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Jenka's Journal #6 from Chiapas
If you have audio on your computer, check out this audio piece I made about the forced removals in montes azules:
radio.indymedia.org/front.php3
the mexican government seems to be laying off a bit on the forced removals after the massive zapatista march that just happened....... read on......
radio.indymedia.org/front.php3
the mexican government seems to be laying off a bit on the forced removals after the massive zapatista march that just happened....... read on......
1/2/03
san cristobal, chiapas, mexico
wow. what an amazing day. we spent new year’s eve out in one of the zapatista communities, and then in the morning on january 1, thousands and thousands of people came into the community, put on ski masks and loaded onto trucks to head into the city of san cristobal. there, four other
contingents met up with them and formed a march of about 20,000 people wearing ski masks, carrying machetes, and shouting about neo-liberalism and the racist mexican
government. the presence was so strong and empowering....at the end huge bonfires were lit in the central square of the city.
I am so impressed with the quiet, determined way that these traditional indigenous people are standing up to not only their government, but the most powerful forces in the world right now – the global corporate conglomerates that desire this area in order to exploit it for profit. they’re
organizing conferences – women’s conferences, youth conferences, international conferences on human rights, local conferences to plan and organize......all of this connecting of organizations and people is happening, and it’s really amazing to watch the process, and sometimes be a small part of it.
no words I write can describe the feeling of that flow of masked, traditionally dressed Mayan Indians as they poured into the city of San Cristobal.....the police seemed to vanish that morning when the Zapatistas showed up. I saw one cop car, it pulled up to about two blocks from where the march was assembling.
soon after it arrived, a group of about ten young zapatistas ran over there and had some words with the cop. they looked menacing, running over there with their machetes and ski masks, and the cop got back into his car. but the exchange was completely civil – I even saw a handshake or two! moments later, the cop car pulled away in the other direction.
as the march entered the center of the city, graffiti began appearing on buildings they passed, supporting their demands, and lampposts were torn down as the march went by. the center square, known as the zocalo, was surrounded on all sides by the trucks and buses that had brought the marchers, effectively shutting down the center of the city to all traffic. an interesting thing I saw happen was when the march was approaching the center, a little girl ran over to her mother, who was one of those merchants selling zapatista dolls in the town square, and said frantically ‘they’re coming! they’re almost here!’, and she and her mother began scooping up the dolls into a bag and putting them away before the zapatistas saw them selling the dolls. it was interesting to me to watch this little incident because I am aware of the tension between the merchants who leech off the tourist trade, and the zapatistas, who are trying to live autonomously on the
land. many of the people who sell the little trinkets have bought into the government’s anti-zapatista propaganda, and only sell the little dolls that represent zapatistas because they know tourists want to buy them. in truth, they
would sell whatever gimmick the tourists might go for. but the zapatistas themselves are not about gimmicks, they are serious, genuine, and sincere – you can see it in their faces, hear it in their voices – they are not about to fall for the government’s latest lie. and so it was interesting to watch this tension play out with the woman in the square who was scared the zapatistas would see her selling the dolls that were supposedly replicas of themselves. and another woman who ran around before the zapatistas arrived telling all the merchants to pack up ‘for their own safety’. in reality, the most they would have suffered at the hands of the zapatistas would have been a lecture on the evils of the tourist trade. but in fact, they were genuinely afraid of their fellow indigenous people who had joined the zapatista movement for dignity and autonomy instead of succumbing to the westernizing influence.
here is a link to an article that describes the march and has links to pictures:
chiapas.indymedia.org/display.php3
audio piece I made about the zapatista march:
radio.indymedia.org/front.php3
speeches by the commandancia:
chiapas.indymedia.org/display.php3
1/10/03
san salvador, el salvador
the struggle continues....I came south to El Salvador with my partner Luke for a week, and found a country that has been severely ravaged by the US-financed civil war in the eighties, by centuries of exploitation.......what a sad and
desperate situation these people are in! I arrived in sonsonate, a loud, dry, polluted city in the west of el salvador, and was welcomed by the father of a friend of ours back in the states. he’s the head of an indigenous
organization, but it’s really sad – the organization was so broken by the war, many of their leaders were killed......all that’s left really is HIM as a figurehead,
and all the people around him who look up to him and admire him. we went with him to visit a number of communities, and I felt the legacy of the patron-client system of government in the approach he had to the people in the communities, and in their response. not in him personally, I think he’s a great person and I think he is sincere, but just in the IDEA that we were there to bring the people
some small token, some charity, if they just signed up for whatever it is we were selling.
the patron-client system, a holdover from the colonial system of government, is one in which an elite holds power and maintains his wealth and position, but is able to stay in power despite his despotism because he gives out favors
to his friends and supporters, and he gives out just ENOUGH favors – services, jobs, to the poor and working class that he is able to keep that portion of the population placated and stave off dissent with sweet talk and small
concessions. Kind of like Marion Barry in DC – he gave out enough jobs and favors that he kept his position......for a while anyway. But in El Salvador it’s also VERY connected to the church, and their way of coming into these ravished
communities and making promises, and holding out hope of eternal salvation and a few little crumbs if the people just repeated their prayers.
In El Salvador the ARENA party has basically taken on the role of being the patron regime in government and maintained a clientele that keeps it in power. It’s been in power since 1990, when a peace accord was signed and a
ten-year civil war between the right wing – the elite, the powerful, the well-armed...(represented by ARENA, and supported by the US), and the left wing – the poor, the under-served, landless and dispossessed (represented by
the FMLN). The war was extraordinarily brutal, and the effect has been a virtual silencing of dissent. People are so afraid of being labelled as a communist – and this fear goes way back to the 1930s, when tens of thousands of
indigenous people were massacred because the government of that day decided that all indigenous people were communists, and all communists should be killed. so there is this incredible fear, and for a lot of people that has translated into turning away from traditional indigenous customs, and buying into western religion and culture. it’s so incredibly sad.
but we also saw some resistance – in san salvador a group of protesters took over the cathedral, which is basically the biggest building in town, and occupied it for a few days in protest of the ARENA party’s design to privatize
the health care system. Thousands of doctors and health workers have been on strike for four months, and the battle has been ongoing – this past November there were 200,000 people in the streets to protest the privatization plan. It was exciting to see the masked faces standing up in the bell tower of the cathedral, lots of banners hanging and people in the park cheering and chanting. especially
exciting considering the history they’re up against...the deadly price of dissent in this place. but they know it’s the death of their nation – to lose their public health care. People talk a lot about Cuba – not just here, but in
Mexico and Guatemala too – as a model for the way health care can be organized.
And we in the United States are so IGNORANT of it...it’s absolutely ridiculous the amount of whitewash the US has put over any information about Cuba. the only thing most americans know is that they’re communist over there. but how many americans know that every single cuban is entitled to free, unlimited health care? and that their system is highly advanced – they train doctors from all over the world, they’ve developed vaccines that even the US doesn’t have! to go to medical school in cuba you only need to qualify academically – it COSTS NOTHING (by the way there’s a program for minority youth in the US to go to Cuba for medical school – check out ). and after medical school, all doctors are required a residency of two years in their community to serve the people in general practice, before going into their specialty. and there’s a focus on nutrition, and preventative health care. and guess what – it works. the people are much healthier, the infant mortality rate is low, the life expectancy high – and ALL THIS while under a trade embargo imposed by the US. think of what they could achieve WITHOUT the trade embargo! hehhe....the US government would hate for its citizens to see THAT – a flowering, successful communist state right under their noses!! eeek!
anyway it was truly empowering to see el salvadoreans coming out and standing up for their right to health care – there were a number of ambulances and rescue workers at the protest, and even though they only held the cathedral for a few days, it was an empowering few days for all those el salvadoreans who remember the death squads, who remember the war, who are living in fear of reprisals.
here’s an audio piece luke and I made about the health care strike and cathedral takeover:
radio.indymedia.org/front.php3
and pictures luke took:
dc.indymedia.org/front.php3
note from luke – a little bit more info about this struggle:
El Salvador’s ruling right-wing party, “ARENA,” is attempting to privatize the nation’s health care system as part of it’s broader agenda to privatize public services and embrace economic development programs such as the recently announced “Central American Free Trade Agreement” or CAFTA.
Running counter to this agenda is the “FMLN” (the country’s
left-leaning political party), labor unions, and a range of other civil and grass roots organizations. Working with this broad coalition, the FMLN spearheaded the passage of Article 1024 through country’s national Legislative Assembly which would have outlawed the privatization of healthcare. However, the Article (titled the “State Guarantee of Health and Social Security”) was modified by
El Salvador’s right wing ARENA president, Francisco Flores – allowing, before signing it into law.
Also, check out this article on CAFTA (the Central American Free Trade Agreement), for which negotiations began on Jan. 8 in Washington, DC – a frightening step for the expansion of NAFTA to countries further south. Part of the US economic plan of creating an American ‘bloc’ that could compete economically with the European Union – but at the expense, of course, of the poor and indigenous people (not to mention the effect on the environment). The people protesting in El Salvador Jan. 8 were more than aware of the events going on in Washington, and consider it connected to the privatization plan of their president, and to the Plan Puebla Panama of Mexico’s President Vicente
Fox. confusing, I know, but we have to know this alphabet soup of agreements and institutions to explain what it is we are fighting against. ‘corporate-controlled globalization’ is the enemy, and these trade agreements are
the specifics.
Anyway, here’s the article on CAFTA:
www.cispes.org/english/Campaign_Against_CAFTA_FTAA/index.html
to describe my whole trip to el salvador would be an exhausting and daunting task, as I reach the end of my days here and prepare to head back to the states. so I am going to include luke’s journal as an attachment to this email
– he was in el salvador from dec. 15, and wrote quite a bit about his experiences.....
also, as promised, I am including the URGENT ACTION FROM THE
PASTORS FOR PEACE about getting the trucks of aid across the border.
If you have a minute, please make a phone call or send a fax, and help this aid get through! you can also view the urgent action at this web address:
chiapas.indymedia.org/display.php3
well, this is it! I’m coming home.
thanks.....for listening...for helping...for all the responses you all have given......
much love ..... til next time!
jenka
ps. just had to add this little footnote:
I am sending this final journal from a mall called ‘Tikal Futura’ in guatemala city. the mall was built, along with a disgustingly ostentatious and enormous mirror-windowed hotel by the Hyatt Regency. They had been forbidden to
build here because it was an archaeological site, and development on this site was forbidden. But the Hyatt Regency company decided to build here anyway, and paid the fine they were charged for building illegally. as I walked over here, on paved parking lots past familiar names like ‘dunkin donuts’, ‘subway’, ‘payless shoes’, ‘calvin klein’, ‘nike store’, I felt awash with shame at my species, at company executives who could destroy history to build a big hotel and make some money. I thought about what treasures of ancient civilizations lay broken and crushed beneath my feet, torn apart by bulldozers in the building of this temporal place of commerical investment – where sweatshop-produced products are sold at high prices so executives in their mansions can get more wealth. and it makes me wonder.....what’s under the pavement of all those malls and parking lots in the usa.....
san cristobal, chiapas, mexico
wow. what an amazing day. we spent new year’s eve out in one of the zapatista communities, and then in the morning on january 1, thousands and thousands of people came into the community, put on ski masks and loaded onto trucks to head into the city of san cristobal. there, four other
contingents met up with them and formed a march of about 20,000 people wearing ski masks, carrying machetes, and shouting about neo-liberalism and the racist mexican
government. the presence was so strong and empowering....at the end huge bonfires were lit in the central square of the city.
I am so impressed with the quiet, determined way that these traditional indigenous people are standing up to not only their government, but the most powerful forces in the world right now – the global corporate conglomerates that desire this area in order to exploit it for profit. they’re
organizing conferences – women’s conferences, youth conferences, international conferences on human rights, local conferences to plan and organize......all of this connecting of organizations and people is happening, and it’s really amazing to watch the process, and sometimes be a small part of it.
no words I write can describe the feeling of that flow of masked, traditionally dressed Mayan Indians as they poured into the city of San Cristobal.....the police seemed to vanish that morning when the Zapatistas showed up. I saw one cop car, it pulled up to about two blocks from where the march was assembling.
soon after it arrived, a group of about ten young zapatistas ran over there and had some words with the cop. they looked menacing, running over there with their machetes and ski masks, and the cop got back into his car. but the exchange was completely civil – I even saw a handshake or two! moments later, the cop car pulled away in the other direction.
as the march entered the center of the city, graffiti began appearing on buildings they passed, supporting their demands, and lampposts were torn down as the march went by. the center square, known as the zocalo, was surrounded on all sides by the trucks and buses that had brought the marchers, effectively shutting down the center of the city to all traffic. an interesting thing I saw happen was when the march was approaching the center, a little girl ran over to her mother, who was one of those merchants selling zapatista dolls in the town square, and said frantically ‘they’re coming! they’re almost here!’, and she and her mother began scooping up the dolls into a bag and putting them away before the zapatistas saw them selling the dolls. it was interesting to me to watch this little incident because I am aware of the tension between the merchants who leech off the tourist trade, and the zapatistas, who are trying to live autonomously on the
land. many of the people who sell the little trinkets have bought into the government’s anti-zapatista propaganda, and only sell the little dolls that represent zapatistas because they know tourists want to buy them. in truth, they
would sell whatever gimmick the tourists might go for. but the zapatistas themselves are not about gimmicks, they are serious, genuine, and sincere – you can see it in their faces, hear it in their voices – they are not about to fall for the government’s latest lie. and so it was interesting to watch this tension play out with the woman in the square who was scared the zapatistas would see her selling the dolls that were supposedly replicas of themselves. and another woman who ran around before the zapatistas arrived telling all the merchants to pack up ‘for their own safety’. in reality, the most they would have suffered at the hands of the zapatistas would have been a lecture on the evils of the tourist trade. but in fact, they were genuinely afraid of their fellow indigenous people who had joined the zapatista movement for dignity and autonomy instead of succumbing to the westernizing influence.
here is a link to an article that describes the march and has links to pictures:
chiapas.indymedia.org/display.php3
audio piece I made about the zapatista march:
radio.indymedia.org/front.php3
speeches by the commandancia:
chiapas.indymedia.org/display.php3
1/10/03
san salvador, el salvador
the struggle continues....I came south to El Salvador with my partner Luke for a week, and found a country that has been severely ravaged by the US-financed civil war in the eighties, by centuries of exploitation.......what a sad and
desperate situation these people are in! I arrived in sonsonate, a loud, dry, polluted city in the west of el salvador, and was welcomed by the father of a friend of ours back in the states. he’s the head of an indigenous
organization, but it’s really sad – the organization was so broken by the war, many of their leaders were killed......all that’s left really is HIM as a figurehead,
and all the people around him who look up to him and admire him. we went with him to visit a number of communities, and I felt the legacy of the patron-client system of government in the approach he had to the people in the communities, and in their response. not in him personally, I think he’s a great person and I think he is sincere, but just in the IDEA that we were there to bring the people
some small token, some charity, if they just signed up for whatever it is we were selling.
the patron-client system, a holdover from the colonial system of government, is one in which an elite holds power and maintains his wealth and position, but is able to stay in power despite his despotism because he gives out favors
to his friends and supporters, and he gives out just ENOUGH favors – services, jobs, to the poor and working class that he is able to keep that portion of the population placated and stave off dissent with sweet talk and small
concessions. Kind of like Marion Barry in DC – he gave out enough jobs and favors that he kept his position......for a while anyway. But in El Salvador it’s also VERY connected to the church, and their way of coming into these ravished
communities and making promises, and holding out hope of eternal salvation and a few little crumbs if the people just repeated their prayers.
In El Salvador the ARENA party has basically taken on the role of being the patron regime in government and maintained a clientele that keeps it in power. It’s been in power since 1990, when a peace accord was signed and a
ten-year civil war between the right wing – the elite, the powerful, the well-armed...(represented by ARENA, and supported by the US), and the left wing – the poor, the under-served, landless and dispossessed (represented by
the FMLN). The war was extraordinarily brutal, and the effect has been a virtual silencing of dissent. People are so afraid of being labelled as a communist – and this fear goes way back to the 1930s, when tens of thousands of
indigenous people were massacred because the government of that day decided that all indigenous people were communists, and all communists should be killed. so there is this incredible fear, and for a lot of people that has translated into turning away from traditional indigenous customs, and buying into western religion and culture. it’s so incredibly sad.
but we also saw some resistance – in san salvador a group of protesters took over the cathedral, which is basically the biggest building in town, and occupied it for a few days in protest of the ARENA party’s design to privatize
the health care system. Thousands of doctors and health workers have been on strike for four months, and the battle has been ongoing – this past November there were 200,000 people in the streets to protest the privatization plan. It was exciting to see the masked faces standing up in the bell tower of the cathedral, lots of banners hanging and people in the park cheering and chanting. especially
exciting considering the history they’re up against...the deadly price of dissent in this place. but they know it’s the death of their nation – to lose their public health care. People talk a lot about Cuba – not just here, but in
Mexico and Guatemala too – as a model for the way health care can be organized.
And we in the United States are so IGNORANT of it...it’s absolutely ridiculous the amount of whitewash the US has put over any information about Cuba. the only thing most americans know is that they’re communist over there. but how many americans know that every single cuban is entitled to free, unlimited health care? and that their system is highly advanced – they train doctors from all over the world, they’ve developed vaccines that even the US doesn’t have! to go to medical school in cuba you only need to qualify academically – it COSTS NOTHING (by the way there’s a program for minority youth in the US to go to Cuba for medical school – check out ). and after medical school, all doctors are required a residency of two years in their community to serve the people in general practice, before going into their specialty. and there’s a focus on nutrition, and preventative health care. and guess what – it works. the people are much healthier, the infant mortality rate is low, the life expectancy high – and ALL THIS while under a trade embargo imposed by the US. think of what they could achieve WITHOUT the trade embargo! hehhe....the US government would hate for its citizens to see THAT – a flowering, successful communist state right under their noses!! eeek!
anyway it was truly empowering to see el salvadoreans coming out and standing up for their right to health care – there were a number of ambulances and rescue workers at the protest, and even though they only held the cathedral for a few days, it was an empowering few days for all those el salvadoreans who remember the death squads, who remember the war, who are living in fear of reprisals.
here’s an audio piece luke and I made about the health care strike and cathedral takeover:
radio.indymedia.org/front.php3
and pictures luke took:
dc.indymedia.org/front.php3
note from luke – a little bit more info about this struggle:
El Salvador’s ruling right-wing party, “ARENA,” is attempting to privatize the nation’s health care system as part of it’s broader agenda to privatize public services and embrace economic development programs such as the recently announced “Central American Free Trade Agreement” or CAFTA.
Running counter to this agenda is the “FMLN” (the country’s
left-leaning political party), labor unions, and a range of other civil and grass roots organizations. Working with this broad coalition, the FMLN spearheaded the passage of Article 1024 through country’s national Legislative Assembly which would have outlawed the privatization of healthcare. However, the Article (titled the “State Guarantee of Health and Social Security”) was modified by
El Salvador’s right wing ARENA president, Francisco Flores – allowing, before signing it into law.
Also, check out this article on CAFTA (the Central American Free Trade Agreement), for which negotiations began on Jan. 8 in Washington, DC – a frightening step for the expansion of NAFTA to countries further south. Part of the US economic plan of creating an American ‘bloc’ that could compete economically with the European Union – but at the expense, of course, of the poor and indigenous people (not to mention the effect on the environment). The people protesting in El Salvador Jan. 8 were more than aware of the events going on in Washington, and consider it connected to the privatization plan of their president, and to the Plan Puebla Panama of Mexico’s President Vicente
Fox. confusing, I know, but we have to know this alphabet soup of agreements and institutions to explain what it is we are fighting against. ‘corporate-controlled globalization’ is the enemy, and these trade agreements are
the specifics.
Anyway, here’s the article on CAFTA:
www.cispes.org/english/Campaign_Against_CAFTA_FTAA/index.html
to describe my whole trip to el salvador would be an exhausting and daunting task, as I reach the end of my days here and prepare to head back to the states. so I am going to include luke’s journal as an attachment to this email
– he was in el salvador from dec. 15, and wrote quite a bit about his experiences.....
also, as promised, I am including the URGENT ACTION FROM THE
PASTORS FOR PEACE about getting the trucks of aid across the border.
If you have a minute, please make a phone call or send a fax, and help this aid get through! you can also view the urgent action at this web address:
chiapas.indymedia.org/display.php3
well, this is it! I’m coming home.
thanks.....for listening...for helping...for all the responses you all have given......
much love ..... til next time!
jenka
ps. just had to add this little footnote:
I am sending this final journal from a mall called ‘Tikal Futura’ in guatemala city. the mall was built, along with a disgustingly ostentatious and enormous mirror-windowed hotel by the Hyatt Regency. They had been forbidden to
build here because it was an archaeological site, and development on this site was forbidden. But the Hyatt Regency company decided to build here anyway, and paid the fine they were charged for building illegally. as I walked over here, on paved parking lots past familiar names like ‘dunkin donuts’, ‘subway’, ‘payless shoes’, ‘calvin klein’, ‘nike store’, I felt awash with shame at my species, at company executives who could destroy history to build a big hotel and make some money. I thought about what treasures of ancient civilizations lay broken and crushed beneath my feet, torn apart by bulldozers in the building of this temporal place of commerical investment – where sweatshop-produced products are sold at high prices so executives in their mansions can get more wealth. and it makes me wonder.....what’s under the pavement of all those malls and parking lots in the usa.....
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Luke's Journal from El Salvador #1
i was greeted at the airport by 7 members of Margarito's family, including chief Adrian Esquino Lisco and Ephraim, Margarito's 19 year old son. it was a moving, emotional moment for all of us. they are clearly deeply appreciative of having a visitor come down from the states to see fist-hand what their life is like and to participate in their ceremonies.
Adrian gathered us together in a circle right there in the airport and said a short blessing to welcome me to their country -- it felt very, very nice to hear his prayer, especially after the wonderful circle we had a my home the night before i left.
we drove over 2 hours to the city of sonsonate where ANIS has an office of sorts. the air pollution was almost unbearable! not only is the capital city choking under a brown fog of unregulated diesel and auto exhaust, all the roads are over crowded with buses and vehicles spewing thick clouds of black-gray-white-brown pollution. my lungs hurt, my nasal passages feel swollen and infected, my skin feels clogged with microscopic soot. i can't wait to reach the mountain village of san ramon, the cultural center for ANIS and the location where they hold their annual ceremony.
our first stop was the city of sonsonate (on the map at the link below it is located just west of Izaldo). the city is a crowded town like many others in central america and has been destroyed many times by earthquakes over the years. cars fly down the narrow streets, billowing white-gray-and-black fumes, barley missing the thousands of pedestrians. everyone is selling something -- from shoes to tomatoes to used car stereos, bootlegged cd's, food...
the ANIS office is located along a narrow, bustling street. the entrance is marked with a sign that reads, "Centro Clinico de ANIS." the inside is a humble open-to-the-sky narrow courtyard surrounded by a building destroyed in an earthquake about 1.5 years ago. everyone could see that i was dead tired, so they swept and mopped one of the rooms that is not being used, rolled out a mattress for me, covered it with a sheet, and i went in to take a "nap." i slept until 7:00 am the next morning, almost a full 12 hours!
they are taking NO chances with my safety and always have someone assigned to stand with me. i wanted to walk ONE block down the street from the ANIS office to use an internet cafe and i was escorted by Fredy (the ANIS secretary) and Ephraim (margarito's son). they sat right next to me while i typed my message. it is a mixed feeling -- on the one hand i appreciate the care and concern they are showing; on the other hand i feel very isolated from the general population of salvadorians.
on Fri, i was asked to sit and wait for about 4 hours before i could leave the ANIS office. it was nice to sit, practice my spanish, watch the chickens chase each other around... i was given some bread and coffee and shot some video of the people there to share with Margarito when i return.
i was taken into a meeting with don Adrian and a few other folks (including Margarito's brother, whose name i can't recall right now, and Fredy). the meeting was an effort by don Adrian to explain to me that they NEED OUR ONGOING FINANCIAL SUPPORT -- something that is quite clear, even before heading out to the villages.
these people have NO money -- at all. when i went walking with Ephraim and one of Margarito's young cousins, it was lunch time and i offered to buy them lunch in the central market of sonsonate. they were clearly amazed by this small gesture and it was clear that it was a very special occasion for them. i purchased three lunches for about $4 -- plates of rice, beans, salad, meat, and tortillas with jugos on the side.
during the meeting, i made it clear to don Adrian and the other's there that we do want to help support ANIS and it would be helpful to us if they could develop a long-term PLAN for what they want to do, what specifically they need money for, how much it costs... to explain what their priorities are. They said they have three priorities:
1- ANIS administration, which includes things like a computer, a photo copy machine, internet access, a fax machine, office supplies, and some money to pay staff.
2- Credit, which was a bit unclear to me. i didn't know if they wanted to pay off creditors, or they needed backing to receive loans for other projects they are trying to initiate. i'll have to clarify that one.
3- LAND. ultimately, the main thing they want to do is purchase land so they can support, in safety, their own people in cooperatives working off the land.
it was a good meeting, but only the first of several. my spanish skills are terrible and there is no one in their entire circle that speaks english. i'm using a spanish-english dictionary to help me along the way and ask for clarification when i need it.
so, i left sonsonate last night on a bus and returned here to the capital. the daughter of my dear friends the Rayners is here on a peace corps detail and, coincidentally, was also in the capital last night. so, i met up with her and a bunch of american ex-patriots living down here via peace corps. it was a real shock to me. while these kids are well meaning, americans are so terribly ugly -- not just the way we look, but the way we ACT. they were all sitting around drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, watching american basketball then the idiotic sit-com "Friends." they were all preparing to head out for the night, using hair blow-dryers, makeup, perfume... it made me sad. even though they are here working with rural el salvadorians, it turns out that they are promoting new agricultural crops and techniques that encourage the growth of tomatoes and green peppers that the villagers can then sell on the open market and get a higher monetary return than they do with their traditional corn crops. also, they are being taught how to use industrial fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides which the rural farmers do not have any experience with -- they do not follow the application instructions and wind up poisoning themselves, the soil, the rivers, the animals... it is a vicious cycle of industrialization-modernization-exploitation. the peace corps volunteers i met did not seem to have a political or economic analysis of the central american circumstance... they seemed more like the stereotypical frat boys and sorority girls.
anyway, i'm off to find my back pack at the airport and return to sonsonate.
Luke's Journal from El Salvador #2
Dec. 15 2002: "The Old Man" Back here in Sonsonate! I retrieved my back pack and got back to the city of Sonsonate at about 4:30 PM - don Adrian Esquino Lisco was sitting in the courtyard of the ANIS compound with his shirt off, waiting for me. I was told that there had been almost 100 people there to see me that morning, including the dance group that wants to plan a trip to the states in a couple of months. We immediately took off on a public bus for the town of Nahuizalco, about 1/2 hour drive up into the hills outside of the city. We stopped along the way to see a little artisan community and visited with an old man and his assistant who are weavers. I video taped his explanation of the weaving process and visited with him for about 1/2 hour before continuing on to Nahuizalco. Once there, Chief Esquino and I walked through a crowded market (it was still quite crowded, even though it was about 8:00 PM on a Sun night!). We had a thick, hot drink made from corn meal and milk, with a splash of hot sauce and about a dozen red beans added in just to make it more interesting. It was quite good, but I caused a real uproar when I said, "esta sopa es deliciosa!". They NEVER call this hot drink soup, so they' have been teasing me about it ever since. I met a woman who said her age was, "a few years past 100." It was a very lovely night...
I'm with don Adrian Esquino Lisco all day every day, and this is a truly wonderful honor! The old man is amazing. Wherever I go with him people treat him with total respect. People know him in every community we enter - he is very famous down here. In addition to shop keepers and the town's leading police officials, the average "man in the street" calls out to him or stops him as he passes by. In the eve. of 12-15, I walked with Mr. Esquino Lisco to his medicine woman at about 8:30 PM. A drunken voice from a man who looked to be in his late 30's called out to us from the shadows; "E'quino! E'quino! Bless me, Father!" The old man raised his hand in the direction of the voice without pausing and said, "amen." The voice called back, "gracias, padre... gracias..." Then, on our way home, a bus driver pushed open the window of his bus while driving by and shouted into the street, "Lisco!" We just continued walking - it's like that wherever we go.
It appears that ANIS was quite active in the reconstruction/reconciliation process in the early 1990's when the ANIS organization was able to mobilize over 10,000 votes in the Sonsonate region. Today, however, the political influence of the organization is almost non-existent and they are struggling to re-define themselves. As I talk to people around here, it is clear that they are all pinning the future of ANIS on Margarito. If he doesn't return to El Salvador, ANIS may cease to exist after don Adrian passes on.
Dec 16, 2002:
"Peace Corps Redux"
I'm happy to say that the folks down here don't view me as a gringo. while i do try and give credit when it is due, i hesitate to give a pass to these white peace corps kids too quickly. After all, the recent surge in applications for peace corps does not reflect a resurgent calling by American youth culture to learn about oppression and the root causes of poverty and environmental destruction. on the contrary, unemployment in the u.s. is continuing to grow and job opportunities for college graduates is not what they were in the 1990's -- that is the real cause for the surge in applications to join the peace corps.
let's face it, these kids on peace corps are serving u.s. foreign policy objectives and promoting models of development that favor the interests of multi-national corporations, NOT the people themselves.
today was an incredible day. i was sitting with chief Adrian Esquino Lisco with about 8 indigenous peasants. Adrian asked them to speak about what they felt they needed from the people of the u.s. two men spoke and said that they needed financial support to purchase chemical fertilizers to increase yields on their various crops so they could grow more food for export. then chief Esquino Lisco spoke for about 45 min. -- he directly contradicted these statements.
he said that the people needed to be working towards self sufficiency using organic methods of production that do not destroy "mother earth." he wanted to see indigenous communities trading goods with each other and not growing crops for export. he pointed to example after example of communities that have gotten caught up into the cycle of growing crops using chemicals, trying to maximize yields for export, only to find that their streams were so polluted they could no longer support fish, that the birds were disappearing, that the children were born with defects, that people were no longer living to old age but dying young with strange illnesses -- he was arguing for a balance with mother earth and community-to-community, cooperative models of development. this is a vision i share, and it is NOT what the peace corps is teaching.
another thing about the peace corps that i don't like is how it sets these young WHITE kids up to be teachers to these much wiser and experienced BROWN elders. these kids come in and are showered with affection and attention because of all the fetishization that is thrown upon whiteness (even the homes of the more traditional native people here have photos of walt Disney characters, white jesus, white angels, Brittany Spears... the works). i don't like the dynamics at all - the peace corps kids are not here to listen and learn and bring this wisdom back to the states so we can reform our ways -- they are here to teach these peasants how to be more like us and how to integrate into the "new world order."
i don't like it at all and i don't think we should simply smile, excuse our disgusting behavior as the excesses of youth, and praise these kids for wanting to do good. i think we can expect more and find ways to be better allies.
Structural Adjustment and Intergenerational Illiteracy -
Luke´s Missive #3
Margarito Esquino Lisco lives in Silver Spring, MD just outside of Washington DC. Margarito has been in the states for almost 10 years and has been active in many ceremonies held down at the Piscataway Indian Nation land (e.g., Tayac Territory) about an hour south of DC - including 9 years as a sundancer at the annual Tayac sundance. It is through Margarito that I came to learn a bit about the indigenous people of El Salvador, including the amazing life of his father, Chief Adrian Esquino Lisco, the spiritual leader of the Nahuatl, Lenca, and Mayan under the umbrella of a group called "ANIS" - the National Association of Indigenous Salvadorians. After striving to help Margarito in DC on various projects to support the ANIS organization, meeting don Adrian Esquino Lisco on his last visit the DC area last year, and following many invitations to participate in their annual inter-tribal gathering-ceremony, I thought it was time for me to travel down here and spend some time getting to know the life of these people on a first-hand basis.
What I have to report is a bit sad and, unfortunately, not very encouraging.
El Salvador is a text book case study in why the neo-liberal era economic policies promoted so vigorously by Bill Clinton/Tony Blair, international finance institutions, and some of the worlds largest corporate powerhouses are a TOTAL failure.
El Salvador is still trying to find some way to heal after the vicious civil war fueled by U.S. ideological paranoia against anything remotely "socialistic" or "communal" where we once again unnecessarily forced an escalation of a capitalist v. communist conflict where many other ideologies were at play and other options for social organization could have been pursued (including a little thing called democracy which seems to be something the world has totally lost sight of).
(please see
In the face of this lingering horror, the nation seems averse to all forms of political debate. There is virtually NO access to information about the status of the country's economy or what is going on regionally, let alone globally. The irony is that El Salvador is the poser child for why structural adjustment programs don' work and how the international financial markets promote the very forms of injustice that led to the brutal civil war here a few short years ago.
So, where to begin my story?
The annual ceremony is conducted by Chief Adrian Esquino Lisco atop a small hill in the tiny community of San Ramon in the Sonsonate district (the ANIS office is in the city of Sonsonate itself). San Ramon is within walking distance of the city of Sonsonate where the ANIS office is located - it is a long two hour walk along narrow roads where busses and old and beaten down pickup trucks fly past, spewing clouds of noxious fumes into the lungs of everyone and covering everything with a film of black poisonous dust. The road leads through a smaller city called San Antonio del Monte (where I am sitting at an internet café to write this short essay for $1 U.S. per hour). At the far end of San Antonio del Monte, the main road turns to the right, crosses a little cement bridge, then climbs about 1 mile straight up a steep hill. The concrete road is in fairly good shape, all things considered and if you can avoid the massive drainage troughs that cut across the road. It finally turns into a dirt road before reaching San Ramon, which is nothing but a series of houses on either side of the road behind dust-covered cactus and tall grass.
Here is the heart of the ANIS community. Beautiful families living as best they can.
Trash blows everywhere throughout this country, and San Ramon is no exception. Some of the men have shoes, but most of the people have simple plastic thongs repaired with twine. Most houses have access to running water near by and a few have electricity. Simple mud-brick houses with sheet metal roofs are the norm, but almost half are made of reeds with poorly constructed thatch roofs.
Here is where I met Margarito's family - his son's, daughters, wife, and mother. It was very emotional for all of us. They taught me a LOT about life here in El Salvador. They said that there sister was not there because she works in a Maquila - 7:00 am to 4:00 pm for $4.50 a day. She is the only person in their family who has a job and travels over 2 hours each way back and forth to her job. The rest of the family work land each day to grow food for themselves - mostly corn. The land they work used to "belong" to them - they held no title but didn't ever think they needed one. Then, during reconstruction following the civil war here, most land in the country fell into the hands of wealthy land lords who expanded their holdings, including land worked for generations by indigenous communities like those of Las Hojas and San Ramon. So now they are tenant farmers and indebted to wealthy land owners. (The community had a very tough time finding enough food for the annual ceremony, but they traveled far and wide to collect donations of chickens, a goat, some flower for tortillas...)
I found only one person in the entire community that could read and write in Spanish, Fredy, who serves at the ANIS secretary (4 years working for ANIS with NO pay - this volunteer position is his only job). Most of the families are supported by the women who work from "can't see in the morning until can't see at night." A great example of this is an amazing woman by the name of Elba who has worked with ANIS for about 30 years! She is always the first one awake in the morning at the ANIS office (where I've been sleeping) and has coffee and some form of bread ready when the rest of us get up. She keeps the entire office compound clean and is the only one who goes near the cooking area. She is also the ONLY person with a set of keys to the office compound! She is also the last one to go to bed a night - washing cloths by hand daily before heading to bed. I wanted to wash my socks and t-shirt but as soon as I started the process she made it clear that I was stepping into her territory - she actually took the socks out of my hands and said, "No." I don't mess with Elba... so that's that. She is simply amazing and will have a long interview on video with her about the role of women in the struggle when I return.
But this note is about structural adjustment.
No schools, no services, no spirit of community participation in political process. When I talked about the possibility of developing a local ordnance on traffic patterns in Sonsonate (it seems obvious to me that routing the busses and trucks along designated routs along the edge of the city instead of straight through the narrow and crowded center would cut down on traffic accidents and limit the impact from the pollution on the vast majority of people living in the city), they all agreed that it was a good idea but they had no say in such matters. They said, "the transportation ministry of the central government in San Salvador controls local municipal ordinances and they are corrupt, only concerned with the interests of the rich."
Margarito's family told me that they used to have a school in San Antonio del Monte, but under structural adjustment El Salvador privatized the school system and they now charge a fee which the poor cannot afford. The community of San Ramon tried, under the leadership of don Adrian Esquino Lisco and ANIS, to create a communal school system - not unlike the one operating in Chiapas MX
My next note will focus on the ceremony itself, which I'm afraid to say is not a happy story either. Chief Esquino-Lisco is always sick (this week it is a fever/head cold) and NO ONE ELSE IN THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY KNOWS HOW TO CONDUCT THE CEREMONIES! (Many people are saying that the future of ANIS will depend on Margarito returning to El Salvador to continue the work of his father - no one else seems ready to take on a leadership role...)
I've been given the honor of conducting the "Temescal" ceremony tomorrow, Friday Dec. 20, which is similar to the inipi / sweat lodge we do back home but in a much larger cement dome structure instead. The trouble is that we don't have enough wood to build a big enough fire to heat the rocks - wood is so scarce and is the sole source of fuel for cooking in rural El Salvador and a close second to propane in the smaller cities. I'll keep you all posted on how that goes... wish me luck...
Much love and peace to you all...
Further reading: