A glimpse into deep Mexico

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 12:01:13 -0500

In this essay, Tessa Hicks takes us into a journey of the Mexico Profundo, she is the guide who offers her perspective and great skills to look at the details that other Mexico has to offer to the outsider and even to those we live in the context of the changing rural Mexico

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Healing ourselves and healing our communities

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:36:54 -0500

The program starts with an opening ceremony within the context of indigenous Mexican traditions. We ask permission to the present winds and guardians, smudging, praying to open up to the upcoming experiences and be present. Letting go of the sadness we carry and, we speak humbly to the four directions, the above and below and togetherness. Participants of the ceremony are: teachers, coordinators, students, lecturers, some of the host families are present and with great respect following the ceremony, as we aproach the closure, I could see the expresions of host families present and filled with excitment and confidence that a great experience and possibilities for learning and exchange are to come..

At the end of the day, students are able to participate in the sweatlodge most students were ready for it... pampering their bodies in the heat after the stress of travelling and starting a new learning adventure. The ceremonial experience of the sweatlodge offered a space and time to prepare for the present, allowing students to let go of some of the sadness and worries, the experience was intriguing for many of them.

Spanish classes start at 9:00 am- to 12 pm, where students manifest great enthusiasm to learn every word and expression in Spanish..Sophie comes to me and she asked... si necesito ayuda, I asked her, si, quieres trapear? with a humble look she repeats, tra...pe..ar ... si si quie..ro trapear..which she follows diligently. It is always encouraging to see young people motivated.

Ross Gandhy, Author and professor from UNAM is one of the lecturers. He came to speak to the students once after Spanish classes and with precise information leads the students to reflect the inequities manifested among social groups in Mexico. He explains in detail the economy process in which Mexico is embedded, 70% of Mexican people live in poverty and cannot satisfy their basic needs, while the minority of 10% keeps getting richer and richer and is completely disassociated with the mexican reality..

A person he knows of the upper society, for example, expressed to him once.. Gandy, did you know there is a metro in Mexico City? I did not know it, I did not know the there was a metro system in Mexico!! A mexican rich man can be a foreigner in his own country.

Angelina, another lecturer, is a curandera from the Txotzil tradition in Chiapas.. she explains to the students how she defines susto and espanto, fear and fright, an ailment that can take you to a deadly condition. Students were open to the experience while they learned other ways of healing and respond positively, some of them are skeptical,others just listening, and some hopeful that they can use some of this kind of healing in their lives. One of my teachers told me once that he might speak to 10 people, of those 2 might really listen, and only one will follow through. Angelina might have at least one follower of all the listeners, that should be enough to spread the hope of healing, but we hope more than one will follow this path.

Social Service

Social Service at Centro de Convivencia is another activity for the students. The director was excited to have them come, healing ourselves and our communities goes with her philosophy and passion. She teaches her staff and other participants of her program to heal themselves as they engage in working in their communities that need healing. The director is a very loving woman, social worker, lawyer and alternative medicine practitioner, her face radiates as she strives all day to get things done and looks forward to make a difference in the childrens lives who stay at the orphanage or Centro de Convivencia, as she prefers to call. Something very rare to happen in many institutions. As a social activist I am very exited to develop forms of colaboration with her work and programs.

Even though I have only been in Mexico for a week, I am pretty sure that I
have never felt such a change in my self-being in such a short time. I have
been introduced to so many new ways of living, new things to eat and new
attitudes and morals in my brief amount of time here in Temixco.
This past week, I have been confronted with more experiences unique to this culture, and different from the one in which I come from. Through more
informative readings, I have become more interested and intrigued into
learning a new way of viewing *la vida*. Our eye-opening lectures and
discussions within our clase have backed up and ingrained more of what we continue to learn through our journey here in the small, yet comfortable
Azteca. Elise Hilsinger

Eating at Casa Xochiquetzal

Casa Xochiquetzal is the location where the program takes place. Lunch time is an oportunity for students to get exposed to the great diversity of nutritious and artistic foods Mexico can offer. Always different foods made with local fruts and vegetables among them, wild rice with corn, nopales with peanuts sauce, challotes filled with cheese and herbs, cauliflower patties, chiles rellenos, spicy stir fry with fresh organic vegetables and home made tofu, black beans and, most of the time at the end of a meal a healthy desert, my favorites yogurt gelatin with fresh mango and honey, and corn cake. They students are astounded by the rich flavors and simply love each meal.

Week Three

It is almost over, the students express, I am going to cry when I leave. Tessa, the professor says, we are going to have to drag the students out of here.

Monday was the last class I taught. The reflexion topic was: knowledge and justice, the mystery of suffering, a difficult and challenging process.. how do we achive the art of knowing and what purpose does it serve? The reflection took the students to question their personal responsibility to do their homework to achieve love and compasion for themselves. Only then, we can have compassion for others and strive for justice.

The class ended with a massage demonstration, I gave a massage and expressed why massaging is a way to start getting to know and understand our bodies, minds and souls. Only when we start actually recognizing ourselves as a whole, we can start planting the seeds of love withing ourselves and we can begin to work in our communities. I was moved while watching all these young women ready to give and receive, allowing themselves to be loved and love.

Samba

Another vehicle for opening the students to self love and personal expression, especially as it relates to wholistically connecting the body to the spirit and to the natural elements, was through dance. We held two dance classes of the Afro Brazilian tradition. Students began to learn to stop holding in their tension in their bodies and to loosen their hips, feel the deep rhythms of the drum, and use dance as a method to reclaim their power, beauty and physical-spiritual selves. They immediately grasped onto the sacred dances, learning both the celebratory samba and a few elementary movements of the Orixas dances to express the elements of wind, water, earth, etc, through the archetypal movements of .Yoruba´s Candomble deities. Even an introductory level dance class allowed them to free themselves from the constricting notions of body and beauty that they have been raised with in the U.S. and allowed to feel their spirits in motion, with beauty, grace, and a lot of laughter. Tessa Hicks

Fieldtrips

With Estela we explored Las Grutas, an incredible, massive ancient cave. Deep within, nature had never appeared so powerful to me. Giant salt rock formations revealed that this Mother womb had been in place for hundreds of thousands of years. A mere speck within, I had never felt so humbled, yet completely connected. Yet, the man-made amphitheater within reminded me of the unconscious acts that result from a disconnection with nature.

We also entered the temazcal on various occasions. After the temazcal, we were encouraged to reflect. I wrote the following:I feel alive. Like I'm here, but you're here with me. I saw you mom! You tried to take my pain away. That honesty, wanting to feel my pain so I wouldn't, that love--in asking for it all--it makes me know why I'm here. I felt that the world is full of nothing but love and how lucky I am to be in it. I want to let go of my jealousies, insecurities; help me let go. I feel like I'll be okay and it will pass as long as I have me, and the mother loves me. It feels so good to know that your love is real. Mother nature teaches us to love ourselves. Amber Lily

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A glimpse into deep Mexico

Healing ourselves and healing our communities