The Pear-Shaped Pete

revolutionary politics

"las elecciones no han terminado" is painted on many walls in xoxo. this is not the work of grafiteros.  there murals were paid for by the PRD, the partido revolucionario democratico, after the state elections in august.  usually they also say something about a planned mega march that happened back in august or they renounce the general electoral fraud.  their bright yellow colour envokes the ongoing protests and political action taken by the federal PRD, led by their presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

many walls in oaxaca continue to shout declarations of political and revolutionary victory over the government of Ulises Ruiz.  the posters - this winter very professionally designed and painted - for the November 25th march are the colour red; one is of a raised clenched fist.  graffitti on one wall in the centre reads: "el pueblo unido jamas sera vencido".

perhaps this alone, is what a casual visitor to oaxaca sees.  and certainly, for hte foreign tourists who have begun to flock to oaxaca, much in the same way they were attracted to chiapas, the revolutionary spirit in the state seems strong.

Mexico has spent 71 years under a one party state (for all intensive purposes), 34 years under a much despised dictator, and who knows who many years under a unified aztec bureaucracy.  democracy is honestly not something that comes naturally in this coutnry.  and, as a solution to the constant concentration of power, real and complete revolution has not been particularly successful either.

las sunday in las lomas de san nazareno our neighbours put up a tianguis.  the individual puestos were marked out with rocks and women brought tables and umbrellas to sell their goods.  sparkly stars, poinsettias, garlands and carol-playing lights predominated. although there were a few grocery items, atole to warm up shoppers in the morning, and memelas and tacos when mid morning hunger struck.  no one was there to shop but rather to gather.

on the road in front three or four men were building speed bumps into the dirt road leading into the neighbourhood.  here people do not petition the government for things - much less something as trivial as a tope to slow traffic.

so the community has a street meeting and decicdes to build topes, and how to organize the tianguis market, or where the taxis can stop and wait for passengers.  One street bought a gate to close off traffic - most do not own cars - when there were more problems with theft and vagrancy.  a couple of days ago i saw one of our street leaders talking with a sheherd explaining where exactly his animals are unwanted.

maybe this is why only 30% of elegible oaxacans voted in the august elections, and why, i think, APPO has very little dedicated popular support.  politics in mexico are corrupt and when underhanded dealings are exposed no one seems to care.  people do not place their faith in the political process.

voting in mexico has been explained to me as a choice of who will do the least.  generally people don't seem to trust their elected representatives to change anything or to do what they are asked to do.  the mysterious political activities that go on in state and federal houses of government are disregarded in favour of the community organization.  a person's neighbours whose names, faces, and family history are known are trusted to get something done.  and here, as in most places, small organizations form the strongest opposition to politicians.  political parties are too big to be trusted and APPO is too diverse to be trusted to offer an alternative.

on the highway to arrazola, and thus on the way to las lomas, there is a bar.  this area is full of construction businesses:  supply stores, equiptment rentals, tablaroca (concrete brick) makers, and the contractors and labourers.   the bar that we pass daily is call "el sindicato' - the union - and i have never seen it open. this is not a union prepared to drop everything to shut down the oaxacan economy, although collectively or individually it's members may have participated in the barricades last summer. 

is in such a place as this, with the people who presumably congregate, where the heart of oaxacan political strength lies. the PRD will continue to scream electoral fraud until the next elections (during which campaign they will presumeably remind voters of the corruption), APPO will continue to poster the streets and hold occasional marches until it loses all remaining cohesion, seccion 22 and 59 will continue to squabble over rights to schools, missing money, unfufilled promises, and which section holds the moral authority, and the PRI will continue to blithely assume political dominancy.

none of this ultimately matters.  it is my community organization to which i must ultimately answer in most things and to which i must go if i want change.

Organ donor database

I meant to put this up a week ago.  this is not something i usually do, link an entire news post with no commentary. nor do i often speak about this topic (although it is rediculous that i don´t).

please make an informed decision about organ donation.  i don´t care what an individual decides to do, but if more people took the time to consider donating, well, i can only imagine.  anti rejection drugs, steroids, and cytotoxic medications are quite one thing to deal with, but a slow death on dialysis (for example) is horrible. 

speaking from experience . . .

Premier Dalton McGuinty of Ontario in Canada announced a $4-million organ donation strategy Friday that includes the expense reimbursement policy.

"Too many Ontarians face an agonizing wait for an organ that could save their life," said McGuinty.

This week, 1,743 patients are waiting for a transplant in the province.

The government's organ-donation strategy will provide funding to reimburse living donors for pre-approved expenses, such as meals, accommodation and travel expenses and provide hospitals with information to identify people who wish to donate their organs after death to help ensure their wishes are respected.

"Organ donation saves hundreds of lives each year across Ontario, yet there are not enough available donors to meet the demand for organ transplants," said Health and Long-Term Care Minister George Smitherman, who said the program "will make the province's organ donation system more effective so we can save more lives in the future, particularly through support for living donations."

Across Canada, 198 people died while waiting for a transplant last year, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Most of those patients needed either a kidney or a liver.

2o Lunes del Cerro

Hace unos días que chema me mandó las fotos del guelaguetza.  ¿su comentario? fue padre.  sin crítica nada más.  no he ido entonces no puedo pláticar del tema, pero les presento sus fotos aquí para su placer.

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For english readers,  last week chema sent me his fotos of his experience at the guelaguetza.  i asked how it was, he said "very cool".  and that was all.  i have never been so i can´t comment.  however, for your enjoyment, here they are.

response

the comparison between oaxacan politics and culture and the quesillo cheese is an interesting one.  quesillo is stringy tangled cheese made only here in the state.  one buys it at the market in balls to be unravelled and shredded at home. 

certainly this state of 570 municipios (more than any other state), 17 languages, innumerable communal (ejido) lands, multiple political systems, three political parties, abundant civil organizations, and whatever else creates a land of an incredibly high level of social complexity.

perhaps this is what APPO's failing was/is.  with so many different interests affecting life here how does a broad-based group that claims to speak for the entire state decide upon policy, or action?  an attempt has been made to follow the zapatista model with asembleas and community input, but the speed with which APPO was forced to respond to URO's will of force left no time for in depth organization or planning.

this romantic view of an organization that represents the entire oaxacan pueblo is appropriate for the holiday (Día del Amor y la Amistad). but is either a dishonest or a naive interpretation of what has been happening here.

APPO presence here has been reduced to a small march at the beginning of the month and daily newspaper articles about Flavio Sosa's family or statements made by the spokesperson for the movement.  yes some members are in hiding and the PFP still have a strong presence in the surrounding communities, but driving through the oaxacan countryside this weekend gave a better example of popular sentiment in the state.  painted everywhere are anti-APPO slogans and pro-PRI graffiti. 

certainly in the nearly four months we have been here and my travels around the state i wonder where in fact APPO's supposed popular base is.  the general feeling seems to be that people are ashamed, embarrassed, and angry with the laziness of the maestros, the disruption of APPO, and the violence of URO and his thugs.  with nearly one billion pesos in lost tourist revenue, the cost of the PFP, and the cost of the destruction here most people are fed up and want life to return to normal.  the newspapers are reporting bankruptcy in many on the restaurants in town (Fox's compensation money tended to go to URO's friends), and i know of many businesses that just gave up and moved their store out of the centre during the summer.

certainly the PRD's readiness to ally itself so strongly (and in many people's eyes turn the struggle into a lucha for perredistas to point out electoral fraud and show AMLO support) with APPO and the maestros means that it has lost credibility in many people's eyes.  the upcoming elections should be an all out PRI sweep through the state, as many PRI strongholds are as faithful as before, and PAN just doesn't seem to exist in the political realm here.

as a good friend here says "we want peace, no more.  ulises is a bad man and he must resign."  this ambiguity of feeling seems typically mexican to me, and certainly throws doubts on the supposed communality of feeling here in oaxaca.

   

Quesillo Oaxaqueño

Oaxacan politics can be as entangled as its famous cheese. It is difficult to find other regions of the country the same complexity of the political institutions there. The enormous list of means belonging to the local authoritarian political class to negotiate and govern has reached a mixture of sophistication and surprising crudity. And the way in which civil employees, in governing the state, use this concession, corruption and repression are of a remarkable complexity.

The social struggles have unfolded from this complexity. Indigenous resistance found the structure to conserve their own culture by appropriating the dominant influence's system. In doing so it generated a political culture where nothing is as it seems to be, and founded the systems to make policy in the state. Professional politicians have also had to adapt to that continuous struggle.

Guillermo Bonfil provided a fundamental key to understanding this dynamic. In Mèxico profundo he writes: "Conquered by force, indigenous communities nevertheless have resisted: they endure as differentiated social organizations, each with it's own identity that is sustained exclusively by the members of each particular culture. Almost five centuries of domination, of brutal and subtle aggression against Indigenous culture, have not managed to prevent the survival of Mexico. The paths of resistance form an intricate network of strategies that occupy a large part of the culture and daily life of Indigenous communities”.

This resistance, understood as the fight of the oppressed to not be absorbed by the dominators, has been known to find solutions for its survival in these tangles. This flexibility of Indigenous resistance has become part of the larger Oaxacan society. This is shown in the hundreds of organizations which exist in the state. In few places in Mexico is it possible to find a social fabric as dense and structured as the one that exists there.

This resistance had to develop new ways to recreate itself in the context of a chaotic and wild urbanization, like that which grew in the city of Oaxaca and its surrounding communities. An urbanization which devours the communal lands, dries the water sources, contaminates the water table, fills the land with garbage, while at the same time provides precarious employment, expensive living and inadequte services to those expelled from the communities. In order to subsist, the new urban Indigenous transferred to the polis their communality: their will to be collective. It is for that reason that the Oaxacan revolt has it's support base in the poor districts of the state capital, in its women and its young people. The Oaxacan Commune was fed and inspired by the Indigenous communality.

This ancestral resistance, adapted to the new urban conditions, is what explains why the popular movement demanding the fall of Ulises Ruiz does not cease in spite of the savage repression that has occurred. Neither the massive presence of Policía Federal Preventiva (PFP), nor the deathsquads, nor the extrajudicial executions, nor the arbitrary searches of citizens, nor the torture, nor the bribes, nor the smear campaigns have managed to restrain the protest.

Certainly, there is fear. A fear that was forgotten at the beginning of the movement, that returned with the savage repression, but that has not paralyzed the protest. Because the fear has been transformed into indignation and the anguish into action.

A result has been that part of the leadership of the movement has had to go underground. For some of his members there is nothing new in that. They have learned to live in the shadows of government intolerance and authoritarianism which has faced social protests for decades. But, as the protest really comes from below, and its existence does not depend on what its leaders do, its influence stays.

And so, despite everything, the takeover of governmental buildings continues; Ulises Ruiz has great difficulty participating in public events, thousands of people continue to take the streets of Oaxaca to protest against the desgobernador, the city councils continue working and hundreds of voices are raised to denounce the upsettings and the offenses that are suffered.

In the same way, in spite of its internal differences, the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) decided that in the next local elections it will advocate a vote of punishment against Ulises Ruiz and his allies, but will not present its own candidates for positions of popular election nor will APPO guarantee that its advisors are postulated by a particular political party. It will respect the decision of those who wishes to participate in the electoral process.

Far from lessening, the political storm in the state will get worse in the next weeks. The intervention of Elba Esther Gordillo in the teacher's union by creating a new local will incite the protest. The breach of the commitments promised by the federal government to the teachers will renew the anger. The upcoming elections for state Congress and the municipalities that use the system of parties and deputies (5 of August and 7 of October, respectively) will intensify the bonfire of conflict by the political candidates. PRI has already promised to give dispensions and canoneros of thousand pesos to buy votes.

Calm in Oaxaca? As if! Instead of disentangling itself, quesillo oaxaqueño will entangle itself even more during the next months.

Luis Hernandez Navarro, La Jornada

(with my strenuous attempt at translating - i need to do it more often)

                          

migration

we have joined the many who migrate, granted our situation is one of priviledge.  as of wednesday we should have our resident document which allows us to live in mexico for up to a year and is renewable unlimitedly.

we went up monday intending to renew our tourist visa, however the costs involved with that made it easier to apply for a resident visa.  the migration office is up in colonia reforma on pensamientos, about three blocks north of the carretera istmo.  it really is amazing how nice everone is in that office (although i have heard otherwise, maybe my fluency in spanish helps), however Damien very patiently explained to us that we needed 50$ per person per day that we wish to extend the visa.  this would have amounted to almost 15 000$ for the three of us for another 90 days.

so we went home.  we did some research and it is easier to prove monthly income and residency that it would be to find the money to put in the bank. 

nonetheless the paperwork required for visa changes is amazing, multiplied by three i thought i would go crazy. 

eight photos of each of us (four profile, four front)
original FMT we got at the airport
passports
copies of every page of our passports
migration form filled out and copied (what we look like physically etc.)
application to change visa status form completed
letter of intent, why we want to stay and how we can afford it
a copy of the landlord's electoral identification
the original and a copy of our lease
bank statements from the last three months, translated and copied
bank receipts  in triplicate showing the fee had been paid, one copy kept by the bank, one copy photocopied twice, therefore three to migracion and one for our records

i think that's it.  but for each of us.  i was a little frazzled when i was in the office talking with Edna, who was a tremendous help. 

we had to run around, go to the office first thing to get the bank forms, go down to the scotiabank on the carretera, wait in line then go back to the office, submit everything.  unfortunately we realized that the bank statements didn't have our name on them, so we had to go home the application incomplete.

back the next day, except that i went in the afternoon.  Migracion closes at 1pm to the public.

back friday morning with the bank statements.  i was up in colonia reforma (which i detest) everyday last week.  and that was pretty much all i did last week. 

no that's not true.  wednesday night: Rocky Balboa.  it was hysterical, my first rocky movie lived up to my expectations. 

La guerra de la tortilla

La gente de Maiz

In mexico people have been eating maize for thousands of years. 

Someone at some point began cultivating and selectively breeding teosinte which has produced one of the world's most important food crops.  Someone else decided to soak this maize in limed water, grind it on a stone metate, mix a dough (or masa), hand form little round flat breads and cook them over a fire on a comal.  People still do this here, it can be seen everywhere.  I did it myself a few days ago when i made tamales with the neighbours. 

It is said that each mexican eats a dozen tortillas everyday, but as Westernization spreads into this country more people are eating white Bimbo bread (or up north wheat flour tortillas).  However, certainly for the millions of poor mexicans tortillas remain so important that for some it is the only source of affordable food.   

it is very common now to buy one's tortillas from a tortilleria which uses Maseca dough and a machine to shape and steam the flat breads.  These are still good compared to the tasteless tortillas sold in North America, however for good tortillas you make your own, and here's why.

Tortillas are tightly controlled here - still, despite NAFTA. A government agency buys maize from producers and then resells the maize at a reduced price to tortilla makers, then there is also a price cap on the price of tortillas.  The idea is that producers and tortillerias are protected and ensure the supply of this most important food. 

However, Maseca flour is processed so much that taste is compromised, it is essentially dehydrated corn flour, rather than ground kernals.  Mexicans value the taste of their tortillas so highly that when the NAFTA regulations began and industry farming began growing GMO maize and importing it into mexico, mexicans rejected it in favour of the more flavourful field corn used here for anything to do with corn.  However, the president of Maseca is a personal friend of Carlos Salinas; the president who bought his seat in 1988.

Salinas' brother Raul Salinas controlled the maize subsidization programme under the Salinas regime.  He put a cap on the quantity of maize to be purchased by the government.  Beyond that amount the programme would substitute Maseca.  At this time Maseca was also setting up tortillerias capable of making tortillas with flour rather than masa.  nonetheless Maseca began making quite a lot of money as it and the state company were the only corn flour manufacturers in mexico.

To make matters worse, in 1998 (I believe) the federal government lifted its price cap on tortillas; the price of tortillas tripled but the price of maize was falling due to imports from the US.   

Roberto González Barrera, the CEO of Maseca (now GRUMA) controls a company with tortillas sales of around 3 billion annually, and Banorte, one of the biggest banks in Mexico, which was handed to him by Salinas.

This rant/history lesson is precipitated by recent changes to food prices.  Over the last year or so the price of maize has gone up, due to rising petrol costs i would imagine, as this seems to affect everything.  As a considerable amount of maize consumed in mexico now comes from the US (thanks to Maseca), this affects the cost even more. Apparently, before the price liberalization one kilo of tortillas cost 1% of the daily minimum wage, in 2007 the price has risen to nearly 20% (of a wage of 50 pesos).  In 2006 the rate of inflation here in Mexico was 4.05%, but the effect of the rising costs of tortillas represented 25% of this inflation.

PAN is saying that it will not impose a price cap again and is talking about aid to producers to increase the production of mexican grown maize, and to make US importation easier. The PRD is warning against ignoring this problem, and allowing more GMO corn into Mexico to increase production.

Who knows what will happen.  people are talking everywhere here and are extremely worried.  Tortillas represent over 50% of the caloric intake of Mexico's poor and daily mexicans consume 630 million tortillas.  All i know is that in December a kilo of tortillas cost me 7 pesos, this has risen to 8.50 and is expected to continue to 14 pesos.  In Durango this cost is reported as 30 pesos per kilo, in Baja California 18$ and in the capital between 10 and 15 pesos per kilo.

 

(thanks to La Jornada for facts and figures)

 

rainy day

This morning we slept in a little, or at least I did. We went off in search of breakfast with overcast skies above. Back to el Portal for breakfast because LJT got caught up in watching the workers repair the balcony above the restaurant. Breakfast was quieter than last night (except for the marimba band that seems to follow us everywhere we go), but still it was expensive and lukewarm. Bricks were falling all around us as the workers chipped away.

After breakfast we went shopping for a new bathing suit for EB. Great success with that, his shorts say "mormaii since seventies". Then went to check email at a cibercafe. EB got some work, which led to our discovery that there is no wireless internet here in Veracruz. So, in cranky moods, and through the rain, we went back to the hotel to evaluate our situation. We had a great time fooling around with each other, setting up a store, wrestling, trying to convince LJT to go for a swim in the hotel pool.

Before la cena we decided to take a ride on the tram bus tour. We sat on the top, and for 25$P each we were given a tour of the historic centre of Veracruz complete with snacks and a drink. The ride gave us a great view into the patios of the houses we passed. The bus was so big it barely made it around some corners, and it had to back up twice in order to continue. And we were lucky enough to listen to 'la bomba' played over and over, interrupted only by barely decipherable tour information. Nonetheless it was perfect for LJT to sit and be able to look around at things without becoming exhausted, we were also able to go back down to the port without having to deal with the wind.

After our tour we ate our midday meal at La Casona de la Condesa. Another great comida corrida menu, fruit cocktail, soup, fresh juice, fish a la veracruzana, rice beans, tortillas, and vanilla flan. For 36$P.

'La Condesa' is a myth here in Veracruz. Legend says that she was upset by the long waits while her husband was out at sea. She decided to ease the time by finding lovers among the nobility living here. However, to preserve her reputation she built a series of tunnels from her house to various places around the city.

LJT and EB back to the hotel for nap: me off to the cibercafe to figure out what to do about EB's work. Stopped by Ticketbus and bought tickets for Oaxaca, seemed the smartest thing to do as there we can settle down and have a guaranteed connection for EB to work. I think all of us could do with time spent at home.

Took a swim in the hotel pool after LJT's nap. After our hot shower and change of clothes we went down to los portales to sit at a table and have our cena. 'Los tiburones' of Veracruz won the futbol game today so there seemed a special element of celebration in the zocalo. Wonderful cuban-style jazz band was playing under los portales; couples were dancing to the salsa. LJT was entranced by the musicians who offered to let him try the percussion. After a stroll around we went back up to our room for bed.

We will have the morning tomorrow to do something before our bus in the afternoon.

Table USA

Had coffee and microwaved cereal in mugs and then wandered down to the bus ticket vendor. A sea of shoe stores. Stopped to snap photos of the dia de los muertos altars in the zocalo. LJT procured a paper bag of fresh-made potato chips, which he subsequently dropped and freaked out about. HPJ and I shared a fried platano slathered in condensed milk, cream, and jam. LJT eyed the balloons.

A police officer shook my hand and wished me good day.

The bus to Oaxaca didn't leave until midnight, so instead we bought tickets for Veracruz, a ninety-minute drive southeast to the coast.

Back to the hotel for more coffee and to pack. Even though we had nothing more than that with which we came, it was a trial to get everything into our bags. Rosy had her son, Luis, helping her clean. LJT did his very best to help them, and they revealed themselves to be very patient and kind. Luis found some balloons for LJT, which was a lovely distraction.

At the bus station, our bags were 35 kg over the limit, so we had to pay 43 pesos. The bus station had a security system. We placed our carry-on luggage onto a table and walked through a metal detector. A security guard slid the bag up the table for us to pick up using a hand-held metal detector. The sound of the metal detector going off had no impact on the proceedings – the bags of every passenger in the line passed the inspection.

We were on a first-class bus, which means that we were subjected to a movie for the entire ride – a Hong Kong supernatural suspense thriller dubbed into Spanish. There were no earphones, so through the window I watched the Mexican landscape to the sound of screams, panicked breathing, and bad foley work.

The taxi ride made me nervous, for the cab lacked a crucifix dangling from the rearview mirror. All the other taxis we had been in had crosses. Even the bus we had just been on had a crucifix.

The Hotel Imperial fronts onto the zocalo. A whole block is dedicated to restaurant patio seating. Cigars are sold from carts right outside the hotel entrance. The lobby features one of Mexico's first elevators, an iron cage contraption. It still works. At the lobby level, the elevator is encased in stained glass. Beside the elevator is a replica of the hotel under glass. The replica makes the hotel look less impressive rather than more impressive. The vaulted ceiling is also stained glass.

Our room overlooks a parking garage. The fixtures and furnishings have not been upgraded in a long, long time. Neither has the city.

We walked down to the port. Coconut palms line the streets. Teenage boys were jumping into the water for money thrown by tourists. HPJ had an eye for the sailors. The walk was lined with vendors hawking cheap, ugly souvenirs; LJT would have bought the lot. Vendors yelling "Coco! Coco! Coco!" were selling fresh, peeled coconut and coconut water. The wind was intense.

We went to the Gran Cafe del Portal for dinner, a Veracruz institution since 1824. The place has a hundred tables at least, and it was almost full. We declined the patio because the tour trams were so loud, but the inside was equally as loud from poor acoustics. One television showed hyenas killing and eating other animals; the other featured some science show on the Discovery Channel. On the bill we were identified as "Table USA."

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