MEXICO NEWSLETTER #4

Dear Friends,

Our last newsletter was mailed from Hidalgo del Parral. We had 125 miles 
left to reach our destination of Ejido La Esperanza, and were very 
anxious to arrive. We neglected to tell you one detail that heightened 
our anxiety. Last summer when we first met Lucina and Gabino in their 
store, we learned of all their American grandchildren that spoke no 
Spanish. We also saw their barren church. We understood them to have 
invited us back. In November, we wrote to confirm our invitation and 
asked to return for five or six weeks, in January or February, to live 
with them, have a language exchange and do a project for the church. 
There never was a response. We planned our trip and got on the road in 
good faith that we would be welcome. As we neared our destination, 
however, we wondered why there was no response to our letter. Had they 
not received it? Had they moved? What if we were not welcome?

As we climbed the hills out of Hidalgo del Parral, we knew we were on 
the final leg of our mission. Our stride of peddling that afternoon had 
a little more speed and power expressing our anxiety.

During the next 48 hours, until our arrival Sunday afternoon in La 
Esperanza, the question of "what if they don't want us?" came up several 
times. In this newsletter we share with you just what happened when we 
got there.
George & Holly


THE ARRIVAL

On Saturday morning we awoke to a beautiful sunrise in the horse pasture 
we picked for our camp the night before. After we packed and wished the 
horses a "good day!" we rode twelve miles where we were stopped at a 
livestock inspectionroadblock. When we asked about a place to get a cup 
of coffee, they insisted we come in their trailer and were served 
coffee, juice and hot tamales. After an hour and a half of H drawing 
their pictures and a tour of the facility, we left with sandwiches for 
our lunch, and feeling we had been adopted by people who were sincerely 
interested in our project. 
That afternoon we visited two pueblos as we headed south; both had a 
good feeling. We commented to each other that if we were not welcome in 
La Esperanza we could most likely establish a rapport in any of the 
small pueblos in the area. These thoughts and observations greatly 
relieved our minds.
Sunday we were up early to start our last 42 miles to La Esperanza. We felt 
good and rode at a quick clip, stopping once for coffee. As vehicles passed 
us, the people waved and seemed to know we were coming. We arrived at the 
entrance of what  we were now calling our town at 3:00 PM and rode slowly 
along the main street toward the store of our hosts. We were greeted by the 
sounds of roosters crowing and music playing in the distance. Cows and pigs 
moseyed along the hard dirt road. As we neared, we could see some kids 
opening and closing the door of the store as though giving a report of our 
arrival to those inside. We parked our bikes against the fence posts and 
nervously entered the store.

As we entered the store, Gabino and Lucina's eyes lit up and everybody 
sitting around the store had a smile on their face. We greeted each 
other and renewed our friendship of last year. We learned they had not 
received our letters. Our friendly welcome was due to word being out in 
the area that two bicyclists were headed south. Gabino and Lucina 
thought it might be us. We showed them copies of the letters we had sent 
and waited for their reply. We emphasized they need to take their time 
and discuss the letters before making a decision. They looked at each 
other and quickly discussed the matter before they said to us, they 
liked the idea. We think they might have discussed us living and working 
with them when they first heard of us coming toward their town. We were 
two happy people.


HOW ARE OUR BIKES?

We still haven't found the right size spoke for Holly's bike, but we are going 
to increase our efforts because now she has two broken. She is going to have 
quit "power peddling" until we get the spokes.

My seat is getting more comfortable but it still isn't my favorite.  I made a 
few minor adjustments to both bikes after we arrived in La Esperanza, but saw no 
major problems. It's pretty amazing how well these mountain bikes have held up 
with the load we carry and roads we travel.

"We've got to practice saying the double 'r' in Spanish."


OUR FAMILY AND HOME

Our hosts, Lucina and Gabino Michel, have been married 44 years and have 
nine children, ages 30-39. The youngest is Moses who lives at home and 
helps withthe ranch. He has a truck in which he likes to play the radio 
very loud, and a girlfriend in another town, whom he visits on Saturday 
nights. Another son, Gabino Jr., lives in La Esperanza with his wife and 
four children. The otherseven children have moved away, living in 
Juarez, Houston, Los Angeles and Chicago. Three live in Chicago and work 
together in a factory manufacturing wood cabinets and furniture.

Lucina and Gabino have lived in La Esperanza since the beginning of the 
ejito. They have a lot of land and work very hard, so they are well off 
and are leaders in the community. Their store and house, like most other 
buildings in La Esperanza, are cement block with cement floors. Their 
store, typical of others we found throughout Mexico, was one room about 
20' x 25' and painted turquoise green. As you enter, there is an "L" 
shaped counter the full length of the room. Behind the counter, two 
walls are lined with shelves to the ceiling. They carry a little of 
everything: fresh fruits and vegetables, medicines, and notebooks. In 
the corner is a refrigerator full of sodas that are often frozen.


Customers bring shopping bags with them to the store and name off the 
things they want to buy. Items to be weighed are laid on a piece of 
brown paper that becomes the bag. Many people have an account. The 
records are kept in a notebook and are paid whenever an animal or crop 
is sold. A newspaper on the counter is used as adding paper. The money 
is kept in cardboard boxes behind the counter. 

Benches line the other two walls where people sit, drink their cokes, 
and visit.
The store is open every day from 7:30 AM to 8:30 or 9:00 PM. Lucina, 
Gabino and Moses each take turns in the store, but Lucina is the only 
one that knows all the prices. She works non-stop either in the store or 
in the kitchen. 

The kitchen is next to the store. It is about 20' x 15', painted yellow 
with unvarnished, wood cabinets all around, and a wood ceiling from her 
children in Chicago. Lucina's kitchen has all the modern conveniences we 
are used to: stainless steel double sink with hot and cold water, gas 
stove, refrigerator, electric appliances, even a TV, VCR and a micro-
wave (used only when the children visit from the US). Lucina serves 
three hot meals to everyone, individually, everyday as Moses and Gabino 
seem not to have set schedules. We eat whenever she calls us, and 
sometimes she eats with us.

From the kitchen one goes out to a large patio enclosed by three 
buildings that make up the living quarters. Each room has a door to the 
patio. Our room is one used for guests and storage. We have three double 
beds, four dressers, two wardrobes (all full), a table and three chairs. 
Our room is next to the garden and animals on one side, and is next to 
the laundry room and bathroom on the other. We are very comfortable. 
During the night many cats scurry across the tin roof; in the morning we 
awake to sounds of chickens and roosters crowing and dogs barking.

"Now we know what 'machismo' means. That woman works 15 hours a day to 
keep everybody happy."


LUCINA THE COOK

Typical of the Mexican diet, Lucina's fare includes a lot of sopa 
(soup), chile beans and corn tortillas. Most all dishes are fried or oil 
is added for flavoring. Breakfast is served after 9:00 AM, dinner, the 
main meal, is at 2:30 PM and supper, which is leftover breakfast and 
dinner, is at 7:30 PM. All meals include beans, tortillas and chile (our 
digestive systems are still making a "pressurized" adjustment). Except 
for the tortillas, most dishes are served as a soup. Lucina starts by 
frying onions, tomatoes and garlic, followed by different combinations 
of potatoes, meat, chile, cheese, squash, spaghetti or rice. 

"I'm afraid to touch you for fear you might explode."

From Lucina's kitchen:

Corn tortillas - Corn meal and water only; mixture is pressed flat and 
cooked on an ungreased griddle.

Flour tortillas - White flour, lard, baking powder and sugar; dough is 
rolled into a thin pancake and cooked on the griddle.

Jalapeno salsa - Jalapeno chilies, tomatoes, onion and cilantro, 
chopped; it's hot but healthy. This same mixture, adding garlic, is 
blended to a pure.

Hot Jalapeno salsa - Jalapeno chilies cut lengthwise and cooked with 
wedges of tomato and onion, and cow cheese that doesn't ever seem to 
melt but does get soft.

Cooked tomato salsa - Six tomatoes cooked in water with four dried, very 
hot, red chilies and two cloves garlic; after tomatoes are cooked soft, 
blend and serve with sliced onion and oregano.

Rice & leche - Rice cooked in fresh cow's milk with sugar, eaten as a 
cereal. If blended it's called " Atole."

Avena - A fine harina cooked in water; it's not a thick cereal, but with 
banana slices, very tasty. Also called " Moosh."


EJIDO LA ESPERANZA

"I can't think of the words (Spanish) fast enough to hold a fluent 
conversation."

The address of our town is Ejido La Esperanza, Durango, Mexico. We 
wondered for a long time what "ejito" meant; many other pueblos are also 
called ejitos. This really intrigued us. After numerous conversations as 
to what an ejito was, we understand the concept. People who wantto have 
land to live on and grow crops and raise animals write to the government 
of their state requesting such. When the government receives enough 
requests from a group in the same area wanting to support themselves, a 
plot of land is dedicated towards that purpose. The land of Ejido La 
Esperanza, 6000 acres, was laid out and mapped. Depending on the size of 
the family, each is assigned a house lot and so many eight acre farm 
plots. Each family must build their own house and prepare their fields. 
Beans and corn, the primary crops, are sold only to the government. The 
government sells these beans and corn to the people of Mexico at a very 
reasonable price. In other words, the farmers use the land for free 
selling the crops at a profit, and the total population buys the crops 
at an affordable price. It's kind of a welfare program that doesn't 
require taxation.


EJIDO LA ESPERANZA

FACTS AND HISTORY

Ejido La Esperanza was formed as an ejito 24 years ago. The Michel 
family, our hosts, was one of the original families, and with nine 
children, acquired ten farm plots of eight acres each. Last year they 
sold forty tons of beans to the government program. Some families own 
tractors, others use horse and plow. About 75 families, or 400 people, 
live in the ejito along with 1000 cows and 100 horses roaming freely. 
The animals all know which house to return to for food and water. There 
is no irrigation system so the growing season includes July, August and 
September, the rainy season. Gardens for family consumption are planted 
in the spring and hand watered until the rainy season. For the first 
five years, the ejito had no well. Water was trucked in and stored in a 
cistern. Today each house pays $10.00 every three months for an 
unlimited amount of water. 

Electricity and one TV channel costs an average of $10.00 per month. 
There is no sewer plant so no EPA. One can sell an eight month old calf 
for $250.00. There are five small stores in this ejito, however, to buy 
things other than the basics, one must ride two hours on the bus to the 
closest big town. There is a primary school and secondary school, 
although the requirement is only to attend the primary, grades one 
through six. The one church is Catholic. "Entertainment" is a basketball 
court with bent down rims, and gathering on corners to gossip and talk 
politics.

WATER

Water comes from a community well with an electric pump. The pump is 
only turned on for two hours each morning. This means that each family 
must collect and store all the water needed during this two hour period. 
Here is how it works at our house:

Behind the house is a large underground tank with a submersible pump and 
a long hose. There are two 50 gallon tanks on the roof, one over the 
kitchen and one over the bathroom. The tanks on the roof are equipped 
with float valve systems andfill themselves. The corrals in the backyard 
share a cement watering tank for 12 cows, 1 horse and a pig. This tank 
is topped off every morning. 

Other things to be filled every morning are done with a hose (George 
gets to do some mornings).  First, you fill about 10 watering 
containers...from chamber pots to sardine cans for the 40 chickens. Next 
to be filled is the 55 gallon drum outside the toilet and the reservoir 
next to the scrubbing sink in the laundry room. Last to fill is the 30 
gallon plastic container outside the kitchen which is used for drinking 
and cooking, and must be boiled for 15 minutes. Each time the toilet is 
flushed, a pail must be filled by dipping it in the 55 gallon drum and 
the water poured down the toilet. For some reason the tank on the roof 
is not plumbed to the john or the sink. We wash our clothes, and brush 
our teeth, by dipping a plastic margarine container into the reservoir 
next to the scrub sink and pouring the water over our clothes or 
toothbrush. The wash sink and the shower drain into the back yard where 
the chickens seem to find something good to eat in the water. I guess 
soap tastes better to chickens than to us. 

If we want a glass of water, there is a special rock, holding about 2 or 
3 gallons of boiled water, that sits on top of a screened en-closure. 
The funnel-shaped rock is porous and our water drips one drop at a time, 
cool and refreshing, into a large crock pot. It's the best tasting water 
around.

If we want a hot shower, we have to use our "scout" skills. We build a 
fire under the boiler behind the bano (bathroom), wait ten minutes for 
the water to heat, and shower. It's a neat concept that cuts down on 
showers and the utility bill.


AN EJITO TV SYSTEM

Most ejitos have a one channel satellite system that can be powered by 
solar panels. The Mexican channel is received off a satellite and 
retransmitted at low power through an antenna or a pole. The signal can 
be received on an indoor antenna for about a mile away. These unique 
systems cost next to nothing tooperate, and supply news and 
entertainment to the ejito.

THE CHURCH

The church sits on a barren dirt lot surrounded by a barbed wire fence. 
It sits across from Gabino and Lucina's store and next to the basketball 
court. It is a simple, gray 25' x 60' cinder-block building about 15 
years old. Nothing on the outside indicates it is a church, but there is 
a bell hanging off one of the cement rafter ends. The entry is lined 
with a row of young, struggling pine trees.

Inside, the 12' high walls are plastered and painted white. It has a 
rough cement floor and eight wooden pews in front by the alter. A large 
red curtain is the backdrop for the alter. There are two crudely made 
wood tables, one for the priest and one for the patron saint, San 
Isedro. The statue of San Isedro is colorfully painted plaster with two 
parts. One part is the praying saint with a bag of seeds and the other 
is a team of oxen pulling a plow, guided by an angel. There are several 
bouquets of cloth and plastic flowers around the statues.

The walls of the church have small windows high on one side and are 
adorned with most of the stations of the cross. These are 5" x 7" faded 
and water stained, color prints in small frames with glass, spaced about 
ten feet apart.  The priest comes once a month, around the 15th.


HOLLY'S PROJECT

Our hosts had the only key to the church. After a short discussion we 
learned that their main concern was getting a new roof. The existing one 
was held up by pillars that block the view as one enters the church, and 
it leaks all down the middle isle. They want a new roof and no pillars.

Lucina liked the idea of making the stations of the cross and getting 
different families to help with each one. It would be a good way to get 
more people involved in the church, and they could easily be put up or 
taken down to be protected from the rain. It was decided that I would 
make a small sample of the patron saint so people could see my work and 
decide for themselves if they wanted to get involved in such a project.

George and I spent two days scouring the town for things I could use. 
This town is amazingly clean. In the street we could only find small 
pieces of broken glass bottles, bottle caps, rusted, flattened tin cans, 
bits of wire, a few plastic bags, and empty packages of chips or candy. 
Here, tortillas are made from flour packaged in paper bags that are 
reused as shopping bags or burned. The beans come in woven plastic bags; 
these are plentiful and would be good for an inner structure of the 
piece. In La Esperanza, paper trash is burned and the rest is dumped on 
the outskirts of town. Here we found a few scraps of old clothes, lots 
of shoes and plastic bottles. There were lots of turquoise-green plastic 
Clorox bottles and a few new looking, red aluminum Tecate cans.

After laying out San Isedro, the angel and the oxen, the smallest it 
could be was 3' x 3½'. The more I thought the more complicated it got. I 
needed another plan.

In the evening of the first two nights we were in La Esperanza, Lucina 
brought a portrait of the Virgin Mary holding the Baby Jesus into the 
kitchen and lit a candle. Then it disappeared. We learned that this 
portrait travels from house to house throughout the year. Each family 
gets it for one week and then passes it on. It will be more than a year 
before it returns to our house. I decided to make a small sample like 
this portrait that would be a present to Lucina and Gabino for their 
hospitality. San Isedro would be good for a first community project. 
Lucina liked this idea and found a few more scraps of new fabric and 
lace for the project.

I laid the piece out to be 18" square. First I appliqued and embroidered 
the scraps of fabric and the plastic bean bag onto the woven plastic 
bags. Then I useda piece of barbed wire for the frame, and cut up the 
Tecate cans and Clorox bottles to form red and white flowers for the 
corners. It was finished in three days!

On Friday, when the piece was almost finished, the priest came to say 
Mass. Twenty-one people showed up including one man and one child. After 
Mass, Lucina showed the project to the women and asked if they would 
like to work on a piece of San Isedro for the church. They were silent 
at first, but finally agreed it would be a good idea. Next week when I 
am ready for help, I am to ring the bell, and they will come. 


THOUGHTS AFTER ONE WEEK

We have learned about the macho traditions of Mexico and seen how hard 
the women work. It started out with H working very hard to finish her 
sample project and George looking for something else to do. On the day H 
started sewing, Gabino and Moses were out of town so she was invited to 
sew in the kitchen. Lucina took time off to help sew all afternoon. That 
evening when the men returned, the project was moved to our living 
quarters and H never got invited back to the kitchen. George tried to 
help Lucina in the kitchen and the store, but was only allowed to sweep 
the floor and only when Gabino was not around. Never was he allowed to 
mop. Lucina would let H help in the kitchen peeling and cutting 
vegetables. H could also serve George food or coffee. So far George has 
been able to clean beans in the kitchen and fill water containers 
outside. When no one was looking, he took the stove apart and fixed the 
burners so they would light automatically, without the matches. Lucina 
thought that was pretty neat, but we don't think Gabino knows.

When we visit other homes we see that we are well-off. Most homes are 
just two or three rooms. The kitchens have gas stoves but no running 
water or refrigerator. The other rooms are bedrooms and often only 
separated with scraps of fabric.  By the end of our first week we are 
grateful for our gracious hosts, but feel we have not been able to get 
to know the community as quickly as we had hoped. The people are very 
shy and there is no outside gathering place with benches. The language 
has been very frustrating for both of us. H arrived in town with only a 
few empty pages left in her sketch book, and these were quickly used up. 
None of the stores in town had notebooks with blank pages so the trick 
of getting to know people by passing out drawings hasn't worked. We have 
not been able to mingle with the people as much as we had hoped, but 
next week should be better. 


Next week we will start going to the secondary school to teach English 
and drawing in the afternoons. H will also start working on the project 
in the church after school. We have been invited to a birthday party and 
to visit some other homes. We will mail this newsletter from Gomez where 
H will be able to get some blank notebooks. We look forward to a week 
full of socializing.

"While teaching English, how can we get them to stop rolling their r's 
when they talk English?"
 
ADVENTURES OF GEORGE & HOLLY
PO BOX 1866
SOCORRO, NM 87801
USA