the hill where are the crosses of the pueblo, during mass. Sur la colline où if trouvent les croix, pendant to the masses.
In the community, waiting for the start of the procession. Dans la communauté, avant de la procession.
The band playing on the hill during the mass. The fanfare here joue sur la colline the harvest pendant.
Putting on the hill. The harvest sur la colline.
Hello,
Here are some photos of the week we spent at the Mirador, in the community tepehua Sierra Huasteca Veracruz that I had taken two years ago during my research in social anthropology about cultural change and transnational migration.
This time It was a personal visit to my family that "adopted" and friends of the community, an opportunity to present their Benjamin and to know him a Mexico that is not 'by billboard, what Bonfil Batalla called "México profundo", that is native to Mexico.
Mexico and 'one of the countries in the world with the largest variety of ethnic groups and languages (I counted about 65 different languages), and the indigenous past has always been a source of national pride for all Mexicans, due to size of pre-Columbian civilization that developed on its territory.
The Mexican constitution states that the wealth of this country is founded on its diverse indigenous groups, whose rights (to land, cultural and religious expression, political representation, etc..) Are established and guaranteed by the Constitution itself.
Nevertheless, in the opening statements and concrete practices of the Mexican government and the ruling class in general, and the gap 'between the famous "say" and "doing". Throughout the history of relations between indigenous peoples and Spaniards first (through the colonial government) and mestizos then (in the form of nation-state), are marked by the same ambiguity between indigenous recovery of the past and recognition of his greatness, and relegation of the indigenous people living on the margins of society. A contradiction that leads from one side to the celebration of the pyramids and the other to the racism that pervades, more or less strongly and consciously, most of Mexican society against "Indians", a category that is sometimes used as a derogatory insult.
Currently, in Mexico in the middle of a process of change, marked by 'opening of the Mexican government to economic liberalism from the signing of a free trade treaty with the United States and Canada in 1994, Mexican indigenous peoples continue to be relegated to the margins of society. That their rights are recognized in the Constitution, are not respected in reality. The land, which had come into their own hands thanks to the post-revolutionary agrarian department (which guaranteed the inviolability of communal property, El Ejido), have been liberalized with the amendment to Article 27 of the constitution, thus allowing the families of powerful caciques back to appropriate large tracts of land and reconstitute large estates. The right of expression is contradicted by the obstacle by the Secretaria de Comunicaciones y Transportes any expression of independent community radio indigenous and outside the state system of community radio stations are often attacked in a direct and indirect, sometimes even forced to close without any real justification, as has happened to Huayacocotla Radio (a radio active for more 'than 30 years with the indigenous Nahua, Otomi and tepehua in the Sierra de Veracruz) in 1995. And locally, the great families of mestizos apply, by force if need be, their power and their control over land. The atrocious TOPICAL killing, on 7 April Triqui two girls, who worked in a community radio in the state of Oaxaca, is a sad symbol, within which occurs the current state freedom of expression of the Mexican indigenous use of violence against them, that from the Conquest it 's never really over.
In this context, locally and globally, indigenous peoples resist - for several centuries - by continuing to cultivate their traditions, to speak their language, celebrate their festivals and ceremonies. But instead of being community "closed", as it suggests the image of traditional society, these social systems evolving and opening up, dynamic interconnection with a world that changes at all levels.
And so, if we go back to the Mirador, there is a small community in a poor area marginalized and Mexico, where almost all households now have a television, where more than half of adult men and young people of working age is currently in the United States ("El Norte," or "El Otro Lado) or have had a migration experience, where learning tepehua begins to be relegated to second place compared to learning English, which have long been the local handicraft has almost completely disappeared, leaving in place an urban indumentario (jeans and shirt) and to plastic utensils, along with traditional clay, wood and stone. There are not many outward signs of "indigenous" and those who love the color Folclórico a stay in this area would be disappointing.
Ciononstante, people continue to take a 'tepehua identity, which manifests itself in various aspects, such as the celebration of feasts "syncretic," where layered blend the heritage of indigenous and popular Catholicism imported by the first English conquistadores and settlers; atavistic elements (such as the worship of natural elements) and symbols of modernity (as happens during Carnival, where every year we incorporate new forms taken by the characters about the local national and international). In this visit to the Mirador
we had the opportunity to participate in the "Fiesta de la Santa Cruz", in we celebrate the cross of Jesus (symbol dense, within which the instrument of evangelization and Catholic indigenous world view, based on 4 points, the central axis that connects heaven and underworld), she en which some scholars (as Roberto García Williams) recognize a primitive worship of fertility.
Concretely, the festival is organized in three days (2.3 and 4 May), one of two preparation and celebration. During the first day, the three crosses are carried from the hill, where they are throughout the year, the community, where they are repainted and "dressed" with tissue paper flowers that are prepared in the same day. Each community has a specific participation in the preparation of the feast: Clean the community, preparing the flowers adorn the crosses, etc. .. The entire organization is based on a system of cargos, common to all indigenous communities in Mexico: the various "godfathers" shall bear the various costs, ie the band (the music accompanying incesantemente the three-day festival), the food the collective banquet, the killing of a pig that is cooked already distributed to all households of the community etc..
the second day after the banquet Community, held a procession to the church in the pueblo mestizo (Tlachichilco), where the crosses are blessed by the priest (With incense and holy water) and where a mass is celebrated "mixed" mestizos and Indians, each with their own crosses and the propagation band, attending the celebration together, and together they designed a final procession around the pueblo at the end of which everyone takes propia road toward the community or the center of the pueblo.
The last day is made a second procession: this time the crosses are put back on the hill (where they will stay another year to watch over the community) and blessed by the members of the community, with copal (a resin dry very fragrant, and that ' used throughout Mexico for ritual purification) and holy water. At the end of the procession, all community members find themselves in jail, the common area dedicated to the festivities, where he officially thank all Padrinos of the party who have done their duty, and announcing the Padrinos for the festival the following year.
Finally, the small cross (a cross that is sustodita in the community since the Revolution) is delivered with a final procession of what will be at home throughout the coming year the godfather of the cross.
The band leaves the community, and life resumed the daily routine: working in the fields, fetching wood, make tortillas, beans and coffee blacks (indigenous staple food), sit on the patio to talk, discuss, play, gossip ....
During the days spent at the Mirador, the interest in sustainable ways of living that 'the basis of our project, and the information we are gathering slowly in this regard have led to some reflections.
The "progress" being promoted by governmental programs for indigenous peoples is marked by the opening to economic liberalism (the indigenous people, since 1995, have the right to become owners of their portion of land Community usofrutto in before, and consequently to be able to buy) the benefits of which will never be able to access, but they pay the consequences, such as frustration with everything that they can not buy and a lifestyle they see on television but can not reach. Part of this progress is the construction of concrete houses, which replace the traditional system of building in earth and wood, ideal for a sub-tropical climate hot and humid. The cement (which the government is in charge of distributing tons in indigenous communities) is the worst existing insulation, and makes the houses of the community have been transformed into real ovens, which retain the heat accumulated during the day until all ' dawn. Status symbol, the concrete house in this climate is a real aberration, also from the aesthetic point of view, transforming the community in a suburb is sort marginalized suburban in perpetual construction.
In a time when global feel the need to return to ecological construction materials (earth, wood, straw, lime) that are effective in isolating different climates, and are recognized as healthy for the general human welfare, indigenous peoples have gone (to grab the crumbs of a model of capitalist development which does not have the means to access the full) to abandon those who are building their systems ahead of traditional materials in the "developed" countries are trying to abandon.
This paradox is not 'only the combination of the current situation of indigenous Popli and current life that promotes environmentally sustainable. The trend of "back to earth," of organic farming, the abandonment of genetic modified seeds, take us back to systems that have always been the model of their relationship to the land of indigenous groups in Mexico. Model which is hampered by governmental programs that promote the use of genetically modified seeds, the commercialization of land etc.
This led us to believe that the various strands of ecological (eco-building, permaculture, ecological communities ...) and the indigenous movimiento (since the Seventies indigenous peoples, not only in Mexico but throughout the Americas, we are organized with ethno-political movements and indigenous representation local, national and international) may mutually enriching on many levels: indigenous knowledge and their relation to the type of land can be a model for anyone who is devoting to experiment with ways of living eco-friendly, and scientific and technical knowledge developed in potebbero these areas make a big improvement to the living conditions of indigenous comununitá.
For example, with regard to a technical improvement of land and buildings in wood, or the system for recovering and recycling water, or with the help of simple tools such as the dry bath, thereby improving hygiene and production of an excellent fertilizer, or the solar oven, which can save a lot of wood through the use of solar energy.
These and other considerations make us think that the connection between different contexts is a small but important change that we seek a global scale, and to circulate information - however abstract it may seem - is an important part of our project. In the specific case of the community, we are committed to transmitting the little knowledge we have gained so far on building ecological systems, sustainability and self-sufficient. And considering that we're just beginning the journey, we hope to create more connections, strengthen existing networks, to circulate more information. In our small ....
few days after the end of the festival we also left the community, I am a bit 'sad for the little time spent with my adoptive family, and Ben with another piece to add to the Mexico she knows ...
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