the graffiti here tells a story. one of late night resistance and early morning whitewashing. the stencils appear one day and disappear the next. the words of people unable to live as before made paint.
yesterday i was able to read and help with the translation of CASA´s book of first-hand testimonials from the movement last year. this is powerful stuff – priests backed by a theology of liberation, old women wearing disguises to continue their confrontations of an invading police force, indigenous leaders reflecting on the inner-workings of the APPO and what makes it something unique, organic and real…i am humbled by the adversity withstood, awed by the analysis, and inspired by the action, when the book comes out i´m sure these sentiments will be shared…
…also met with a member of the Mal de Ojo video collective, a sponteanously formed group of journalists, activists here and abroad, and longtime producers of video, that came together to document and educate a struggle. it was interesting to learn about the role of street vendors in so widely distributing the documentation of repression and resistance, and learn that when women took over a primary television station last August this documentation was an integral part of the lineup…t.v. is either delusion or direction, depending on who´s behind the camera…what would you say to thousands of viewers, what are you longing to share and support?…another project of one of the member organizations of Mal de Ojo is focused on archiving thousands of hours of video footage filmed over the last few decades from indigenous communities in the mountains around Oaxaca…cultural heritage, language and structure being sucked north with migration while the waste of capitalism is sent south (cheap corn, roads destroying what they take people to see, and activists like myself hoping to be something else)…films that help us reflect on what was, what´s changing and what could be…
…speaking of which, today i head off to Tanetze de Zaragoza, where a women-lead coffee cooperative is located in a small Zapotec community…in the early 90´s coffee prices went down (in large part due to cheap coffee being imported to the US via Vietnam – from USAID grants prioritizing monoculture, chemicals and shade-less production) and many of the men from Tenetze de Zaragoza headed to Mexico City and the US to find work and money to send home (an expensive gamble)…the women left in the community organized and now sell coffee, honey and other products here in Oaxaca City organic market (one of the most beautiful markets i´ve ever visited…a rainbow of color atop deep red clay still stuck to my shoes as i type, and reflected in a pond thick with fish) where mostly expats, tourists, and middle and upper-class Oaxacans shop…i´ve been graced with the chance to travel up into the mountains with the woman largely responsible for organizing the cooperative…to learn about what patterns of immigration look like on the other side of the Shenandoah Valley and Northern Virginia, and to offer whatever help i can with the farmwork…i´ll be out of touch until next Friday most likely…
the other folks here in the CASA circle, some volunteers and visitors, are giving me the support i need to not dwell on homesickness, and be patient while my work here is finalized…there´s a lot of knowledge and experience around me, and i feel really, really good…yesterday i felt no chill watching fog surround the mountain tops, a breeze that reminded me of Fall back home – the years growth on the ground, an uncertain movement through earth ahead, and good things green and strong to come…a struggle to prepare for…
Patrick
P.S. i´ll be posting more survey results soon…i hope to hear from you all (and thanks so much to those that have sent me a piece of their lives electronically)
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