Being a Oaxaca Host: Lessons for People and Nations
My friend Debbie from North Carolina came to visit me in Oaxaca this week. It was a fast three nights and two-and-a-half days. We packed a lot in as the news of the world was (and continues to) unfolding, raging, tangling itself up around us. I wanted to show her my world here. Archeological sites. […]
Mexican Immigrants Help North Carolina Friends Dig Out, Clean Up After Hurricane Matthew
I got this message today from dear friends who live near the tributaries of the Cape Fear River in North Carolina. The important note is that they are safe, and that they could employ Mexican immigrants (we don’t ask if they have papers) to help them dig out. THANK YOU, to the Mexicans who travel […]
Oaxaca in Santa Cruz, California, and Everywhere, U.S.A.–Cross-Cultural Influences
Gema Cruz Ambrosia has been cooking at Gabriella Cafe in Santa Cruz, California for the past eighteen years. Gema, (pronounced HAY-mah with a throaty H) whose name means gemstone, came to Santa Cruz twenty-eight years ago from a small village just beyond Oaxaca city called San Pablo Huixtepec. Her entire family is here in […]
Oaxaca Center Shelters Migrants
The migratory route for people from southern Mexico and Central America comes through Oaxaca, explains Melissa Harrison who is doing a year of volunteer work here at COMI El Centro de Orientacion del Migrante de Oaxaca. Melissa, pictured on the right along with Xindy Li and Lair Martinez, finished her degree from The New School […]
Mexican Immigration Heartbreak: Catch 22
Earlier this week I was visiting friends in Morganton and Valdese, NC, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Morganton is fortunate. It has a chicken plant that is still operating. Who are the workers? Latino/a immigrants. No one else wants the job. Morganton is also the home of the deceased, venerable U.S. Senator […]