Language lessons conclude

Our language lessons concluded today and our beginning Spanish teacher, Yolanda, treated us to a fiesta by baking us a cake. The cake was made out of wheat, corn, sugar and some other ingredients that made it delicious. Our group of beginning language learners appreciated that Yolanda did with our group to help us learn more Spanish. She made it fun and enjoyable while learning. She did this by carefully planning out the daily lessons and sprinkling the learning with games. We played Spanish verb BINGO today which helped reinforce the various verbs we had learned throughout the past two weeks. Yolanda inspired all of us to continue our learning of Spanish. Furthermore, Yolanda knew how to structure the lessons to help our learning as well as organize the material in a way that caused us each to learn. She had us do homework that included writing about a favorite pet, an important person in our lives, and someone who influenced our lives but had passed away. She taught in a way that all good educators do – she caused us to construct new learning by building on our previous learning. Gracias, Yolanda!

Here is our beginning Spanish group. Yolanda, our maestra, is in the back.

Mental health services in Cuernavaca

Today we were able to visit Voz Pro Salud Mental (Website: http://www.vozprosaludmental.org.mx/), which is the first mental health outpatient facility in the area of Cuernavaca. Alicia Castillo Valdez, a Social Worker by trade who studied in Italy and is of Peruvian descent, opened the agency doors and shared her vision and practice. Alicia mentioned 18% of citizens in the Cuernavaca area have serious mental health issues which include, schizophrenia, bipolar and depressive disorders. She shared successes and challenges. The agency offers support, education and psychosocial groups to its consumers. There are a shortage of volunteers in the area to expand the services offered.

Our group felt an immediate connection with the facility since the majority of us are in the helping profession. We began to brainstorm on expanding internships for VOZ, including Fresno State students having the opportunity to visit and providing internships. We concluded the visit with salsa dancing, which the agency offers to its clients as a means of social support.

In my experience in social services, it is imperative that ideas and thoughts are put into action in an effort for implementation to take place. It was very interesting to note that Mexico is behind in the mental health arena and its population traditionally has not been receptive in assisting the mentally ill. The United States has had a positive influence on Mexican social services in this area.

-Saul Salinas, MSW, PPSC.

Educational Winds and the Pyramid of the Sun

7/12/08

 

We climbed to the top of the massive pyramid of the sun today.  It is still difficult to understand how the conquistadores, the colonialists, the independence leaders (both Liberals and Conservatives) and even the institutional revolutionaries could have thought that the indigenous peoples were “inferior”.  It comes to my mind that perhaps the minds of the so-called “superiors” were, have been, and to a certain extent still are the “inferiors”.  Usually, when one feels inferior, he, she, it covers it up in a shroud of projected superiority.   Our group of 15 people, climbed to the top, the 248 steps, the experience the grandeur, the mystery, the architectural phenomenon of so called  “mentally wretched.”  (Bonfil Batalla, p. 101).  It took less than a half-hour to climb.  Some took more time, some less, some up some down.

 

It was/is an abomination how European conquest thinking through the colonial phase, and its current manifestations in American thinking, can be considered so superior in culture, society, and culture, when they were/are so dead wrong.  All of the players through the centuries have been so wrong. In each phase and stage they have put so much effort in making the indigenous people feel so inferior.  In addition to calling them “mentally wretched”, they also called them ignorant, that needed to be removed from their “moral prostration” from their “physical abjection,” through assimilation, accommodation, acculturation, through genetic blending into European and Caucasian stock (Ibid.). This is not such a long throw from the current thinking by Tlaxcalan and current “colonial” educators, educational administrators, and institutions about the symbolism related to young Mexican American students in the schools.   Current educators do not know what to make of these children of the sun who are not able to achieve the standards required by the expectations of the current state and federal  functionaries. The Indians resisted, have resisted, are resisting and are the children of the sun.  As I stood on top of the pyramid I called to the winds, Ollin, the winds of change.  On top of the pyramid of the sun there was splendor, awe, resistance.  How could our indigenous forbearers have been considered so inferior?  Who is zooming who in this upside down world of advanced education?

 

Earlier in the day we went to the Basilica where the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared to the indio, Juan Diego.  He was 52 years of age and a widower for 10 years (according to my colega, Rob Darrow, who looked it up on the internet).   He had been converted to Christianity.  But it doesn’t take much imagination to also take into account how saddened he must have been with the state affairs (per Estela Roman , our maestra).  The Cerro de Tepéyac (the hill), was considered a sacred place by the indigenous,  a place to pray and contemplate.  They were being stripped of the world they knew, their beliefs, their way of life, their culture.  It was a time of sadness and crying, or disbelief about what was happening, a tremendous loss.  Juan Diego went to the ancient Cerro de Tepéyac, to pray, to cry, to contemplate, when suddenly, she appeared to him, and asked that he go to the Bishop and request that a chapel be built in her honor.  Can you imagine an Indian asking to see the Bishop?  They wouldn’t let him see the Bishop so he returned to where he saw the Lady.  She asked him to go back and again he was denied an audience with the Bishop.  So he went back a 3^rd time to Tepéyac to talk to the Lady  Coatlicue.  This time she asked him to gather roses that she saw growing on the hill at a time where they were not supposed to be growing.  He gathered them in his huipil and back he went to see the Bishop to show him that he has not making up the story.   At last he was able to see the Bishop. He told the audience that the Lady he saw asked him to bring the roses to prove that he was not making the story up.  When he dropped the huipil to show the rose there emblazoned on it was an image of the Lady that kept appearing to him.  Finally, the Bishop and his associates took him seriously.  She was called Coatlicue, according to Estela, nuestra maestra. The Spanish priests didn’t hear her right. They didn’t understand that he was saying Coatlicue.  The Spanish heard “Guadalupe” and since there was already a “Guadalupe” in Spain, they thought that’s who had appeared to the Indio Juan Diego.  It was a stretch of the phonetic imagination. 

 

Tepéyac was a special place to pray.  The whole area was a lake as big as Lake Michigan, perhaps, and Tepéyac, rose up from the water and seen as mother earth and had been venerated for who knows how long.  The Tepeyac hill chapel stood in contrast to the massive basilica, the modern structure looking like a spaceship (like Fresno’s City Hall).  It stood in contrast to the old 16^th century basilica which looked like all Italian churches, like a square cavern.   Some of us went to the new basilica to get a glimpse of that same huipil with the image of the Virgin the Guadalupe emblazoned on it. It was hanging as the backdrop to the alter and to see it you had to go through an underpass with an conveyer-belt moving walk that took you from one side to the other in a smooth short trip quickly under the image which was high up and hard to see and impossible to take a picture of.  Nevertheless my eyes, Ceci’s eyes, our eyes saw it.  It was anticlimactic, in a way, to see it, but what was important was that we saw it unfiltered through our own eyes.

 

Then we went to the pyramid, the temple of the Sun.  When we were all at the top, exhausted from the steep, quick, climb, we took in the majesty of it all.  To the north we could see the Pyramid of the Moon and the mile long road, Avenida de los  Muertos,  south all the way to the Temple of Quetzalcoatl. 

 

The wind started suddenly, a little wind, a gust of wind. It was Ollin, making his presence known, taking some hats, feeling its strength.  Suddenly, I was transported back 8 years ago when I went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with my parents.  We were out on the Sea of Gallilee, the priest was talking about the gospel when the apostles were fishing on the sea and suddenly the winds came and the storm rocked the boat, and Jesus walked on the water.  As the priest was talking while we were listening a sudden gust of  wind  surprised us and several hats flew, and scarves, and umbrellas flew into the Sea.  It was the holy spirit talking to us to come over the spiritual divide. 

 

It was like that on the Pyramid of the Sun, the winds beckoning us/me to edge over past the divide and see what has been fundamentally missing in the educational enterprise.  Even Tlaloc had something to say, coming down hard on us. We left the top of the pyramid as the water poured down on us.

 

07/12/08 -  Dr. G

Dancing in Cuernavaca

Last week we took a walking tour around Cuernavaca. On the tour, we saw the community center that hosts many cultural and art activities for youth and residents. On the grounds, there is a park, a pool, a gym with work out equipment, a computer center, art/ceramic center, and an open space that is used for dancing, exercise and other movement activities. We learned that the community center is completely staffed by volunteers with a minimum of paid staff. The staff organizes volunteers who put together free activities including dance, guitar lessons, arts and crafts, and whatever young people want to do together. When we visited, we learned that the dancing, lead by a volunteer dance instructor, is every Monday and Wednesday evening from 6.30-8:00pm. The dance instructor was male and looked about 20 years old. After reading the schedule, we decided to go back and experience the dance class.

Five of us arrived on time to find a crowd of people forming. Being the beginners we put ourselves in the back of the group. Anyone can walk in and participate in this. Even though we were obviously outsiders, we were welcomed with smiles and encouragement from the dance instructor and other participants. First, we formed lines and then the instructor taught us the basic dance steps to salsa – uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete – a seven step movement forward and backwards. Then, he had us twirl, move to the left, move to the right, and spin. Then, he added a more difficult step that included tapping your toe, then heel, then toe and kicking back, then repeating the same and kicking forward, and then spinning around. For some of us, we didn’t have the right shoes so couldn’t move as smoothly as others, but managed to stay and enjoy the dance. By the time the line dance finished, we were feeling much more confident in our salsa dance steps!

It was neat how synchronized all of our steps became after doing the dance over and over – first to a slower and then to a faster song.

Then, it was time for couples to dance. The instructor separated the boys and the girls. He organized the girls in lines and then had the boys go and select the girls to dance with. The couples dance then began and every 4 minutes, he would say “cambia” which means “change” and the girls would move one to the right, so that the dancers always had different partners. The couples dance was more complicated and there were a lot more spins for both the males and females. The couples held hands for the entire dance and intertwined arms to create different movements for the dance – often looking like a pretzel. It was amazing how the movements would cause the couples to spin and then end up back facing one another without releasing hands. The instructor was very passionate, dynamic, and energetic about dancing and for teaching all of us to improve our salsa dance.

Even more importantly, the community center is a very active place. There were about 40 young people dancing and a few of us older people who joined. This community center directs energy to positive learning experiences and brings togetherness reinforcing the sense of community among the people. Volunteers go the center every day to conduct lessons for whoever wants to attend. Overall, this community center is a wonderful place and one example of how Mexican people share their talents with one another for the enhancement of their community.

Climbing Teotihuacan in Mexico City

Teotihuacan Pyramid from the bottom

Reaching the top was the goal and we all did! As I stepped unto the first steps I thought gosh I can’t believe I am standing on such a sacred place. It was truly an honor and a sense of pride that came as I walked the steps, especially as I heard people in aw as they looked at what the Mesoamerica people created. As I reached the top I looked upon the ruins of a powerful civilization whose power was evident by the remaining structure of the Teaotihuacan. Once I reached the very top it began raining very strong which although scary was amazing. I had never felt so close to the wind nor the rain.

This powerful civilization did not end but still vibrant in the home of their ancestors. This is definitely one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had!

- Rosalba Lopez

Visiting the Basilica in Mexico City

Going to the Basilica was very special to me. I have been brought up in a Catholic family and spirituality is something that I truly value. Ever since I can remember I always wanted to visit the Basilica, it is such a sacred place to me and I wanted to see it. My mom brought me to the Basilica when I was about three years old and I have a picture of how she dressed me in the traditional indigenous clothing, but of course I have no recollection of that. While visiting the Basilica I felt so much peace within me, especially inside the new church and on top at the Tepeyac. To me it was an honor to have the privilege to visit such a scared place, the place where La Virgen de Guadalupe appeared to San Juan Diego.

Oh and sorry to all of you because Marisela and I were late to the bus, but we got carried away.

-Maria Torres

Temescal and the Healing Arts

Sweat Lodge

Yesterday we went to the temescal belonging to the curandera and maestra Estela Roman. She invited three other curandera masajeras who were there to help her. She explained that the massage was healing that would focus on the deep tissues such as muscles, tendons, and bones. The massage used different oils scented to produce different effects.

The temezcal was prepared for three rounds. We expected that the groups would be divided into two female groups and one male group. The temezcal is an oven-like structure with a turtle dome made of mud and plastered -over inside and out to give it a smooth outer surface. The outside is painted with Quetzalcoatl and other pre-Columbian symbols. The inside is a flat surface floor. The west side of the inside is volcanic rock embedded in plaster on the wall sticking out. The door to the structure faces the east, the rising sun. On the backside or outside of the west wall is a area where the charcoals are lit to burn wood to heat the rocks.

Inside the sweat lodge

The ceremonial facilitator brings in a bucket of water filled with cold water and ladled with branches of a specific kind so that if it gets too hot in there the participant can take the small branch and drip water on his body and bring close to mouth to allow easier breathing. The celebrant inters the sacred space inside, comes in last, and closes the towel door. She proceeds to talks to the creator, the spirits of the earth, the spirits of the plants, mother earth, thanking her for the gift of life and to appreciate the things we have. The participants in turn also chime in and give thanks through prayer, talk, or song. Giving thanks for health, safety, in this long journey for family and friends and for the curandera.

All the while the curandera is pouring water on the rocks and allowing the steam to rise and raise the temperature. Our bodies sweat and release the toxins in our bodies from bad air, unhealthy food and drink; and release, as well, negative energy, negativity, anxiety, worries, depressive symptoms, concerns, leaving it all sweat out and leave there.

Ready for the sweat lodge

In my sweat group were three men and the curandera. We all expressed out appreciation and were thankful for our experience together. We were coincidently aware that we were all involved in Clovis Unified School District in some way. We vowed to continue our work together to improve our district to create change and preserve what is good and just.

After temescal we went to get our masaje each of us assigned to different curanderas. One of us had had his masaje before the temezcal. He was completely centered and relaxed. I experienced a trance-like meditative floating masaje; my bones, tendons, and muscles falling into space where they belong.

At the end of the experience we all had a learning experience. Some of us enjoyed the masaje more than the others. Some left with pain and others in a complete state of relaxation. We all left grateful for a wonderful experience. The temezcal and massage was truly needed as we had been going going gone all week with classes, discussion, excursions with little time to rest. It provides a respite from the business of life; allowing the body and the soul to meet and find balance, and create harmony.

Dr. G - 071009

Not taught to children of the corn

The Complex Organization of the Native People of the Americas: a note not taught to children of the corn

Ancient statue in the Cortez Museum

After language lessons yesterday we had a history lesson given by David Roman Porcayo who provided us with the idea that there were civilizations here in the “new” world going back 10,000 years or more, way before the time of Christ life on earth. Civilization flourished in the so-called “new” world way before civilization in Europe and perhaps other places in the world. Certainly civilization existed coterminous with other “great” civilizations such as in China or Egypt and Mesopotamia. This is important because most teachers don’t not that fact or if they do they may disregard it as having no importance. If they don’t know it then how can they teach it; if they don’t care then why are the teaching in school where the majority of the children are of Mexican origin?

Last year the faculty from the CSUF SOEHD were invited to visit the Orange Cove Educational complex which includes a high school, intermediate school, and elementary school. The administrators were so happy we were there as this was supposed to be a show case situation in which a Clovis Unified School District like district was being replicated in a small rural town such as Orange Cove. The faculty were spread out through the three levels of education. I went with a few faculty members from the Counseling Department to the middle school. We went through the front entrance which was decorated to reflect the 16^th of September celebration of Mexican Independence. We went through he building and we fanned out to different classrooms. I went to a social science classroom to observe the teaching going on in the classroom. I started to notice the posters on the walls and noticed that they represented the different high civilizations of the past, the Chinese, the Egyptians, and even Stonehenge, but I immediately noticed that something was wrong. There were no posters of the Mayans, the Aztecs, or the Incas. This was a classroom with more than the majority being Mexican American children. What was the message; that there was no civilization in the Americas before Columbus or Cortez.

During the same visit I pointed out this glaring observation to the principal and he asked defensively, “what do you want me to put up there?” Just then a Mexican student walked by with a tee-shirt of Zapata, then almost simultaneously, as if my magic, another walked by with a tee-shirt depicting the Virgin of Guadalupe, then another with Pancho Villa. I told the principle that all he had to do was look at what they were wearing. The sad thing was that it was a “Chicano” principal. Then later on I heard that they did not allow Spanish to be spoken on the school grounds. This was the same thing that the Conquistadores did to the indigenous population, it did not let them be who they were because they were considered human enough, but subhuman. Is this the message that the kids are getting from these principles and teachers in the schools? Is this what educational administration programs are producing, Mexican American Tlaxcalans, people who get educated by the colonizer to control the natives, who can’t think for themselves because they’re afraid of the “master”?

Maestro David Roman also related to us that the complex civilizations of the Aztecs and the Mayans included trade, commerce, language, religion and culture. It was a well developed civilization that had contact with the outside world. In Hernan Cortez’ castle which we went to visit later that day there were several theories proposed about new world civilization’s contact with Asia, Africa, as well as with other civilizations. They had contact with North American Indians as well as with the Incan societies far away to the south. How do we know? Well, there were well worn paths in both directions. Modern days roads and railroads were built along these same paths. Also, everyone ate corn. Corn was domesticated more than 10,000 years ago in the highlands of central Mexico. We are the people of the corn. Its in our genes. The ethnobotonist David Smith, MD, stated a few years ago that some psychiatric medications given to Mexican origin patients had to be given in higher or lower dosages because of the corn. Now Monsanto and Dow want to own this corn by modifying its genetics in order to control its production and require the use of chemicals to make it grow. We don’t need that, corn is already so diverse that it grows anywhere. If corn was traded, so where ideas, and sacred symbols, which are also commonly found from north America to South America; the cosmovision of the universe, the sacred circle, cycles based on the observation of the universe, the stars, the planets; the cycles of the seasons, as well as the cycles of life.

After the lecture and discussion we went to Hernan Cortez’ castle right next to the zocolo, the public plaza. It looked out of place. It was a high rise two or three stories high above the plaza and a small Mercado next to it. It had high towers on each corner. All it need was draw-bridges to fit the stereotype of a typical castles. It was conspicuous consumption sort of like SUV Hummers on a typical street. It was great how they converted the castle into a museum. Not too great was finding out that it was built on top of a pre-Hispanic structure. There was a sweat house within the castle walling it off from access to the public. Cortez did not want to share. He wanted it exclusively for himself apparently. The rooms had artifacts from pre-Columbian times, statues, stelea, and even the hoop from one of the rubber ball game courts. I also saw an interesting display of witchcraft dolls with pins in them. Apparently someone in the Cortez household practiced the craft. In other rooms were remnants from other time periods such as the Colonial period when Indians were exploited for the labor under the guise of christianizing. The religion of the Conquerors worked hand in hand with the domination, the pragmatic supremacy, based on the belief that eh Indians were inferior, subhuman, while he Europeans saw themselves as greater than. Ironically there were a whole set of murals by Diego Rivera depicting the above mentioned facts.

Bonfil Batalla (1996) depicts it as the genocidal annihilation of the population from 25 million people in 1518 to 3 million in 1519 to 70,000 in the middle of the next century. True, much of it was due to disease carried by the unsanitary Europeans and spread to the Indians who were not immune to their disease because they were used to a much more cleaner society. But the use of violence was also a significant factor. That’s how the Europeans operated, by violence, based on the notion of superiority and supremacy, entitlement. Do we teach this to the kids? Most Mexican American kids do not get this until they are in college, if they go to college. In the public schools it is not considered significant. The absence of knowledge based on the conscious decision not to provide it is a another form of violence. It is psychic violence. And it creates correspondingly in the minds of white children, white Americans, a sense of supremacy, and not responsibility, by virtue of ignorance. It goes hand in hand with the continued state of affairs in education, significant non engagement with the children and with their parents.

The truth is that no one person or group or country or culture is superior to the other; everyone has different talents, something to offer. We all contribute something to the whole; it’s a complementary process. Not an I’m better than thou; thou is not better than I; we’re brothers and sisters and we need to ally ourselves against the people of the Hummer complex mentality.

jg

Cuernavaca conquistador

Group in museum

Yesterday, we learned about the conquistadors who conquered the people of Mexico. And, then we toured the museum that used to be the palace of Cortes which was built in 1500. It was amazing to see the building and the artifacts that have survived many years. It was also interesting to see artifacts representing the native people who were conquered and enslaved by the person whose building is now housing these artifacts.

museum artifact

We went to have coffee after the visit to the museum. In the previous day, we had coffee on the plaza and we experienced many street vendors who came up to us asking to purchase things. However, we had coffee across the street from the plaza and had a different experience. The coffee shop, ice cream shop and smoothie shop catered to a different group of people. We found that these shops were more trendy and it was overall, a younger crowd who walked buy. When the street vendors, most younger than 12 years old, would come along, the owners would ask them to leave the area. It is an interesting contrast of cultures. We learn more about the culture and history every day, in addition to the language.

Notes from Day 1 from Clair

Day 1:Introductions from David on the terrace.

Thoughts:

• Lilith – erroneous assumptions of the parent child relationship
• Daniel – immigrants without English regardless of level of education
• Juan – everyone has multiple skills…expectations of immigrants…not to make a profit …very different from the capitalistic view of many immigrants as profit driven

To be rich is not to suffer but to prosper

Collective spirit (espirito collectivo)…fiestas…ways of sharing rather than just collecting and saving money – las fiestas Mexicanas

Embedded in public spaces is the economy….everybody comes and sells their wares…different activities in other corners/spaces.

Major themes:

Disconnection from roots

Incorporating spirituality

Life transitions

Online communication for building connections

‘Culture cures but that’s not crazy” (J. Garcia, 2008)

Building professional vocabulary

Traditional dancing – bailes tradicionales; bailes comerciales

Loss of voice (voz)

Dancing

Peace of the culture…begging forgiveness .

Estela – CICEL – children are our #1 teachers

David – teaching language from Mayan aspect

Classes at the historical sites

Mercado (July 13)– cultivation of traditional/native crops and trading in context of economic contribution and distribution (ex. corn – native) – Walmart – impact on family business…. Act of Congress and Monsanto (wants to own native corn)

Copal – aromatherapy

Las Grutas – 13 aires – people go there as well as other hills to pray for rain

Afternoon session

Cuernavaca (Cuarnanhuaca…not just for Aztecs but for others beyond Cuernavaca

The Spanish crown (Cortes etc.) was in this town

King of Aztecs

1810 –conquistadores expelled the crown…struggle continued to 1824…Cuernanvaca and ??? played important role in defending Mexico from Spain

1910 – Mexican revolution against slavery…Zapatas…land confiscation…(Mexico Profundo and Viva La Zapata)…haciendas confiscated…Zapatistas destroyed the hacienda and went back to their land…wanted to share with everybody)

Caveza de vaca – movie about Spanish explorer

Cuernavaca – industry city

Economy built on oil, income from los mojados and then tourism

500 languages before conquistadores…now 55 languages

De-Indianization by Mexican government

Women in the countryside are very organized…they have chosen the struggle instead of jumping on the Western bandwagon