Día de San Juan Chamula

The community of San Juan Chamula is a very religious community, with a blend of catholicism and their traditional beliefs, that is fighting tooth and nail to hold on to its identity and traditions. It is from this community that the residents of Damasco were either expulsed for religious intolerance or moved away to find cheaper land to till. One of the main ways in which Chamula preserves its traditions and identities is through its religious celebrations, which coincide with important harvest dates in the Mayan calander, and Andrea and I got the chance to experience one of these festivals last sunday, the fiesta of San Juan.

We learned about this festival while reading the book titled ¨Juan Pérez Jolote¨ (¨Juan the Chamula¨ en inglés). The book is a biography (who knows if its true) that follows the life of a man growing up in the municipality of San Juan Chamula in the early 20th century. In a part of the book, Juan becomes the ´fiscal´ for the community, who is the person in charge of announcing the correct days of the fiestas, because he is able to read. The previous fiscal had gotten the day wrong for the fiesta of San Juan (June 24), and instead they celebrated it on the 23rd. As a result of this, they threw him in jail! This caught our attention and we decided it would be a shame to miss it while we were in Chiapas.

The fiesta of San Juan occurs on June 24 every year and is celebrating San Juan Bautista (John the Baptist), who is the patron saint of San Juan Chamula. The community of San Juan Chamula is located about 20 minutes northwest of San Cristóbal, and consists of 3 different barrios (San Juan, San Pedro, and San Sebastian). It is mostly farmland in which people grow corn and beans and raise sheep, however it is becoming grossly overpopulated. As people have 8, 10 , or 12 kids, they will divide up their property equally among them so that now, there is hardly enough land to grow subsistance farming...let alone make any sortof income, which is a necessity as the western world slowly encroaches on their life. As a result, many will move away, or go to work on large coffee plantations on the coast (or as I´ve mentioned earlier, los Estados Unidos). The leaders of Chamula have taken very strict measures to preserve its identity as well as maintain control. Mestizos are not allowed to own any land in the municipality of Chamula, nor are they allowed to spend the night there unless they get consent from leaders. Chamula has their own police force and laws, which are completely independent from Mexican laws. The leaders also have control over the sell of pox (pronounced ´posh´), a cane based liquor considered to cleanse the soul, as well as Coke and Pepsi, which have taken on a sortof mystical cleansing aspect as well. As I have mentioned earlier, Chamula leaders do not allow any political parties other than the PRI nor any religions other than Catholicism. This is in part to preserve the power that they currently have through the church, but also to prevent the destruction of their traditions, as has occurred in many indigenous communities throughout the country.

When Andrea and I arrived at the fiesta, there were thousands and thousands of people there. Most of them were wearing their traditional dress: for women, it is the same colorful silk fabric they wear all the time as well as a black woolen dress, and for men, a woolen chamarro that fits over the shoulders and goes down to the knees, tied on with a belt as well as a straw sombrero. The church bell was constantly ringing and fireworks were continuosly going off in the plaza in front of the church. We squeezed our way to go take a look at where the fireworks were going off, getting plenty of strange looks coming our way (but it wasn´t like we were the only gringo tourists in attendance). There was a band of musicians wearing red chamarros and wearing hats that I have heard were made out of monkey skin. The large doors to the church were wide open, which are only opened during festival days, and it is usually very dark within the church. There was a parade going around the plaza with a few manikin dolls and and some flags (we would soon find out the importance of these figures). I had been told not to take any pictures within the church, but that it was okay to take pictures outside the church. So, working on this assumpion, it is only natural to take a picture of a parade that is walking right in front of you. After I took the picture, a man next to me told me that I wasn´t allowed to take that picture, so I said I was sorry and put my camera away in my backpack. Then the guy signals to someone standing on a podium, who starts pointing at me...and soon I find myself surrounded by 5 large men in the white chamarros who were in possession of fairly large sticks. These were the Chamula police I assume, and the main one was explaining that I had to delete the pictures I just took, while the other ones were whispering disparaging remarks about gringos under their breath. The main one was explaining that the flags and the manikins were religious images (probably of San Juan) and that it is prohibited to take any pictures of them. So he went through my camera and we deleted every picture that had the images in it. He was actually surprisingly nice about it...it could have turned out much much worse. I´ve heard stories of many a tourist that have wound up in a Chamula jail for taking pictures inside the church. Chamula is very serious and protective about their religion, which is probably one of the most iconographic and symbolic religions that I have witnessed. He said that pictures outside the church and of the mercado were fine, but that the images were off limits. Needless to say, I left my camera in my backpack for the rest of the day. We left before it got too late in the afternoon, because we heard that the drinking gets heavier and more violent the later in the day it gets.

It´s impressive that the community of San Juan Chamula has been able to preserve their culture and traditions through all these years while other communities have lost them or are beginning to lose them. The downside is that they have preserved these traditions through violence and intolerance, such as the burning of protestant temples and the murdering of other indegenous people who have converted to protestantism. Although the protestant and muslim missionaries do nothing but divide the indigenous communities, Chamula responds with religous intolerance that seems unjustified. I´m glad that we got to experience a religious festival of San Juan Chamula, it provides us with a greater understanding of where the people of Damasco came from and why they left. I would definitely like to visit Chamula again after reading more about it.

To read more about Chamula, here are a few articles about the religous beliefs, political structure, and expulsions:

Chickens in Church
Cola Wars in Mexico
Evangelicals and Catholics in Chiapas

Lek oy...ja jech

We began construction Tuesday, and it is going pretty well so far. We´ve laid the 3 firmes and almost completed all the cámaras out of cinderblock. Tuesday was actually the first day since we´ve been in Chiapas that is hasn´t rained! Maybe that´s a good sign (many people in Mexico are very superstitious...why not join in?).

The three people we are constructing the dry toilets for are Salvador II, María, and Domingo II (I am calling them II, not because that was their father´s name...but just because I am trying to avoid confusion with the previous Salvador and Domingo that I have mentioned). They live up on the top of the hill, in what I believe is the northern border of Damasco, and have a wonderful view of the town center below. The family plots of land are covered in peach trees, and all the kids will get long sticks and knock down the fruit and come sit and watch the construction. It seems like some of the kids are predisposed to smiling, while others I haven´t seen smile once...they just kindof sit there with a blank stare on their face. I can only really talk with the ones who are old enough to attend school, because the young ones haven´t learned any Spanish yet. One particularly mischevious one saw that we were taking all the organic matter out of the sand for the concrete, so he went and got a handful of leaves and started throwing tiny pieces in to see if we were watching. Other frequent vistors to the construction site are the chickens. Both the families of Salvador II and María are raising chickens to eat, and we´ve had several instances where the chickens flew the coop and the family had to have an emergency rescue mission. They would all surround the chicken, with arms extended, and converge in and grab the chicken. I imagine that raising chickens like that is about the equivalent of having a bank account with wings.

For the construction, we hired an albañil from the neighboring community of Belén, because we want to have a local worker so that the technical knowledge of how to build the toilets stays within the community. The one problem I found out about hiring a local worker is that when he is talking with the family members, he only speaks in Tzotzil, since that is both of their first language. I end up feeling left out of the conversations and decisions most of the time, but it is better that the families participate in the decision making.

One thing I´ve noticed is that the American Dream is something very real in the community of the Damasco. It has come up in conversations with multiple people in community. It might just be because we are from the United States and is something in common we have, but everyone seems to have dreams of that perfect job in the U.S. Today, I ended up teaching the albañil and the family of Domingo II a course in English. Many of the questions were things like ¨How do you say ´I am looking for work´ or ´Do you have any work?´in English¨ The son of Domingo II had actually lived in Virginia and Florida for 7 months, but he said that he wasn´t able to learn any English while he was there.

The other son of Domingo II is mute, and Domingo II said that he has two other daughters that can´t talk either. I was wondering if this might be genetic, but I heard later that many indigenous people become mute because they are born without the proper medical care and when they are born, they have phlegm in their throat that causes muteness if it isn´t treated correctly.

For the project, we are still in the process of deciding on the level of participation that we can expect in this project. I think that community participation is out as far as deciding who will receive toilets this summer, but we still have participation on the family level. As of now, I sortof see that we have 3 directions the project is going in terms of family participation:

The original intent of the level of family participation for this project was that each family contribute sand, gravel, and water, as well as contribute mano de obra (i.e. labor). The first person to receive a toilet, Salvador I, is a shining example of this level of participation. As I explained earlier, he´s put in all the materials and done all the work that we have asked from him with a surprising enthusiasm. He is even putting in the mano de obra for the toilet of María, the single mother next door...since she can´t do the heavy lifting (although she has provided us with some delicious cokes).

However, we have had some difficulties with his other neighbor, Domingo II, which is taking another direction of participation. To begin with, he doesn´t speak spanish, is somewhat deaf, and is, as Salvador II described it, ¨mal de cabeza¨ which I guess I would translate as mildly retarded. He came back to us two weeks ago and said that he couldn´t afford to pay for the sand and gravel and didn´t want a toilet because he couldn´t take off work for the mano de obra. This was against our rules for participation...because without an investment in the toilet, the chance of it being properly maintained is slim to none. But Salvador II was telling us afterwards that Domingo II changes his mind a lot, and will say one day he doesn´t want something and will say he does want it the next. The mano de obra part is unnegotiable, but we felt like there should be some leniancy regarding the mentally handicapped as well as those unable to afford sand and gravel. So we came to him last week and said that we could pay for sand and gravel, but that he would still have to contribute mano de obra. This time he said that he would agree to do the mano de obra, so we are now contructing a toilet for him now. This isn´t really a direction we wanted to take in terms of participation, but I think this should turn out fine as long as he keeps his word to contribute the mano de obra...I personally wasn´t wanting to give up on someone just because he is mentally handicapped or too poor to participate.

The third direction we have towards participation is Juan, who approached us and asked us to build him a toilet, saying that he would contribute lumber and blocks in addition to the sand, gravel, and water. Now this is even more of a degree of participation than just sand and gravel...and I think that he would definitely maintain and use his dry toilet correctly. If we took this route for more toilets, there would be more of sense of pride in the toilet and more use (and not to mention saving the meager funding that we have). My only problem if we took this approach, and this approach alone, would be that we would leave all the Domingo II´s in the community behind, only building for those that can afford some of the materials. Its so hard dealing with poverty like this. I know that handouts aren´t going to fix the problem...building Domingo II a toilet for free isn´t going to miraculously bring him out from being the poorest of the poor, nor is it going to change his way of thinking or living(except for being less sick). However, just ignoring him and focusing on those that can afford it doesn´t seem like a solution either. I guess at this point, I would like to see this project take on a combination of these approaches for participation.

El Censo

As we approach the expected day to start construction, Tuesday, I just can´t help but feel like we are forgetting something important. I guess we´ll just find out what that is on Tuesday...

Andrea and I were working on a census of the population of Damasco today. The purpose of the census is to have a better idea of how many people are in need of a dry sanitation toilet as well as help with the creation of a new lottery, if we continue with the lottery route for the remainder of the toilets. Salvador, the agente municipal, helped us with the necessary translation, as my Tzotzil ability wouldn´t have gotten us very far. But I do think, after today, I´ve got down all the one-word greetings and salutations (i.e. hello, how are you, thank you, goodbye...not exactly a deep conversation). We ran into Salvador at the primary school, I think he was probably handling some business there as the agente municipal. The teacher of the school is from Teopisca, the nearby city, and spoke spanish, which I think is the language they use to teach kids in the school. We arrived there during the physical education period, which consisted of the children walking around the basketball court with the teacher yelling ¨1-2-1-2...etc.¨ I can think of a few more interesting sports than walking in a circle. More than half of the students at the school were boys, but I would say that there were a lot of girls in the class as well....which is promising that they are getting an education. I´m not sure how many of the students will progress to secondary school, I´m not even sure where the closest secondary school is. I think, however, that most of the kids have to start working after they finish with primary school. While we were standing there waiting for Salvador, one of the boys in class yelled out my name...I don´t have a clue how he could have remembered it! I said hi and asked him what his name was... but I can´t believe that I already forget it (possibly Victor?).

The census basically consisted in going to each house and asking the names of everyone that lives there. Most of the men work in the fields during the day, so we were mostly talking with the women today. The women have to stay home and watch after the young kids and cook all day. The ones with young babies carry them on their shoulders all day in these pouch type sashes. In San Cristóbal, I see a lot of women from nearby communities selling the different things they've woven, but I don't know how many women in Damasco weave...so far I only seen one person in the community weaving. They do have a lot of women running stores that sell coke...there is no shortage of refrescos in Damasco! Most of the houses in Damasco consist of two buildings, the building where everyone sleeps and the kitchen and stove building. They are typically made of pine wood from the nearby forest, but a few of them are built with cinderblock. The building for where people sleep typically has a roof made with láminas (corrugated steel), while the kitchen typically has a tar paper roof which you can see the smoke eminating from when they are cooking. The women and young children stay inside the kitchen most of the day cooking, which can create a major health probelm due to all the exposure to particulate matter from the burning wood. Everyone was helpful with completing the survey. It was surprising that a few of them took a few minutes to remember the names of all the people in the house...but the women were definitely better at remembering the names than the few men we talked to. One household had 12 people living there! She just kept listing off name after name.

While we were walking around the community, Salvador took us through a short cut which was basically walking in the middle a muddy creek. It was hard to believe this man in his late 50´s/early 60´s taking us on a short cut that I would only expect from a 6th grader. It was kindof fun though (and we got the mud cleaned off our boots later when we got caught in the typical afternoon flood storm in San Cristóbal). After we completed the survey, Salvador invited us to his house for refrescos...mmm, I love real sugar coke. ¡Qué rico! He pulled out some little chairs for us to sit in. For some reason, everyone in Damasco seems to only have tiny dwarf size chairs. I guess they would take up less space than normal size chairs, but they make you feel like a giant sitting in them. Salvador has a house on the top of the hill, so you can see in all directions. We were talking about how, as the agente municipal, it's his job to settle disputes when people come up to him with their problems, but he said it isn't that much work to be the agente municipal. He was also talking about how he has three sons that came to Georgia to work for a chicken packaging plant. They really liked it there and had saved up enough money to buy their own houses close to Damasco. Salvador is a lot of fun to talk with, I don't really feel that cultural barrier between us that I normally feel when I'm talking with people in poor communities. There are still times that I will say something and he doesn´t have the slightest idea what I´m talking about...but I think those are inevitable.

So as long as things go to plan, we are going to empezar with construction on Martes.

A continuar...

This doesn´t have anything to do with the project, but I just had to mention it. Andrea and I got to go see a speech last night by ¨el presidente legitimo de México¨, Andrés Manuel López Obrador! For people that didn´t follow the election last year, Obrador was the leftist candidate in the election against the conservative PAN party Calderón, and he lost by a very small margin and has claimed that their was voting fraud in the election (I could have told you that there was voting fraud even before the election took place!). The speech was a very interesting experience, although I would have to say a little depressing...sortof like going to a Kerry rally in 2005.

Anyways, back to the project. Andrea and I are beginning to wonder how many people in the community are actually protestant expulsados and how many just moved to Damasco for cheaper land than in Chamula. We were talking with Domingo a few weeks ago, and he sortof mentioned that he was Catholic, but didn´t really care what church he went to, they were all the same to him. That sortof stunned us...thinking that this whole community was Protestant expulsados. And then, we were talking with Salvador, the agente municipal, who said that he just moved out here because it had cheaper land than in Chamula. We´re sortof curious how many moved here on account of religous intolerance. Salvador was also mentioning how if he was able to, he would like to go the United States for work. Its so weird coming from a place where that dishwashing job for minimum wage is a last resort to a place where people put their dreams on obtaining that $5 an hour job ( minimum wage in Mexico is somewhere around $4 a day I believe, and many campesinos basically just live off the maíz, frijol, and vegetables they grow in their terreno).

I think Andrea and I have pretty much come to the conclusion that we aren´t going to have a say in how the people to receive toilets are chosen. I think COPÍN is planning on having another sorteo (lottery) and put people in groups of 3 that live close to each other and draw these groups. This will take care of the problem of constructing toilets that are far apart from each other as well as find which houses don´t have people living in them. They are also going to build toilets for people that are willing to contribute some of the materials (such as wood and block). With this seperate clause, it just sortof feels like we are backing the strong horse in order to make the project more successful...especially given that we just denied someone a toilet today because he couldn´t afford the $10 for sand and gravel. Maybe it would be better to have the project where people contribute more than just sand and gravel...based on their income level. The whole thing just feels so inconsistent at this point though.

On the plus side, the first person we are going to be working with seems like he is really nice and fully committed to participating! He has a wife, 4 kids, and his I think his dad lives with him as well. He has been punctual and helped with everything we asked...including storing all the materials in the shell of a new house he was building (he never finished the house because he couldn´t afford to pay the albañil any more money). His family even invited me and Andrea to eat lunch with them the other day! I feel so bad when people invite us to eat their food, because they spend the whole day working in the field just to get their meager amount of food. Its so welcoming and generous that his family would be willing to share with us. He is even willing to put in the extra labor to build the toilet for his neighbor, who is a single mother after her husband ran out on her for somebody down the hill. He seemed a little perplexed when we decided not to build a toilet for his other neighbor, since the neighbor couldn´t afford the sand and gravel (I have to admit I was too). I am definitely glad that we are going to be providing a toilet for him and his family...they seem like great people!

In efforts to understand the background of Damasco...

In efforts to understand the background of Damasco, Robin and I reading a book called “Telling Maya Tales: Tzotzil Identities in Modern Mexico” written by an anthropologist, Gary Gossen, associated with the “Harvard Chiapas Project” from the 1960s-90s. It focuses on San Juan Chamula, but it also discusses the diaspora of expelled communities like Damasco. As Mr. Gossen describes his first encounters with the people of Chamula, he relates that he began to be more accepted within the community once their three worst initial fears were dispelled. They were as follows: that he was a Protestant missionary, Mexican government spy (looking for illegal liquor stills), or an engineer “seeking ways to change their community without their approval.” Their anxiety stemmed from a government project that built a radio tower on a sacred mountain where their animal soul companions and earth lords dwell. The earth lords are believed to have control over precipitation. A severe drought occurred the next year and was attributed to this sacrilege. This exemplifies the lasting effects of an imposed project, which I fear is the initial direction of this Chiapas project this summer.

The book has shed some light for me on their religious beliefs and how Christianity has been interwoven with their indigenous identities. They believe that everyone has an animal soul companion, which is one of the following a jaguar, coyote, fox, or a weasel. They do not know which animal is their soul companion, but if their animal soul companion dies then they will die three days later. The strength of the animals corresponds to disparities in social standing and longevity. For example, the first people had to be strong to survive so their animal soul companions were the jaguar and the coyote.

I have also wondered how the proud indigenous peoples reconcile praying to images of whites or ladinos such as Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and John the Baptist (or San Juan for whom Chamula is named). According to a simplification from the book, they believe that the first people created were Ladinos, but they were immoral and even ate babies – (this is more of a creation myth than literal truth). Then God created the Indians as the second, more moral, and true people. The earth lords were created first with the Ladinos, which is why they look like them. For example, Jesus is Our Father the Sun Lord, and Mary is Our Mother the Moon Lord.

While this book might be true of Chamula, I am eager to discover if some of these beliefs are held in Damasco especially since they were expelled for religious reasons. Heriberto, our host father, has explained to Robin and I that the leaders of Chamula use religion as a means of control to retain political power and economic prosperity. The converts to Protestantism often quit vices, mainly drinking, which hurt the economy and differentiated them in a homogenous community. Chamula has also been able to retain its “Indianness” from these subsequent expulsions.

Damasco...Empezamos

In the midst of Tormenta Tropical Bárbara, we had our first meeting with the community of Damasco today. Damasco is located to the southeast of San Cristóbal and is one of a series of communities along the southbound carretera(highway) of people expulsed from the Chamula communities, which are located to the north of San Cristóbal. The people living in the municipio of San Juan Chamula are indigenous Tzotzils with a very stringent form of Catholocism. So much so that when other Tzotzils in the community convert to Protestantism (or even Islam, as a few communities have), they will burn their temples, cut off their water and electricity, disallow kids from attending school, and even kill people. I still don´t understand what has caused such religious intolerance, especially since these are both western religions brought in by foreigners.

On the drive out there, as you are passing through the pine forest, all of a sudden there is a military post, which apparently, is a location where Marcos´ Zapatista troops had a battle with the Mexican national guard. Its a very strange feeling thinking that this land had a battle only 13 years ago, after visiting battlefields in the U.S. which happened at least a century ago. After the pine forest begins the series of expulsed communities, each named after biblical names of places (Damasco being the Spanish version of Damascus). The carretera is sortof in a valley, with small cornfields on both sides, along with a numerous amount of sheep tied to trees. There are many people walking around, carrying heavy objects, such as firewood or water, with harnesses attached to their heads (it hurts my neck just thinking about it). The women all wear bright colored clothes of a silk-like fabric and carry their kids in satchels around their shoulders. Everyone either wears rain boots or sandals...and standing in an afternoon shower there will tell you why. Despite the fact that it is summer, its actually pretty cold there when its raining (or ´hoy sic´as they would say in Tzotzil).

Domingo, one of the people who received a toilet two years ago, has been a great help with our organizing so far. His involvement and enthusiasm has definitely brougt an air of legitimacy to us as we are walking through the community (not to mention the necessary translation). Salvador, the municipal president, looks like he will also be a great help to us (everyone in the community is named Domingo, Salvador, or Manuel...it gets a little confusing!). Today we decided on the first 3 people to receive toilets this summer (hopefully we will be doing more than 3). We didn´t follow the lottery list that was chosen when Amanda and Marié were here 2 years ago. Instead, we chose people that live next to each other(for ease of construction) and actually had an interest in receiving a new toilet. This wasn´t exactly our (Andrea and I´s) choice, but we aren´t really the ones in charge of the project. We were concerned that by not following the initial list, we might perhaps loose the trust of the communtiy...since we are just sortof picking who we think needs a toilet the most, which could possibly cause tensions in the community. The previous way with the lottery had problems in which some people didn´t live in the houses or contribute labor, but this new way could possibly cause different problems. Both Domingo and Salvador seemed to think there wouldn´t be a problem with not choosing people through the lottery, so I guess we´ll just have to see. But still, the community wasn´t involved in the selection of who receives the 3 toilets, which only enforces the feeling that this a project of COPÍN and not a project of Damasco.

We then headed over to the meeting where we were going to announce that Andrea and I will be in the community. Every Saturday at 4 pm Tiempo de Dios (they have their own time zone seperate from the rest of Chiapas i.e. Tiempo de Gobierno), the residents of Damasco will have a meeting called ¨Usos y Costumbres¨ in which they organize the community as well carry out their own penal code. The head of the municipio, Salvador, actually legally has more power than the leader of the Usos y Costumbres, but the leader of Usos y Costumbres has sortof usurped the power of Salvador so that everyone respects him more than Salvador. As we drove up, there was a huge argument going on with about 20 men in the street yelling, while women and children sortof stood to the sidelines watching. We were a little uncomfortable at this point (by ´a litte´ I mean ´extremely´!!!) and just sortof of stood in the middle of the street hoping they didn´t start focusing their attention on us. We found out later that this was actually part of the meeting. They were enforcing their community laws, and a man had hit his wife while he was drunk and they were deciding on a punishment for him. The punishment ended up being 1 night in the community jail (located under the school basketball court) and a fine of $500 pesos. All the discussion was in Tzotzil, so we didn´t find out what was going until until Domingo gave us a recap. After they passed the sentence, they invited us over to make our announcment. Alex and her husband did most of the talking (my public speaking is bad in english, let alone spanish), and they introduced us and what we will be doing this summer. It was all men and boys in the circle, as the women stood over to the side and didn´t talk at all. Most of the men are able to speak in Spanish, but they feel more comfortable talking in Tzotzil. Overall, I felt that the reaction was very good from the people at the meeting. Most seemed very interested in it, although I noticed one person that seemed displeased, but I have no idea what he was saying because no one was translating it for us.

We´ve asked that the three people to receive toilets contribute sand, gravel, water and labor for the project and we plan to start construction about a week and a half from now. I feel like at this moment that we have unnecessarily rushed things and didn´t have the full community involved in the decision process of who receives the toilets. We´ve taken a step in what I feel is the wrong direction (not involving the community), but we can´t exactly backtrack right now after we announced the 3 to receive toilets. I hope that if we are able to construct more than 3 toilets this summer, we can come up with a consensus about the importance of involving the community in the whole process. Even if we don´t involve them more, the process should at least be transparent to them (which as of now, it is not).