TAMAULA TRIP PRESENTATION

Mineral de Posos

Chichimeka dancers

Fundacion del Bajio site

Here is the web page to the Fundacion Communitario del Bajio (FCB) spicifically mentioning the projects in Tamaula. The FCB has many ongoing projects. Here is their mission

Mission

Fundación Comunitaria del Bajío works with communities in central Mexico
with limited access to critical services, infrastructure, and economic
opportunities.

Many of the men and women in these communities migrate to the United
States to support their loved ones. Migration is an emotional challenge
that separates families and threatens lives. Nearly all of those who
migrate dream to one day be able to return home permanently.

Our mission is to help emigrants and their families realize this dream
by generating local sources of employment, improving access to
education, and increasing quality of life. We accomplish this through
community organizing, advocacy, and grant-writing.

We first identify the unique challenges, needs, assets, and priorities
of each community through town meetings and comprehensive surveys. We
then locate and mobilize resources from universities, other non-profit
organizations, private donors, and all levels of government.

From building community centers, to nurturing cooperative
micro-enterprises, to coordinating high school programs, we work towards
the holistic development of communities to assure them a sustainable
future.

Michuacan

Pazcuaro

Artisan applying gold leaf to a hand carved wood statue

Artisan carving an arm for a gigantic Christ statue

Woman in a hat enjoying the nice day out

Josefina's Pigs

I went to go venture one day to see Josefina's pigs. So I went over to the pig's pen which is located close to the house and to my surprise the pigs were MONSTROUS! I could not believe the size of these animals. The pen next to the monsters had younger pigs. The issue having the pigs so close to the house is that they attract many flies and the kitchen needs to be kept extra clean if no flies are wanted on the table or on the prepared food.

Josephina raises her pigs and when she is in need of money, her daughters help her kill her pigs. She explained that they each hold the pig's legs and she kills the animal by inserting a knife through its heart. In fact Josefina owns a three wheel electric knife sharpener in order to keep knifes she uses to slaughter her pigs with well sharpened. When the knife is well sharpened the pig does not suffer as the deed is fastly executed. Josefina then either sells the meat or she prepares the meat to sell it at a higher price. In other terms her pigs are the family's piggy bank.

Chiva Cheese :)

Miguel, a student from the IberoAmerica University, has been doing community service by helping the families of Tamaula to diversify the types of cheeses they make from goat's milk. This is an opportunity for the families to learn and start thinking in business terms. This way they could sell their cheese in Cuchicuato and Irapuato the two nearest towns.

Other students from the IBERO university group are helping with the marketing aspect of the project concerning the fabrication of cheese in Tamaula.

Migration

Rodolpho Jr. The brother at work in a poultry factory in Kansas.
Poultry factory where the father Rodolpho works in Athens, Georgia.

Pictures brough out by Silvia to show me the members of her family.


As I wrote earlier Josephina lives with three of her girls, Karina, Rosita and Silvia. Her four other daughters come back on weekends as they either work or study in Rancho Nuevo. Her husband and her son are “al Norte” as they told me. During one of our morning conversations, I asked Silvia how often their father called them. Rodolpho, their father, calls every week at the least and sometimes twice a week, but Silvia told me that he mainly talks to Josefina. Their father has not been back for the past 8 years. He lives in Athens, Georgia where he works in “con pollos” in a poultry processing factory. Rodolpho Jr., their only brother also left to the United States. He left when he was 15 and he has not been home to Tamaula since, he is now 22. Silvia told me he called on Mondays. I asked if they had any family pictures and Karina their youngest one quickly brought out about six photo albums of their family. As she was flipping the pages of the photo albums, Karina would point out all the family members she knew the names of in each one of the photographs. There were two entire albums of their father within the six we went through! The lack of work and opportunities to follow an education here in Tamaula pushes families to migrate al Norte in order to sustain their families and to earn their living. Of course a push never goes without a pull. This out-migration leaves broken up families, some with no men, who have to struggle to survive and care for their families. Women like Josefina are very strong as they take on more responsibilities once the husband and son have left. Josefina is one of two parent representatives of the school board of the “Escuela Primaria Federal Gral. Lazaro Cardenas,” the school Sandra Karina attends. She has to endure survival keeping the pride of her husband’s picture and her son’s middle school diploma on the wall in the living room. She works hard every day and I can say living amongst them I admire the strength she has to get up each day when the sun rises and fulfills her daily tasks as an “ama de casa”. Her husband and son send back remittances but I do not know how much and how often. Anyhow when money comes to be rare Josefina kills her pigs to sell either the raw meat or the prepared meat down in Cuchicuato, a town situated 20 minutes away by car from Tamaula. One has to cross through Cuchicuato in order to access Tamaula.
Rodolpho Laguna Lias has 5 brothers whom currently live in Tamaula. Below is their genealogical tree.

(im having problems pasting the tree...I will figure it out another day...)

In orange are all of the Laguna family members who have migrated to the United States. They left when they were “chiquillos” as Josefina told me, when they were about 15 or 16 years old. They all left “sin papeles”, without papers and risked being caught by “la migra”, the border patrol. The ones in orange settled in the United States and built families in the U.S.. It needs to be pointed out that the children of Predo Laguna and Maria de la Luz who migrated are not only the men of the family. Out of nine of their kids that left to the United States (they have 14 children) three of them are women. This shows that not only the men Tamaula leave al Norte searching for new opportunities. Of course the image the United States has on the young is a land of opportunities, where one can accomplish his/her dreams; the land where everyone is granted equal opportunities and where people are equal. This is what Juan Manuel told me when we were at the party in Tamahula, and I can presume that he is not the only one that has these preconceptions of the United States. The United States giving of this image to the youth and the fact that it is hard to and depressing to see that there are very ways one can earn a living in Tamaula, the youth wants to migrate.

Through the fundacion del Bajio, this summer several groups are helping to develop Tamaula. I will describe the different projects in my next post!

Faces of Tamaula

At the presa with the boys

At the presa with the boys

Girodani and Ricardo listening to my Ipod!

Giordani and his brother Ricardo

Guanajuato

Guanajuato

Guanajuato

Mineral de Posos

Mineral de Posos

Guardian of the Minas in Meneral de Posos

Ricardo or "Ricki"

View from my balcony

A day in the life of Josefina

I live with Josephina and her three daughters in the rancho of TAMAHULA. It is quite funny because the people of Tamaula write the name of their rancho with an “H” in it as TAMAHULA but on the entry gate of the rancho it is written without. I guess this has to do with the relatively recent establishment of the rancho but of course this is just a supposition. Anyhow I am going to describe a typical day of my host mother, Josefina. In the morning she gets up to make fresh corn tortillas every day. She grinds the corn to make the masa and then enters her little shack situated right next to her house with the only light of a 8x10 inch window opening can give her. She makes all her tortillas for the day and the best ones are the fresh ones! We eat breakfast at about 9 or 10 in the morning. While we eat we share stories of all sorts and the recurring theme seems to be scary stories, legends of Tamaula or any spook story so far. I guess they must be trying to scare me off! Josephina has an amazing laugh. She is such a good hearted person. For instance, anyone who comes in her house is offered a tortilla and whatever food she can prepare for them. She told me that she would expect, and hope, that if any of her kids were in need of a tortilla that one would offer them one as well. After making the tortillas and chatting, Josefina does the outside chores. She cares for her animals which include 15 pigs, chickens, a donkey, a cow and dogs that roam around and peek into the kitchen begging for hand outs. She also washes clothes in a cement basin, bleaches the whites and hangs everything up on clothes lines that I always knock into because they are very low. One day, I washed my clothes by myself in the basin and I had to stand to the side of it because my back was hurting from bending down. Josefina told me that I was supposed to stand in front of it, and I told her that it was too small for me and that my back was hurting from bending down—she laughed her heart out. Josefina washes the dishes outside as well. All the water they use for bathing, for dishes, for drinking, for cooking, for washing clothes comes from bins they have outside. In the rainy season they fill up of rain water but in draught season the government brings them two bins per family for a week. They bring their donkeys and horses in order to carry the heavy weight of the little water they are allotted per household. I came during the rainy season so there has not yet been a lack of water but I can only imagine how they have to carefully supervise the use of water in order to not waste a drop of it. While Josefina does the hard outside work, the girls Karina and Silvia take care of the inside house chores. They sweep then mop while watching their novellas on TV. Oh yes I need to mention that there are TVs in every room…or at least almost, there is no TV in the kitchen. They follow their novellas (note the use of plural here) daily. Once done with the house chores Josephina and her daughters sit down in the living room on one of their three couches and start crocheting and embroidering. The other day I brought out my pair of pants that needed to be repaired. I have been willing to mend the seam for at least a year now and I finally got to sit down—in front of a novella—to fix them. Josefina told me to leave it for her—“Deja le!” she told me—but I asserted that I could fix them by myself. Once I was done Josefina took a look at the job I had done and she agreed, I did indeed do a good job J (Thank you mama!) When lunch time comes Josefina warms up the tortillas she made in the morning in a large flat pan over the oven. Most days we would eat lentils, frijoles, sopa, papas, eggs all with chile in it to add some spice. Some days if there has been a party every household gets left overs of the chicken with mole that we eat at dinner. Any tortillas that are left over from the day’s batch are discarded; well not really they keep two trash bins under the kitchen table, one with any organic wastes for the animals and the other with any inorganic waste that they will burn outside. What is very bad is that they burn EVRYTHING including plastic and polystyrenes. But on the other hand there is no waste pick up here in Tamaula…
On the weekends, Saturday evenings, Josephina’s four others daughters that study in Rancho Nuevo return home to their casita. I could tell that she loves having a house full, I mean she is even open to hosting three foreign guests!
Other happenings are the “juntas,” the meetings that occur as often as something needs to be done. I have already seen two in the past four days. Josefina assists in both the ALL mens’ junta and the juntas for the women. The men got together in order to nominate which of the men in Tamaula will be working to fix the road. If the nominated cannot fulfill their task they have to pay a fine. This money that is paid goes to improving the infrastructures in TAMAHULA.

Image on the wall in the Church of Tamaula, la Virgenita.

El hermanito de Lupita

Ana Guadalupe y Paloma


Marisa

We got invited to a party by one of the prepa students. The prepa students are ages 16 up to 21. They do not have any professors that come to Tamaula so they take courses through the Prep@net program. Prepanet has been set up in communities in order for the youth to have an education without having to leave their communities. Some might not have money to send their children to Irapuato and this enables them to get an education taking courses in math, chemistry and other subjects while staying in their communities. Below you can see the inauguration of the new Prepa building. They had a library with books donated for them and computers that are connected to internet. It is a little weird to think that a town like Tamaula can have access to internet but has yet to have running water! Anyways getting back to the point, we partied with the prepa students and we learned how to dance to Norteño and Cumbia music! Picture this, we partied outside below the moonlight, the stars our feet in the mud, we could hear donkeys, goats, chickens and the turkey while we admired the unique scenery of the nightlights of the surrounding cities. It was wonderful. I really felt in Mexico! We danced a lot and we even introduced them to some “American” music and dance moves including the cue tip move inspired by the Hitch movie and the shopping cart! It was a lot of fun! I danced with one boy whose name is Juan Manuel, he is 16. He told me about his family situation. He lives in Irapuato with his older sister and his younger brother. His father left to the U.S. He told me that the last time he spoke to his father they had a fight. The father wanted Juan Manuel to come to the U.S to work and he did and still does not want to. He told me that if he were to go “al otro lado” it would only be on a vacation visa. He has no intent to stay in the U.S to work. He also told me that his father started a new family “al Norte” and he must have 4 step brothers and sisters. He does not go to school and told me that he prefers life in Tamaula to life in Irapuato. Life in Irapuato brings him to the “calle” and too many drugs and marijuana are in circulation. He told me that he prefers staying with his grandfather Don Pedro in Tamaula than staying at his mother’s which is to escape any social pressures.

Life in Tamaula is an escape, a refuge.

He told me that there are “chollos” in the street and I asked him what he meant by that. He described them as shaved headed and tattooed guys. We then moved on to discussing politics.
Juan Manuel dreams of traveling and now he wants to come to France! He told me that he wanted to see of his own eyes what life is like in the United States. The echoes he gets is that everyone is equal in the U.S. and this appeals and adds to the pulling and pushing effect of migration, and I can testify that little towns like Tamaula are greatly affected by migration.

In the back of a pickup truck

Students in their school uniforms.

Amadelia

Rico

The view from my balcony at 7 in the morning.

We traveled down the mountain of Tamaula in the back of a pickup truck with our luggage and bags packed for 4 days. The family that took us down was on their way to vote. I will let you know what the elections results come out to be. On the way down in the pickup truck, I got to chat with a young man who hitched a ride down as well. He told me that he is studying to be a priest. The length of studies is 14 years. He told me that they have class from 8 in the morning until 2p.m. and then they clean their dormitories and play sports such as soccer, basketball and volleyball. They are 7 in the program. They learn theology of course but also math, history, physics and chemistry. His name was Manuel and he is 19 years old. He was about 5.7, dark skin and a tint shy. He was traveling with one suit case slightly bigger than a carry on size bag. I asked him if he got to come home to Tamaula every weekend since he seemed to be traveling pretty light. He told me he came back every month. Although he was shy and did not seem very talkative, he enjoyed knowing about the life in the United States and life at the University of Notre Dame, a Catholic University. I told him about dorm life, the chapels in all the dorms, about Saint Adalbert Parish i which offers mass in Spanish for the large Latino community of South Bend, IN. Once we got to the bottom after a 30 minute drive down a red rocky dirt road we were dropped off and waited for our mini vans. We jumped into our transportation and traveled to Mineral de Posos. Mineral de Posos is a mining town where several minerals were extracted including copper, silver and bromine. We got to visit some of the ancient mining lands. We threw rocks down a mine of 200 meters (!) and tried to hear the impact the rock should have made at the bottom…we hardly heard any noise! Mineral de Posos has a lot of artists and there are hidden beauties behind the unrevealing walls facades we can see through the streets. Compared to Tamaula, Mineral de Posos has of course a lot more inhabitants about 1200, the streets are paved and the weather seemed to be a lot drier looking at the surrounding vegetation. There are a few projects that are on their way. One is to build some little casitas that would be less costly than the nice hotels built by Americans and would offer a relaxing immersion in nature and in the midst of the mining land, offering amazing view of the country side. Martha a woman who owns a business selling Chichimeca pottery instruments has the project of building a hostel. She is having architectural plans made for her project by three IBERO students. This hostel would be cheaper than the hotels in town and another advantage would be the proximity of her location. She has her land in the city and this would offer another touring place for all those backpackers looking for a low cost place to spend a few nights in Posos.

Photos from the first five days in Tamaula

Party for graduation of the primaria.







Violetta and her bottle of 'refresca' Pepsi for the party after the inauguration.

Inauguration of the new Prepa for the Prep@net program they have here in Tamaula. There are no professors for their highschool they have Internet and follow courses and are evaluated through their online courses. It is challenging but there are 12 hight school students enrolled in the program. One of the students from tamaula scores the highest out of all the Prep@net programs in the state of Guanajuato!

Violetta

More kids in Tamaula

Working...or playing with the kids

Kids from the school in Tamaula

GORDITAS!!!! with papas and chile!

I went mud hopping with the girls! it was very dirty and muddy...BUT FUN!

Boxing lessons to the Tamaula kids :)

With Laura!

The way you wash your cloths. I did it and it takes time! No running water in tamaula.... so no washing machines.

Chile! Very ?picante? but very good! the women dry them then peel them, and voila!

Home made sling shot, works very well!

Filtered 'chiva' (goat) milk. They make cheese here in Tamaula and are starting a buisness, so they need funds in ordeer to get more goats, a tractor and milking machines. They need two goats in order to get 1L of milk and 1 brck of cheese takes 2L of milk. Do the math...

Don Pedro's Birthday party. We ate mole!