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.