| We began
and ended the semester by spending a few days in Mexico City
and environs, where we visited the National
Palace, the National Cathedral and Diego Rivera murals, the National
Anthropology Museum, the Templo Mayor, Teotihuacan (archaeological
site), Bellas Artes, the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo museums,
Plaza Garibaldi (mariachi plaza), the Basilica of the Virgin of
Guadalupe, Tlatelolco (Plaza of Three Culltures), and ate at Café La
Habana where Fidel Castro and Che Guevarra planned the Cuban revolution. |
Students at the National Cathedral, Mexico City
|
Basilica for the Virgin of Guadalupe |
Cortes Palace, Cuernavaca |
Bobbie and Katie Jo at the Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacán |
Atop the Pyramid of the Sun |
Dinner at the Meeting Place of Fidel Castro and Che Guevarra |
Hacienda San Ignacio |
| Once we arrived at our research village, we settled into daily family
living, including diverse activities: birthday parties, baby showers,
weddings and family outings. |
|
| Recipe for
Leche Caliente: Fill bottom of glass with powdered Mexican chocolate;
add desired amount of sugar cane alcohol;
place glass under udder; squeeze until glass is full…. |
|
…and enjoy! |
…Among the more unusual experiences, during Easter week,
we visited Nueva Jerusalem, a religious community near Puruarán,
Michoacán, for their Good Friday services. This is a closed
religious community with very strict rules governing behavior and
dress—we had to accommodate to their religious strictures
to enter…
… Another was a day spent selling baby chicks for the municipal
government
|
Paricutín Volcano with Lava and Ruins in the Foreground |
The Volcán de Fuego, Colima |
Volcán de Nieve, Colima |
Tortilla Making Lessons
|
Students Studied the Local Market, Shopped, and Prepared the Family
Meal
|
|
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Chrissy Helping to Prepare a Family Meal
|
The Danza de Los Viejitos of Michoacán
|
| Students’ experiences were enriched as well by research-related
activities. Besides working in Los Angeles, students spent two weeks engaging
in comparative research in the village of Ocotillo, Colima and one week
in the town of Puruarán, Michoacán. The latter is also the
site of a sugar mill that closed in 1992, but is now operating again after
the community struggle to reopen the mill and manage it as a cooperative.
Students toured the Puruarán sugar mill and visited with the president
of the cooperative to learn about the history of their struggle. Some of
the students interviewed officials at the cane growers’ unions in
San Sebastián, Michoacán and one student had the opportunity
to accompany Donna Chollett’s interviews at the national cane growers’ unions
in Mexico City. In addition to their individual projects, all students
assisted with interviewning and data collection that aided us in understanding
the impact of the closing of the San Sebastián suger mill in 2002.
Most of the villagers of Los Angeles, Michoacán had delivered their
sugar cane to San Sebastián, one of the most productive mills in
the country. Below is a photographic testimony to some of the changes occuring
in rural Michoacán that accompanied the decline of sugar production
in the zone. |
The San Sebastián sugar mill closed its
doors on April 12, 2002
|
The cane trucks now drive through headed for the Santa Clara mill |
Students toured the Santa Clara Mill |
Students at the Santa Clara Sugar Mill |
workers pick
berries in fields formerly planted in sugar cane |
Blackberry plants have replaced sugar cane in much of the countryside |
Blackberries covered with plastic canopies to cut down weed growth |
workers inside these canopies are more subject to toxic poisoning
when pesticides are sprayed. |
berry production intrudes on former cane land |
agave encroaches on more cane land. |
Participant Observation: Aaron Picking Blackberries |
Aaron and Bobbie Picking Blackberries for Export |
Aaron selling chickens
for the PRD political party
|
In sum, major changes are taking
place in the region: the source of work for thousands of mill
workers, cane growers, and related jobs disappeared; crop production
is undergoing a transition from a national cash crop to crops
produced largely by foreign companies; from these transformations,
environmental consquences challenge issues of health and sustainability;
the decline of sugar production is shaping new patterns of out-migration
and changing the structure of labor in the zone; women are now
replacing men as field laborers, with the paradoxical result
that they are gaining independence by earning a wage, but at
wages below that of what men would receive for the same labor. |
students at the Frida
Kahlo Museum
|
