Update - March 15, 2009
'The Ides of March'
There is a time and place in some people's lives that is a turning point. Oaxaca and in particular...San Augustine...is such a place and this seems to be such a time for several people here. San Augustine draws to it people thinking of change or in the process of change. Against the bucolic beauty of the mountains and fields plays out layers of situations in transition. Oaxaca has a history of political resistence and San Augustine and barrios like it represent part of the rural resistence that continues. Protests pop up spontaneously blocking roads or staging strikes and hunger sit-ins. Here in San Augustine the atmosphere seems to be cathartic. Creative energy ignites into production of ceramics, installations, photography and there is an abundance of artists working in glass, found materials and a range of painters, printmakers and textile artisans.
There is also poverty side by side with the more afluent. Cooks, housekeepers, gardeners are indigenous people. To have hired help in the studio, on the land or in the house seems common here even for those people with a little less money than their richer neighbors. But still the eye focuses on the tin shack with six children milling in the dust behind the larger house secured behind a brick wall.
The social, cultural and political jockeying here has it's similarities but we are unable to negotiate within it perhaps because there are personal histories already developed among the permanent residents and it's impossible for us to manuever through those ties. Still we are treated graciously and generously even though the economic crash of the American dollar has devasted the Mexican peso. There shines in the faces of the people here an enduring spirit that is referred to in Octavio Paz's description of his people. I doubt we could handle this situation as well as they are. It is going to get worse, much worse and the poor are forced into a corner as foreign influence brings genetically modified seeds here to replace heritage maize and transnationals build wind generators that send the electricity to the major cities while the barrios still struggle to get the most basic of necessities for their communities.
We in Canada are priviledged and for many, blind to the negative impact we are having on other countries like Mexico. Here I am learning what I have done that is right and what I need to do to build a greater awareness and a healthier balance in my relationship with Mexico.
Haruko