annika del quinto

More details

2009-05-22T14:51:00.000-07:00

Next Wednesday will be my final day (for now) in Vale do Capão... I am feeling somewhat anxious to conclude the research that I have been trying to focus on typing these past days. At the same time, I realize that I have been introduced to so much throughout my weeks living in this community, in this valley. Naturism (not the nudist kind;) is a new topic that is really interesting me, and at that, one which I have begun practicing. Have you ever had a medical doctor read your irises to see what is going on inside your body and emotions? I experienced this last week and was something of astounded. Energy therapy is practiced a great deal here, also. The health is practiced and viewed as holistic, encompassing all dimensions of the person and her or his spirit... Every Tuesday, too, I have participated in the Grupo das Gravedas - a group of pregnant women who practice natural birthing methods for preparation for their own birthing processes. The wind here has been picking up, as winter really gets strong in August. With this has come the rain... not too much, but enough to make the skin feel cold. I had my first visit with a chiropractor today and am starting to see more the importance of knowing the body´s structure... my body´s specific structure...
ALright, here are my tid-bits for now while I can...
Fortaleza will be such a change but with this will come refreshed perspective.
Much love.

Getting out and in touch

2009-05-22T14:47:00.000-07:00

When I have gone on walks here, I cant even believe that I´m in Brasil many times... For example, this afternoon I went walking and it was misting out... gently thick clouds fogged the surrounding mountains over... I came upon a smaller path to my left that was just big enough for a car to fit through... I knew I only had an hour or so before dark would come, and i didn´t have my lantern, so I decided to explore that unknown path which ended up bringing me closer and closer to Morro Branco, one of the famous mountain peaks here that easily forms cachoeiras (waterfalls) when it rains here... I spun around many times with my arms outspread and I breathed in deep more times than I could count... really I was so touched from nature, feeling something such as disbelief at how land is formed and powerful but graceful and calming all at the same time....
I just wanted to share this with you... I am trying to take pictures and videos here to bring back some pieces to share.

2009-05-15T12:50:00.000-07:00

I just wrote down that film title (´The Business of Birth´) - I am getting more and more interested in natural birthing processes and preparations, especially on a cross-cultural bases. I have been here in Vale do Capão for a little over a week, and I will be here for a week and a half more. This is my research time, but in all reality I have been doing more self-focus and nature-integration time. What I have written down for this ´pesquisa´ (research) is very little. But I believe there are many things that come to us without awaiting them, and this time and these experiences have definitely served as examples of just that. This is my time... within this community... So throughout these vivencias, experiencias, that are becoming engrained in me--- through this I will try to make my research into something tangible and somewhat academic.
We shall see, ay....
But this is said with a positive (and a tid bit nervous) heart;)
Those 10 days in Salvador were some of my favorite. The ambiance is definitely unique, as well as the lifestyle in many ways. I did feel a more comfortable sense in Salvador. In many aspects to me, the life in Fortaleza seems very industrial and not as varied. But, I have found some great gems in Fortaleza, too, which cannot be dismissed.
So the focus now--- read about different caring-healing theories, shamanism, meditation, and to write down the different forms of healing I have witnessed and experienced here through the community´s (and valley´s) alternative/natural health options....
Maybe in the future I will be on my way to being a partera!
I am really hoping I can whip something quite good up...!!! It is so unknown right now, but I have got to embrace this wonder, no..?? I want what I write down and present to encompass the sacredness that exists in practice and community here... including spirituality, coexistence and participation with nature, transforming health and healing...

research and something like it

2009-05-09T13:14:00.000-07:00

Vale do Capão is gorgeous and every morning I have woken up and been greeted by the presence of the large surrounding mountains... Lothlorien is a sacred place that has a rich history of people passionately dedicated to community, alternative/natural health and healing, spirituality, and community involvement/integration. It was started as a community in 1984 by two Brasilian couples enrooted in such lifestyles and now has grown, through the épocas, to be a community in spirit and a location of heath, healing, and spirituality. The history of this nucleus of people has formed the valley as a whole greatly and now today the valley is, although with a small population of approximately 1500 people, an area that offers and emphasizes alternative/natural health and healing (encompassing not only physical health, but furthermore emotional, mental, and spiritual health). Throughout my times traveling these past years and living specifically in Latin America, I honestly say that this open focus on and prioritizing of such elements of health is incredible for a small rural community. There are so many rural areas, and also of course urban areas, where mental, emotional, and spiritual health continue being plagued by tabus and/or people do not have access to such outlets. Now I do not disregard the vast and different sacred indigenous practices that take place in many (specifically rural) locations, but the problem of non-attention and non-access is widespread regarding such themes.
So this is a new emphasis that i think my research is going to take on...
The people living in Lothlorien are genuinely caring and they have a way of reaching different elements of people in sentimental and human ways.
My second day here I hiked with two new Brasilian friends to a waterfall called Rio Preto and we swam there among the water-encompassed rocks. The water felt so refreshing and just good --- a good that I couldn´t remember before feeling in water. ..
Mom--- Thank you for your selflessness and attention and care and help and on and onnnnn that you have specifically put into the OGC housing application. It was beautifully written and your voice sounded as I read the words...
Belleza you are. In all ways sem dúvida.
The internet actually isn´t so hard to get to here. So I will email again in a few days.
Much of the life here is so relaxed in such a way that I am even fully used to. This is a little ´dangerous´ for getting work done... for example, when I ask people when I could interview them, a set date and time is never set... ´ a gente se fala depois ... ´ (oh, we will see one another later and talk... maybe today... maybe tomorrow... maybe that would be better... we will see...;) seriously though! But there is soul in this, you know. I do not say this in a mocking way... It is just unique here... But I did have a good, uplifting talk with my advisor today. She has been at Lothlorien since the beginning and is the only remaining founder living here.

Bolivia

2009-04-22T15:59:00.000-07:00

Evo Morals is off his hunger strike. What will happen now? Was this act by Morales really a form of ´blackmailing´ as opposers claimed? Was this necessary of Morales, being that he is the leading force as president?

2009-04-22T15:58:00.000-07:00

Holistic Health & Healing: Alternative Practice at Lothlorien

Health and healing based off the ontological caring competencies (self-reflection, cultivating stillness, receptivity, imagination and reverie, focusing attention, energetically creating space, recalling the sense of compassion or agape, and centering and expressing intention through touch/energy work)1 provide a base for creating a new reality, a refreshed world view. These unique realities and world views derive from Martha E. Rogers’ theory of the “Science of Unitary Human Beings.”2 The healing arts,3 as Doctor Cecilia Wendler calls them, (such as the ontological caring competencies) are enrooted in history, yet the connection of holistic healing and health to society is fractured and perplexing. Despite this there continues to exist a “holistic, unitary nature of human beings and their environment.”4

This research will investigate and analyze how the alternative community of Lothlorien, located in Bahia’s interior (Vale do Capão), supports the philosophy of the Science of Unitary Human Beings through its methods of practicing holistic5 health and healing. How does Lothlorien embody an alternative6 reality? In what ways does Lothlorien promote a distinguished world view? How are interconnections of health and healing made in Lothlorien’s coexistence7 with nature? A further focus will be upon the ways in which meditation, nature, communal living, and natural birthing8 are transformed as healing arts. Ethnographic methodology will be used throughout the research to conduct principally informal interviews (approximately 15 – including one group interview) with Lothlorien’s guests and leaders, participate in communal activities such as daily meditation and weekly natural birthing classes, and work as a volunteer for the community - fulfilling any farming and/or administration needs. Participatory observation will be used more than interviewing. No tape recorders will be utilized. When interviewing, interviewees will be asked why they chose to live in Lothlorien, how they view and experience health and healing at Lothlorien, and how communal living (with others and nature) has affected their (well) being.

Despite the worldwide existence of differing alternative communities, there is a need for a furthered academic vision encompassing the ways in which health and healing can be uniquely explored within these communities. This alternative outlet provides the potential for health and healing to not solely be medical, technological matters, but further linking them to nature and defining them as experiential, energy-requiring processes in which space is created through caring relationships in a process of expanding consciousness, resulting in a sense of wholeness, integration, balance, and transformation…9 As the increasing extinction of natural resources occurs, it is vital to learn how different communities are living with and amongst such resources in sustainable, peaceful ways – offering not only natural health alternatives but also emphasizing conscious connections with mind, body, spirit, soul, and earth to foment an alternative meaning for progress and an interesting contrast to everyday society.

-Ethical Issues: The primary ethical issues with my research regard community members’ boundaries, specifically dealing with respect for space. Since Lothlorien bases upon communal living, it will be important not to impose an overly-professional dynamic into the space – where people could feel they are not being recognized for the wholeness of their being. I will work to prevent this potential issue through my participation in community activities, as if I were an average guest. Informal interviewing will also allow greater flexibility that will acclimate to the mood of the environment as well as people’s needs and wants. Additionally, before attending the natural birthing class permission shall be received from each participant to allow my presence, and it will be voiced beforehand that I can be asked to leave at any time throughout the sessions if necessary. Prior to each interview and/or research interaction, participants will be informed of my study’s focus in addition to the goals I have set, allowing questions to be asked.

- ISP Format: The format to encompass the whole of my research will be a combination of art and formal writing (a formal paper). The method/type of art used will depend on what I experience and what resources I encounter at Lothlorien.

-Bibliography:

Cowling, Richard W., Smith, Marlaine C., Watson, Jean. “The Power of Wholeness, Consciousness, and

Caring: A dialogue on Nursing Science, Art, and Healing.” Advances in Nursing Science. Vol. 31,

No. 1, pp. E41-E51. 2008. Wolters Kluwer Health; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Dias, Maria Djair. “Histórias de vida: as parteiras tradicionais e o nascimento em casa.” Revista

Eletrônica de Enfermagem, v. 09, n. 02, p. 476 – 488, 2007.

http://www.fen.ufg.br/revista/v9/n2/v9n2a14.htm

Villoldo, Alberto. “The Four Insights: Wisdom, Power, and Grace of the Earthkeepers.” Hay House, Inc.

2006.

Villoldo, Alberto. “Shaman, Healer, Sage: How to Heal Yourself and Others with the Energy Medicine of

the Americas.” Harmony Books. 2000.

Wendler, Cecilia M. “Understanding Healing: A Conceptual Analysis.” Journal of Advanced Nursing. 1996,

pp. 24, 836-842.

-Timetable:

Week One:

--Activities: Settle in, explore Lothlorien and its surroundings, volunteer work 3 hours/day, 1 natural birthing class, daily meditation class

-Conduct five interviews (specifically one associated with the natural birthing class)

--Goals: Learn community history and philosophy from leaders, observe functioning systems of community (who does what, what are demographics of community members, how is daily rhythm, etc.), develop a personal base with community members

--Participatory observations will be recorded daily in the afternoon (for approximately 1.5 hours) and every other day records will be organized by the categories of: events, observations, feelings/thoughts

-Additional reflections of the day will be recorded before bed

Week Two:

--Activities: volunteer work three hours/day, 1 natural birthing class, daily meditation class, participation in any additional events offered visit surrounding community (weekend stay?)

-Conduct ten interviews – one of those being a group interview – (with guests, leaders, a different participant of the natural birthing class, and a gardener and/or farmer of the community)

--Goals: Learn a greater extent of community members’ life stories from their time at Lothlorien, come to deeper understanding and wider perception of how Lothlorien embodies the word alternative, explore various ways in which nature is used in healing (medicine, meditation, exercise, etc.)

-- Participatory observations will be recorded daily in the afternoon (for approximately 1.5 hours) and every other day records will be organized by the categories of: events, observations, feelings/thoughts

-Additional reflections of the day will be recorded before bed

Week Three:

*All interviews finished

--Activities: volunteer work 3 hours/day, 1 natural birthing class, daily meditation class, participate in any additional events offered, complete any unfinished obligations/wants, wrap-up conversation/s with (advisor) Sônia

--Goals: Spend much time with specific community members whom I have most connected with throughout prior two weeks, compare and contrast answers from research/interview questions – look for patterns

-- Participatory observations will be recorded daily in the afternoon (for approximately 1.5 hours) and every other day records will be organized by the categories of: events, observations, feelings/thoughts

-Additional reflections of the day will be recorded before bed

It has been too long

2009-04-22T15:57:00.001-07:00

Hello dear people!!!
Recife, Pernambuco, greets you along with me as I am here in a dark internet cafe on an unknown street that has ´Better Together´ by Jack Johnson playing on the stereo... Oh good language connections through music.

The group and I arrived yesterday afternoon to Recife where we dropped our luggage off and went straight to do some touring. Supposedly we saw the first synagogue to ever exist in the Americas. Recife is known as the Venice of Brasil... after hearing this, the reasoning was obvious. To the left and right water ran under bridges - homes and apartment buildings stood to each side, overlooking the rivers. Even just after being here for one full day, Recife already gives me a good feeling -- something more ´home-y´ and comfortable than the industrialized feel that Fortaleza gives off. There are more trees here, more green space in general is present to the eye.
This morning we met with a rabbi at a different synagogue. Initially I wasn´t sure why we were focusing so much on visiting a synagogue; the program has no Jewish emphasis... Then we were told that it was because the leaders wanted the group to see more how different religous groups and movements have formed communities here in the NE while still being ´minorities.´ The discussion was something of interesting... It is funny to note how many times the importance of things said can pass you by while trying to understand a different language... For example, today the rabbi was talking about eliminating hunger. He kept saying that he did not want to ´get political,´ but numerous times he emphasized how ´hunger would not exist if Israel´s neighbors would stop attacking them...´ My ears stood up seconds after processing these words. Following such comments, the rabbi went on to say something to the sort of ´There is discrimination, but in Brasil we are all one; if someone wants to do well and vencer, they can. (kind of sounds like the capitalist thought of ´pull yourself up by your bootstraps´... But what about the neoliberal politics that come in the way of such statements being true for society (especially for the marginalized)??
Hm...
Tomorrow we will be spending the day at an indigenous community. There we will see and learn about how social action is manifested among different communities.
In the back of my mind rests the knowledge that in already less than two weeks I will be going to the interior of Bahia (Vale do Capão) where I will stay three weeks by myself to do research about health and healing. I will attach my final independent research proposal to this email in case you want to get a better idea of what I will be doing.
I feel like I need some rural in me. Although, in a few days we will be in Salvador, Bahia, which is famous for its Afro-Brasilian movements and pride. So that area may be hard to leave but I think my time will be coming.
Alright, next time I won´t take so long to write.

Muito paz e abraços,

Anni/ka

Lula letting it all out.

2009-03-30T14:54:00.001-07:00

Last week Gordon Brown was in Brasil visiting and just the day he arrived, President Lula made a public statement declaring that it is due to greedy blue-eyed, blonde-haired Westerners that Brasil is suffering from the economic crisis hoy dia.
This was a gutsy statement, although true, to make - specifically when the description fits pretty well PM Gordon Brown. Did Lula speak without thinking of the possible repercussions or do we need more people denounce publicy what is already well-known and unsaid..?

Some vacation time

2009-03-30T14:53:00.000-07:00

Here is an email I sent out to friends and fam March 22:

I just arrived back to Fortaleza yesterday from a vacation that began last Wednesday night. I traveled to Canoa Quebrada, a beach town, with some others where we rented out a small house (good connections work out great;). The number of people inhabiting that space was quite substantial... we had at least four hammocks hung, people sleeping on floor mats, and others taking advantage of large bed space by scrunching bodies onto the mattresses. The only somewhat noticeable air flow was via open windows. More than that, the flies are undeniably attracted to sticky, beach-worn, street-exploring skin. On small budgets and flexible mindsets, we made communal meals and specifically went for the cheap, quick-to-boil carbohydrates (aka pasta)... We did agree, though, that guacamole was a necessity. After all these weeks of reminiscing about the splendidness of avocado back home, guacamole was made and devoured. I should mention that it has been largely brought to our attention via our homestay families that avocado is a fruit, although it is treated like a vegetable in the US. For the majority of Brasilians whom I know here, to even think of mixing salt with avocado is strongly distasteful. Here, avocado is used to make juice, ice cream, and it is also cut open in order to be doused with sugar and eaten as so. Yes - quite the difference. I had to laugh when my grandmother here outwardly scoffed and walked away as she saw me pouring salt into my smashed avocados as I was making guacamole for my host family to try. PS my dad and aunt Jackie love it - got ´em;)
Anyway so live music was ever-present in Canoa... we ate our last meal there with the tunes of even Michael Jackson seeping through the open windows (Brasilian man eloquently singing ´Billy Jean´). Saturday was ótimo (awesome) - via another connection some friends and I got to go out on a small, wooden sailboat for free. At our farthest point out we were given the ´ok´ to jump out and float. It was pretty amazing to be at that depth with the ocean, feeling the rhythm of the waves in a totally unique way. When we returned back to shore, a Colombian couple came upon us and we chatted with them for a while, later buying some jewelry they were selling. Spanish was so refreshing to hear! It is pretty great to realize all the people you meet when going on spontaneous excursions like this... One of my favorite aspects is hearing where people have been in their lives, what they have encountered, and how they have found different, alternative ways to sustain themselves throughout these processes... this Colombian couple had come from Medellín to Venezuela and then finally to Brasil (which will not be their last stop). It is so interesting to see this bartering, ´troca´ (exchange) process of business being lived out... alternative options from using hard cash - people relying on people in good faith and supporting one another without fully knowing each other (especially when looking for a place to sleep and eat).
Soon it was time for sunset, so we headed to the sand dunes. A friend´s sister here brought out her sand board for us to try out... gliding down the steep sand hills on something like a mini snowboard. I would say it went pretty well. Then a guy from Salvador, Bahia, with whom we became acquainted earlier, brought over his guitar and we sang/played out some Hootie and the Blowfish and Bob Marley. The night took us into the morning all while enjoying a reggae fest on the beach. It was pretty surreal to look up into a deep sky where stars were so prevalent, seeing the ocean and its waves washing in at the bottom of your eyes, and hear the reggae beat in the background.

Events coming up this week: visit to and stay with the MST (Movimento Sem Terra).
More to come.
PS I have to drop this in quick--- My experiences here thus far with SIT have been unique and very special with much value, but the [Augsburg] Center for Global Education has something understood - it has something not able to be fully worded-out that very very few other programs have. I personally have much authentic saudade for CGE and moreover for its professors, leaders, and mentors.

I hope everyone is doing so well and I want to congratulate and send out all my love to my brother, Luke, and new sister-in-law, Abby, on their marriage.

reflections.

2009-03-25T15:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was sincerely a refreshing day. I was challenged and I think it was a challenge that I innerly had been yearning for and NEEDING on this trip. I presented a visual ethnography and in it I featured my host sisters - Bia and Nany. Nany is actually my cousin, but she is like a sister.
The photo is so touching. I will actually attach it to this email right after I finish typing.
The ethnographic topic I focused in on was family and the different perceptions and treating of family on a world-wide (more specifically Brasilian-US base). Then I realized more that it would be better to make the topic more personal and rather than focus on the broad US-Brasil comparisons, I zoom-in on doing a case analysis, for example, with our family and my Brasilian family. It is intriguing to see the amount of extended families who live together here and/or who also live in such close proximity to one another (I'm talking like two houses or so away). I have also witnessed this in other Latin American countries. But then you take into account economic circumstances, solidaridous ties amongst family, definitions of "family" (are cousins defined as "extended family" to some or are they treated/referred to as "brother" "sister" in different homes?) Also to think about: privacy, respect -- I read a Chicago Tribune article the other day and it emphasized those two words when talking about extended family living with one another. According to the Times, 60 million Unitedstatesians have a grandparent living in their home... But then it went on to talk about how a lot of families choose to build on to their homes in order to have extra space and privacy... With my Brasilian family specifically, this is not an option. In order to get in to my room (which I share with my sister) I must walk through my parents' room (which is also my grandma's room, too) . And then how is communal space defined? How does putting up walls (literally) affect solidarity and communal relationships?
Ok, so I am not covering all that I detailed yesterday in my presentation but hopefully you can follow this mind madness. ..
One more thing on this note: How is the word 'family' defined by each member of my host family? What are the values and emotions people attach (or do not) attach to that word?
How is this in our nuclear family at home in the US?
It is so complex here to just begin to think about how not to speak with blanket, generalizing statements... We each are trying to grasp where it is that we are coming from and how those roots innately affect our perceptions of what we are seeing, living, learning, and analyzing here... It is simply reality now that one cannot say "We from the US..." --Because who is the "we"? An immigrant family from Latin America? An Asian, Black, White community??---And even in such 'communities' each person has their specific history, philosophies, perspectives, norms... Of course, "I statements" are very important... but to go further than that is what is key... And then also sometimes feeling like I don't have validity to make some statements because of my European-Scandivian origins... But then I think of mom--your stories about working across-culture throughout a large portion of your life and living in housing ... But then I also realize that I have experienced deep realizations and learning also across cultures, and I do have my own experiences and emotions tied in with those and those ARE valid... So how do we speak and open up vital, difficult dialogue without allowing the political correctness to hinder what needs to be said..??"

!!!!!!ARRIBA EL SALVADOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-03-16T17:46:00.002-07:00

Mauricio Funes now will be the President of El Salvador, representing the FMLN. This win can be compared to Barack Obama´s win in the United States. Change has great potential to come in El Salvador and the people have now demanded it. ..
In the 2004 Salvadoran presidential elections, Bush threatened that if the FMLN would win, remittances to El Salvador (one of the top sources of income for the country) from the US would have the potential to be gravely undercut and the FMLN would not have the full support of the US. Now, with Barack, the US´ relationship with Latin America can mejorar mucho -- but we must be conscious of the US´ historical tendency to have Latin America as its ´backyard;´

Growing in to Fortaleza

2009-03-16T17:46:00.001-07:00

Right off the bat, some of my most memorable experiences have been on the ônibus - the public buses - here in Fortaleza. Whether it is flagging down the bus and then running to the back door in order to find yourself encompassed by pressing bodies, ready to jump your back in order to hop up the steps as the bus driver starts to rev-up and the bus threatens to chug forward (the threats are overwhelmingly acted upon)... Then when you finally pass the feat of making it onto the bus´ back flat platform, your hands anxiously reach for space on the well-worn hand rails as you try to calm your swinging bag that hangs uneasily from your shoulder... Within 30 seconds sweat is felt leaving its marks upon your skin and mixing with others´ around you, leaving you aching for the bus to rapidly speed up again so that you will receive at least a short blast of wind relief from the open windows... But then the time comes just too fast when the bus slows down at a sudden speed as if it was about to get in an accident... The embarassment of having to work your way through people (aka pushing your big backpack through first, following it with your clumsy body as you nervously try to grip anything/one solid in sight in order to act against the thwarting, unpredictable movements of the bus, continuously saying ´excuse me´ and many times ´sorry´ to those whom you are forced to squeeze through just to make it to the front of the bus for your 2.5 seconds to hop off)--yes, this embarassment doesn´t ease off too easily. But you do have the potential to learn how to become more assertive. ;) So this, my friends, has been daily in my life for these past weeks. But I subconsciously adore it. I love being able to navigate my own way to school and back via public transportation. Even just looking out the windows every day it is amazing what the city streets present to the eye...
The informal business sector fills nearly every block, being one of the main sources of Ceará´s employment. (Ceará is the state that encompasses Fortaleza city) Tapioca stands are a hit. This is not Western tapioca, mind you; this is typical Northeastern/tropics food. Tapioca is made out of manioc (yuca) and cassava starch and then butter is soaked into it before it is fried and rolled up... It makes for a chewy treat that is pretty light on the stomach. It´s easy to notice the many people the bus passes - a great deal doubled-up on bikes, avoiding the big puddles from the sometimes on-going rain... More to come about bus realizations...

So these past weeks have been filled with thoughts about the Independent Study Project that each person from the group will do near the conclusion of the program... I just handed in my proposal this morning - it feels nice to have that done but yet I know there is much, much more that I have to keep up on (esp. readings for research). I am planning on living in an alternative community in the interior of Bahia, Vale do Capão, where I will study the worldview and functioning of Lothlorien (a specific community there). I am interested in how these communities establish themselves outside of the mainstream capitalist system and furthermore how they work with earth, mind, body, spirit connections to foment community and health in sustainable and peaceful ways... living in coexistence with the land and positively utilizing its resources while at the same time returning the enrichment back into the land by such alternative ways of living. So lately I have been searching for good literature on alternative living/communities, nature-human connections, capitalism (which of course isnt as trying to find vast lit. on), etc...
This afternoon we had Linda M. P. Gondin, a Fortalezan sociologist who works with regional and urban planning, came in and talked for a couple hours with us. She had some interesting input on favela programs and planning...

Independent Study Project

2009-03-11T15:27:00.000-07:00

ISP - Independent Study Project. All students on this program here in Fortaleza (Ceará), Brasil, are currently preparing - or ´should´ be - for this. We will have three weeks to live on our own and study a topic that pulls us, that we are most interested in. Moreover the plan is not to simply study, but to integrate ourselves as much as possible and to develop deep connections and realizations with the focus our study. I am feeling blundered by this right now. What does that mean, anyway? Proposals are due this Friday. I am step-by-stepping (or trying) to work this out more.

Something beautiful

2009-03-11T15:18:00.000-07:00

So some great things have been going on back at home since I´ve been gone in Brasil. This is bittersweet, even heartbreaking in some ways to realize, but at the same time it is joyous. For example, my brother just became a husband last Sunday. Wow. I finally got to see a couple of the wedding pictures today and I really could not believe that the man there was my brother.
I know, one would think right now--- Why were you, Annika, not at your own brother´s wedding?!!
Well, if only things were so simple... Let´s keep it short and say that my brother and I were pulled into two different life realities: me-Brasil, him-the Army.
But I can say whole-heartedly that my spirit was there with my family without a doubt.
How wonderful is it to know that someone you care about so dearly has opened themselves up to more love in life... yes.

Brasil Brasil...

2009-03-05T06:43:00.001-08:00

Alright,
So today is the 7th day being in Brasil - Fortaleza, Ceara, Brasil... ! Bom dia (which is pronounced "bom geea")! PS, this different pronounciation has been quite a change for me... It sounds lusciously good, though.
The time here has been a bit of a blur, especially since yesterday we just started going out and around the city. Last night I met my host family and, of course, I tried my best to mix in the little Portuguese I know with my Spanish. Portunol, my family calls it;)
Of course the weather is beautiful, but in this beautifulness the humidity does show itself... and my Norwegian skin makes sure to detox via the sweat method... It's as if my body has forgotten how the cold feels ( I say this with a little hesitation, as I know MN is sure to bring its cold truth back to me).

I am with a group of 24 students and our first days here were spent in what we figured out to be a Catholic retreat center. The many Mary and Jesus images gave it away;) I guess the center rents out rooms to various groups like ours. But anyway, there were times when I felt like I was on the show Big Brother... because we did not leave the "compound" until Monday. A five day orientation will really get you, let me tell you.
Fortaleza is in northeastern Brasil, along the Atlantic coast. It is an extremely flat city with a population of approximately 2.4 million people. Fortaleza also lies only 4 degrees from the equator.
Historically, the neighborhood that I and many others from the group live in is one of, if not the largest, favelas in all of Latin America (a favela can be translated into "ghetto"). Although, one would not necessarily be able to tell this because the area is so spread out and not every plot of land would constitute as this.

My family is very warm and my pai (father) just brought me to the university this morning via the bus service.
We have to start class now but I send you all my love and I will try to write back asap. The internet is not as available here, as it was in Central Am.

Beijos,

Anni/ka

Messy

2009-02-23T19:55:00.001-08:00

My name is Annika and I have nearly all the clothes that will be traveling to and throughout Brazil with me-- on my room's floor. The benefit of this spontaneous clothes-flying-and-then-landing-on-places-where-I-should-be-sleeping is that I go with my rhythm. Going with one's aire [air] can almost always be more enjoyable, no? By amassing the cloth into indeterminable shapes then I did get to clean out my dresser drawers, try on numerous pairs of pants - 95% of which I found to no longer fit me [specifically in the hips/waist region]. This is good, though-- there is a new consignment shop in town and I am thinking of taking the now-too-tight clothes there... and I feel refreshed. ..Although I do believe I will feel more refreshed as I directly leave the area of such packing pressure - my room - for Brazil.
Eek I just said it!
I am leaving!... Wednesday... LIVE LIFE WITH YOUR HEAD ALWAYS MOVING--!!!

Reflection

2009-02-23T19:49:00.000-08:00

Wow. If you want to read a strong article that will reach to your emotions and put some rage into you [rage that always has the potential to turn into a critical analysis of the diverse world realities and then move on to transform into productive, ethical social action], then read the article previously posted.
While reading, I immediately wanted to highlight what I have copy-and-pasted below. These [below] sentences have immense reason and they have resonated a great deal with my past studies abroad in Latin America. Please Read:

The murder of women in Chihuahua state is certainly a socio-economic political issue. After NAFTA, workers from poor villages poured into Juarez, and the rise in violence in 1993 coincides with the boom of the maquiladora economy. On Saturday, the group La Mujer Obrera distributed leaflets avowing that the murders "are the consequences of a global economy that continues to promote the deterioration of the social fabric on the border." Multinational corporations take advantage of loose environmental regulations and cheap Mexican labor...

"Eve Ensler and Amnesty Int'l March on Juarez to Stop the Murder of Young Women"

2009-02-23T19:45:00.000-08:00

Originally published in:
The Village Voice
02/18/2004
http://villagevoice.com/issues/0408/chute.php

By Hillary Chute

February 14, Juarez, Mexico-"Ni Una Mas"-"not one more"-was the impassioned rallying cry this Valentine's Day as activist groups from the U.S. and Mexico converged on this gritty border city to protest the brutal killings of more than 370 women in Juarez and the nearby state capital, Chihuahua City, since 1993. Early Saturday, a rapt crowd of 500-plus men, women, and children, sharing seats and crammed against the walls, spontaneously chanted "not one more" and "you're not alone" at the local university as Mexican professor Marcela Lagarde addressed the "feminicido" that has plagued Chihuahua State for the past decade.

Between 5,000 and 7,000 anti-violence protestors then gathered at the Lerdo Bridge separating Texas and Mexico and marched down Juarez's central Lerdo Avenue, lined with wedding-dress stores and small restaurants. Screaming "justicia," protestors carried black balloons, blurry black-and-white photocopies of missing and murdered women, and decorated dresses hanging on tall pink crosses. Even a group of fraternity brothers from University of Texas-El Paso-decked out in T-shirts reading "men of character"-marched with an enormous canvas of handprints and the declaration "These hands don't hurt."

At the front was Vagina Monologues author Eve Ensler, whose international non-profit V-Day co-sponsored the march with Amnesty International, which last year issued a detailed report damning the quality of the criminal investigations in Juarez and Chihuahua City. Accompanying Ensler was press-magnet Jane Fonda and other so-called "Very Important Vaginas": actors Sally Field and Christine Lahti, PBS president Pat Mitchell, Lifetime CEO and president Carole Black, and Congresswomen Jan Schakowsky (Illinois) and Hilda Solis (California). Solis wants to pass House Resolution 466, which supports the multilateral creation of a DNA database in Chihuahua state.

In the U.S., the right wing hopes to smear John Kerry for being within five feet of Fonda in 1970; for most in Juarez, the simple fact that Fonda, whoever she is, is a famous person agitating to draw attention to the murdered women is a hopeful sign. "I am rich, I am famous, I am white, and I have a daughter and a granddaughter," Fonda declared to a group of storming reporters. "If they were murdered or disappeared, I know the authorities would work very hard to find out who kidnapped them." Fonda concluded her comments by admonishing the press: "Why did it take international movie stars to turn up for you to be here?"

A little over ten years ago, according to an Amnesty Now article, the number of women murdered in Juarez-a city of roughly 1.3 million-averaged three a year. In 1993, the number skyrocketed to three a month. Many of these murders are classified by the police as "situational," as in domestic violence and drug- or gang-related violence, even though the similarities between the murders clearly point to a larger trend. The mutilated bodies of young, poor women are dumped in and at the outskirts of the city. The average age of the victims is 16. At least one-third of them work in the city's maquiladoras, or foreign assembly plants. More than one-third of the women are raped before they are killed, and most of their bodies show signs of captivity and torture. Once seen as a problem in the rough, crime-ridden Juarez alone, the murders have now spread to Chihuahua City.

Rumors about the killings identify its perpetrators variously as the state police, an international organ-trafficking ring, Satanists, organized-crime factions, serial killers from the U.S., a group of local serial killers, and the Mexican government.

So who is killing the women? At an emotional press conference in the crammed lobby of the Juarez's modest Monte Carlo hotel on Friday, one mother of a murdered girl answered, "We don't know. Why do they leave them like this [mutilated]? What are they trying to erase? . . . I am sure the state police of Chihuahua know what happened to these girls. I want to know. That's a mother's right." Amnesty's report declares that "the failure of the competent authorities to take action to investigate these crimes, whether through indifference, lack of will, or inability, has been blatant." Alma Guillermoprieto, who wrote about the killings forThe New Yorker this past fall, sees "active collusion" by the Chihuahua police as a logical possibility, and "active indifference" as the least-incriminating explanation. The police deny all involvement.

The murder of women in Chihuahua state is certainly a socio-economic political issue. After NAFTA, workers from poor villages poured into Juarez, and the rise in violence in 1993 coincides with the boom of the maquiladora economy. On Saturday, the group La Mujer Obrera distributed leaflets avowing that the murders "are the consequences of a global economy that continues to promote the deterioration of the social fabric on the border." Multinational corporations take advantage of loose environmental regulations and cheap Mexican labor-maquiladora workers are paid less than $5 a day. U.S.-run factories in Juarez-including Thomson/RCA, General Electric, Ford, and Dupont-have done little to ensure the safety of their female workers: girls have disappeared in the waste-grounds adjacent to factories, which are often unlit. Private companies have rejected the idea that they should pay for security for their workers. Claudia Ivette Gonzalez disappeared after her assembly plant turned her away for arriving four minutes late; she was found in 2001 in a ditch with seven other young women. Her employer, the Lear Corporation, stated that the company did not need to provide its workers with extra security because her murder didn't happen on Lear property.

Saturday's protest ended with a free performance of the Vagina Monologues in Spanish and English, featuring the Mexican actors Lilia Aragon, Marinitia Escobedo, and Laura Flores-and Fonda, Field, and Lahti-at a packed local dance hall. Ensler made the important gesture of including monologues (in addition to standards like "Bob," about a vagina-friendly man) that spoke directly to international violence against women. There was a long, moving performance in Spanish about the rape and assassination of women in Kosovo. And Field, occasionally crying, did a piece that focused on spousal acid burning in Islamabad and female disfigurement from bombing in Iraq before she ended with the situation in Juarez. American folk singer Holly Near-leading a chant for "ni una mas"-performed a song for Juarez that also targeted violence in Chile and Guatemala.

Global in focus, V-Day and Amnesty assert that the Juarez crimes are a human-rights scandal. And so while groups like Women in White, a government-sponsored activist party-and even a selection of victim's mothers-were said to oppose the protest in part on the grounds that the vocal agitating lacked dignity, Ensler made savvy choices: pointing to the worldwide problem of gender violence, she didn't single out Juarez for blame.

The Vagina Monologues clearly inspired and often amused its audience. Fonda played a woman who regards her vagina distantly as a "red leather couch" or a "mink-lined muffler," and another piece ran the gamut of orgasm types: "mariachi," "diva," "triple," etc. But the divide between the monologues' occasionally playful content and the issue of unsolved murder at times felt awkward. While the crowd for the most part whooped and roared enthusiastically throughout the show, a group of three mothers whom I recognized from the previous day's press conference-sitting in the front row, placards of their daughters' faces hanging over their chests-silently stood up and walked out mid-way through.

The mothers remain optimistic, but not overly so. In October, Vincente Fox appointed a special federal commissioner, Maria Guadalupe Morfin, to monitor the state's work, and last month, he appointed a special federal prosecutor, Maria Lopez Urbina, to run her own investigations. But for these appointments to be effective, they have to be well funded, and there's no promise yet that Fox won't be as effectively neglectful of the situation in Juarez as he has been since his election. Asked at the press conference if she had hope in Lopez, one mother replied, simply, "We hope to have hope in her." Ensler, for her part, declared Saturday V-day for "victory": the march was the largest in 10 years of anti-violence activism in the city. As one lawyer for several mothers stated, "This is the only thing that has pressured the government." Ensler vowed, "We will keep coming back to Juarez until women are free and safe."

Thanks to a good woman, person

2009-02-18T21:53:00.000-08:00

Ali Rapp (one of my most highly acclaimed blog-runners and readers;)--
Thank you to this individual I have been introduced to Pandora Radio. You've got to get connected to this online if you're a lover of open radio stations that allow you to simply type in an artist or song and then - ya! - you will have a smooth-transitioning playlist going along with the vibe you're feeling.
Currently, for me it's Sigur Ros.

Utilizing what we can in ethical and free ways---

Pandora Radio everyone.

Thank you summer Admissions Office times ~

Being alright (all right?) with what is unknown

2009-02-18T21:43:00.000-08:00

You know, before (and I'm talking these-past-months-before) it was quite easy for me to get really, I mean substantially worked up while thinking about this upcoming summer... And this was even while knowing that I still would have a Brasil trip coming up this second semester, that I still would have weeks of time at home in Winona to spend with my parents and (partially)"stabilize" myself. But what is it that helps to change these non-stop, thinking, planning mentalities? What was it for me? Talking with people in a "real" manner helped. Trying to get the humanness into my conversations and dialogue about things that really had been going on in my life, processing them not just alone in my mind but with others... as Paulo Freire says in "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" - being in communion with the people to critically analyze life's realities and act upon a transforming reality.
Am I even making sense? Life, for me, I have realized more and more, is a lot of feeling what I learn and what I want to say... not so much being able to describe my feelings, my learnings in the most academically proficient or concise manner - but actually feeling some effects inside. I don't know if this is more frustrating or beautiful or worse or a mixture of some and all... But times like these do, at least, remind one of the profoundness of feeling and that one can do it - you know, feel.

The Beehive Design Collective

2009-02-15T20:43:00.000-08:00

I have got to promote this:
A dear friend sent a pamphlet about The Beehive Design Collective to me, illustrating a coloring book project they are doing about the Free Trade Area of the Americas, Plan Colombia, and Plan Puebla Panama. The mission is to transform education by providing provoking, young-people-friendly images that can be used as a base to critically reflect upon and potentially take transformative action challenging US foreign policy and corporate power.
The title of this certain project I received a pamphlet on is Free Trade Area of the Americas and the Global Resistance to Corporate Colonialism.
Please take a look. Especially in you're interested in (alternative, political) art - you will really like this.
Education must go out-of-the-box, challenge the status quo, and be critical while promoting spheres for transformative student action. We need MORE of this in elementary school, junior high school, high school, ...
!
www.beehivecollective.org

Looking for Flamenco Shoes? Let me know.

2009-02-08T12:47:00.001-08:00

Hand-made, black leather women's flamenco shoes from the Ainhoa flamenco company located in Madrid, Spain. Shoes made for foot size 9 to 9.5 (European size 39.5). Leather strap with slit in the middle and small portion of elastic on the side to ensure foot security. Nails located in the heel and toe-portion of the shoe's underside.
Shoes only previously worn once. I ordered them last spring 2008 and found the shoes were too large for my feet.
Original price of shoes: $150 (not including shipping and handling).
Selling price: $100.

If you're interested, post a comment to this blog giving me your email address and/or telephone number.
:)

I love NACLA.

2009-02-05T21:04:00.001-08:00

When Xenophobia Meets Homophobia

Feb 2 2009
Marisol LeBrón
An ugly blame game ensued after the passing of California’s Proposition 8, which restricted the definition of marriage to a union between a man and a woman. With exit polls reporting 70 percent of Blacks and 53 percent of Latinos/as supporting the ban on gay marriage, many white members of the LGBT community blamed people of color for the ban’s success.

The December issue of gay news magazine The Advocate stepped into the fray. The cover of the issue provocatively announced, “Gay is the New Black.” Although the cover story's author, Michael Joseph Gross, dismissed blaming Black voters as a "false conclusion" and a "terrible mistake," comments posted to the site took him to task for other reasons. Most comments strongly disagreed with Gross' Black/gay comparison, but many others asked why communities of color and queer communities are still considered mutually exclusive in the mainstream LGBT rights movement.

A comment posted by "Greg J," pointedly charged, "Gays of color, transgender, and yes, even lesbians are missing from the larger discourse of the gay rights struggle – primarily the gay marriage issue. The gay right's movement was and remains the 'gay, white, middle class' movement!"

The Prop 8 fallout shows how much work remains to be done to connect the LGBT rights movement with other struggles for social justice across a spectrum of issues. Unfortunately, it may have taken the brutal murder of Ecuadoran immigrant Jose Oswaldo Sucuzhañay to highlight the invisibility of queer people of color – particularly queer immigrants – in LGBT rights discourse. His murder will hopefully provide an impetus for coalition building.

Jose Sucuzhañay and his brother Romel were attending a Sunday evening church party on December 7, 2008. They later decided to end the night with some drinks at a local bar in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. The two brothers left the bar at 3:30 a.m. and walked home arm-in-arm to support each other. Three men drove up to the Sucuzhañay brothers, one man got out of the car and began to shout anti-gay and anti-Latino slurs at them.

The man then attacked Jose Sucuzhañay and broke a bottled over the back of his head causing him to fall to the ground. His brother Romel ran to call the police. Romel saw the attackers kick his brother’s prone body and beat him with an aluminum baseball bat. The beating stopped when Romel returned and told the attackers that he had called the police. Jose was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital and remained in critical condition until he passed away five days later. He was 31 and left behind two children.

Sucuzhañay's killing comes a month after a group of Long Island teens fatally stabbed Ecuadoran immigrant Marcelo Lucero; it also follows the murder of Luis Ramirez, who was beaten to death last July in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania.

The increased violence and surveillance against immigrant communities has coincided with violence against queers of color, including the murder of Duanna Johnson, a Black transgender woman who was beaten by two Memphis police officers last February. Nine months later, she was found shot to death in North Memphis.

Blogger Angry Brown Butch reflected on Johnson’s murder: “Just to be trans, just to be a woman, just to be a person of color in this country is enough to drastically increase one’s exposure to hatred and violence; when oppressions overlap, violence tends to multiply.”

Although Sucuzhañay was not gay, his murder represents the danger and uncertainty facing queers, people of color, immigrants, and other marginalized communities. For the most part, however, both mainstream LGBT rights groups and immigrant rights groups have failed to recognize the potential for collaboration and coalition, even in the wake of Sucuzhañay's murder.

Immediately after the attack, media outlets discussed the homophobic and xenophobic nature of the attack against the Sucuzhañay brothers. But as time went on, reports began to only highlight either the anti-gay or the anti-Latino/a nature of the attack rather than seeing the two as joint-causes.

“I have seen some members of the Latino community express indignation at some outside the Latino community using the attack for political gain," notes Andrés Duque of the Latino/a LGBT site Blabbeando. "I have also seen a Queens-based Ecuadorian community organization put out a call for a vigil highlighting the xenophobic nature of the crime while not mentioning that it might have also been a homophobic crime.”

Indeed, rather than illuminating the vulnerability that both Latino/a and LGBT communities face and interrogating the systemic inequalities that enable that marginalization, some are more concerned with shaping how the incident is described and remembered in the media. One example of this is Diego Sucuzhañay’s denial that the attack on his brothers was homophobic in nature. Although Romel told the police that anti-gay and anti-Latino slurs were shouted at them as they were assaulted, Diego denies that homophobia was an aspect of his brothers’ attack.

Diego told New York’s El Diario/La Prensa that, “My brother Romel told me that they shouted insults against Latinos, that they shouted 'Hispanic sons of bitches,' but not anti-gay insults.” But Romel has not publicly retracted his statement regarding anti-gay slurs. And other family members have spoken about the murder in terms of homophobia also being a motivating factor. So some observers following the case wonder whether Diego’s statements to the press are an attempt to disassociate his brother's murder from any implications of queerness.

Still, many others are people speaking out against Sucuzhañay’s murder by clearly connecting issues of racism, homophobia, and xenophobia. At his brother’s funeral in Cuenca, Ecuador, German Sucuzhañay told the Associated Press, “The brutal killing of my brother Oswaldo is the result of xenophobia, of homophobia and racism that our compatriots are experiencing in these times.”

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa condemned the xenophobia and homophobia behind Sucuzhañay’s tragic death. Correa told the press that Sucuzhañay was “vilely murdered because of xenophobia and homophobia. They confused him for a homosexual..." The President called on the public to fight against "xenophobia, homophobia and all types of phobia, all types of discrimination, all types of violence.”

While a number of U.S.-based organizations including Bienestar, The Audre Lorde Project, People of Color in Crisis (POCC), and Incite! have all been working to address the intersections between multiple forms of oppression, both the mainstream LGBT and Latino/a rights movements remain remarkably single issue oriented.

The killing of Jose Sucuzhañay, however, challenges Latino/a and LGBT leaders to build a broad-based vision for social justice that acknowledges the linkages between various communities and struggles. Hopefully, both immigrant rights group and LGBT rights groups will begin to see the parallels between a number of these ballot initiatives sponsored by right-wing groups – whether they are anti-immigrant, anti-choice, or anti-gay.

The fight in 1994 to repeal California’s Proposition 187, which sought to prevent undocumented immigrants from accessing state benefits, can perhaps serve as inspiration for those working to overturn Prop 8 and provide an in-road for collaboration between these intersecting struggles. Though not identical, these grassroots struggles provide a crucial space for collaboration between marginalized communities.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Marisol LeBrón is a NACLA Research Associate and writes about pop culture for her blog Post Pomo Nuyorican Homo. She is a doctoral student at the Program in American Studies at New York University.

Wake up Call -Mexico- by John Ross

2009-02-05T20:45:00.001-08:00

Mexico: Due for Another Revolution?

Feb 5 2009
John Ross
Never before has the contrast between the World Economic Forum (WEF), the annual clambake of the capitalist class in Davos Switzerland, and the World Social Forum (WSF), created a decade ago to beat back the corporate globalization of the Planet Earth, been quite so stark.

While the moribund masters of the universe met on their ice mountain in the midst of the most chilling world-wide depression in a century, largely triggered by the overweening greed of those in attendance, tens of thousands samba'ed in the tropical heat of the Amazon city of Belem to celebrate the demise of capitalism. Among those on hand at the WSF dance party were presidents Chávez of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Bolivia's Evo Morales, Ecuador's Rafael Correa, Paraguay's Fernando Lugo, and Brazil's Lula da Silva. Lula who is usually a devoted Davos-goer eschewed this year's funerary event to avoid the stench that inevitably results from rubbing shoulders with mummies.

"The God of the Market has been broken," the one-time São Paulo metalworker proclaimed to tens of thousands in Belem. Writing in the Mexican daily La Jornada, Luis Hernández Navarro pointed out that it was precisely the social forces represented by the WSF that propelled Latin America's social democratic presidents into power.

Indeed, the only two Latin heads of state to attend the caviar and champagne-laced charade in Davos were Colombia's widely-disparaged Álvaro Uribe and Mexico's questionably-elected president Felipe Calderón, both of them Washington's darlings – not even freshman U.S. president Obama, who recently lambasted the machinations of the same breed of bankers who gather each year on the ice mountain as "shameful," showed up in Switzerland, an event that his predecessor in power George Bush never missed.

Felipe Calderón's trip to Davos got off on an inauspicious foot. On the very day he flew out to the WEF, Bank of Mexico president Guillermo Ortiz confirmed that his country was in full-blown recession. For months, Calderón and his obscenely obese Secretary of Finance Augustin Carstens have characterized Mexico's economic health as only suffering from "a little cough" ("catarrito"). According to Bank of Mexico prognostications, the Aztec nation will suffer negative growth in 2009 (.8% to 1.8%).

The news hit Felipe like an ice ball from hell.

Seeking to put a happy face on his country's dismal future, Calderón championed Mexico's 1.5% 2008 growth rate but fooled few. Mexico's anemic performance last year put it in 24th place out of 24 Latin American economies in the International Monetary Fund's rankings, even behind Haiti, the economic basket case of the Americas. The IMF is predicting 1.1% growth for Latin America in 2009 and, like Ortiz, calculates that Mexico will fall into negative numbers.

The Mexican president's delusional optimism in the face of so bleak an outlook played to incredulous audiences at Davos. Calderón also sought to blunt the recent blockbuster report of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff that Mexico is a potentially "failed" state by handing out trinkets like baseball caps bearing the ambiguous legend, "It's All In The Trust." The giveaway ("magic spikes" to keep the mummies from slipping on Davos's icy streets were also distributed) came during a session at which Calderón flogged Mexico's chances of weathering the current economic turmoil. The Mexican president's talk was slugged "Riders On The Storm," a title plagiarized from the Doors' 1971 apocalyptical anthem about a cowboy spree killer – lead singer Jim Morrison was reportedly heard thrashing about wildly in his Paris grave.

As a bonus attraction, Calderón teamed with former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo, now head of Yale University's Institute for Globalization Studies, in an act conducted entirely in broken English that verged on tragicomedy. Zedillo, who coined the term "globalphobics" in reference to WSF types at the 1996 Davos get-down, revealed that the bank bail-out he sponsored during Mexico's mid-1990s meltdown and dubbed FOBAPROA, has drained 20% of his country's gross domestic product (GDP), bragging that the 400 trillion peso outlay was triple that of what the Bush-Obama bail-out has cost U.S. taxpayers.

As might be anticipated, the Calderón-Zedillo act did not play well on the homefront. While the Mexican presidents cavorted with the living dead in Davos, a half million of their compatriots were marching through the streets of Mexico City to protest the economic wreckage the neoliberal ethos has wrought here. On January 25, former left presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador from whom Calderón stole the 2006 election, and his Movement to Defend Mexico's Oil & The Popular Economy assembled upwards of 200,000 in the great central Zocalo plaza. Five days later, farmers and trade unionists matched that outpouring to denounce the damage done by the current crisis.

Among the crisis indicators: 6% inflation, the highest in ten years, and 340,000 jobs lost on Calderón's watch – he campaigned as "the president of employment." Just what Mexico's unemployment numbers are is deeply obfuscated. Government bean-counters at the National Statistical and Geographic Institute (INEGI) claim it is no more than 4%, but under INEGI parameters, anyone who worked for more than an hour in the informal economy during the previous week is considered employed. Utilizing such criteria, the emblematic apple sellers of the 1930's Great Depression would not be determined to be jobless.

On the other side of the ledger, Enrique Galván who authors La Jornada's "Money" column calculates that 70% of the nation's 45 million-strong workforce does not have a steady job. A maquiladora industry that assembles consumer goods for the ravished U.S. market and which generated a million jobs in the best of times has gone kaplooey and the Big Seven automakers (including Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and Volkswagen) have shut down their plants for the duration of the downturn.

Meanwhile, workers' pensions, privatized under Zedillo, have gone up in smoke with those paying in losing up to 30% of their retirement funds in the past six months. To compound the devastation, the peso has sunk to record lows, having been devalued by 32% since last August 4, when it weighed in at 9.87 against the dollar. (At this writing, 14.78 pesos will buy you one dollar Americano and the exchange rate is climbing for 15.) Nonetheless. Mexico's banks, rescued by Zedillo's 15-cypher bailout and subsequently sold to transnational financial conglomerates registered a 38% profit increase in 2008.

The current blasted economic landscape here bears striking similarities to another period of devastating downturn a hundred years ago: The 1907-08 depression was trip-wired when commodity prices collapsed and money dried up, casting tens of thousands of Mexican workers into the streets and accentuating the monstrous divide between rich and poor. To counter working class rage, dictator Porfirio Díaz cranked up repression, massacring hundreds of striking textile workers in Río Blanco, Veracruz and miners in Cananea Sonora. Synchronistically, workers at Cananea, the eighth largest copper pit in the world, have been on strike for the past 18 months in spite of Calderón's efforts to break the walkout.

Despite the shattered economy and his deep-rooted unpopularity after 34 years in power, Diaz decided to run for re-election in 1910, stealing the vote that June and jailing opposition leader Francisco Madero, a role model for López Obrador. To celebrate his "victory," Porfirio Diaz threw a huge party to mark Mexico's first 100 years of independence from Spain, expending the nation's entire social budget on useless monuments, many of them lined up along Mexico City's Champs D'Elysie, the Paseo de la Reforma. The pageantry culminated on Independence Day, September 16 with the installation of a gilded Angel of Independence on that glittering boulevard. Two months later, the Mexican revolution, led by Madero, exploded, and Díaz was forced to flee the country.

Just before Felipe Calderón took off to tete-a-tete with the dead in Davos, amidst patriotic bombast and flowery fireworks, the Mexican president announced the construction of the Arc of the Bicentennial to be inaugurated September 16, 2010, commemorating both the 200th year of Mexican independence and the 100-year anniversary of the beginning of the Mexican revolution. Following the Porfirian model, the Arc of the Bicentennial, whose cost was unannounced, will be built at the foot of the Paseo de la Reforma.

Mexico's political metabolism seems to break out in insurgencies every 100 years on the 10th year of the century. In 1810, the country priest Miguel Hidalgo launched the struggle for independence from the Crown. In 1910, Francisco Madero ignited the fuse of the epoch Mexican revolution.

At this writing, there are less than 330 days until 2010.

Thinking about the money

2009-02-02T15:01:00.000-08:00

Medical expenses...$200
Registering Brazilian visa in Brazil...$100
Books and supplies...
Independent Study Project... possible interpreter fees... extra travel...

And my father just asks me: "Did you find that you were able to be thrifty in Central America?...Thrifty when you wanted to or had to..."
--I pause to think. ..

So, of course, the kitchen is where nearly all of the big discussions go down in the Gunderson home. Today I sat reminding myself to breathe deep, or to even breathe normally, in order to lessen the effects of my father's hesitations and sometimes choppy thought processes- where, a few seconds before saying a word, his fingers would come down, sometimes drumming on the table as a prelude to his words... Man how that builds up the intensity, I tell you.
This all has been revolving around my up-and-coming study abroad experience that will be taking place in Brazil through SIT, the School for International Training. You would think that after studying abroad a few times already, I would be used to these days building up to the departure, that I wouldn't have so many questions, and even that the wonder about the trip and future comrades of the program as a whole wouldn't fill me with something of fear... Well, I must contest. The words stating that every experience is unique in itself hold reason.
I do not finish this post on a negative or even on a skeptical note; let's just say an array of feelings unable to be labeled continue to linger...

:).

Nacla -Report by Max Ajl

2009-01-30T08:35:00.000-08:00

Venezuela: Local Reactions to the Re-Election Reform

Jan 26 2009
Max Ajl
Following close on the United Socialist Party of Venezuela's (PSUV) electoral victory in the November 23 regional elections, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez re-proposed a constitutional reform that would allow indefinite re-election. The first attempt, bundled with various constitutional amendments that would have accelerated economic restructuring, was defeated 51 to 49 percent in December 2007.

Predictably, a furiously anti-Chávez foreign press corps and commentariat recoiled at the idea, denouncing the Chávez presidency as so much "authoritarianism and incompetence" and Chávez as a""strongman" and "caudillo."

For the moment, let us ignore such commentary. Unlimited re-election is not precisely an import from Planet Stalin. England and France, reputed to be democracies, have provisions for indefinite re-election, while New York's mayor Michael Bloomberg's call for a third term was not said to be the forerunner of fascism in New York. And as Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva recently pointed out, "No one is asking [Colombian President Álvaro] Uribe why he wants a third term."

Chávez's recent suggestion that indefinite re-election be extended to all elected posts alongside the already-existing mechanism for recalling all elected officials (rarely do recall referendum mechanisms have such enormous scope) suggest a wide space for purely electoral democratic participation. Such tools—alongside a mobilized and educated citizenry—are valuable ones.

Still, re-election could pose problems for the Venezuelan process. Some argue that the call for indefinite re-elections is symptomatic of existing problems, such as excessive personalism and the failure to cultivate new leadership. Thus far more fascinating than Western or world reaction, and far more important for understanding Bolivarian Venezuela, has been the native reaction.

The first observation is that the re-election proposal's proponents and detractors have not split along the by-now-familiar lines of the Venezuelan class system. Polls vary widely: positive support ranges from 53 to roughly 30 percent, negative support from 61 percent to 42 percent, with the undecided making up the rest. But all suggest some chavista disapproval of the reform; or at best, attenuated support. This includes the "yes, but" position, which supports the amendment but has a distinct political program.

Fiercely pro-Chávez writer Henry Escalante offers a gushing defense of the reform and Chávez's axial role in the Venezuelan revolutionary process, naming him as the begetter of so much that has been good in Venezuela in the last decade: initiatives towards regional integration, the PSUV, the new constitution. Suggestive, too, are the parallels Escalante makes with another leader—echoing Trotsky's assessment of Lenin—arguing, "Lenin's role could not have been duplicated."

Venezuelan radical sociologist Javier Biardeau gives voice to one of the most sophisticated stances of critical approval, in noting, "When a revolution depends on one leader, it depends, simply, on a precarious, fragile, and skinny thread." Nonetheless, he maintains that support for the amendment is important, not so that Chávez can be eternal leader, but so that by keeping Chávez, the people secure a space and buy time for the emergence of "collective leadership, organically structured." Biardeau goes on to say that "there must be a qualitative jump in consciousness and organization."

Anarchist journalist Jose Roberto Duque neatly complements the argument, suggesting that Chávez's continuance in power merely constitutes so much scaffolding and protection for the project. Duque sees the project as revolutionary, but unlike most he sees it as largely occurring outside the sphere of the state. Under the Chávez government, writes Duque, the population "has conquered space to organize and self-govern. So I prefer a democrat like Chávez for 20 years in Miraflores" to the old two-party system of alternating COPEI and AD malgoverance.

Others sharing the "yes, but" position have other perspectives. Venezuelan intellectual Luis Fuenmayor Toro, writing in the leftist daily Últimas Noticias , supports Chávez because the population does, viewing Chávez's personal popularity as a political vehicle capable of slamming down the opposition in frontal electoral contests.

Whereas Biardeau and Escalante note Chávez's other qualities, Toro reduces the phenomenon to pure charisma, affirming that Chávez is "indispensable," but not because of "the inexistence of persons with superior talents and knowledge of how to run the country." (Escalante bombards this argument, citing it as so much diluted anti-revolutionary sentiment.)

So the range of opinion extends roughly from pure Leninist messianism, to a sophisticated understanding of the Chávez government as incubator of a far more radical project, to a resigned pragmatism.

And the "No" vote? Caracas Chronicles, an opposition blog, gives voice to an often even-tempered opposition sentiment. There, Chávez is described as "sounding halfway between desperate and deranged," as he pushes for the amendment. One of the blog's contributors adds, "The real reason indefinite re-election does not mark France or Britain as dictatorships is that those countries have functioning, stable, independent institutions." The tacit assumption is that Venezuela does not, a frequent and discredited fiction often bandied about by the Venezuelan opposition.

The tacit conclusion is that the specter of indefinite re-election marks Venezuela as a dictatorship. This is wrong in two respects.

One, Venezuela is, as Human Rights Watch concedes, a relatively open society." The congress and the judiciary are institutionally independent. They simply are not controlled by the hard-right opposition. There is, in a word, no pluralism.

And two, as Venezuela scholar Julia Buxton notes, there is something "fundamentally wrong in thinking that democracy is judged through reference to the procedural mechanics of liberal democracy," which is often understood as demanding pluralism, in which the opposition controls some political levers. Buxton argues that democracy simply is not measurable using the yardstick of mainstream U.S political science, and that it should be understood as popular control of decision-making and popular engagement within the society as a whole. On those scales, Venezuela is no lightweight.

Meanwhile, the only effective counterweight to Venezuela's more revolutionary processes is what George Ciccariello-Maher calls the "endogenous right." He defines this group as a "well-known bloc of moderate, centrist, bureaucratic-minded Chavistas, landing a series of body blows to more leftist elements, threatening internal democracy and the radicalism of the Revolution in the process." These "chavista" officials are not remotely interested in radical change, speaking in the name of the Revolution but subverting it at every step.

Meanwhile, what of the groups that engineered the 2002 coup d'état, closed congress, and installed a real dictatorship? They are far from power, and won't regain it without a political program more detailed than calling for the use of the guillotine on Chávez. Boohoo.

Que frio que hace.

2009-01-27T21:16:00.000-08:00

Queridos amigos--

Espero mucho que estéis absolutamente genial por allá.
Ya llevo casi una semana estando aquí en Winona, Minnesota, con mis padres. Ha estado tranquilo en la ciudad... mi primer fin de semana fue bien porque mucha de la ciudad asistía un festival de películas independientes que se ubico en la universidad de Winona. Estuvimos viendo pelis por todo el sábado y domingo... al final termine los días estando arta de sentarme en frente de una pantalla. ;) Bueno y además fue difícil salir de los edificios porque el frío fue bastante amargo y desagradable.

Casi todos mis amigos ya se han vuelto a sus universidades, empezando el nuevo semestre; así que me quedo aquí solita... jaja pues la verdad es que no es tan terrible; tengo una buena amiga aquí por lo menos por unos dias y hemos estado visitando unos de nuestros cafés favoritos juntas, etc... Ya me da mas tiempo estar con mi ritmo, leyendo, organizando unas cosas antes de que me vaya el 26 de febrero. Aun, la realidad triste es que, claro, me hace falta estar allá en España.

Todavía tengo planeado llamar algunos de vosotros, así que espero que eso ocurra pronto... porque ya sabemos como me pongo distraida bastante facilmente...;)
Pues mi madre ya quiere irse-- tenemos que ver mi padre esta noche en su show de música... a ver si tardaremos un poco...

Mis saludos y tanto amor...

Back in the MN snow

2009-01-23T07:24:00.000-08:00

When I look out my window and directly see a mound of snow piling up, reaching high to block the view of the next door building's windows... then I realize I'm back in MN. When my bare feet walk across our cold, creaking wood floors then I know I'm back in Winona, back in my house...that of my parents. Waking up and drinking a full glass of Minute Maid orange juice, eating a substantial bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats with a banana on the side - this is all a morning ritual that becomes common when I'm back here. Hopefully at least the jet lag will wear off so that when I do all this it won't be at four o'clock in the morning...
It's a little odd but for some reason, after being gone for five months it feels natural to be back in my hometown. I am not surprised by too many things...after all, Winona is not so large so any shocking changes that would occur are few. The one thing that never ceases to surprise me, though, is when I walk downtown for the first day in a while and realize the amount of people that pass by and say hello to one another. This is welcoming. But I do have to laugh, though, when I have the natural reaction to go up to each person that I recognize and give them a kiss on both cheeks... a European country will do that to you I suppose.
Although the environment here comes to me natural, that does not mean the heartbreak of leaving another home abroad is not present. Lately I have been trying to figure out how to better maintain these "different lives" in a connected manner - More to come on that...

2009-01-19T08:55:00.000-08:00

"It is non-violence or non-existence."
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

2009-01-19T08:44:00.000-08:00

Democracy Now! does a wonderful presentation on their site today, commemorating the legacy and mission of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his monumental movement for civil rights. Some of King's last speeches are aired, as well as an address to the nation he gave explaining why he opposed the war in Vietnam. Check out their website at democracynow.org and click "today's show", "listen." It's well worth it and a more-than-important grab back to the world's reality and the pertinence of history - our present, ongoing connection with that history.

Check it out on YouTube

2009-01-14T02:57:00.000-08:00

"Duo Guardabarranco" by Katía Cardenal... extremely highly recommended.
Katía is Nicaraguan and music runs in her family. She sings much about solidarity and different Latin American political and social movements, supporting various revolutionary movements specifically across Central America.

Estar consciente

2009-01-13T03:17:00.000-08:00

Plan Mexico and Central American Migration
Jan 12 2009
Susan Fitzpatrick Behrens

The porous 600-mile border between Guatemala and Mexico offers Central American immigrants a ready passage to "el norte"—the United States. It includes 63 uncontrolled transit points, 44 of which can be passed in a vehicle.

The same conditions attracting Central American immigrants also make the Guatemala-Mexico border region home to a thriving drug trade. Guatemala’s La Prensa Libre, recently reported that Guatemala's three departments (or states) bordering Mexico—San Marcos, Huehuetenango, and the Petén—have come under the direct control of violent drug cartels.

For $1.33 ferries made of inner tubes offer passage across the Suchiate River in Tecún Umán (San Marcos department), which doubles as the Mexico-Guatemala border. (By Susan Fitzpatrick Behrens)

In San Marcos, a single drug lord, Juan Ortiz Chamalé, owns virtually all of the properties on the frontier. Huehuetenango is the site of an increasingly violent conflict between Mexican and Guatemalan drug lords. The latest incident there involved a wholesale massacre of 17 to 40 people (estimates vary) at a horserace organized by narcos. While in the Petén, drug mafias, supported by the police, have forced small and large landowners to sell their lands.

Violence, promoted by the drug trade, delinquency, and death squads has become a part of daily life in these Guatemalan departments. Bodies riddled with bullet holes regularly appear by the sides of roads, along riverbeds, and in open fields. Well-documented evidence demonstrates that police and military forces are directly engaged in this violence through their links to drug cartels, the maras (gangs), and death squads.

Undocumented Central American immigrants, fleeing the struggling economies of their respective countries, are often victimized by this violence. And their plight is about to get worse. The recently implemented U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) will surely devastate what is left of rural livelihoods. And, what's more, the conditions that make the Guatemala-Mexico border an immigrant corridor and a Mecca for drug trafficking also make it a central target of Plan Mexico, the U.S.-financed anti-drug militarization program, pushed through the U.S. Congress by President George Bush in June 2008.

Undocumented Central American immigrants, already subjected to subhuman conditions in their search for viable livelihoods, now face the oppressive confluence of these powerful transnational forces—the drug trade, militarization, and free trade.

Plan Mexico

The U.S.-backed Plan Mexico, known as the “Mérida Initiative” in policy circles, provides $1.6 billion of U.S. taxpayer money to Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. The stated intention of the program involves "security aid to design and carry out counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism, and border security measures.”

U.S. Congressional leaders complained about the secrecy of negotiations for Plan Mexico and the absence of human rights guarantees, but they did nothing more than demand the paltry sum of $1 million in additional funding to support human rights groups in Mexico.

Researcher Laura Carlsen has noted that Plan Mexico is the "securitized" extension of trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and CAFTA. Indeed, Plan Mexico is the successor project to the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), a post-9/11 initiative negotiated by the NAFTA countries. The State Department's Thomas Shannon made the link between free trade and security explicit: "We have worked through the Security and Prosperity Partnership to improve our commercial and trading relationship, we have also worked to improve our security cooperation. To a certain extent, we’re armoring NAFTA.”

Evidently, neoconservative policy framers have purposefully coupled free trade and security. Free trade agreements promote the free circulation of goods, while prohibiting the same circulation by workers. Since neoliberal trade deals eliminate agricultural subsidies and open poor countries to a flood of cheap imported goods, economically displaced workers will naturally seek new sources of income—even if that means crossing borders.

Militarizing borders and identifying undocumented workers who cross them as criminals ("illegal") are the logical—though sordid—next steps in anticipating and "guarding against" the effects of free trade. The militarization of borders has done nothing to stop immigration, which provides an essential labor force to the United States. But the criminalization of undocumented mobile immigrant workers has deprived them of basic rights of citizenship, thereby making them vulnerable to increasing levels of violence and human rights violations.

The U.S.-driven designation of "internal enemies"—in this case immigrants—as a rationale for building an already mushrooming security apparatus and militarizing societies is, of course, nothing new, especially in Latin America. What is new is that this militarization has become nearly void of any social content. Even during the Cold War, U.S. "national security" doctrines were generally accompanied by social programs, such as the Alliance for Progress and the Peace Corps, which in small measure alleviated poverty and explicitly recognized economic conditions as a root of "the problem."

The end of the Cold War eliminated an even token emphasis on poverty and with it, all but the most minimal efforts to offer social assistance. The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) found that the Bush administration granted $874 million in military and police assistance to Latin America in 2004 an amount almost equal to the $946 million provided in economic and social programs. WOLA reported that with the exception of Colombia, military and police aid has historically been less than half of the total provided for economic and social aid. Moreover, military and police aid used to be directed by the U.S. State Department, assuring a degree of congressional oversight. Now, foreign policy is increasingly managed by the Department of Defense, thereby eliminating this oversight and effectively making militarization the predominant rationale of U.S. foreign policy.

Living on the Border

The situation of Central American immigrants on Mexico’s southern border illustrates the central problems and contradictions of Washington's emphasis on free trade and militarization. And the situation is certain to get worse as thousands of immigrants are deported by the United States to their countries of origin in Central America.

Mural depicting the distinct modes of passage used by immigrants traveling to "el Norte" in Casa del Migrante in Tecún Umán, Guatemala. (By Susan Fitzpatrick Behrens)

Immigrants are fully aware of the risks they take, but economic conditions leave them few alternatives. With a look of desperation following a three-day journey from his home, one Honduran immigrant in the Mexican border town of Tapachula explained, “We don’t do this by choice. We don’t want to leave our families. But imagine a man looking at his children and seeing them hungry." Back home, he faces wages averaging $6 per day in Honduras and a scarcity of opportunities.

When asked about the dangers they anticipate on their journey north, Central American immigrants offer a catalog of terrors: beatings, sexual assaults, robberies, kidnappings, and murders. Ademar Barilli, a Catholic priest and director of the Casa del Migrante in Guatemala’s border town of Tecún Umán, observed, “Immigrants almost expect that their rights will be violated in every sense because they are from another country and are undocumented.”

Heyman Vasquez, a Catholic priest who directs a shelter for migrants in the town of Arriaga in Chiapas, Mexico, maintains detailed records of the violations suffered by migrants passing through his shelter. In a five-month period in 2008, a third of the men and 40% of the women he serves reported assault or some other form of abuse in their 160-mile journey from the Mexico-Guatemala region to Arriaga.

Police are often the perpetrators of these violations. In Guatemala, Father Barilli and others described cases of police forcing Salvadoran and Honduran immigrants to disembark from buses, where they take their documents and demand money. Once they make it into Mexico, immigrants are subject to abuse by Los Zetas, a notorious drug-trafficking network composed of former law enforcement and military agents linked with the Gulf Cartel.

Los Zetas are known to work with Mexican police in the kidnapping of immigrants to demand money from their family members in the United States. Immigrants also report robberies, beatings, and rapes at the hands of Los Zetas. Recently, in Puebla, Mexico, 32 undocumented Central Americans were kidnapped and tortured by the Zetas with the support of municipal police. In this case, after the migrants escaped, local community members captured a number of the responsible police agents and held them until Federal authorities arrived.

A U.S. State Department report on human rights in Mexico from 2007 concluded, "Many police were involved in kidnapping, extortion, or providing protection for, or acting directly on behalf of organized crime and drug traffickers. Impunity was pervasive to an extent that victims often refused to file complaints.”

That impunity means abused migrants have few places to turn is painfully obvious to one Salvadoran immigrant in the Mexican border town of Tapachula. He had just been deported from the United States, where his wife, a legal resident, and two U.S.-born children live in Los Angeles. “The police are involved. You can’t file complaints,” he said. Besides, the wheels of Mexican justice turn notoriously slow—if at all.

Despite the dire scenario, it is not uncommon for many Central American immigrants to receive a helping hand along the way in their journey to El Norte, whether its food, water, money, or shelter. As one undocumented Honduran explained in Tapachula, “Almost everyone has someone in their family who has migrated. Most understand the need.”

"Security" and Violence

Security initiatives in Central America are notoriously violent and further militarized societies still recovering from decades of brutal civil wars. And, historically, when the Pentagon gets involved, repressive tactics increase.

The Bush administration's principle security concerns in Central America of drug trafficking and “transnational gangs” have led to a series of “security cooperation” agreements. The first regional conference on “joint security” was chaired by El Salvador’s president, Tony Saca, who first introduced the "Mano Dura" (Iron Fist) initiative—a package of authoritarian militarized policing methods aimed at youth gangs adopted throughout the region. In attendance was then-U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, responsible for advocating torture of prisoners in Guantánamo.

The conference took place in El Salvador in February 2007 and resulted in the creation of a transnational anti-gang unit (TAG), which El Salvador’s justice and security minister, René Figueroa described as “an organized offensive at a regional level,” with the US State Department and the FBI coordinating with national police forces. Gonzales, promised Washington would finance a new program to train regional police forces and this promise has been fulfilled partially with the establishment of a highly controversial police-training academy in El Salvador, which is closed to public scrutiny and includes little support for human rights.

Hundreds of Central American migrants ride atop freight trains leaving Arriaga, Mexico en route to the United States. Among other dangers, hundreds have lost limbs as a result of falling onto the tracks below. (By Carlos Bartolo Solis, Hogar de la Misericordia, www.migrantearriaga.org.mx)

In many ways, Plan Mexico, is a mano dura campaign writ large. For 2008, Plan Mexico will provide $400 million to Mexico and $65 million to Central America. More than half of the total funds will go directly to providing police and military weapons and training, even though the police and military in these countries have been implicated in crime and human rights violations.

As Plan Mexico arms and trains military and police forces implicated in violent crime, it also provides millions of dollars for an immigration institute responsible for tightening Mexico’s southern borders through monitoring, bio-data collection, a Guatemalan guest-worker program, and border control.

Undocumented immigrants will be caught in the web of this violence, particularly since Plan Mexico also continues the trend toward the criminalization of migrants. As Laura Carlsen, observes, "By including 'border security' and explicitly targeting 'flows of illicit goods and persons,' the initiative equates migrant workers with illegal contraband and terrorist threats."

The dehumanization of undocumented immigrants in the United States, and elsewhere, and the growing infringement of their basic rights should serve as a dire warning to all "citizens." The undocumented are the canaries in the coalmine: the violation of their rights signals a growing repressive climate that jeopardizes everyone's liberties.

Fire on the Border

Free trade agreements create the conditions that force people to migrate to the United States as an underpaid, politically disenfranchised, and therefore unprotected labor force. Now the economic crisis in the United States has increased pressure to expel undocumented workers, violating a host of human rights standards in the process. Deportations also increase labor pressure in immigrants’ countries of origin, where the global economic crisis stands to further decrease the already limited opportunities for work in “legitimate” industries.

From a purely humanitarian perspective, the governments of the United States, Mexico, and Central America need to address this crisis by developing policies that improve the conditions of poverty that cause immigration. Throwing guns at the problem will only make things worse.

Sure, drug lords are firmly entrenched in the Guatemala-Mexico border region. But Plan Mexico will no more eliminate their presence, than the Mano Dura campaigns eliminated the gangs. Or, for that matter, any more than the militarization of borders has eliminated immigration. Instead, Plan Mexico, like its predecessors, will increase the level of violence in the region by providing more weapons to corrupt police and military forces.

As more and more resources shift toward militarization, policing and surveillance, fewer resources are available for programs that ease pressure to emigrate—namely, education, jobs, medical care, food subsidies, housing, and legal recourse. Meanwhile, governments are increasingly ceding responsibility for protection of even narrowly defined human rights to under-funded non-governmental organizations.

Repressive immigration policies, narcotrafficking, and free trade all combined to form a combustible situation along the Mexico-Guatemala border. Plan Mexico is the spark, and once the flames start, no one will be able to put out the fire. And it's the undocumented migrants who will continue to get burned.

Susan Fitzpatrick Behrens is a NACLA Research Associate currently based in Central America. Christine Kovic contributed reporting for this article.

What Retiro presented and shared with me

2009-01-13T02:40:00.001-08:00

Can I please say that the park, Retiro, in Madrid is absolutely precious...? It is harmonic!!! Its beauty is filled with those rollerblading, who - even with a bit of snow scattered and melting from the prior day - make it through the crowds and across the sloshing, slick ice. Its statues are accented by those observers, those who pause for moments, whose eyes are captured - locked into the grooves of the stone...maybe even in wonder, for those moments just allowing themselves to be in their own pequeño mundo... Accompanied by a partner or solo, just lift your face up to ark back toward the warm beams of the sun... the warm beams that counter all the other senses of the body... those that tell you you should naturally feel anything but the kind reflection of the sun on your skin that gives you oh some sort of sentido tan agradable... but then you walk and walk and cannot help but be simply, maybe even blissfully, caught in the environment.

Manifestaciones contra Israel en Gaza

2009-01-09T14:20:00.000-08:00

It has been amazing to see the number of banners I have seen listing different manifestations that are to take place here in various Spanish cities against the US support of Israel and against the war on Gaza as a whole. Solidarity definitely is present. Tonight there was a rally at 7:30 in Jaén, Jaén. That happily surprised me to find out about such action occurring in Jaén... many people tend to regard the city as one without much action, one without much spirit. It is, and must be, evident that we must stop living in our individual worlds and begin living in the world's reality.

Snow in Madrid

2009-01-09T14:12:00.000-08:00

Today, the first day in 23 years, it has snowed in Madrid. All throughout the day various news stations aired different images filled with white backgrounds highlighted by the weather.
My friend called me from Madrid before arriving to class and told me that he and some others had made a snow person... This was the first time in his life and he was loving it. Coming from Minnesota, I had to remember that many places in Spain barely ever see any snow (although many others in the North and in the Sierra Nevada do), therefore I couldn't take this weather lightly being here in Spain. I guess after not having been in Minnesota for many months it has been refreshing and somewhat joyful to be a part of this weather excitement here. But on the other side the snow is slowing things up (maybe we need a little more of that in life...) - Renfe (train), schools, airplanes, and highways are all delayed. We'll see if this snow keeps up and affects my flight on the 20th...!

Feliz Holidays

2008-12-31T06:30:00.000-08:00

Very happy holidays to everyone...
I wanted to thank you all for reading the emails that I had sent throughout my time in Central America. It's really beautiful to be able to share such experiences with you all and hear your feedback. So once again, thank you for adding to such learning and journeys.

It has been a bit over two weeks, now, since I have been in Spain - visiting family and friends once again... Almost two years have past since I lived here for a semester studying; that is pretty surreal to realize.
Of course, it has been wonderful thus far seeing good friends and re-visiting some of my favorite places... some of my favorite spots in Andújar like the clock tower near the library, the plaza area of San Miguel... even just walking down the narrow streets noticing the different architecture and noises tuned to a Spanish note. I've got to say though that two of my most humorous loves here are that which I have now indulged plenty in-- jamón and olive oil. These tastes have always stuck with me since my "Spanish beginnings";)
For a quick re-cap: My first days were spent in Madrid with a good friend... I loved it!!! It was my first time being in the capital. We explored some of Madrid's most famous areas and visited many pubs in order to take advantage of the tapas lifestyle. I learned how to navigate my way sola through the Metro and I also got to see my former Spanish host mother.
On the way to Andújar, Jaén, I also had one thing happen to me for the first time-- I was robbed!! No worries, the culprits were sneaky enough to the point where I didn't even notice (I was carrying all my backpacking luggage from Central America - running on little sleep and a bit of sadness from leaving Madrid)... Right as I was about to board the bus, I realized that my left jacket packet was broached open (as it was not 15 minutes before then!) and my billfoald was gone... luckily the most important thing in my billfoald was my passport. No worries, my passport has since then been handed into the US embassy in Madrid (as it was found thrown on the street). It will be sent to the home where I'm at in Andújar.
This Friday I'll be heading to Sevilla in order to see a friend from Mexico and check out a social/political activism org.
Then later I will go back to soak up and explore more of Madrid.

I send you all my love and desires that you are passing the time relaxingly with those you care about most.

PS-- check this out-- I received it from a friend this morning:
"Also I would suggest keeping up on the news from Gaza. It's obviously nowhere near identical to the situations we learned about in Central America, but it bears one crucial resemblance: a conservative U.S. president backing an oppressive regime.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/12/2008122994140674153.html

Stolen passport... still some luck

2008-12-22T07:33:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday as I was heading for Andújar, Jaén, (from Madrid)I hopped on the Metro with my big backpackers bag that I have been hauling for about four months now and one other backpack that has stuck with me also. Well, little to my knowledge (if my intuition is correct), the two men that were standing strangely close to me on the not-so-filled metro had robbed me. Robbed. For the first time in my life. I didn´t even realize what had happened until I was about to get on the bus to Andújar. Of course, my robbed wallet also had in it my bus ticket. Luckily the conductor listened to my story and let me on in a secret manner of some sort.
I think the tears in my eyes helped a bit.
With a "que lástima" smile on his face, he said "Welcome to Madrid"...

Goodbye for now, Central America... Hello Europe

2008-12-17T00:46:00.000-08:00

I arrived at the Barajas airport in Madrid, Spain, this past Sunday at 9 am. Of course the days prior to that had been filled with running around, trying to say goodbye to everyone and finishing up last-minute tasks. Our last night together as a group in Nicaragua was fun after we finally finished packing (or at least some of us) and went to a favorite spot - "Q" - where we danced until the morning hours. After returning to the house I realized it would only be less than two hours until I would have to wake up again, so why not just sleep for twenty minutes!
To say the least, I slept very little on the plane rides which finally brought me to Spain... And then upon staying with my friend in Madrid and being excited and a bit overwhelmed emotionally and mentally, I have ended up going to bed quite late these past nights. It has been worth it, though. But what a choque, also. Of course, Spain is incredibly and blatantly distinct from Nicaragua. Managua, Nicaragua's capital where I lived for the past month or so, is so unlike Madrid, Spain's capital. Now this may sound obvious. But I point this out because what a drastic change in environment I experienced that occurred in just less than one day. It makes one realize, and more so face, the realities of inequity/ies that exist cross-culturally but yet are so closely integrated.
While maneuvering through the metro the other day by myself, I waited on a bench for around 40 minutes in a busy stop and basically just sat and watched people. I could not stop wondering about each person's life and their story... if they were and/or are active in civil society and if they are informed about what is going on in regions such as Central America... These questions could be addressed anywhere in the world; and of course there are many more areas that must be taken into account that expand far beyond Central Am...

Cheney Sin Vergüenza

2008-12-17T00:39:00.001-08:00

Listening to DemocracyNow! this morning it was eery to hear Dick Cheney describing how he knew and approved of water-boarding... He remained strong in his supporting stance (of that form of torture) by saying something to the sort of "you can see by the results that it (water-boarding) was a good idea..."
If Cheney would have been at the side of Bush in Iraq at the news conference, I'm sure the Iraqi reporter would have thrown a shoe and some at him, too...

Some Food I'll Take Back

2008-12-09T19:43:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was the final day at my home stay... But you know I couldn't stay away from the family so I went back and visited for a couple hours tonight. Luckily all members of the family were there. My brother Paúl recommended that we make some tostones, and there was no way I was going to say no to that.
So while there I decided three -- no, four-- food traditions that I absolutely must keep alive in the US.
The above-mentiones tostones:
-cut into medium-sized pieces a platano that still is green (of course after peeling it)
-fry the pieces with olive oil until they are cooked
-flatten the freshly fried platano pieces with your palm (first place the platano piece under a towel or napkin to avoid burning yourself)
-re-fry the platano pieces until lightly brown

--Once done, eat them with salt, ketchup, and some avocado and cheese (or to whichever way pleases your liking)

gallo pinto:
-cook beans on the stove top (many must be soaked in water overnight before cooking)
once cooked, use any preferred rice and mix the two together
-add salt
--there you have the famous central-american gallo pinto that can be eaten at any meal!

tortillas:
-buy masa (or if you can cook and grind your own corn it's best)
-add water until the dough is ready to be rolled into a ball
-place the dough ball on a flat, hard surface and compact it with your palm
-while compacting the dough, rotate it around and form it into a circle
-place the dough tortillas on a stove top and cook until lightly browned (they're also good toasted so just leave them on longer if you prefer a crunchy tortilla)
-don't forget to flip the tortilla over

juice:
natural papaya juice would be my favorite, but with any natural fruit just peel it (if necessary) and then squeeze all its liquid out until you have enough to serve as many people as you choose
-add a bit of water and sugar (if desired)
--there you have your natural juice!

Diversifying the Sources

2008-12-09T19:39:00.000-08:00

So lately I have been utilizing my blog site to post articles written by other people... This may seem as though I'm "slacking on the job," but while being here I've realized more profoundly the importance of connections to diverse news sources. I wanted to make available to any readers of this blog some of the news sources I have been reading most - and most importantly - alternative worldly view points that others may not have the chance or interest to otherwise see.
I hope these prior articles have been of some enjoyment and better yet, of some mind-opening as they have been for me.

Women's Rights in Iran

2008-12-09T19:38:00.000-08:00

People of 2008 Finalist: 1 Million Signatures Campaign for Women's Rights in Iran
December 5, 2008
Jeffrey Allen, OneWorld US

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Nominated by: OneWorld editors

WASHINGTON, Nov 24 (OneWorld) - An independent grassroots movement of Iranian women and men is educating women about their fundamental human rights and steadily becoming a powerful force for women's equality in the patriarchal country.

Members of the 1 Million Signatures Campaign greet Raheleh Asgarizadeh and Nasim Khosravi as they are released from Evin Prison in February 2008. © Change for Equality CampaignThe 1 Million Signatures Campaign, also known as Change for Equality, is demanding that all discriminatory laws against women be reformed. But rather than taking their demands straight to Iran's entrenched conservative leaders, the group has built a network of over 1,000 face-to-face educators in at least 15 of the country's provinces. They contact women where women usually gather -- shops, schools, offices, hair salons, or their homes.

The campaigners ask the women to sign the petition, which calls for equal rights for women in marriage, equal rights to divorce for women, an end to polygamy and temporary marriage, an increase of the age of criminal responsibility to 18 for both girls and boys, the right for women to pass on nationality to their children, equal compensation for bodily injury or death, equal inheritance rights, reform of laws that reduce punishment for offenders in cases of honor killings, and equal testimony rights for men and women in court.

Whether the women sign the petition or not, they receive a booklet explaining how the Iranian legal system denies women full rights. Thus, even the women who do not sign are informed about their rights, explains the Women's Learning Partnership, a U.S.-based human rights group that publicizes the work of the Campaign.

The strength of the 1 Million Signatures Campaign was most clearly seen in the response it provoked from the country's security forces this year. Dozens of activists were arrested, detained, or otherwise intimidated. In May, the first man was arrested for his efforts to support the Campaign.

And in October, the arrest of Iranian American graduate student Esha Momeni brought worldwide attention to the group's work. Momeni, a campaign member living in California, was in Tehran working on a documentary film about women's rights in the country that was to become her graduate thesis.

The group's Web site has been regularly blocked or filtered. The media has been warned not to cover the group's activities, according to Sussan Tahmasebi, a member of the Campaign whose passport was revoked earlier this year. Other campaigners have had their their houses searched, and one was even denied entrance to university.

All this in response to a loose-knit group of peaceful activists who go out of their way not to break any laws.

"Given the breadth of the institutional opposition arrayed against them, the Change for Equality Petition Drive is especially clever," wrote the New York Times in a 2007 editorial about the Campaign. "Rather than directly confronting the system, it goes around it. Even women who don't sign the petition will be better informed about their second-class status. The hope is that they will then be less likely to accept injustice indefinitely. And if Iran's women start questioning their lack of rights, perhaps Iran's men will have the courage to speak out, too."

From its outset in 2006, the Campaign organizers, who include the Nobel Peace Prize winning lawyer Shirin Ebadi, have been extremely careful to ensure their group is entirely locally funded and organized. During this time of heated geopolitical rhetoric between Iran and the West, they want to make sure that no one can say their demands have been sponsored or orchestrated by any foreign power.

"For those of us starting this effort, and for those who joined subsequently, the issue of independence was the most important issue," says Tahmasebi. "We knew that if we were to be successful in reaching the grassroots and the Iranian population and establishing relationships based on trust, there should be no question about our independence."

The Campaign is funded by individual donations from its members and supporters, and through the contributions of time and non-monetary support of its members. Campaign meetings and events are often held in the homes of members, who cover costs out of their own pockets. Campaigners who travel to conduct training workshops or connect with members in other cities pay for travel costs themselves, and stay in the homes of friends and family or other Campaign activists.

It's too early to tell if the Campaign will succeed in bringing about the change it seeks in the Iranian legal system, but there can be no doubt that the group has managed to build a powerful movement within a strict political system. And regardless of its local success, that can have important implications for others facing oppression around the world.

"While the Campaign is focused on the common demand of women for equal rights," says Tahmasebi, "we do feel that this new and peaceful approach, which does not utilize antagonistic means, will hold lessons for all citizens who wish to have their voices heard by their government and their representatives in Parliament."

* This story profiles one of ten finalists for OneWorld.net's People of 2008 award. Vote for your favorite, read more profiles, or tell us about other amazing people on OneWorld's People of 2008 page

What's the Deal with the US Millenium Fund to Nica?

2008-12-02T12:49:00.000-08:00

US officials have declared that the US will be ending their 'Millenium Fund' aid to Nicaragua since the country's municipal elections were reportedly fraudulent (which the FSLN denies). This news came out a few weeks ago, but Daniel Ortega continues to react calmly, speaking out against the 'Empire' - US imperialism. But after hearing the reaction from members of Batahola Norte's neighborhood and a prominent Managuan union leader (who will be kept anonymous), the majority of Nicaraguans (who earn around $97/month [4000 Córdobas] and have an average family size of six people) are very worried about the impact this aid reclamation will have. Nicaragua continues to be an extremely fragile country (not only politically, but also economically being the 2nd most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere behind Haiti). If these municipal election results are further delegitimized internationally and forced to be questioned nationally in Nicaragua once again, there would be substantial reason to fear how feelings would be acted out...

Chavez Chavez Chavez... Analytical Comments from a Brooklyn Activist

2008-12-02T12:33:00.000-08:00

Chavismo is alive and kicking
Commentators have painted Venezuela's elections as a bitter blow for Hugo Chávez. But they have their facts wrong

o Max Ajl
o guardian.co.uk, Thursday November 27 2008 22.00 GMT

Richard Gott – usually an informed, sober analyst of Bolívarian Venezuela – observed on Comment is free this week that the results of the recent electoral round constituted an "electoral reverse" (or a "major electoral setback," or a "huge blow"; take your pick).

Gott is no neophyte analyst. He's also not lazy – rather than reiterating some party line, he clearly watched the results come in live, noting that "The president of the National Electoral Council, close to tears, had announced earlier that the Chavez government had lost the city of Caracas."

Indeed, one imagines his dissections of contemporary Venezuela carry considerable heft within the liberal or left-wing commentariat. So, to put it as nicely as I can, it is too bad that he's wrong.

The numbers are clear. With 65% turnout, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela's (PSUV) officials hold 17 of the country's 23 states, while the opposition holds five (sparsely populated Amazonas is on its own cycle). Meanwhile, some 80% of the mayoralties remain under Bolívarian control, while total numbers indicate that the PSUV candidates attracted 53.5% of the vote: 5.42 million Venezuelans. The main opposition parties garnered 39.9% of the votes: 4.04 million people. Dissident Chavista parties got 4.1% – 411,000 – while other opposition parties got 2.5% – 255,000.

At a glance, then, Gott's study seems suspect. But recall: the Chavista coalition is, ostensibly, carrying out a hegemonic project of national transformation. Social spending has radically increased, while poverty reduction has been precipitous, according to the freshest, most authoritative investigation (courtesy of the Center for Economic and Policy Research). So simple electoral tallies in response to the rhetorical question, "Who won?" won't do.

Keeping to the numbers, then, let us look at some other evidence. We should look to the results of previous elections, as all commentators view such statistics as a significant barometer of opinion. The 2007 referendum was on a package of constitutional reforms promoted by Chavez. Divided into A and B blocks, the referendum was rejected by a margin of between 1.5 and 2%, on a 56% turnout. Assessing electoral results on a purely numerical basis suggests that the Chavista movement has made gains with respect to the last vote, the most relevant unit of comparison. In that race, the No vote reached 4.5m. A year later, that number has dwindled to 4.2m.

In Venezuela, radicals have assessed the situation in similar terms. For example, as Venezuelan sociologist Javier Biardeau, surely situated further left than many PSUVistas, comments, "the Venezuelan revolution has recovered significantly from the electoral setback of December 2, 2007 (the day of the failed referendum). As he continues, the elections could have amplified that setback, or they could have "directed the electoral trajectory toward the recovery of the level of support reached in the 2006 electoral cycle", which is what happened.

Nor should one grasp at the facile explanation that the Chavistas are in denial or are delusional, smiling as they swallow down mouthfuls of ash. Particularly galling to them was the loss of the mayoralty that includes the massive slum Petare, on the eastern edge of Caracas, due to inadequate sanitation, violence, thuggery – and, some allege, the penetration of Colombian drug traffickers.

As Venezuelan journalist José Roberto Duque observes, "I know that anti-Chavismo won in Caracas," although he meticulously adduces evidence showing that in the most destitute areas of Petare, the Chavista candidate won by a 2-to-1 margin.

Moreover, there is widespread chagrin that the western electoral corridor is in opposition hands, including what community organiser and left-wing intellectual Roland Denis calls the "strategic" Táchira and Zulia provinces, bordering a potentially hostile Colombia. Additionally, the loss of Metropolitan Caracas, Miranda and Carabobo represents the loss of "states and regions that are among the country's most important with respect to population and electoral, industrial, and economic" clout.

However, all analysts suggest that the electoral results are, more than anything else, symbolic. Underlying them are the real stuff of politico-social mobilisation and the possibility of social transformation. As Duque continues, the key is "understanding that the PSUV is not the revolution". For example, the winner of the governor's office in Falcon state is hardly a hard-left figure. But from a pragmatic perspective, better the PSUV than the opposition.

In that sense, then, electoral victory is not the summa summarum of the political process. It is merely appreciably better than electoral defeat. As widely respected analyst James Petras concludes, the fact is that "Chavismo has consolidated its support and is in a position to advance the process of transformation."

And, one should add, Chavez has accepted the PSUV losses with equanimity, not ire. We may think what we will of the ongoing political change in Venezuela. But accusations of autocracy now seem like mere calumny.

Nov 20, 2008. NY Times report on Nica

2008-11-25T15:17:00.000-08:00

Claims of a Rigged Vote Foment Bitter Protests in Nicaragua

By MARC LACEY
Published: November 19, 2008

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — As homemade mortar rounds exploded over this capital, and angry demonstrators poured into the streets for a second consecutive day, Nicaragua found itself mired Wednesday in an increasingly bitter struggle over who controls Managua and scores of other cities across the country.

Oswaldo Rivas/Reuters

Police officers on Sunday in León, Nicaragua, detained a supporter of Eduardo Montealegre, who insisted he was the winner of the mayoral race in Managua.
Esteban Felix/Associated Press

Supporters of the left-wing Sandinista party of President Daniel Ortega threw stones during a clash on Sunday in León.

Opposition leaders accuse President Daniel Ortega's left-wing Sandinista party of rigging the mayoral race here and hundreds of other municipal races across the country in an effort to extend its political reach.

Before Election Day, Nov. 9, Mr. Ortega limited the access of outside election observers and then, his critics contend, ordered his underlings to tamper with the balloting to ensure that candidates loyal to him came out on top.

"This fight isn't about the Managua mayoralty," said Eduardo Montealegre, who insisted he was the legitimate winner of the mayoral race even though the Sandinista-controlled electoral council said preliminary figures indicated that he had lost.

"It's more fundamental," he said. "It's about dictatorship versus democracy."

Mr. Montealegre, a member of the Constitutional Liberal Party, has tried to protest the results, but he has been met by angry Sandinistas at every turn. They have chased away his supporters and have turned the streets into a free-for-all.

Demonstrators blocked intersections and pelted cars with rocks. Members of rival political parties have faced off in angry confrontations, and nervous merchants have closed up their businesses.

Mr. Ortega has remained silent. A Sandinista revolutionary who led Nicaragua in the 1980s, he was ousted in 1990. But he was re-elected in 2006 in a hotly contested race in which his closest rival was Mr. Montealegre. While Mr. Ortega won with only 38 percent of the vote, he has moved to impose his Sandinista stamp on all aspects of society.

Sandinistas clearly control the streets. For weeks before Election Day, the party's supporters began camping out at traffic circles in what they called prayers for peace over hate. Opposition leaders saw it as an attempt to hold on to central public spaces and to limit opposition rallies.

"The streets are ours," said José Bonilla, a Sandinista supporter holding a homemade plywood shield, during the tumult in Managua on Tuesday afternoon. Fellow demonstrators, waving red-and-black Sandinista flags, shot explosives over the heads of riot police officers who were blocking them from Mr. Montealegre's rally a block away.

When Mr. Ortega cast his ballot in an election that was viewed as the first test of his influence since his re-election, he defended the integrity of the balloting and accused the local media of trying to discredit the results and "create an image of Nicaragua at war."

Mr. Montealegre, backed by leaders of the Catholic Church and Nicaragua's two largest business organizations, is demanding a full recount monitored by international observers.

Mr. Ortega's skepticism of international observers traces back to the 1990 election, in which he was defeated by Violeta Barrios de Chamorro. "From that moment, the truth is that I lost faith in the Organization of American States and all the other organisms," he said in a speech before the election.

The Supreme Electoral Council of Nicaragua, in its initial report on the voting on Nov. 9, said the Sandinista mayoral candidate in Managua, Alexis Argüello, 52, a three-time world boxing champion, had defeated Mr. Montealegre, 53, who is a Harvard-educated former finance minister.

But in response to a barrage of criticism, including some from the United States and other governments, Roberto Rivas, the president of the electoral council, ordered a recount. But he said it would not be monitored by independent outsiders.

"We are doing it so that the Nicaraguan people — not the embassies, but the Nicaraguan people — are completely satisfied that their vote was respected," Mr. Rivas said in a news conference last week.

Mr. Rivas did not address accusations that polls closed early and that opposition electoral delegates were forced out of the final counting of the vote in Managua. He did request that state prosecutors investigate reports that ballots marked for the opposition were found in the municipal dump in León, northwest of Managua.

"It must be found out whether public officials are involved," he said, adding that he would "get to the bottom of this case."

In his news conference, Mr. Rivas chided Mr. Montealegre for failing to file a formal fraud complaint with Nicaraguan prosecutors and for calling on his supporters to take to the streets in protest.

But Mr. Montealegre, in an interview on Wednesday, said it was the government that was responsible for the violence. Gesturing at newspaper photographs that showed his supporters waving Nicaraguan flags and Sandinista backers clutching rocks and sticks, he said Mr. Ortega was responsible for the violence in the streets.

"He is the president of the country, not me," Mr. Montealegre said. "He can end this."

Blake Schmidt contributed reporting.
More Articles in World » A version of this article appeared in print on November 20, 2008, on page A6 of the New York edition.

Sontule (read this before the prior post if you want chronological order...)

2008-11-25T15:16:00.000-08:00

The group and I are back from Sontule, a rural community 40 minutes outside of the city of Esteli. Honestly, I was not expecting to enjoy myself to the extent that I did. The group and I got out of a packed week building up to a substantial paper that we finished the night before leaving. One could say that the timing worked out great, but my mindset was just not into the extra moving around at the time...
Now I am surprised at the feelings I have when when thinking about the family I stayed with, after just less than four days of being in their presence... I miss them...really! The environment we were surrounded in was truly phenomenal. Never in Central America have I seen farm land like that which I saw while living in Sontule from Monday to Thursday. Amy, a friend from the group, and I lived together with Doña Isabel, Don Franciso, Henry, Xaña, Araseli, Kevin, and little Fabricio (who is just about to be two years old and is the neatest child I have come across in Central America thus far... I have got to say that by yesterday, he started calling me "Chía," (his way of saying "Tía") which touched my heart incredibly). Our leaders warned us about the drastic climate change (Sontule being quite colder than the intense Managuan heat), but I didn't actually believe it until I felt and heard the fuerte wind that approached and grew from the afternoon on...
While there we learned about the three different cooperatives that Sontule takes part in under the organizational entity of UCA Miraflor. The women's cooperative was specifically emphasized. It was after the Agrarian Reform in 1991 when each family in Sontule was given 16 manzanas (1 manzana = 1.7 acres) of land. Before that time, specifically during the Somoza dictatorship, inhabitants of Sontule worked on a coffee plantation for Rene Molina (who was soon to become a millionaire after working as a deptuty/representative for Somoza)... the farm workers were mainly "blind," as they said, to the inhumane actions and policies of Somoza. They were also working as slaves. But many claimed that they knew nothing else, so it was normal life for them.
It was when different groups from various Nicaraguan cities and international orgs came to meet with the campesinos when they began to realize the wrongs that were being done to them and the injustices that were being imposed upon Nicaragua as a whole... It was around that time when many of the coffee plantation workers began to organize and join the guerrillas against Somoza...
This story was and is lived by the host family that Amy and I stayed with...

Here is a recent article from the New York Times. It can give you a more formal idea of what has been going on around here... PS: the FSLN is now claiming the the US has something to do with the charges of fraud against them... This is odd, especially because the US is sponsoring some of the FSLN's advertisements and organizational groups...

more to come....
love and peace--

Latest News Update from Nica

2008-11-25T15:13:00.001-08:00

Once again, the NY Times has printed another informative and vital article regarding the current political situations and relationships in Nicaragua. In my opinion, this is one people should read.
The writing emphasizes the interesting shift that has occurred amongst the Sandinista Party (FSLN)... from those who used to be staunch revolutionaries side by side with Daniel - to those who have become deeply disillusioned by Daniel and what they believe to be his betrayal of the Sandinista Revolution's principles... When reading, notice the revolutionary Dora María Téllez who was one of the founders of the break-off FSLN party - the MRS (Sandinista Renovation Movement) - and who is the former President of the MRS... The group and I met with her for nearly two hours yesterday. She could not come to the Center for Global Education house (because it is on the same block as President Ortega's house and she has been a conflicting figure during these past weeks surrounding the elections - not to mention her criticisms of Daniel's ruling) so we met her in a conference room of a pastry restaurant. What a hidden place to meet, eh;) But she was awesome - I mean literally this woman is a huge Nicaraguan - furthermore a Central and Latin American - figure. Dora was 18 yrs old when she joined the FSLN...And when the Sandinistas took over the National Assembly (from Somoza before the revolutionary triumph) she stood on the balcony as the only female and Second in Command. What a woman.
Two friends and I will be doing on final project on the MRS; Dora said she would meet with us privately again... wow alright!
Read on to find more...

Sandinista Fervor Turns Sour for Former Comrades of Nicaragua’s President
Oswaldo Rivas/Reuters

Sandinista supporters celebrated a victory in mayoral elections in Managua, Nicaragua’s capital, this month. Many Sandinistas, though, have left the movement.
By MARC LACEY
Published: November 23, 2008

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — The music of President Daniel Ortega’s Sandinista party, the rousing songs sung during political rallies and street protests that draw his supporters by the thousands, is the same as what rang out during the war years of the 1980s. “Brother, give me your hand, we now march united toward the victorious sun, on the path to liberty,” goes one.

Esteban Felix/Associated Press

Carlos Mejía Godoy, left, and Edmundo Jarquín in 2006, when Mr. Jarquín ran for president. Mr. Mejía Godoy, a songwriter, was his running mate in a party made up of former Sandinistas.

But Carlos Mejía Godoy, the revolutionary singer-songwriter who dreamed up those songs when he was the Sandinistas’ chief balladeer, has told Mr. Ortega’s government to stop using his music and in recent days has been furiously scribbling new lyrics that lament the direction that Mr. Ortega is taking the country.

Like many prominent Sandinistas who have left Mr. Ortega’s movement in disgust, Mr. Mejía Godoy is now denounced by party members as a sellout who has lost his revolutionary fervor. But ex-Sandinistas, it turns out, are some of Mr. Ortega’s harshest critics these days, hounding him and provoking his ire.

Mr. Ortega’s critics have accused him of rigging this month’s municipal elections in an effort to spread his power. Leading the charge against Mr. Ortega have been some of his former comrades in the Sandinista National Liberation Front, which ruled Nicaragua in the 1980s and returned to power two years ago. The dissenters include cabinet members in Mr. Ortega’s old government and intellectuals who championed the revolution that brought him to power.

“I want a peaceful and harmonious Nicaragua,” goes Mr. Mejía Godoy’s latest song, which he pulled out proudly on Thursday afternoon after spending much of the previous evening working on the arrangement and fine-tuning the lyrics. “I want a Nicaragua that is free, where nobody destroys the flower of my happiness, nor puts a straitjacket on my way of thinking.”

Present-day Sandinistas brush off the criticism from their former comrades in arms.

“The revolution is like a train. People get on and off,” said Elías Chévez, a Sandinista legislator and former guerrilla, who stood with his arms crossed in the street Thursday night watching a raucous group of party supporters await final results from the Nov. 9 election.

Recent actions by the government have made it clear that the defections are rattling Mr. Ortega. Orlando Nuñez, an adviser to the president, acknowledged that the infighting among former comrades could have the intensity of a family feud.

Edmundo Jarquín, a former Sandinista, said of Mr. Ortega, “He views us as traitors.” Mr. Jarquín challenged Mr. Ortega for the presidency in 2006 as a member of the Sandinista Renovation Movement, a political party made up mostly of former Sandinistas. Mr. Mejía Godoy was Mr. Jarquín’s vice presidential candidate.

Mr. Nuñez said the Sandinistas had stayed true to their principles and continued to focus on the poor masses in a country with an economy that is only a notch above Haiti’s. “We’re continuing the themes of the revolution of the ’80s,” he said, a point vehemently disputed by Mr. Ortega’s detractors.

Both sides in the political skirmishing in Nicaragua these days portray themselves as the true disciples of Augusto Sandino, the nationalist leader who conducted guerrilla raids against occupying American soldiers in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In the past two years, the government has renamed Managua’s airport for Sandino and posted his photo in public offices and public spaces.

To outflank the former Sandinistas, Mr. Ortega’s government managed to keep Mr. Jarquín’s party off the ballot in the municipal elections two weeks ago. That move prompted Dora María Téllez, a former rebel leader who fought alongside Mr. Ortega and was once his health minister, to go on a 12-day hunger strike.

In 1978, Ms. Téllez helped lead a Sandinista raid of Nicaragua’s National Palace in which the guerrillas took the entire Congress hostage. The operation’s second-in-command, Ms. Téllez managed negotiations with the regime of the beleaguered dictator Anastasio Somoza, who ceded the rebels a $1 million ransom and Sandinista political prisoners.

Nowadays, she focuses her wrath on what she considers Mr. Ortega’s repressive ways. She said he had deformed the movement so that it would “revolve around him” and not any revolutionary ideals.

Mr. Ortega’s government found itself on the defensive recently when it took on one of the most cherished icons of the revolution, Ernesto Cardenal, the 83-year-old priest and poet who helped create the intellectual backbone of the revolution.

This summer, after Father Cardenal lashed out against Mr. Ortega while in Paraguay, calling him a “thief” who runs “a monarchy made up of a few families,” a Nicaraguan judge revived an old court case against the poet and froze his bank accounts. Politics frequently creeps into Nicaragua’s judiciary, and the action prompted widespread condemnation from intellectuals both at home and abroad.

“It’s vengeance,” Father Cardenal said Friday in a telephone interview from Brazil, where he was giving a reading. “I spoke out against him, and he’s striking back.”

For the past 30 years, a left-right schism of Sandinistas and anti-Sandinistas has largely defined Nicaraguan politics. Mr. Ortega has shaken that up by making political agreements with ideological opposites aimed at bolstering his political future. But with former Sandinistas now playing a more vocal role, Nicaraguans find themselves in two opposing camps: Ortegistas, who back the president, and anti-Ortegistas, who denounce him.

One of those in the latter group is Sophia Montenegro, whose office was recently raided by Mr. Ortega’s government. It accused the group she works for, the Autonomous Women’s Movement, of laundering overseas donations. The organization has been an outspoken critic of Mr. Ortega’s record on women.

Women’s empowerment was one of the cornerstones of the Sandinista revolution, but Ms. Montenegro said that ideal had been lost. Especially infuriating to her was the decision by the Sandinistas to support a ban on all abortions, even when mothers’ lives were threatened. That decision in 2006 came as part of Mr. Ortega’s effort to improve relations with the Roman Catholic Church, which clashed with the Sandinistas during the war.

The sexual abuse allegations leveled against Mr. Ortega by his stepdaughter in 1998 are another point frequently raised by his female critics. Women’s rights advocates in Nicaragua have helped organize anti-Ortega campaigns throughout Latin America, and the president faces the threat of ugly protests on the issue wherever he travels. In Nicaragua, he had legal immunity and was never prosecuted.

Mr. Ortega’s relationship with one of his close advisers, Dionisio Marenco, the departing mayor of Managua, has also crumbled recently. Mr. Marenco traces the shift to his decision to oppose a vice mayoral candidate put forward a year ago by Rosario Murillo, the president’s wife. Since then, Mr. Marenco said, Ms. Murillo has accused him of conspiring against the president.

“Treason is the worst thing you can be accused of,” he said, indicating that he might become the latest Sandinista to leave the party.

“We have to wait and see how the water feels,” he said. “It’s very tense and complicated right now.”

As for the music, Ms. Murillo, the president’s closest adviser, has dismissed Mr. Mejía Godoy’s attempt to keep his revolutionary notes to himself. She had an orchestra play one of Mr. Mejía Godoy’s most famous songs, “La Consigna,” at a government rally and the party put out a CD featuring others.

As Mr. Mejía Godoy tries, with little effect so far, to use lawyers to restrain the government, it is clear that Mr. Ortega’s supporters prefer the singer’s older works.

Ms. Murillo, herself a poet, wrote on her Web site: “There will always be, for me, one Carlos who was on the left, who was a leftist in his heart, and another Carlos, the one of today, who has lost his voice.”

Blake Schmidt contributed reporting.
More Articles in World » A version of this article appeared in print on November 24, 2008, on page A6 of the New York edition.

The Neoliberal Politics of Nicaragua & Their Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs)

2008-11-16T20:30:00.000-08:00

The Neoliberal Politics of Nicaragua

Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs) originated in the 1980s when the IMF and World Bank began to solicit their services to Latin America, promoting the production of ‘tradable goods’ through the message of ‘recovery with growth’ (Brydon, 346, 347). On this path, claimed the IMF and World Bank, Third World states would potentially develop into middle-income countries by 2020 (Brydon, 347). The unsuspecting propositions of these institutions were alluringly ideal, but it is that idealness that has ultimately undermined and harmed Nicaragua’s development. Saying this, it is necessary to further take into account the Nicaraguan government’s role (past and present) in dealing with the IMF and World Bank regarding SAPs. In the following paragraphs, I will address varying view points on what I believe to be SAPs’ two principle themes (privatization and liberalization) and their effects on Nicaraguan society (specifically relating to gender and various economic classes). These examples will essentially show that because of SAPs’ neoliberal tendencies and presumptuous beliefs of a “perfect market,” Nicaragua has therefore continued to suffer from detrimental instability.
After President Violeta Chamorro took office in 1990, Nicaragua had accumulated the highest per capita debt in the world, due in large part to the Somoza regime (“Deadly Embrace”, 11/12/08). With mounting pressure to alleviate the financial burden, it was during this time when Nicaragua built a substantial relationship with the IMF and World Bank. The IMF rapidly imposed their version of structural adjustment which lowered Nicaragua’s fiscal deficits to an absolute minimum, when the country’s fiscal income was already incredibly small.
In that context of scant fiscal income and huge foreign debt payments, keeping the fiscal deficit at a minimum could only be done with absolutely rock-bottom per-capita spending on the state’s fundamental responsibilities: education, health care, drinking water and sanitation, housing and physical infrastructure” (Vogl, 1).
President Chamorro encouraged this by initiating privatization into Nicaraguan society. The argument for privatization was “to enable the country to participate in an effective global economy” (“Deadly Embrace”, 11/12/08). Fans of privatization claimed that it would increase employment by bringing in more foreign investors who would in turn construct large factories and offer a greater number of jobs. The private sector, it was said, would “fill in the gap” of the market economy. In reality, the unemployment rate in Nicaragua had already reached 60% nationally, and on the Atlantic Coast it skyrocketed at 90% (“Deadly Embrace”, 11/12/08). Not only did unemployment continue to increase, but labor unions were also cut and Free Trade Zones (with loose labor restrictions) were growing. The act of liberalization, specifically financial liberalization in this case, played a large role in affecting these circumstances.
Enacting liberalization in coalition with privatization meant the removal of government interference. Trade liberalization opened the markets, emphasized an export economy, lowered the value of farmers’ goods in the market, and ultimately stripped farmers of their subsidies (Espinoza, 11/13/08). Import duty barriers that protect national product (for example, tariffs) as well as quotas were continuously reduced. As Isolda Espinoza claimed, financial market liberalization increased the potential for market distraction (for example, international chain companies entered Nicaragua for money but not for the substantial development of the country) and created a mismatch of incentives (the thought that jobs would increase with employment options from international companies but in reality maquilas with little labor codes and foreign banks came and took over small, local businesses). In 2001 and 2002, the IMF proposed financial liberalizations in the name of the Washington Consensus and neoliberalization; this resultantly cost Nicaragua $500 million in debt when four of the country’s banks went bankrupt (Avendaño, 11/12/08).
All this was done in the purely ideological belief that government interventions only distort markets, and that if left to act freely, markets produce a restructuring that favors greater “efficiency.” The IMF demanded the fastest possible privatization of public enterprises and the total opening, deregulation and liberalization of the economy rather than ensuring the country’s rehabilitation and the creation of basic infrastructure conditions and human capital with an eye to future development. (Vogl, 2)
Because of the IMF’s blatant mistreatment and virtual dismissal of the different sectors of Nicaraguan society, specifically those of the lower economic class, the IMF has developed a selective, narrow dialogue and has reproduced social inequalities because of its relationships based on power and money.
The IMF’s exclusion of Nicaraguans is exemplified when critiquing the manner in which policies have been imposed “without even negotiating the preservation of certain margins of social inclusion” [specifically those that the Sandinista Revolution fought in the name of] (Vogl, 4). Regarding transparency and the utter lack of it, “top level transactions” starting in the 1990s then set the stage for how policies are decided currently. Vogl writes about the FSLN’s internal commitments with the IMF… what officials label a “poverty reduction program” actually is a process that moves resources to the BCN in order to recover its international reserve levels and then cover the domestic debt service… which ultimately limits social spending even more severely. Therefore the majority of Nicaragua’s population has little to no say in how their national budget is spent and thus people are left even more helpless when they, in turn, must suffer from governmental cut-backs on their social and health needs. “We have to question ‘how priorities are established, and who gives way when agents’ decisions do not add up to a coherent whole’, thus taking on board issues of power and entitlements…” (Brydon, 350) From a context such as this, the role of gender in neoliberalism (neoliberal politics) comes into play.
Viewing neoliberalism and its connections with the world economy, it is seen that men and women are affected in diverse ways by changes in production, trade and financial flows (O’Brien & Williams, 283). This division of labor thus supports the theory that it is the impoverished and working-class women, then, who suffer most from the world’s ongoing economy crises. Although many men also endure impoverishment, the systemic feminization of poverty is undeniable and therefore the costs of SAPs are unequally carried by women.
As governments attempt to balance budgets and engage in structural adjustment programs to make their economies more internationally competitive, women are often forced to pay the price by taking up tasks hitherto performed by the state or giving up their existing sources of income in order to concentrate on caring for their families’ immediate needs. In other words, structural adjustment programs are dependent on unpaid women’s labor. (O’Brien & Williams, 285)
Unfortunately women’s work has much been overshadowed by the false autonomy of the masculine sector of the population. It does not help when a government such as the FSLN, for example, in 1990 voted in favor of all the IMF’s SAPs (Vogl, 7). The result of these votes ultimately decreased spending to balance Nicaragua’s budget, therefore losing many public services – such services that would support the already over-stretched woman. This emphasizes that Nicaraguan neoliberal policies have thus far failed to take women into full and equal account in the light of their unique circumstances.
Civic society still has the potential to educate the public about the dynamics of neoliberal policies in order to affect good governance clauses, bring light to ecological issues, and broaden the theory to development by placing greater importance on social conditions. This could result in greater transparency (which current policies have been gravely lacking) and more open dialogue/debate. So far, though, Nicaragua’s SAPs – simulated by the IMF’s neoliberal policies – have failed and thus deepened instability because of their lack of competition laws, their lack of sequencing and pacing, their lack of gender and social equalities, and their lack of wealth distribution. Néstor Avendaño was right when he spoke of society’s lack of faith and trust in Nicaragua’s leaders… “No one believes in the Supreme Electoral Council. Leaders of the institutions are all made of either the FSLN or the PLC; these leaders are not being bi-partisan. This is all affecting Nicaragua economically” (Avendaño, 11/12/08). Effective, bi-partisan government regulation is necessary in order to ensure fair practices and just working conditions and wages. With government regulation, foreign companies have less power to enter into a country like Nicaragua and develop a monopoly within the market, therefore knocking out all other competition just to later raise their prices. Safety nets are also needed, especially when the economic market suffers from crises. SAPs must adapt to and meet each specific cultural context depending on the country in which they are occurring. SAPs cannot follow just one neoliberal model because each country develops at its own pace, based on its own societal circumstances. It is when power balances and internal aspects such as corruption and political tensions are eased that SAPs can be utilized to promote Nicaragua’s development rather than commit the adverse. As Carlos Pacheco declared, “The solution does not depend on one government or one country. No individual solutions exist. These are global” (Pacheco, 11/09/08).

The Myth of Mestizaje

2008-11-16T20:27:00.000-08:00

Besides “mestizaje” being a myth, Jeffrey Gould’s principle argument supporting that claim in the introduction of “To Die in This Way” is that the construction and active social and institutional continuation of this myth (mestizaje) enduringly impacts the indigenous (communities) of Nicaragua negatively. This effect not only questions and suppresses the indigenous’ place in every day life, but it furthermore threatens to virtually erase indigenous identity. From the assigned reading and recent speakers, I will emphasize three main themes to support the above statements: colonialism, the building of a nation-state (nationalism), and the current educational and social system of Nicaragua (emphasized in the conclusion).
In Gould’s writing he cites José Coronel Urtecho during his witnessing of the “harmonious merging of Indians and Spaniards in the tiangüe.” This marketplace setting Urtecho portrays transcends one of colonialism’s detrimental effects, demonstrated best by his narrative account of the marketplace “where the Indians of Nicaragua became Nicaraguan and where they Nicaraguanized the Creoles and Mestizos.” Of course, the detrimental effect mentioned above is that colonialism formed, in part, and promoted this false belief voiced by Urtecho. In the initial stages of colonialism, both Gould and speaker Wendy Bellinger make a point to emphasize the roles of hierarchy and land.
Both Creoles and Peninsulares, for example, underwent a colonial organization style based on hierarchy. This hierarchy not only took away communal indigenous land, but it further illegalized indigenous people to be communal land holders. With the stripping away of land went the fading of indigenous identity, as the majority of the indigenous strongly rooted their identity in the land. Along with colonization came the demeaning rationalization that because of the indigenous people’s land and its specific geographical locations, the indigenous were therefore prone to racial differences – to inferiority, thus being more prone to assimilation. One of the most striking ties Bellinger implements into the argument against mestizaje is the relationship between colonization and nationalism (nation-state building) – and how that relationship virtually requires the practice of exclusion and inclusion.
It was in 1838 when Central America became independent from Mexico and ventured on to make nation-states. “To create a nation you want,” Bellinger states, the nation must be a “stable, sovereign territory; it must have a measureable, stable population; therefore you have to segregate, reject and attack.” What makes this process easier to play out but conforming diverse societies into one? Hence, mestizaje. To force a mass shift away from an empowered self-identification of indigenous culture, cultural homogeneity was imposed by elites, which Gould puts best, “as a standard part of their repertoire of nation-building.” The indigenous were intervened upon not only by the elite and the state, but also by the church, political parties, and local intellectuals. The indigenous thus were forced to either keep their identity and be utterly persecuted (socially and institutionally) or be “ladinoized” and leave their culture lost in a drifting memory in order to “fit in” to society. Notably, this ladinoization executes the hierarchical goal: to promote the myth of mestizaje. Even some of the most idealized leaders of Nicaraguan history such as Agusto Sandino furthered the rallying behind such deceptions when he spoke about everyone being “equal”. This so-called equality essentially dealt with terms of race. To be equal, then, and to be united for such revolutions like that of the Sandinistas (FSLN), the indigenous must erase their identity. What a pity this was for me to realize that not even the revolutionary forces, such as the FSLN Party or Sandino himself, could come to an understanding with the indigenous. Being “for the people” has mainly meant being in support of a homogenous people, and in the case of “Nicaragua’s” indigenous people, homogeneity holds no truth in relation to their Pre-Colombian roots. The fact is that, as Bellinger expresses, “In Pre-Columbian times none of the different indigenous groups that migrated spoke the same language; they were completely different cultures” that migrated from Colombia and Mexico and that came to the Caribbean during the African Slave Trade. This cultural uniqueness holds its validity today.
Each culture that occupies Nicaragua is authentic, whether it be Miskito, Garifona, Rama, or Sumo, for example; but it is the educational, social, and institutional systems (internationally and nationally) that are gravely lacking this recognition. By delegitimizing these cultures, “mestizaje” is taught both subconsciously and consciously. Mirna Cunningham in “Sandino Daughters Revisited” talks about the ways in which mestizaje continues to be promoted today: “Bush’s initiatives in all our countries, the stance taken by the international banking institutions, the incredible unemployment, the misery in which the indigenous, black, and poor mestizos of our continent [Central America] live: it’s all a product of the model of colonization which began 500 years ago and remains in place today.” What society must do, Cunningham proposes, is seek out an alternative that includes attention to the “ethnic question”. Cunningham goes on to critique political entities by challenging the FSLN to “articulate a Sandinism that is truly multiethnic.”
Personally, I believe strongly in Cunningham’s statements, and I furthermore want to push all social, educational and institutional systems to “re-write” history – to take into account and educate people about the “underside” of history – the oppressed, the marginalized, the mestizo-grouped indigenous. We must tell different stories, the culturally-unique stories of those who inhabit the Atlantic/Caribbean Coast and the Pacific Coast. Start with the young; implement revised curriculums in schools that promote an interest and a pride in Central America’s historical and continued cultural diversity. Advocate inclusion but not assimilation. Work from the bottom-up so institutions respect that a people can still be united and effective while each embracing their own ancestral origins. It is when we break down the superficial acceptance of the dominant society that we will further give dignity and light to the multiple cultural traditions that are overshadowed by the myth of mestizaje.

Riots as an excuse to let testosterone run rampant

2008-11-14T10:14:00.000-08:00

While watching TV the other night, since my host family always has the news channels on (that have been exclusively reporting on topics involving the municiple elections), I became "arta" (maxed out) with the scenes of young males rioting throughout their own pueblo´s streets.
Although the news can´t be fully relied on in order to be completely informed, and of course, one must take their own initiative to view and read other information sources -- all the coverage of violence since the election results has shown specifically males committing harm to their society, their people. They say it is because they are "defending their vote." But can´t defending one´s vote be non in a non-violent, dialogue manner? YES. YES IT CAN!!!!
It has come to the point where these constant occurrences of cars being set on fire, people being stoned out of nowhere, homes being vandalized, billboards being torn down, rotundas being taken over by angry people threatening the environment with sticks and poles (all being committed mainly by men)--- have become an excuse to run rampant and destructively throughout the streets, letting out built-up and ideologized testosterone.
Police fill the rotundas (round-abouts) that are located on many popular, busy streets... but where have they been to prevent and to STOP this terrible and disgusting expression of "macho-ness"????

Finally...almost

2008-11-14T10:10:00.000-08:00

The "preliminary" results were announced last night. Heather, my roommate and I, thought when we had heard the FSLN "officially" won last night with 51% of the votes - we thought that it was final. Finally final and maybe the riots would simmer down.
But just a half hour ago the group and I were told that the other party, the PLC, is still saying that they need to be present along side of the Supreme Electoral Council and an international presence... in order to ensure the validity of the results.

But people have basically known that the FSLN won since the first "fraudulent" results were proclaimed. Now the PLC just has to work with its constituents (who claim the stance "todos contra Ortega") to push cooperation and effective dialogue with the FSLN... But who knows if the FSLN will allow for this.

Still no final results out...

2008-11-13T07:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon they announced to us at the Center for Global Education that the re-count of the Municipal Elections results would be announced at 6pm... It didn´t happen.
We are still waiting anxiously and the violence keeps happening.

The myth of mestizaje

2008-11-12T11:32:00.000-08:00

During our past days in class the other students and I have been reading from others such as Jeffrey Gould and Mirna Cunningham to learn more about the colonization and multi-cultural dimensions of Nicaragua...
Yesterday I finished writing a reflection paper on some of this reading and I found myself agreeing very strongly with the thesis that mestizaje is a myth.
So there is the word "mestizo" which means "mixed races" and then "mestizaje" signifies the process of becoming mestizo.
This theory of mestizaje came out of colonial times, specifically speaking about Latin America, when the Spanish and British came and colonized. Of course, before colonization indigenous people inhabited the lands (and remained but had their land taken away). African presence came about when escaped slaves (and then-current slaves during the African Slave Trade) came to Latin American. So when these cultures began connecting, "inter-mixing" (as the words associated with mestizaje often say), new generations began having multiple heritages.
Basically the concept of mestizaje de-values and delegitimizes the holding on to one's cultural uniqueness. Rather than specifically identifying from one's roots, one is given the title of mestizo in order to generalize and group a people.

To articulate these issues more I will post my paper that I wrote because I feel as though I´m not explaining the topic as well as I should, in order to give it full justice.
More to come, then...

Municipal Elections

2008-11-12T11:31:00.001-08:00

Hey all!

Alright-- so here´s the update with Nicaragua's municipal elections:
Tension has been pretty high. The PLC (Rightist party - which is called the Liberal party, but "liberal" here has a different meaning than it does in the States) has been claiming since results came out (on Sunday night) that there is a fraud.
Monday the FSLN (Leftist party that has been holding power nationally since 2006) was already claiming victory in Managua when they were only up by 5% with 69% of votes counted. The PLC claims that their vote counts from the polls show that they have received a larger number of votes than the Supreme Electoral Council has reported.
Actually Monday, the huge fiasco was over the Supreme Electoral Council saying they had received 100% of the votes when there were actually stacks and stacks of votes that the PLC had yet in their position (that still hadnt been taken into account).
Since Monday there have been riots throughout the streets... No worries, all this has been viewed by myself and the other students only through the television (and not in person). The leaders of our program keep us updated and very safe. Además our neighborhood is very tranquil (although the overwhelming majority of its inhabitants are prideful FSLN supporters).
Last night Heather (a friend from my program who lives in the homestay with me) and I took our brother, one of our sisters and a neighbor to the new James Bond 007 movie (which interestingly enough focused on US relations with Latin America..hmm... But anyway, on the way to the theater our taxi driver was waved over by two police cars on the side of the road. Another car in front of the taxi was also made to pull-over. As we were about to park, the others and I already knew what this would be about... The police were making random checks to make sure that no one traveling on the main road ways were carrying rocks or other weapons in their cars (rocks have been used in violent manners throughout these days in the riots). So as the minutes to the start of the movie were dwindling down and our taxi driver was still over talking with the police, the five of us scrunched, sitting on on another in the cab decided to get out. As we looked back we saw the driver getting upset with the police... Ay. It turns out when the driver finally returned to the cab that the police had wanted the driver to pay them off. Because the driver became upset and (probably) made up an excuse, he ended up not giving the police any money. Our sister said it is common that the police will ask to be paid-off, although of course that it not technically right.
So we finally arrived to our movie. But we couldn´t help but laugh along the way because during our whole ride with the cab driver, he automatically thought we were supporters of the PLC. Mind you my family members are staunch supporters of the FSLN... but they went along with him saying "Así es..."

Verymuch love and support for the MRS...

Anni.

(IT IS SO INTERESTING HERE TO WITNESS THIS POLITICAL PRIDE AND ENERGY------

This is a vital election because the winner will be more likely to remain in power through the presidential elections (which will occur in 2011) and furthermore because many say that Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua´s current President) has been increasingly trying to secure-in his position (wanting to potentially change Nicaragua´s constitution to run for another term)

Obama.

2008-11-08T08:48:00.000-08:00

It was said that all will remember where they were and what they were doing on Tuesday, November 4, 2008. I believe this to be especially true. What an environment it was in Managua, Nicaragua, the night of the election results and the days building up to them and after...
Before Tuesday, November 4, the interest of many Central Americans whom I encountered had great enthusiasm about Barack Obama... I was asked many times whom I supported and the other times the question of whom I preferred as a candidate was gently alluded to... This didn´t surprise me too much because I already recognized, as the BBC News said, that this was the election that will "affect the entire world."
There was great emotion when the 17 others and I, all in the house of the Center for Global Education, were expecting only California´s polling results and then we automatically saw Barack´s face pop up on the screen with "Elected President." !!!!!!!
Of course people were jumping, hugging, staring at the screen with a long smile on their faces,... in awe in a way. It wasn´t even that people were doubtful that Barack would win, although of course there was a little anxious worry, but it was just that we all knew that this was a monumental moment in history and we were so fortunate to have taken part in it... to even witness it.
I can say that I am so extremely proud and still unbelieving that we have Barack Obama for our new President.
Now it is really time for us to get to work.
Grassroots action is calling. But it is not just Barack´s job. We must support him and our fellow community members.
LET´S DO IT!!!

"Sí podemos." --La mantra de Barack

2008-11-04T22:21:00.000-08:00

Muy, muy buenas noches amigas y amigos*

Quería compartir esta noche con ustedes, específicamente porque acabamos de estar presentadas y presentados a nuestro nuevo presidente, Barack Obama.
Estoy muy orgullosa decir que él va a representar los Estados Unidos. Espero que ya Barack pueda mostrar más de su progresivismo...
¡Es un flipe acá, eh!!

Ya ha sido claro que las/os ciudadanas/os estadounidenses tenemos que empezar aun más fuerte haciendo nuestros propios movimientos sociales, politicales e ambientales para afectar positivamente a los Estados Unidos y para mejorar la relación entre los EEUU y los otros paises del mundo.
Es obvio en todos lugares, especialmente estando aquí en Centro América, que esta elección no solo afecta a los EEUU... Ha sido impresionante la energía y interés que hemos recibido por muchos Centro Americanos sobre las elecciones estadounidenses. Muchos nos han mencionado como les afectan las elecciones... como muchos que hemos conocido nos querían votar para Barack... Ha sido muy interesante.. .

Espero que sientan bien con los resultos y que vengan el progreso positivo...!!!!¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡

Tanto amor-------

Annika

Now in Nica

2008-11-02T18:25:00.000-08:00

After arriving back from a week-long vacation in various parts of Nicaragua, the 17 other students and I reunited this afternoon back at our home-base in Managua, Nicaragua´s capital. With the Municipal Elections ocurring soon, political tensions, excitement and, of course, advertisements have been booming. On nearly every street post and on many city walls one sees bright pink signs displaying sayings such as "¡Vamos por más victorias!" "Luchamos por el pueblo." and "El amor es más fuerte que el odio." These phrases and more have been posted by the FSLN (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional - aka Sandinista National Liberation Front) that is a "socialist" Nicaraguan political party that is led by the current president, Daniel Ortega.
Daniel Ortega is not only in power now, but he was also the leader of the Sandinista revolutionary movement which overthrew the Somoza regime in 1979, forming a revolutionary government in its place. In the following years the Sandinistas ruled Nicaragua for 11 years from 1979 to 1990, initially as part of a Junta of National Reconstruction. Later the FSLN took exclusive power in March 1981 after some centrist members from this Junta resigned. In the 1984 Nicaraguan elections it was almost universally declared that the elections were free and fair, and it was in these elections where the FSLN won the majority of votes.
So there is a quick history but here is the deal now... Rather than running a social political party, an overwhelming majority of Nicaraguans believe that Ortega´s ruling has turned into a form of dictatorship. The key saying by the people is "We are (still) Sandinistas but we are not Danielistas." These few words hold a great deal of significance by the way they essentially purvey the people´s belief and pride in the 1979 revolutionary movement, but at the same time the words demonstrate the people´s dissaprovement with how Ortega has dramatically changed since the revolution. Lately, for example, Ortega (indirectly through "his people") has been verbally (if not in many cases physically - being broken into, etc.) harassing a number of NGO´s and grassroots social, political and environmental organizations - charging them with false claims and stating that "rather than international money going through NGO´s it should go directly to the government." But if this money goes straight to Daniel´s officials, where will it end up?? The general populous virtually does not see this money that the government uses on "social spending" or "development." Nicaragua remains to be factually the most impoverished country in Central America. This is evident when one walks and drives through the streets. Even where we are living, a block away from Ortega´s house, there are wood shacks lining many streets that people inhabit. Aren´t the above organizations (and specifically their purposes) something the Sandinista Revolution advocated and fought for?? Isn´t their mission part of the revolution - you know, for the people...
More to come-- but definitely stay in-tune with especially independent news sources and even other outlets such as the BBC (if you´re interested) because what has been going on (and continues to go on) with Ortega and his version of what it is to be Sandinista is gripping.
Tomorrow we will start classes.
More updates to come---

Much, much love to all and GOOD VIBES FOR THE U.S. ELECTIONS (El cambio viene-eso esperamos mucho)

Annika

GLBTQIA right in Cuba

2008-10-25T14:32:00.001-07:00

I just read an article that brought to my attention some positive movements that have been happening in Cuba that work to further the rights for the GLBTQIA community.
Maybe this is old news, but I just thought I´d share it because the surprise of what I read made me very happy...
One of Fidel Castro´s daughters has been a big pusher for the acceptance of the GLBTQIA community in Cuba, and therefore has helped some laws pass in support of GLBTQIA people /couples. This lucha for justice is setting a progressive tone over Cuba and its residents... More continue to partake in this process for human rights; it´s impresionante.
The BBC News has some neat articles on the above; I recommend checking them out!

2008-10-25T14:29:00.000-07:00

A good good afternoon!

About an hour ago the group and I arrived in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua.
Our bodies can already tell the difference between climates, and they show it by giving off a decent amount of sweat. It feels good to be starting in a new place, but I think we´ll need a couple days to let the good stress settle down.

Well, tomorrow four others friends and I are going to Granada, Nicaragua, and then we´ll be there for a day or two before moving on to Lake Ometepe. We´ve got some neat hostels lined up and we´re ready for some spontaneous relaxing, exploring and people-meeting...

Our last day in El Salvador was finished off by presenting our group projects. One of mine was about globalization in El Salvador and the other was a dance that two friends and I choreographed to demonstrate oppression and liberation.
Packing went on late into the night... actually early into the morning, and then at 2:30 am we left for the bus station!

Echale ganas siempre...

copapayo/suchitoto

2008-10-21T12:35:00.000-07:00

Copapayo is an island near the colonial city of Suchitoto, around an hour away from San Salvador. I spent last weekend there - staying two nights in the Center for Art and Peace and one night in a rural community of Copapayo.
Once again the time was filled with hearing testimonies from the armed conflict. We had an extremely deep, touching talk with two survivors of the Massacre of Copapayo. One recounted images of seeing his mother and sister lying massacred upon the barren ground, surrounded by others who had just been killed by the military minutes before. The other told of her fleeing to the woods in order to escape the military raids of her community and those surrounding.
This was only one of eight massacres that plagued the area around Suchitoto and Copapayo during El Salvador's armed conflict.

Recent update

2008-10-21T12:32:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

I thought I would take this quick chance to stop reading about Liberation Theology homework (I'm currently on a chapter which speaks about social justice and eco-feminist insights - of Elizabeth Johnson's book Quest for the Living God) and write a few words...
Our first weekend in a rural homestay in San Jose de Las Flores (in Chalatenango), I went on a hike and finished with some big "rashes" on my arms and hands... The next day, after swimming in the Pacific, I got to experience El Salvador's emergency room situation because the supposed rashes actually turned out to be burns... 2nd degree burns with some growing, yellow blisters...;) sorry! The doctor made a plastic surgeon come in and during this whole time I was not believing all that was going on... my friend and I actually had a great time during this whole emergency room endeavor...laughing and all.
As my blisters were being attended to the "Pequena cirugia" room's door was wide open... people were passing by and many decided to stay and watch in the doorway... way to make new friends, eh! Haha but it was all de buena onda and like I said, this was a great opportunity to see different styles of health care systems, how needs are met, etc.
*PS: While in San Jose de Las Flores, the Vice Presidential candidate for (leftist) FMLN (january 2009 elections) Salvador Sanchez passed through (as he was doing his weekend travels of visiting small, rural communities) the community and spoke. I got to hug him and exchanged some words--it was awesome and very unexpected.
ARENA has been in power here for a very long time. The majority of Salvadorans (specifically the impoverished) want (and have wanted) a change from ARENA -- need a change from ARENA. ARENA is expected to win in the upcoming elections, but the people also have a great deal of fear that their will be another electoral fraud. I have met some foreigners here who will be serving as official observers in January for the elections. If I would be here, I would do it too.
The Presidential candidate for FMLN is hailed by many (specifically progressives). He was a journalist/reporter and took a great social justice stance during the armed conflict... following he continued to speak out publicly against oppression, corruption and injustices.
Sure, doing that in the US, for example, is seen commonly - but here it is dangerous, literally life-threatening to speak out against the system (specifically during the armed conflict).

Today was one of the busiest-- we had class (like we do three times a week) at San Salvador's public university (which costs $25 per month to attend). At noon we headed back to the house and had lunch, then it was nap time... By 1:45 we had to leave for the UCA (University of Central America)-- which is a private Jesuit university (where the 7 Jesuit priests along with the gardener's wife and daughter were assassinated in 1989 during El Salvador's armed conflict). There we talked with a Jesuit UCA professor who is originally from the Bronx. He spoke with us a lot about economic and political situations in El Salvador, then we later talked about migration. Around 740 Salvadorans migrate to the US daily. If one doesn't make it or is deported, then one usually makes 3 to 4 more attempts. Number one and two reasons for migration: unemployment and poverty.
El Salvador's number one source of income is from family remittances - Salvadoran migrants in the US sending back money to their families in El Salvador.
Whatever goes on with the US economically (specifically because ES is on/uses the Dollar) affects incredibly ES.
The vast majority of goods (including the Dollar) are imported here. This is covered up greatly by the Salvadoran system.

Regardless, there exists beautiful and absolutely monumental grassroots movements here. The group and I have been graced with the presence of some of the most revolutionary people I have met in my life. We have been invited into, and learned greatly from, numerous small, rural communities that personify - embody - the most genuine definition of solidarity and progressive, unified action. Although they do exist, I have never seen such movements by small pueblos like this in the US.
Despite the system, transformative, effective actions are being done... There is a saying in Guatemala famous amongst the people: Somos jodidos, pero estamos contentos.

Very much love,

The Future of the Human Soul

2008-10-15T22:36:00.000-07:00

This book is awesome thus far. I recommend it incredibly.
Our profesora for Liberation Theology is having some of us read it in order to do a presentation this weekend when we'll be in Suchitoto.

Anyway, I will update with some of the book's information when I get further into it...
I just wanted to put that recommendation out there!
Last night I realized I had not been sucked into a book so much for a long time:))

Minnesotans thinking wrong about Barack?

2008-10-15T22:32:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday I watched a BBC News clip about one of John McCain's visits to MN in October. It showed McCain with a crowd taking questions... one woman actually said Barack is "an Arab."
WRONG
People are even calling Barack a terrorist.
I was soo disappointed to see that Minnesotans were saying this!!
People--- we must become informed!!!

McCain at least corrected this woman, telling her essentially that she did not know what she was saying...

Eek, I know I sound harsh but it may be because of McCain's performance tonight on the debate...

First embassy visit

2008-10-15T22:31:00.000-07:00

An emergency trip to the Embassy happened two days ago--- we had to get our voting ballots sent out-and pronto.
The trip was pesado... but a success!
This Friday we will have an actual official visit there, meeting with officials and everything.

Home from Nueva Esperanza

2008-10-12T13:16:00.000-07:00

Nueva Esperanza is a small community around two hours from San Salvador. The group and I spent the weekend there involving ourselves in the communities grassroots movements, becoming acquainted with the leaders and members of the community, and hearing testimonies about the history and present conditions of Nueva Esperanza and its surrounding pueblos.
I was fortunate enough to have my homestay with one of Nueva Esperanza's leaders. She was a woman in her sixties who had lived in Nueva Esperanza since its start, 16 years ago. The name comes from the struggle of the people and their active aspirations for a life of solidarity and dignity; the name means new hope.
Being closer further to the south and therefore closer to the coast, Nueva Esperanza was hot, quite hot. At night we slept with mosquito nets above and around our bodies. They helped a great deal, but unfortunately engulfed the heat around us more. The community struggles with a lot of flooding, especially in the months of September and October; I realized the truth in this last night... As my roommate and I tried to fall asleep it began to rain. We could hear the scratches fall upon the tin roof and the dog outside moving closer and closer to our door. Luckily the roosters were sound asleep, so they only made their music during the early morning hours. But I can truthfully say that until last night, I had never once in my life heard rain pour and literally flood down from the sky like that. Mud is commonplace there, and you get used to it.
This morning it was bittersweet saying goodbye to Grandma. Grandma is 94 and has 19 children. Many generations lived in and around the house where we were at. Humanness was so present, as well as sincere care for the wellbeing of others.
"La organizacion es la solucion." --the motto of Nueva Esperanza and the surrounding pueblos...

An important reality brought to our attention de nuevo by Tim Wise

2008-10-09T20:22:00.000-07:00

A fascinating reflection by Tim Wise:

Whether or not you are enthusiastic about Obama, the issue of racism and white privilege in this election is important, so please, if you like this piece, please send it around.

Thanks,

Tim

This is Your Nation on White Privilege
By Tim Wise
9/13/08

For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."�

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.

White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.

White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being disrespectful.

White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you're somehow being mean, or even sexist.

White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second look."

White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates America.

White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a "light" burden.

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.

White privilege is, in short, the problem.

Equipo Maiz

2008-10-09T20:07:00.000-07:00

Equipo Maiz is a progressive organization that originated out of El Salvador in 1983. Its focus is on popular education, breaking down traditional forms of education, generating participation and solidarity. The inspiration for Equipo Maiz's stance on popular education came from Latin America in the 1960's with Pablo Freirie's (from Brazil) "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" which detailed and promoted the educative process of liberation.
To go back to more of its history, Equipo Maiz generated from the necessity of speaking honestly about El Salvador's realities (in the 1960's), gathering vast information and knowledge. Community groups began forming that developed songs, games, drawings, and public meetings to discuss and critique the aspects of Latin American life at that time. Initially Equipo Maiz workers were connected with Ecclesiastical Base Communities and now work with political parties, cooperatives, unions, NGO's, student organizations, etc.
Equipo Maiz focuses upon five essential programs:
1) management of environmental risks
2) historic memory (Oscar Romero; El Salvador conflict)
3) economic literacy (Free Trade; capitalism in total)
4) sexuality and gender
5) participative methodology
Equipo Maiz has international solidarity connections and travels to the Unites States when possible. They just visited and held a forum in Minneapolis last year!
Participative education for all! Pass along the stories of liberation to the youth!
No privatization of education!

2008-10-07T09:38:00.003-07:00

Presidential Debate tonight--- be there!

2008-10-07T09:38:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday to the woman of my life--- my Mama Jeanie!!!

Hospital system in San Salvador

2008-10-07T09:28:00.000-07:00

Last night I experienced what a typical Salvadoran emergency room is like.
To give you a hint, as I type right now I use only a few fingers because the others are wrapped in gauze...
So I have second degree burns for the first time---- and in El Salvador!!!

;)) Aaah how crazy; everything is an experience here.
The second degree burns came about during my weekend in San Jose de Las Flores, a rural pueblo in the state of Chalatenango. Three others and I spent last weekend there, integrating ourselves into the community - a community which is categorized as an Ecclesial Base Community. We heard testimonies from survivors of the Rio Sumpul Massacre and from survivors of various other massacres that occurred during the time of El Salvador's armed conflict that lasted for 12 years.
The group and I also witnessed how extremely organized the community is. They have nearly 10 women's organizations that raise solidarity and productivity levels. There is also a large farming cooperative and an eco-tourism center. All of the money earned in each area circulates back throughout the community. The State does not support San Jose de Las Flores and its initiatives; the people are community-sustaining and focused on justice for los campesinos and solidarity.
The first day I also met and hugged the candidate for VP for the FMLN party. It was monumental! FMLN is the revolutionary party, many would say, which is leftist. Elections are coming up in Jan 2009.

But burns or not, I do not regret going on the off-road hike that made me get these burns! It was beautiful--absolutely serene. We reached the clouds and could see the whole town...
Who would have known-- plantas de fuego

:)

Ronal Reagan supporter, eh?

2008-09-30T18:40:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of important facts to note about Ronald Reagan before this upcoming presidential election, as John McCain proudly raises up his admiration of Reagan without embarrassment...

During Nicaragua's armed conflict Ronald Reagan was the biggest supporter of the Nicaraguan National Guard, the group that factually committed the most atrocities during the civil war against its people - innocent Nicaraguans.

Reagan also refused, for much of his presidency, to talk openly about AIDS because of its relation with homosexuality.

Ballot information

2008-09-30T18:35:00.000-07:00

Many of members of the group here in El Salvador have been anxiously awaiting our ballots to come in the mail.
One friend received her's yesterday, but the majority will still be running to the post office later this week.
Some friends and I went to the mega mall that is about four blocks away and took about an hour in a cyber cafe to arrange all of our materials to print off--the materials being those affiliated with voting.
I am worried now, though, because I did receive all my voting information for senate candidates, mayor candidates, etc; but what I found was missing was my ballot information for the presidential candidates. ...NOT GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Each state has rules unique to it, and in MN one can have their ballots mailed to them. So I did request for this to be done but now I am thinking that I made a mistake along the way...
Hopefully I will get this figured out tomorrow because THE PRESIDENTIAL VOTE IS CRUCIALLLLLLLLL

el salvador and green scissors

2008-09-28T22:56:00.000-07:00

This afternoon we arrived in El Salvador!!!
The border held us up for around an hour but that was alright because just an hour and a half later... San Salvador!
Tonight we talked through some of our orientation, became inspired by Sister Peggy's (our Libteration Theologies teacher) passion, received some monumental reading assingments... aaand cut my hair!! Here is when the electric green scissors come in to play! Thanks to Julie, now my hair is off-balance, short, and I love it!
San Salvador is giving me the good vibes. Now we are all finally living together in one house. Tomorrow we will start off a busy week!

Pachaj, Cantel

2008-09-28T22:42:00.000-07:00

Ending off our last week in Guatemala (before traveling to Antigua), twelve of us studied and lived in a pueblo called Pachaj, which is in the area of Cantel. This community is 100 percent indigenous and played a key role during Guatemala's armed conflict. Its location is great, too, being just 30 minutes away from Xela.
So noting above on Pachaj's unique role during the armed conflict, Cantel was the only region in all of Guatemala to not take part in the armed guard services. The armed guard services were organized by the Army; they forced men out of every community to patrol their village and report any guerrilla activity. Essentially what the armed guard services did was put many male community members' lives at stake and force families into uncomfortable, dangerous circumstances.
Also during the armed conflict, a textile mill was built in Cantel which from then on altered Cantel's economic situations and fomented a lasting dependence by the people of Cantel on the mill, ultimately a negative dependence at that.
So in all, learning about Cantel's history was an ongoing process throughout our week there. Cantel also has a huge amount of its population in North America. Since Guatemala's economy continues to struggle, economic hardships are the number one reason for migration to places like the US and Canada.

goodbye dear Guate

2008-09-28T22:32:00.001-07:00

Guatemala now holds memories in my heart and nostalgia when I think of the people whom I encountered and lived with there...
Yesterday the group and I left Xela, which had been our home for three weeks, and went to spend one day and one night in Antigua. Antigua is a preserved colonial town that is, of course, filled with plenty of tourists and "westernized" trends.
I say this not with the intention of putting a shade of negativity around the image of Antigua, but rather just to recognize its reality.
It was quaint to spend our last day relaxing in the town. Right upon arrival the group and I went to a restaurant where we ate homemade pizza (talk about authentic Guatemalan food;) and then went off to explore. Arpita, a friend and I, later split off from the others to walk around more of the market area. She and I should have thought back to one of our past experiences (of getting lost together) when saying "Oh yes, this is the right direction..." So we did get lost; but then a bit after successfully wandered back to the hotel. Getting lost wasn't such a bummer though because after all, we did get to see more of the city. A bit sadly I must say, my afternoon and night in Antigua were filled with utter sickness. I should have known better than to keep drinking those yogurt fruit drinks with the pizza! They just were not sitting right. So the chills came and soon after started the vomiting... The group was great though! I definitely am not the only one who has gone through the sickness here...

Rounding up the last week

2008-09-17T20:06:00.001-07:00

This week has been a stressful one, but at the same time I feel guilty for saying that because I AM IN GUATEMALA...!!!¡¡¡
Homework is accumulating, but more just the thoughts of finishing my final paper - which I have decided to do on Venezuela´s Hugo Chávez.
We just finished celebrating three compañeros´ birthdays here at the school.
I have a love and dislike relationship with the computer because I don´t have access to it very easily but then when I get on the internet I end up feeling like I should be in other places...

Tonight I also treated the host mama, Yoli, to an helado (ice cream). I must say that was the highlight of my day... sitting on the terrace in the middle of the house, under the sun, smiling and licking our ice cream cones together...

auras, energías, destinos

2008-09-17T20:06:00.000-07:00

This afternoon we went to an indigenous (Maya) healing ceremony. The group and I met with a woman sacerdote (healer) who has grown up amongst the Mayan traditions and culture as a whole. Throughout her life, also her life as a mother, she has passed along this spirituality; so not only did we get to talk with her but we also got to learn from her daughter.
After learning of the significance of each day (out of the 20 of the Mayan calendar), we then lit candles and placed them into the fire that was filled with a specific type of sacred bark, some sort of natural incense, and other specifics from the earth (which I cannot remember)... As we set our candles down amongst the other burning particles we transferred our thoughts as petitions, which the fire would then transcend to a different dimension.
Later we discussed the relation of science and Mayan beliefs. I can say that I was positively surprised at what I learned... like how the Mayan suggested 3000 years prior to scientists that the sun was in the center of the universe.
After everything, the sacerdote talked to each of us about our destinies, our energies and our auras...
Whether one believes in the Mayan practices or not, it is captivating to take part in them and hold them sacred.

Guatemala--Today´s Charla

2008-09-09T17:21:00.000-07:00

Today we had a meeting/chat with a Guatemalan businessman, who really wasn´t as corporate as that term makes him sound, but he talked with us about Guatemala´s development (especially the development here in Xela).
So get this -- Guatemala´s main, number one, source of income is from Family Remittances; number two is Tourism. By 1990 100,000 Guatemalans were in the US because of the sky-rocketing unemployment in Guatemala.

The man stated blatantly that "radical change" is needed and that personal development must happen first so that democratic development can occur. But in order to do this, he said that Guatemala must develop a system where the taxes will go back to the people.

El lago Atitlán

2008-09-09T17:16:00.000-07:00

A few compañeros and I just got back a bit ago from checking out Ícara, which is a place that sets people up with some awesome treks, kayaking, etc.
So this weekend seven of us will probably be going on a two-day hike that will take us to Lake Atitlán, which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in Guatemala. We will potentially be leaving Friday afternoon where we will drive for an hour or so and then hike until 10 or 11 pm. At the site we´ll arrive at, we´ll eat a late dinner and then stay with a family (in a more rural moutainous area). The next day we´ll get up early and set out hiking until lunch time. After quickly eating we´ll get going again until night and then either camp out or stay with another family. Basically, along the way we will pass rivers, volcanos, and other Guatemalan breath-taking sights... The hike is moderate and doesn´t have extremely inclines, but it will be two days and I am excited!!!!
Once we get to the lake we´ll have the night and the next morning. There, we´ve heard, there are different pueblos that are dedicated to certain things... for example, there is a yoga community and a meditation community. I think we will be hitting up the yoga area!

Until then, hikers---

Chichi

2008-09-09T11:44:00.000-07:00

Chichicastenango was greaaat!!!
Last weekend was prime time to take a relaxing visit to this pueblo that is only about 3 hrs away from Xela. Classes had drained everyone out the first week and we definitely were excited to see more of Guatemala... Favorite things: going to an indigenous womens´community and seeing their artisan work, busying around in the mercado (it´s said that it´s the largest one in CA!), chatting with the girls at a "hole-in-the-wall" restaurant and sitting on the balcony ...

I´m trying to get better

2008-09-02T09:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a bit difficult with the stomach. The thing I am working on is being more direct with my host mom, and all people in total, about not eating when I really am not hungry.
I don´t know if it is the passivity inside me or if it is just that I am trying to be respectful; but all in all, it is really not worth it to feel so uncomfortable.
Alright, we´ll see how today goes with this!

:)

PLQ

2008-09-02T09:37:00.001-07:00

Proyecto Lingüístico de Quetzaltenango is great!(if you couldn´t tell from my last email)... Yesterday we were just informed of all the activities that will be going on this week. Tomorrow they will be showing "Mortorcycle Diaries" in Spanish, as well as accomodating us with the unique Guatemalan hot chocolate and popcorn.
Our last week here we will go to the natural hot springs (which are around 30 minutes away.
I look so forward to this Wednesday, though, because we will be meeting with a member of Guatemala´s army (who also held his or her position during Guatemala´s civil war); so it will be very interesting and powerful to hear the other side of things (because we are usually getting views from the L).

XelaWhooo

2008-09-02T09:36:00.001-07:00

Hola de Quetzaltenango, Guatemala (que también está llamada Xela\Xelaju)...

Estamos pasandolo muy bien y además, muy únicamente aquí. Todavía estoy intentando acostumbrarme a la vida guatemalteca porque me hace extrañar México bastante, especialmente en los primeros días.
Pero ya hemos visitado un barrio en La Ciudad de Guatemala donde se pone casí toda la basura de la ciudad. Hay muchas casas alrededor y la pobreza y discriminación son tan fuertes sin duda. La gente que vive allí es bastante opresada por lo demás; se dice que todos de esta zona son "asasinados," "ladrones," etc. pero en realidad no les dan las oportunidades normales y justos para la educación, para los trabajos, para la seguridad...
Allí visitamos a una escuela que también es un centro recreativo para la juventud que vive por allí.
La escuela empezó hace 20 años. Soló tenía 15 estudiantes y ya tiene 400. Fue inspirada porque había tantos niños y niñas que estaban recogiendo la basura para ganar un poquito de dinero (para ayudar a sus papás y toda la familia); pues por eso los niños y niñas no estaban recibiendo una educación porque trabajaban por todos los días. Ahora hay cuatro maestras que ofrecen el apoyo (emocional, mental, familiar, etc), una buena educación, y un sitio recreativo por esta juventud. Hay casos cuando hay niñas embarazadas o niñas\niños que no tienen casas o eran abandonados por sus papás, o por ejemplo hay otros que tienen 17 años pero nunca han asistido a la primaria y ya pueden tomar las clases de esa nivel,... ---Pues todos esos casos y mas son apoyados, ayudados, e inspirados por este sistema tan progresivo en este barrio. Es monumental*
La cosa es que estos niñas\niños pueden hacer sus trabajos todavía, pero solamente por un parte del día. Entonces el otra parte tienen que venir a las clases. Si los estudiantes siguen en este camino, el sistema les ofrezca trabajos cuando se graduan. Los trabajos generalmente son con los jardínes (incluyendo jardínes vegetales) de la ciudad. También hay estudiantes que se van para la universidad! No puedo expresarlo bastante, pero esto es absolutamente INCREÍBLE por este barrio que está tan polarizado por las comunidades de la ciudad.
Eso es solo un ejemplo de lo que hemos visto en estos días... Hemos aprendido mucho sobre las guerras civiles de Latinoamérica y Centro America. La política aquí es tan tan fuerte y es obvio el legado\impacto de la violencia, los desafíos, y la corrupción que siguen aquí. Los movimientos indígenas y el URNG son absolutamente IMPRESIONANTES. La persecuccíon de tales grupos es inexplicable. Todavía uno se tiene que tener cuidado si se involucra con cosas revolucionarias o en total, cosas que desafían al gobierno (corrupto).
Hoy llegamos a nuestra escuela que se llama el Proyecto Lingüístico de Quetzaltenango. Fue fundado por algunos revoluccionarios muy importantes de los años finales de la guerra civil de Guatemala. Durante ese tiempo La Universidad de San Carlos (que era muy revoluccionaria en su mismo) era tan perseguido por el gobierno\el ejército de Guatemala. Muchos estudiantes y maestros de esta universidad eran matados porque el gobierno estaba intimidado de ellos y lo que podrían hacer. Pues ya esta escuela es el legado de esos revoluccionarios!!!! Así que nos va a involucrar en unos iniciativos políticos, sociales, y ambientales... que buenísimo!!!!
Hay fotos del Ché, Rigoberta Menchú, etc etc, otros murales políticos que llenan las paredes de la escuela!!! Anda"!!!!!:)))))

Ok ok gracias por leer y os agradezco TANTO*
Hasta muy pronto y un montón de mi amor....

Annika

current and past politics

2008-08-26T16:43:00.002-07:00

Now we just finished a learning session with one of our teachers here. He is an Indigenous man from Guatemala who lived through the 36 years of war here. It's so interesting to hear him talking about Mayan spirituality and its focus > There is believed to be one God, "Ahau" who is interconnected with everything, both man and woman. Nature is key. Everything is complimentray and connected. This forms a balance, harmony, an equilibrium. The sense of community is incredibly strong and vital.
But during the years of war, because of the legacy of the Spanish Conquest, he and his classmates were taught that Mayan spirituality was witchcraft, "no one should practice that." Before Guatemala declared independence from Spain the "Repartimientos and Encomiendas" ocurred, which distributed the indigenous people among the Spaniards, controlled the indigenous people and Christianized them. This is when Mayan spirituality truly became oppressed.
To this day that legacy still remains in many ways.

We're expecting a woman from the humanitarian community who is a part of Congress to come and join us. She will be talking about the current politics of Guatemala.
Just a note, our last speaker just told us about the widespread dissatisfaction with the current President, Alvaro Colom. Initially Colom claimed to be "one for the Indigenous"...

I guess the speaker is on her way!

The other students here are pretty great.
There are a lot from Northfield, MN who attend Carleton and St Olaf. It seems as though the rest are from Washington and NY.

Love,
Anni/ka

2008-08-26T16:43:00.001-07:00

Hello from Guatemala City!!

Yesterday I arrived to the supposedly "newest and best" airport section in Central America... I guess I was too busy to notice because I was focusing on getting my backpacking gear on my back without falling over. I swear some people wear watching, just waiting for me to slowly start tipping.
Once I went outside of the customs/luggage area I finally saw the little "Center for Global Education" sign and then I headed over to meet up with a few of the other participants that had already arrived.
I got to sleep a little on the plane, but once we got to the guest house where we're staying and became acclamated, many of us passed out on our temporary beds... I finally slept for a few hours.
Lunch and dinner were both big, filling meals...and very good, at that. I definitely have got to skip dinner tonight because breakfast and lunch today filled me up so much.

They gave us our orientation today and then we went to La Casa Crema, which is named after the White House. There we also went into one of the famous cathedrals of Guatemala City.
Following this, we traveled to the main garbage dump site of the city. This is a very impoverished area where many people are self employed, working with recycling and the trash as a whole just to make a small living. It is interesting because virtually there is no recycling in Guatemala, but people living in the garbage dump area collect things such as plastic, then take those items to plastic mills to get money, for example.
There we went to a type of school and recreation center that began 20 years ago, started with 15 youth and now has 400 youth as students. The school was inspired because of the mass amounts of children who were collecting garbage in order to make a living for their family, but by doing this full time they were not getting an education. Now the four teachers at this school offer support, education, recreation, and an emotional outlet to displaced children, children without support, children previously expelled from school who cannot enter back into the main school system, pregnant adolescents, teens who never attended 1st grade and on for example... The school works with the youth in order so that they can still work, either in the mornings or afternoons, as long as they come to classes daily during the half of the day when they're not working. If the students continue this throughout their years and complete their education, they can get a job with the City, working with various City gardens. The students can also choose to go on to a university.
Essentially, just being there for the hour that we were, I can tell you that this is a truly amazing and genuinely successful grassroots organization that has, and continues to, empower those who were born into an area that has been labeled one of "asassins and thieves."

After this we drove many miles to a higher part of Guatemala that is inhabitated basically all by the wealthy. There we saw huge, luxury apartment complexes, mega malls, gated communities, Sears, TGI Fridays... riches and globalization to the T.
Talk about polar opposites.

Guatemala... get up in three hours

2008-08-24T19:12:00.000-07:00

My mom has kept coming into the living room to tell me that I should go to bed now... I guess she has reason because I'll be waking up around 12:30 am.
Last night I didn't sleep well at all... I couldn't get these Alison Krauss songs out of my head. I know, Alison Krauss, right.
Well if there is one thing I'm feeling anxious about it's that I just want to meet these 18 other people that will be studying abraod in Central Am. with me and I want to develop some good connections with them.
But I guess skipping those beginning parts of meeting one another would really take away a huge chunk, no?

Well, the staff will be a-waitin' with the "CGE" sign at the airport tomorrow...!

todo en el presente~~~

2008-08-24T19:07:00.000-07:00

After picking up my friend on my bike today, we headed off to our main spot, The Blue Heron coffeehouse. As we were biking down her street she quickly noticed how still it was outside, and in that stillness she automatically felt a certain type of comfort.
My friend just finished living in Connecticut for four years and will be soaking up the Winona environment for some months now in her upcoming future. I guess it's a thing about being back in a smaller, generally tranquil town... you become refreshed and better aware of the peaceful stillness of the streets, of how you can actually hear the leaves shaking in the moderate wind... things like that.
I had to be reminded of this peace. It's funny what an awareness, present-moment-check does to you.
:)

The journey to enlightenment... well-informing oneself.

2008-08-22T12:28:00.001-07:00

Just the other week another report came out stating that most people from the US get their news from the TV.
It is long past time that each of us take our own initiatives do inform ourselves from diverse, global perspectives. For example, it is vital to receive world news from a perspective outside the US. Also, independent news sources are crucial. Yes, one can argue that all news has an agenda; but at least hear those different, varying, diverse agendas [especially ones that don't come solely from one's country's bias] in order that you aren't just watching your state's weather channel and reports that focus mainly on the State Fair and who got robbed the other day.

One of the people, eh?

2008-08-22T12:22:00.000-07:00

John McCain was quoted the other day saying he would have one of his staffers "get back to" the public about how many houses he has.
By the way, the guy has seven.

One cannot claim that they "work for the people" [and the majority of the "people" here are middle to lower-income] and then live so lavishly to the point where he or she cannot keep track of the number of homes he or she has.

All leaders should live through average, not exceedingly rich and squandering, lifestyle in order to be on the same playing field as the rest of US people.

Eat fresh, eat locally, eat from Featherstone Farm!

2008-08-20T22:05:00.000-07:00

CSA, Community Supported Agriculture, has been up and running throughout the summer this year in Winona, MN. Not only is this initiative happening in Winona, but there are also many local farm crop shares just like this going on in the Twin Cities!
My family and I pick up our reciclable box every Wednesday from the Bluff Country Co-op. The best thing is to come back home and feel excited as you open up the box, which is literally filled with food, wondering which fruits and veggies you have received this week. Today we got bak-chow [sorry for the spelling], yellow squash, red tomatoes, some type of seasoning herb, zuchinni, and a honey dew melon. DELICIOUS! Now two times a week my family uses our "wok" to cook those veggies and fruits up... There are so many of them that we've got to do the combinations.
Also, if you're eating a lot of cooked food for dinner, you can eat the veggies raw if you just wash them, dice them, and sprinkle some salt and pepper on them. Then when you're done doing that, mix in some lime or lemon juice, vinigarette, and/or plain olive oil. RIQUISIMO combination*
The best thing is knowing that when those delicious greens go in your mouth, you are eating from a trusted, known source and most of all, you are supporting your local, organic farmers!

Baggage Restrictions

2008-08-20T09:23:00.000-07:00

My mom had me searching the Delta Airlines website this morning, scanning for any new information about my upcoming flights...
It was just last night when it dawned on me that not only will I really be leaving this Monday morning [1 am :) ] but I will also not be returning for five months or so... Let the learning and adventures begin!
But it does make me feel a little vulnerable acknowledging that... But that is O.K. My theory is that some of the most magnificently transforming times in life entail some of the most difficult... Vamos!
Does anyone have any information about restrictions/special instructions for taking a rucksack/backpacking gear on airlines??
I may have to opt for that rather than going with the normal pull-along luggage...

Guacamole, Pasta, and Good Company.

2008-08-18T14:59:00.000-07:00

Last night I passed the time enjoyably and comfortably with three lovely women -- a friend from high school, her mother and sister, and their extended family -- a French student who stayed with them years ago... It reminded me of the simple bliss that a meal can entail...from the preparation of the food to the setting of the table to the opening of cupboards and drawers searching for the glasses and silverware...to finally settling down around the table, taking a breath, and excitedly serving up and savoring the scents after all the anticipation -- just ready to stay there until the night ends because you know there is so much good conversation to be had.
Once I arrived the women already had set the light-hearted tone...the gas stove was little with the water just about popping as it was minutes away from boiling. Soon the pasta would be added but until then there was the chocolate-vanilla French cake to flip over and smother with the icy white frosting. Lucky for us our visiting friend came ready to make some of her home recipes. It's great to feel like you're not actually making a meal just because you're so into hearing what each person has to say, with much expression and smiles, I must add.
Vegetables were scattered around the side of the sink, dripping with water after just being rinsed, ready to be chopped. Soon they were cut and alternately dropped into a bowl mixed with lemon juice and pepper, just fit for an exquisite combination -- one that pulls the taste buds laid back time of catching up and subconsciously getting to know one another better...
We joined one another around the table which was pleasantly located on the porch... we were in the outside environment encompassed by a screen ~
Soon the pasta bowl was passed around and we laughed as my friend's mom commented, "See, the French aren't afraid to use real cream in their food." We all nodded in appreciation of the French lifestyle and cuisine, conscious of the different eating habits and regard toward meals amongst cultures.
The salmon pasta was complimented with those fresh, diced vegetables -- and afterward, the cake! Soon the tea and grapes were brought out and we went later and later into the evening with spontaneous conversation...

To a good, drawn-out meal with good people!

America... but which one?

2008-08-16T18:49:00.000-07:00

There is the common habit of saying, as U.S. citizen or as a person living in the U.S., that "I am an American;" or "I live in America." What is vital to recognize is that there are four Americas: North America, Latin America, Central America, and South America.
I had a mind-opening experience that made me better conscious of this fact when I was studying in Spain during the end of my high school year. Not remembering how to say I am "estadounidense" [from the U.S.] when someone asked me what my home country was, I replied "soy de america" [I am from America]. That person then looked at me with a confused expression and told me that she and her classmates were taught in school that there is more than just one America. She explained how they addressed Canada as a part of America [being in North America] and then went on to mention Mexico [having some of their states in North America and the rest being referred to as a part of Latin America], etc... I then realized the utter truth to her response.
Yes. I still feel incredibly ignorant for not being conscious of the implications of saying that I was from America -- those implications being complicated and not specific.
Ever since my time in Cuernavaca, Mexico, this summer I have been asking myself "What makes people from the U.S. more entitled to claim the entirety of America [or, all of the Americas, for that matter] as their own?"
I realize this sounds harsh, but I feel that the truth in this is harsh and it needs to be more consciously recognized.
I do also want to add, though, that there are a great deal of people who use the term "America" loosely because it is what they have grown up around, because it is a habit, not meaning to take away of the significance and presence of the other "Americas"... I would just like to raise awareness of the implications and vastness of the term.

Thank you.

Back home.

2008-08-16T18:40:00.000-07:00

Thursday I planned on leaving leaving work by 1 pm. I knew saying the goodbyes would not be a short ordeal, but I had a bit of a schedule to stick to and I thought I could keep it on track... So I ended up leaving a little before 3.
:)
No complaints whatsoever though. I guess it just shows how much I love being around the people in my work environment. The bittersweet feelings of moving along into the school year are beginning to be felt little by little. I'm not the only one going abroad -- Ali will arrive back this Sunday from Japan, Amber will be going to Bali one week after I leave for Central America, and Chu will be heading out soon to study in Japan for a full year. Wow. Although I can honestly say I miss the unique, awesome energy of each individual from the office; I am so excited to hear of their endeavors--whether those endeavors be out of the country or in the ever-so-happenin' Minneapolis...

"The 90's"

2008-08-13T15:09:00.001-07:00

Tonight some of the staff and I will head out on the town, already tired enough from last night, to "Gay 90's" where we will shake up the Wednesday evening!
The Electric Fetus is first calling our names; so I think Amber and I will cut out of work soon. Then we will be off to Ben's in order to literally just lay - lay, eat, and hopefully sleep -- all in good company.

Yes. May the energy come with the good vibes of our last night before heading out of the country [at least the "last night" for Amber and myself;) ]
!

Spending the last week with good people.

2008-08-13T14:55:00.000-07:00

Alright.
These are my last few days in the office at Augsburg, at my "homestay" in White Bear, with the beautiful and energetic people of Admissions...
This, of course, is bittersweet ~ as many things in life are.

I do need transition - the cultural transition into Central America, specifically. Inside I feel I'm ready for it. But it is crazy to think that in such little time I have come to appreciate a substantial amount of people so much - these people would be my co-workers. No joke, but I tell you that it is a family environment in here. Just last night I spent the entirety of my evening and into the morning with two co-workers. Yes, these last couple days I am choosing to spend with them.

It's crazy to think that without working here I would not have experienced last night, not to mention how I would not have developed the connections with such unique individuals. So I am going to go on thinking of them from time to time. And when I do I will be inspired by their energy and bright, quirky [in truly the best way possible] personalities. I really will look forward to seeing them again in the future... and maybe even going to the Irish Fest with Amber, heading to a Twins game with Kendra, living in Carrie's house, going to a movie w/ Marissa and helping her out w/ her array of tasks, talking [maybe too long;) ] over lunch break w/ Mary about life, ... and on and on.. .

But we shall return in some way/time/dimension! ~ Until then ~~

Twins v Yankees

2008-08-13T09:53:00.000-07:00

Last night was the first time I had ever attended a professional baseball game. Kendra, Amber and I chose a good night to light-rail-it over to the stadium because the Twins were playing the Yankees [whom they had defeated the night prior].
As we were purchasing our tickets, the three of us all commented on how that area would have to be one of our favorite venues to "people-watch." Yes, we admitted it because let's just get it out there -- professional sporting games bring in people of all interests and ages, and it is a pretty damn fun environment!
The tickets we bought ended up being in the "Family Area" which gave us a deal of one free hot dog and one free beverage, so we were happy fans. Our seats were in the middle of the row, so of course the people on the outskirts became tired of standing up and sitting back down just for us to walk past a couple times...;)
You have to love having those deep conversations in some of the most spontaneous areas... like in the middle of a Twins game with three young men behind us screaming at the Fan Cam. What a scene.
The girls and I stayed until the bottom of the 7th just to sing "Take me out to the Ball Game." Very nice times.
In the end, the game went past 12 innings.

Go Twins!

The Olympics

2008-08-10T18:55:00.000-07:00

Women's gymnastics tonight! Sean Johnson is a complete powerhouse!! That girl is absolutely versatile, and does it with such a determined strength in a beautifully driven way.
This is actually the first time when I have been excited about the Olympics, so here's to devoting your life to what gives you passion!

Mbotma Bluegrass Music Fest

2008-08-10T18:05:00.000-07:00

I just arrived back from spending two-and-a-half days in El Rancho Manana [insert tilde over first "n"] where I went with my dad and his friends to spend the weekend jamming to some old-time music.
The weekend went by really fast and it feels great to know that I soaked up my time there as well as I could. It's funny to think that when I was young I couldn't have cared less for the good twang of the banjo, and now I'm thinking about taking it up after I arrive back this year from traveling...
After listening to my dad play and listen to this genre of music for so long--I mean literally 19 years--bluegrass and folk have become more of a choice, an enjoyment.
The Mbotma Fest may just become an annual event for me; gosh, I even had my dad tired out from trying to see all of the acts. :)

For some genuinely unique excitement and energy, check out "Mountain Heart." "The Ditch Lillies," "The Stairwell Sisters" and "Grasstowne" also are highly recommended.

What's going on in that mind

2008-07-31T20:59:00.000-07:00

It's crazy how younger kids really do listen to what you say, and moreso how they soak it in and bring back your words when you least expect them to do so...

The other day I was downstairs in my main space of the house... standin' alone in the bathroom, flossin' the teeth... Down comes my 7-year-old "sister" as I'm finishing up. So she starts chatting with me, etc... Soon I start to take my vitamins [which I'm trying to get in the habit of doing on a daily schedule]. So my sister asks me what I'm swallowing and I explain to her what the specific vitamins are, why I take them, what the benefits are, etc. She then proceeds to tell me that she, too, has vitamins but "hates" them. So then I of course have more of an urge to make her aware that vitamins realy aren't so bad, and in fact, they could maybe really pay off.

So about a week later I'm in the kitchen with my sister's mom and we're talking and whatnot... Well then my sister, out of the blue, says: "Mom, where are my vitamins? Can I have them now please?"
Surprised, her mother says "You can take them later; now it's too late because you haven't eaten for a while... and that's funny that you're asking me because you don't like your vitamins at all..."
My sister then automatically says "No. I love my vitamins. Can I take them tomorrow morning please?"

...It can really be quite great how you can rub off on a young, supple mind..!
[Of course, you must respect this advantage greatly!]