the cemetery. People also burn copal, a traditional incence, and some hire mariachis to play at the graves.

One can't give a pictureshow of Mexico without including the hero of the Revolution of 1910, Emiliano Zapata.

Or one of the many remnants of his legacy (a parade in Oaxaca).

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