Tag Archives: immigrants

Being a Oaxaca Host: Lessons for People and Nations

Posted on Sunday, January 29, 2017 | 14 comments

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. Markets. Weavers. Mezcal and candle makers. Mountain vistas. High desert.

Amidst Zapotec-Mixtec ruins, San Pablo Villa de Mitla church

Debbie is more than a friend. We share the sisterhood of once living together as neighbors in a co-housing community that was based on consensus decision-making.

Our relationship developed amidst all the attending struggles within a group of having to reconcile differences and come to agreement about how to live with respect, caring and intention. This is not easy, not natural and takes practice.

Evening respite, chiminea aglow, on my casita patio

We were part of a women’s group that shared reading material, discussions, intimacies, success and disappointments. We comforted each other when there was loss. We celebrated together when there was joy. We lost a friend in this group to cancer that took her fast. We mourned. Picked up. Continued.

Debbie wrote a blog post about how to be a good guest:

Learning to Be a Guest

The counterpoint for me is how to be a good host. Give comfort, security, food. Offer activities, entertainment and quiet. Make introductions to friends. Sit and talk. Understand the then and now. Have fun. Create discovery. A lesson how to be a good host should be a taught to the USA’s new administration.

Fresh carrot/beet/pineapple juice alongside Jugo Verde, Teotitlan del Valle market

This is not only about how to stay in another person’s house. It is about how we live/visit as guests in a country other than our own. It is about how we welcome people in, consider their needs.

Even for those of us who make Oaxaca or Mexico home for several months or the entire year, even for those of us who have taken up permanent residency, we are the other, the guest. In that capacity, how do we behave? How do we interact with the local community? What do we contribute? Are we observers or participators in local customs and traditions? What is our footprint?

Debbie in the shadows of ancient archeological site

This week, in the United States of America, land of the free and home of the brave, at the end of the first week of the 45th president, we have closed our borders and threatened our immigrants. We are at risk of sacrificing our civil liberties out of fear and isolation.

The country of my birth, where I also make my home, is rampant with xenophobia, arrogance, and has retreated into becoming a very bad host. The risk of losing values — that of welcoming the huddled masses yearning to be free — brings me despair.

Mexico, land of the free and home of the brave, too.

This new president, whom I call Mr. Orange Menace, has a lot to learn about hospitality, although he seems to run hotels. But, oh, yes, they are for the very wealthy!

Ancient Zapotec temple carvings, Teotitlan del Valle church

Here in the Mexican village I call home for much of the year, I am a guest. I try to remember that daily. I live here in respect for my hosts, the indigenous people who are my neighbors. I know many by name and they invite me into their homes to visit, for meals and celebrations. As a good guest, I try to be helpful and not overstep. Keep my footprint in sync with theirs. I live in a small casita and drive an old car. I am not worried about living in the campo.

Sharing mezcal with weaver friend Arturo Hernandez

With the tone of discourse between Mexico and the USA at a low point, with the bullying and bluster of wall-building on the border taking on fearful proportions, I can’t help but wonder if that will have an impact on how I might be treated here. I can only imagine these parallel universes between cross-border immigrants. Respecting minority rights is a basic principle of humanity, of democracy.

And, all I want to do is say, I’m sorry.

The high desert gives forth life, prickly though it is

14 Comments

Posted in Cultural Commentary, Mexican Immigration, Mexico, Photography, Safety, Travel & Tourism

Tagged border, friendship, guest, homeland security, host, immigrants, Mexico, Oaxaca, politics, safety, United States of America, wall, Women

Mexican Immigrants Help North Carolina Friends Dig Out, Clean Up After Hurricane Matthew

Posted on Thursday, October 13, 2016 | 13 comments

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 here in search of jobs, we appreciate your work ethic and desire to pitch in, to send money home to your families, and we honor and respect you.

Here’s part of the message:

“Most folks who know us are aware that our 12 acre property was under water during Hurricane Fran 20 years ago, the day we were to move into our new home. There has been occasional minor flooding since then. Although we have carried flood insurance, we have never had to use it until now. This time was a little different with the creek behind our property overflowing upstream and coming across the front yard, in addition to the back 3 acres flooding over the lower banks. The house, which is slightly higher than the ground, quickly ended up as an island amidst rushing water on all sides. Two neighbors who came down to offer help were also stranded in the house with us when we finally called 911. The 4 of us and our 2 goats were evacuated via a Swift Water Rescue motor boat.

It must have been quite a sight! Unfortunately our youngest goat drowned earlier. That tragedy has been the worst part of all. The 12 chickens spent the night in our upstairs bathroom and the dog and 2 cats stayed together in the upstairs bonus room. The 2 horses were on high ground and entertained by all the excitement and extra loving. Our neighbor is the anchor for the nightly news so once again the farm was featured!

Fortunately water did not come directly into the house. Yesterday there was 2 ft. of standing water in the crawl space beneath the house, about 2 inches from the sub-flooring. After pumping 24 hrs. we still have about water so are unable to assess the full damage to the flooring. We do know that we lost ducts, installation, all of our HVAC units and a hot water heater. The yard and pastures were littered with debris. 2 freezers we used for animal feed storage floated away as well as the chicken coops and tack shed inventory. Minor water is in the vehicles.

God mysteriously touches us when we least expect it. We located 8 Hispanic migrant workers who were out of work due to the loss of the tobacco crop. Greeting us with grateful and smiling faces, they worked all day yesterday and today to rebuild fences and shelters for our animals.

It is a beautiful Fall day and hard to believe that so much has happened here.”

I’m so happy my friends are safe. That they have help. And, that I am here to vote against the wall.

13 Comments

Posted in Mexican Immigration

Tagged border, floods, Hispanic, hurricane, immigrants, immigration, labor, Latino, Mexico, North Carolina, rebuilding, respect, the wall, work, work ethic

Oaxaca in Santa Cruz, California, and Everywhere, U.S.A.–Cross-Cultural Influences

Posted on Thursday, April 18, 2013 | 7 comments

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 Santa Cruz, including a twenty-seven year old daughter. Gema looks to be not much older. Her eyes dance and her wide smile broadens as she talks about integrating Oaxaca native foods into the California farm-to-table organic fusion menu of the cafe. Gema is hard-working and resourceful. Owner-manager Paul Cocking introduces Gema to me as the cafe’s sous chef. She started out washing dishes and takes pride in her place of importance in the kitchen today. There are stories like this everywhere.

This was my second visit there this week, first with Leslie Larson for lunch and then with Bella Jacque for dinner, both past participants in Oaxaca Cultural Navigator workshops. I’m in love with the food.

The menu reflects Gema’s influences: Rich, complex sauces, perfectly seared fish, house-marinated anchovies that tops crispy fresh greens. The Sunday brunch features Gema’s roots: Huevos rancheros, chicken or pork with mole pipian, quesadillas with flor de calabaza, black beans with hierba santa, tamales flavored with chipil, large homemade tortillas fresh from the comal. Gema talks about Oaxaca food as if it were her twin sister. All the fresh ingredients, she tells me, are easily available locally. She only has difficulty getting the large clay comales from Oaxaca on which to make the tlayuda-size tortillas. They often arrive broken. (When they do come intact, they need to be seasoned with lime powder or calc before using.)

Gema says there is a big Oaxaca population in Seaside, California, which is on the Monterey Bay, about an hour from Santa Cruz. Census figures of 2010 count 43.3% of the population as Latino or Hispanic.

In the village of Teotitlan del Valle where I live, most immigrants from the village gravitate to Moorpark, Simi Valley and Oxnard, although there is a large Zapotec community from Oaxaca living in Santa Ana, California (which they call Santana).

I am constantly meeting Oaxaqueños in North Carolina, too. The cross-cultural influences are strong, not only through the sharing of food and recipes. The Oaxaca people I know work hard, are honest, care immensely about their families, and value traditions. They take pride in their roots even when living in the United States. Beyond recipes, there is a lot to learn from them and share.

7 Comments

Posted in Oaxaca Mexico art and culture

Tagged cooking, food, immigrants, Mexico, Oaxaca, recipe

Oaxaca Center Shelters Migrants

Posted on Friday, March 23, 2012 | 6 comments

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 in New York and is in Oaxaca to hone her Spanish before going on to graduate school in the U.S. Her goal is to work in immigrant services and social advocacy in the U.S. southwest.

“My life is the way it is because there are people who are willing to do the jobs I don’t want to do. This is my way of giving back,” says Melissa.

We are at Nuevo Mundo, a cafe that roasts and brews their own organic coffee, located on Calle M. Bravo between Garcia Virgil and Porfirio Diaz. We meet just by the chatter that happens through enjoying good food and service. Melissa and her friend, artist Xindy Li, from Philadelphia, met here. Xindy is volunteering at the Espacio Zapata, where popular artists create murals, paintings, lithographs, street art and tee shirts.

There are two ways to go north from Southern Mexico and Central America — via free train (very dangerous) and by bus. People who can afford it take the bus because it is safer, more secure. Those who don’t risk kidnapping, rape, and worse. They go in search of work and a better life, the motivation for immigrants throughout the ages. To support themselves, they may stop and find jobs along the way. They may have been deported from the U.S. and are making their way south to go home. The migration stream goes both directions.

Melissa tells me that the people who stay at the shelter come for no more than a few days as they transit through Oaxaca. Many now are from Honduras and El Salvador. She notes that El Salvador is one of the most dangerous states in Latin America where civil war rages.

Her particular volunteer work is about locating missing people using a database for unidentified bodies.

COMI is operated by the Archdiocese of Antequera-Oaxaca in response to the U.S. and Mexican Bishops to help people caught in the migratory urgencies to seek a better life.

6 Comments

Posted in Cultural Commentary, Mexican Immigration

Tagged blogsherpa, immigrants, Mexico, migrants, Oaxaca, volunteer

Mexican Immigration Heartbreak: Catch 22

Posted on Thursday, August 11, 2011 | 2 comments

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 Sam Ervin, Jr. chairman of the Watergate Committee, who claimed, “I’m just an ‘ole country lawyer from Dixie” as he brought his constitutional law prowess to bear on a presidency gone amok. Ervin brought government jobs to Morganton. There is a vibrant downtown with galleries, shops, businesses, and cheap labor to clean homes, landscape yards and government school lawns and chickens. The local furniture and textile industry moved their plants off-shore to Asia years ago. Their empty shells are a reminder of employment loss and the end of traditional prosperity.

Valdese has Hmong and Latino/a immigrants, lots of Asian restaurants, and a very multicultural feel to the very small town that was alive with furniture manufacturing. The store fronts are empty. The rails are silent. Latinos wait in the parking lot in front of one of the two town laundromats. The summer Waldensian festival the second weekend in August still draws people from far and wide. There are great ceramic artists in these hills, too.

I had lunch with a local coach. He told me, painfully, how some of his most talented students, both academically and athletically, are children of undocumented Mexican immigrants who, for the most part, crossed the border to escape drug war violence. The children may have come here as infants or toddlers and will never be able to attend university unless they pay out-of-state tuition — which, of course, they can’t afford. In-state tuition requires residency which requires a birth certificate or social security card. The young people are working hard to get out from under fast food service jobs, the line up for chicken plant employment or at the day labor pool corner. Their eyes are downcast, can see down the short stretch to the dead-end before they reach age 20.

He told me how his politics have changed. He sees first hand how wrong it is for smart children with promise who have been in the U.S. for most of their lives not to have access to education. We, as a society, keep them down and then complain that they can’t get up and take care of themselves. Catch 22 comes to my mind.

We are a multicultural and blended society. Soon, people of color will outnumber whites. Bilingual signage is appearing everywhere, not just in bigger cities or airports. We are going to need to teach Spanish in our schools starting in early childhood if we are going to understand each other and communicate and problem-solve.

In the most rural areas of North Carolina immigrants are part of the labor pool and contributing to local economies. We reward them with shame, fear, discrimination, and entrap and then incarcerate them as undocumented immigrants even when they try to return to Mexico.

I wonder what Senator Sam would say?

What would you say?