Monte Alban and the Education of Chicano Children
We went to Monte Alban on Monday, 072108, and what a glorious testimony to the intelligience, beauty, sophistication of the Zapotecs. Monte Alban is located “ . . . situated atop an artificially-leveled ridge,” which with an elevation of about 6368 feet above mean sea level, rises some 1312 ft) from the valley floor.”
Besides being one of the earliest cities of Mesoamerica, Monte Albán’s importance stems also from its role as the pre-eminent Zapotec socio-political and economic center for close to a thousand years. Founded toward the end of the Middle Formative period at around 500 BC, by the Terminal Formative (ca.100 BC-AD 200) Monte Albán had become the capital of a large-scale expansionist polity that dominated much of the Oaxacan highlands and interacted with other Mesoamerican regional states such as Teotihuacan to the north (See Wikipedia 072108).
It is challenging to see that they actually existed, the way they organized the architecture, the layout, the structure of the plaza, the various temples. You can visualize thousands of people involved like little ants, taking care of their business, visiting the priests, having ceremony, trading and exchanging their wares, food, flowers for services, ceremony, bendiciones. On top of the various pyramids you can see the people down below or across the expansive plaza, like hormiguitas scurrying about their business. The great courtyard, the various piramedes, altars, sects, design, organization, economics, and religion, all visible and invisible, created a wondrous contemplation.
Alfonso Caso really made a discovery. He and his associates conducted the major part of the excavation from the 2930s to the late 1940s. There was a statue of him by the entrance, a bespeckled-nerdy looking guy, who was a genius at discovery and exploration. I remember reading his work when a graduate student at Stanford in the 1970s. There was a beautiful museum that we didn’t even get a chance to check out because just exploring the ruins took up all the time we had. Just to explore the pyramids we climbed endless steps.
The Zapotecs must have been built physically well and they must have had strong built up thighs. Taking in the beauty was breath-taking; the winds cross-cutting the top of each pyramid, the vision, the cosmos, just to imagine all of the activities taking place here on a regular bases. Imagine the people, thousands, the food, the clothing, the wares, the splendor of it all. It is hard to imagine the color, the beauty. When I traveled in Europe I didn’t see anything like it. I have never been to Egypt, but I imagine that there must be as profound a feeling as that which we have experienced at Monte Alban. I tried to imagine what Jamestown might have been like next to the pyramids, wonder of the world, but I know it was nothing like this. But that would not even be a glitter of comparison. How about Stonehenge? Perhaps it comes close spiritually, but architecturally, hands down, no comparison. At the coliseum in Rome you start to approach the form, but not the content.
You start to see what I am talking about. Why do the Chicano-Mexicano children get the short end of the stick when it comes to their self-esteem and who they are. Mr. S and I talked briefly about bringing a group of kids from the barrio or even from Clovis to take a glimpse, the walk the great plaza, to stand on top of the pyramids at Monte Alban. We were really impressed and we took a few hundred pictures between all of us. It was such an uplifting spiritual experience for all of us.
Again the question is what, how, do we convey this to the children of the sun? They have no idea, who do not know, nor do they have an opportunity to experience the majesty, this mystery, this opening to the universe. How do we bring this back home and inject into the curriculum at the teacher training level? How do we tell the Dean, the faculty, administration, math and science, reading, everyone?
Dr. G, from Monte Alban
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2 responses so far ↓
everardo // July 25, 2008 at 2:49 pm |
Wow. What a wonderful place. It’s awesome to hear about it. You can begin by giving a powerpoint to hs students and speak your dream con passion. I share that vision dream.
juanxipe // July 25, 2008 at 3:28 pm |
There are no words for the experience of being at Monte Alban. I always thought that it was a “ruin” but contraily it is a “living” space where activities still occur and the people surrounding the ruin still carry on with their business of living and paying homage to their ancestors and their children. More on MOnte Alban later with pictures.
Sin mas, JCG