Beginning of Mexico City!!!

Hello everyone!! I’m sorry it’s been such a long time. These pasts few weeks have been absolutely crazy here in Mexico. Last week, we spent seven days in Mexico City, the biggest city in this hemisphere with 23 million people living in the city. The center of the city is about 6 hours from Oaxaca City (if you travel by bus). So at 8:00 on Monday September 29, our families dropped us off at the bus station in the center of town. My host mother gave me a ham sandwich (with hot salsa), a bottle of orange juice, and an apple for the road. The bus was comparable to a Greyhound except the bathroom was cooler (it had a self-cleaning toilet). We watched four movies on the way to Mexico City (3 American movies with Spanish dubbed over top and 1 French movie).

Finally, after six hours we arrived at the bus station in Mexico City. Our guide and coordinator,

Mojdeh was waiting at the station to greet us and transport us to Santo Domingo (our first destination). Santo Domingo is the largest squatter community in the Americas. In 1971, over the course of one day, over 5000 people arrived at this spot of land. In Mexico, the people refer to the squatters as parachuters, because they float in to an area overnight just like stealthy paratroopers. The story of this community is really incredible…

• In 1971, all these impoverished families moved onto this desolated land. The land was desolated because there was barley any soil, only volcanic rock. Over the course of the next few years, the community worked together to carve streets out of the volcanic rock, carry buckets of potable water to the people and build houses. The majority of the organization of the community was done by the women of the community. They even built a community center called the Escuelita (little school) where people can learn about a variety of things including salsa, cooking, and sustainability.

• It may seem strange that an entire community can move onto a piece of land without paying for it. However, in Mexico, there are many communities of impoverished people who have done this. This culture may be related back to the conquest of Mexico back in the 1500s. Before then, the concept of private property didn’t really exist and the majority of the people lived on communal lands that were owned by everyone. After the Spanish arrived, they organized an army made up of the indigenous people who had been oppressed by the Aztecs (the most powerful indigenous group at the time). With the help of the other indigenous groups, the Spanish defeated the Aztecs. After their victory, the Spanish also conquered the other indigenous groups that had previously been their allies (they were conquered through means of violence and sickness). After 100 years of Spanish occupation over 90% of the native people had been killed.

• So, the Spanish sent viceroys to Mexico to control large groups of the remaining native people. From this moment, the native people of Mexico lost their access to the land. Therefore, the culture of squatters may have ties back to the conquest, because in many ways, the land that is now privatized was once everyone’s land. It is part of the Mexican culture, for the political parties in power to allow the squatters to live on the land as long as the communities give their support and vote to that political party. And, the circumstances are very similar in Santo Domingo. The people have an unwritten permission to live on the land and the political parties expect their support during elections.

With all this knowledge about the community, I already had a picture in my mind what the community would probably look like. When the taxis arrived, I was surprised to see that the community looked like many of the other Mexican communities I had seen. Most of the houses were made out of gray cement but many were painted bright colors. The road was well paved and there were many shops with arcade games, clothes, or food. Although in the 1970s they began as rickety makeshift houses made of anything the community could find, they were now cement sturdy houses.

Instead of only having one student per host family, three or four students lived in each house. When we arrived at the community, we went straight to our house for a late comida at 4:30 (I was starving even after my sandwich on the bus). Lauren, Joshua, and I were living with Magda, Jesus, their three daughters (Elsa, Evon, Maria) and their puppy Camila (I was very happy to have a puppy again). The first meal was great (a sort of vegetable soup with a half of an ear of corn in it and some tortillas). We didn’t have much time to get introduced because we had activities with the group later that day.

Everyone lived about one block from the Escuelita, and we met up at the Escuelita after our lunch. The school was alive would tons of people from the community going to classes and just hanging around. One of the founders of the school came to meet up with us and explained about the process in which the school was created. It was hard to pay attention because all of the activity around us was more interesting than the speaker. Upstairs there was a dance class for little girls and they were peaking out over the rails and waving at our group. And on the behind the staircase, a huge mural representing the Spanish conquest filled the entire wall.

That night we returned to our houses exhausted from the traveling and ready for some warm food. (In Mexico City, the weather is quite extreme during the days. In the morning it is chilly and I needed my sweatshirt and jacket. In the afternoon, I was comfortable in a tee-shirt and jeans. During the nights, I needed my sweatshirt, jacket and gloves.) We spent about 2 hours talking to Magda and Jesus, who came home late from his bicycle repair shop. We also played with Camila (their puppy) who was incredibly cuddly and cute.

Around 11:30, Lauren and I went up the staircase that wrapped along the outside wall of the house, to our makeshift bedroom. It was like a typical bedroom with bunk beds and a dresser, but instead of interior walls, there were sheets that hang from the ceiling to create a room. The layout of the house was interesting… the downstairs section was one big room with a kitchen, living room, and dining room all in one. There was a small bathroom attached to the main room. Outside there was a big patio with storage, one car, and clothes lines. The metal stair case wrapped around the patio and up to the top story where there were two rooms with cement walls and our makeshift room. In some ways it reminded me of a big cement tree house.

Well, it’s Friday night, and we are going out to some salsa clubs in Oaxaca… I will work on finishing my Mexico City blog so I can get you caught up! Hasta luego…