martes, 6 de diciembre 2011

"I must return to Portland from Oaxaca to take two classes in Spanish to complete my degree requirements - really smart requirement!" said Mandy Elder at the end of her presentation on "Exploring Oaxacan Gender Roles through Photography" She has been living in Oaxaca since June, organizing a group of young women at the Learning Center since October, using PhotoVoice. The Learning Center was begun by Gary Titus, who purchased a building in which young, hard-working and tenacious middle-school age through college students get help in obtaining an education. The students come from the rural areas as well as the periphery of Oaxaca. Gary also rents rooms in the building to use the money to support the students.

Mandy presented some statistics about Oaxaca:  60% of Oaxaquenos live in rural areas; there are 16 different indigenous groups; 20% of Oaxaqueno homes have dirt floors - not including refugees or temporary residents; average level of educational attainment is 6 years for females over 15,  7 years for males.

Mandy's group of 10 females, from 16 up to early twenties? is run by a 19 year old who is very knowledgeable about women's issues. They  chose three villages to travel to about 30 to 40 minutes outside of Oaxaca: Teotitlan del Valle, Tlacaloula and San Agustin Etla. In each village they asked questions, and took photos, of some local women. They asked about gender equality, machismo, importance of education, the role of women, premarital sex and reproductive issues.

In Teotitlan, one of the unmarried women said that she did not want to get married because she saw how her mother and other women were treated. The mother shared with them the weaving processes. When asked what the major changes are in her village, she told the interviewers (translated from Zapotec) that the changes she dislikes the most are the wearing of jeans instead of traditional clothing, and the use of computers and cell phones.
In the other villages, the women who were vendors at the market felt that the fact that they were there selling, and not kept in the home, was evidence of their empowerment. Others may not have continued their education because there was no high school in their village. Some young women in villages where there were people who had left to go to the big city seemed very bored knowing that there was a world of opportunity beyond their village.
Many of the mature women talked with pride about all their children, but also with sadness since most live far away.
The young women from the Learning Center talked  most about the very elderly woman sitting on the ground, barefoot, selling black beans. How does  a person end up like that? Why doesn't she have family to take care of her? How does she manage to sell her beans? They found out that she takes buses from village to village on market days.
Shocking to Mandy was the fact that most of these young women had never been to these villages so close to Oaxaca. After the presentation there were questions and input from the audience. I spoke about the fact that our Oaxaca Streetchildren had never been to some of the local museums and beautiful colonial buildings of their city!
After the presentation, Cynthia Roderick came up to me to ask about the children that we sponsor to go to school. I could not believe it! I had decided that I would not preach about this organization this year and here was this person ASKING ME about it! So I told her and felt an immediate bond! I then invited her to lunch with Gail and me at Isabel's. It was so nice to walk over together and get to know her a bit....and then for Gail to join us. We were able to talk more openly about women's issues for a while before Jerry and two other hikers, Julie and Steve joined us.
We enjoyed lunch at this little restaurant filled with plants and pretty decorations. The hiking group was very tired after an extremely demanding hike of rock climbing and steep, dangerous trails at Cerro Fortin. Jerry would not return again although he did not fall as others did.
We enjoyed walking and talking with Gail for a while longer, discussing hikes and restaurants we will go to together! Gail will be leaving at the end of January for Ecuador for three weeks, on a bird watching expedition. She is very excited because of the amazing birds to be found!
Cynthia moved to Oaxaca from Washington D.C. in March, after auctioning and giving away to family most of her belongings! Gail is tired of the responsibility of her condo in Victoria although she loves the location across from Beacon Hill Park. Some hikers with Jerry moved here from Alberta, also selling all their belongings. They are much younger so plan to work for ten years and then retire early - the woman was in banking but is now working on a unversity degree online; her husband works in the oil industry so they are hoping he is able to get a job for $250,000 a year in the Middle East!
We arrived home to find my clothes dry from the warm sun that i had washed and hung in the morning!