Kristina
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| View of the Milpa (Corn, Beans, Squash) from Judith's home |
¡Hola friends and family! This past week in San Jeronimo Taviche, 5 UVM students were paired with 5 different families in this small community about 2 hours outside of Oaxaca city. On Monday morning, the group met with Centeotl, a community development organization that works with small communities to improve food and financial security. We discussed the two active programs in San Jeronimo Taviche and their progress with La Escuelita del Campo (Farm School).
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| Raised beds with herbs, tomatoes, & squash |
Upon our arrival in the village, we split up and met our families. I was paired with Judith, a woman with two daughters living in Taviche with her. She has three other children that live in different parts of the state and in other regions of Mexico. One of the daughters, Mari, has a 5-month year old baby that they called 'Danielito' who accompanied us everywhere we went! Their casa, perched on the top of a hill overlooking the valley and the pueblo, was a modest three-room home with two different outdoor cooking spaces. With both a gas stove and a traditional Lorena stove with a
comal over fire wood, the women used many methods of cooking. Most of our time was spent in these kitchen areas, either preparing and eating meals or just talking. Chickens, turkeys, goats, sheep, and dogs filled the surrounding yards of the household, and a Milpa (field with corn, beans, and squash growing in the same area) occupied the field above the home.
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| Video of the baby goats playing in the yard |
On the first afternoon of my stay, I accompanied Judith to her weekly community bank meeting. I sat in as the seven women each added a small sum of money to the bank, to be used by anyone in case of emergencies. Two of the women brought their younger daughters to the meeting and Judith explained to me that the group wanted to give them an opportunity to have some responsibility in the community bank. Their role as Treasurers was to count the money. Even though they have only been meeting for seven months, the group plans to continue for years into the future, and the daughters will know how to run the meetings when they grow up.
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| Judith with the 1-week old baby goats |
We spent the rest of the week preparing delicious food, transplanting lettuce in one of the fields, watering and weeding squash, tomatoes, and herbs in Judith's raised beds, and taking care of the animals. I couldn't have been more happy! Back in Vermont, I have worked on various farms and the focus of my Independent Study Project here in Oaxaca is alternative, non-industrial farming practices. I loved seeing the differences in planting styles and methods in Mexico versus Vermont and it was great to be out of the city working on a farm again.
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| Preparing for the slaughter |
On Thursday morning, the family decided to slaughter one of their chickens (it was actually a rooster, but they called it chicken) for
caldo de pollo (chicken soup). We went to the pen, picked one of the fattest and biggest birds, and brought it up near the kitchen. After asking if I wanted to kill the chicken myself (I politely declined), Judith began a process that she had clearly completed countless times before. With the bird hanging from its feet, she carefully pinned the its feathers back and held the head in her hands. With a sharp knife, she slit the main vein in the chicken's neck, close to where the head meets the rest of the body. As others have showed me in the past, Judith told me that this method is quick and virtually painless for the bird. After letting some of the blood drain from the neck, we dunked the bird in boiling water and began to remove the feathers. After a final cleansing with more boiling water, Judith skillfully set about cutting open the chicken and removing the inner organs. She knew just which pieces to save and which needed to be carefully removed and thrown away. This process happened fairly quickly, and when we arrived at the house later in the afternoon after planting in the fields, we ate a delicious chicken soup with fresh tortillas.
I had an amazing experience living in Taviche practicing my Spanish, learning about this family's way of life, and understanding the importance of subsistence sustainable agriculture in communities such as this one. I am so grateful for this opportunity and plan to keep in contact with the family and hopefully even return to visit one day!
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Rose
Living in this village for a week was something I will never forget. The six of us who stayed here each had a different, though remarkable experience.
This is the family I stayed with. The mom Kristina, her son Andrés, and two daughters Arely and Marie Isabel. Some of Kristina's adult children also lived in this house as did her many grandchildren. I learned a lot from all of them, especially watching how the importance of family in Mexican culture played out in a daily setting. Every morning even before I woke up Arely, the oldest daughter in the picture, would be up helping her mom prepare breakfast, washing clothes, and taking care of the smaller kids in the house. Without question the kids, especially girls, have tasks to do everyday to help their family.
Though most of the days were spent relaxing and talking with Kristina and the kids, one day I went for a hike with Amalia, her host mom, and the three kids I was living with. We walked in the hot desert hills surrounding the town. In these hills a lot of people had pieces of land where they grow crops for the year. We passed many of these and saw from a distance the places where the town gets its water. Walking in the hot sun for a few hours I couldn't begin to imagine how different and difficult the way of life is there. Everyday men herd their animals through these hills, men and women go to work in their fields, and every couple weeks my family takes a day to hike up in the mountains to gather firewood for their cooking.
One of the things I enjoyed the most was the food Kristina made throughout the week. Most people living in the town didn't have a steady source of income, either they were mostly self sufficient or had family whom migrated to the United States and were sending money back. Kristina lived off very little. She had a milpa (corn, bean, and squash field) that provided her food throughout the year. Every morning she went to the molino at her neighbors house to grind a big bucket of maíz. Then the next few hours would be dedicated to making tortillas for the whole day. We would eat these hot off the comal with our mid morning meal, afternoon comida, and dinner. The remainder of the diet was mostly beans, lentils, and vegetables from the home garden.
One of the ways the family made a small income was by making small crafts to sell at the market in town. Each person in the family had a woven plastic bag they were working on. Here Arely is showing me all the ones she made. They were all really proud of the things they made.
The overall experience of living in a small rural town in Mexico was different than anything I expected. I steadily practiced my spanish for a week, had many awkward moments with people who had never seen a güera (white person) before, and had a lot of time to think and learn of the various ways we live.
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Nina
While in San Jeronimo Taviche, I stayed with Ofelia Victoria and her four children. She had a four year old named Esmerelda, a nine year old boy Lorenzo, a 12 year old Fatima, and a 15 year old named Ofelia. Each day, after sleeping on the traditional petate, I would wake up to find the older girls and Victoria hard at work washing laundry, making tlayudas, cleaning the kitchen etc. Most days I was woken up by the sounds of their roosters, the feeling of flies landing on my face, or the little girl asking me if I was awake. Since we visited during the week of semana santa all of the kids had vacation except for the oldest who was studying in the closest city of Ocotlán and would ride in the back of a truck into the town each day. The second oldest daughter, Fatima, would leave in the mornings to help her aunt take care of their 1 year old child. This left me, the youngest daughter and son as well as Victoria.
The dynamics of the family I stayed with were highly influenced by the fact that Victoria's husband has been living and working in Fresno, California for 2 years to support the family. The money he sends back to his family allows for a sense of comfort in their family. In addition to this, Victoria grows radishes to sell in the market, and cooks pumpkin seeds to sell as pepitas in a small store in the village. There was a clear economic division in the village of families who had family members working in the United States verses families who relied on their own subsistence crops and the little economic activity of the village. Despite this clear economic division, things like running water, flushing toilets, showers, etc. were hard to come by.
During my time staying with Victoria we walked to the outskirts of the village to her families milpa one day, where the ground is dry and rocky, but somehow they are able to produce enough corn, beans, and squash to last for the year. Because her husband is working in the United States, they pay for another young man to take care of the milpa lands. In the afternoons, we would water the radishes, tomatoes, lettuce, parsely and other vegetables in her house garden and take care of their chickens and pigs right below their house. The very first morning I woke up to the sounds of a squealing pig being hung on a tree and weighed before it was shoved in the back of a truck and taken to the market to be killed and sold.
Other days we walked up to her father's ranch where he had many pigs, turkeys, goats, chickens and a large planted area as well. The son, Lorenzo, would go to the ranch every day with his older cousins and walk the goats and donkeys up into the mountains to eat. One afternoon we walked to a cross above the village where you could see a panoramic view of the mountains and just about every house in the village. Another day we walked to their pueblo church that celebrated their namesake, Saint Geronimo.
While I was really happy to take a warm shower and sleep in a bed when returning to the city, I cant wait to print pictures, bring them back, and visit the family. There was a strange balance between feeling like the gringa stranger and feeling like just another child in their family, doing my part of the family work washing dishes or sweeping the floor. Sometimes they would ask questions about the north, especially the children and the grandfather. Sometimes I felt like a circus from the north that has a giant backpack, reads a book, has white skin, a lip piercing, wears sunscreen etc. Other times, people were very open and interesting to talk with, compare cultures, and talk about village news. It was definitely the most immersed in Mexican culture that I have felt during this entire program.
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AMALIA
We arrived at the main plaza of
San Jeronimo Taviche at around 2:30 pm on Monday. All of the women were waiting
in the shade of the Municipio building.
We all introduced ourselves and were randomly assigned, to our
respective families. I was paired with a wonderful and wise woman named Doña
Gloria.
Doña Gloria has 3 sons, and a daughter. Her three sons and
husband spend every day with the chivos,
toros, burros and caballos out in
the mountains to let the animals pasture. Her daughter lives in the DF, and
visits during festivities.
We spent a lot of time hanging out in the kitchen, cooking
and chatting. This experience allowed me to participate in the family’s
everyday activities.
Everyone began bustling
at 5 every morning. I would get up and sit in the kitchen with everyone while
they drank their coffee. Doña Gloria took the
nixtamal she had prepared the night before to the
molino, and the men set off for the
campo with their herd of goats, bulls, donkeys, and horses. I waited eagerly
for Doña Gloria´s return to help her with the days work. She was reluctant at
first to have her guest helping in the kitchen, and was adamant about me resting
to take care of my foot (I hurt it on a hike on day two and unfortunately had to sit for most of the village stay). I insisted on assisting, and she finally agreed. We
spent hours talking about her past as we made hundreds of tamales, and shaped
memelas and tlayudas for supper.
It was one of the few examples I have seen of a family being
almost completely self sufficient. The food they eat all year comes from their
hard work in the fields the year before. They grow and produce everything by
hand.
I look forward to returning to this wonderful family the
next time I am back in Oaxaca!
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Caroline
We set out on our voyage on Monday morning for the office of
Centeotl, where we were given a brief presentation about the work that Centeotl
does in local communities. The projects included things such the community
library and initiatives to encourage growing of crops in communities that have
widespread health issues. They explained to us that San Jeronimo Taviche has
history of health issues such as diabetes and poor nutrition, especially in the
young children of the population. In response to this situation Centeotl worked
with the community to create an agricultural program for basic needs.
After the brief presentation we loaded back up into the big red van and headed out on a very bumpy road to meet with our families. In the center of the town we exchanged greeting and headed out for the homes. Kristina and I were the last ones to get dropped off and as we were driving up the woman she was going to spend the week with said that we were going to be neighbors. When I heard this I imagined the houses being next to each other and Kristina and I seeing each other all the time. When the van came to a stop and we got out Jessie, the 17-year-old girl whose family I was staying with, pointed to one peak where her house was and to the next peak where Kristina would be staying. Neighbors in fact meant that you could see one house from the other, not that we would see each other everyday. Accepting this reality I grabbed my bag and started to hike up the hill, quickly realizing that I packed too much. When we arrived to the house I met Jessie’s parent, the 3 dogs, 4 rabbits, 7 chickens and the small white cat that doesn’t like to hunt for mice.
The rest of
the week was very action packed. I was sleeping in the main room of the house so
when the family woke so did I, which was at 6:30. While I was staying with the
family they made a point to show me all the town had to offer. One day we hiked to one of the highest points in the town where the dad claimed, “was the only
panoramic view of the whole town”. Later we visited the dam to have a quick
picnic, which was then followed by traveling into the nearby mountains to
collect firewood. And that was all in one day. It struck me how much energy the
family had without even thinking twice. The rest of the week was filled with
new experiences like eating goat, working in the family's garden, visiting the
shut-down mine, and learning how make tejate, and seeing the decorations for
Semana Santa. These experiences were great but I also really valued the stories
that I heard along the way. The father of the family was very proud to tell me
about his life, the struggles and gains that make it up. The family I stayed
with was welcoming, generous, kind and inspiring; all while just living their
daily lives.
On Wednesday morning, we adventured up to Monte Alban, the historic ruins that we all visited as a group during the first few weeks. We were all grateful for the opportunity to move our bodies and quench our souls with a hike through Oaxaca's natural landscape. 
