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Stranger in a Strange Land Newsletter: October 2006

Dear Readers,
I'd like to say I planned it all out. I'd like to say I decided to start studying the anthropology and archeology of Mesoamerica online while travelling around Mexico seeing the ruins of the very same ancient cities I'm studying; that I intended to arrive on the exact day that the most important archaeological find in nearly thirty years was reported and to go the next day to the exact spot in Mexico City it was discovered; that I intended to arrive in Oaxaca (pronounced "wuh-ha-ka"), a beautiful city in a valley in southern Mexico, just as tension is building four months after the people took over the city and kicked-out the local government; and finally that I intentionally told my readers I was going to stay around Boston for awhile only to surprise them a few months later by writing to them from San Cristobol a colonial city in the mountains of Chiapas in the south of Estados Unidos Mexicanos.

But to be honest, the only thing I can take credit for is changing my mind about staying in Boston this fall: I realized I couldn't live my life as much as I wanted to this fall in Boston, my home, and decided to go somewhere else. I went to Korea one year ago to make sure I lived my life because I was afraid I wasn't and I wouldn't in the future. Now I came to Mexico two weeks ago to live it. It's working out okay.

I don't know if I'm getting better at this, Mexico is just a cool country, or it's attributable to my academic studies of the country as I travel but this trip has been wonderful actually! Things have just fallen together and I'm really thankful for it. I've seen colorful wool textiles made by indigenous women with old wrinkled faces in Teotitlan in the mountains of Oaxaca right before seeing a huge 2,000 years old tree. I've been taught salsa by Mexican girls on two separate occasions and a Mexican man yesterday taught a class at my hostel. My partner was a Dutch girl as inexperienced as I but after awhile a Korean girl who knew what she doing, took mercy on me and helped me on timing the twirl correctly. I've met and travelled with lots of cool foreigners from Canada, Ireland, Australia, England, Germany, and of course the Korean and Danish couples who quit their jobs, sold their homes, and decided to travel around the world. After all, why not? On my first day in the frightful metropolis of Mexico City I met a lovely Mexican girl in the park, who had the day off from her university, offered to show me around the amazing historical center of Mexico City on account that it might be too dangerous for me.

We saw the colonial cathedral erected by the Spanish, the Aztec temple ruined by the Spanish, the museum there filled with amazing archaeological pieces, and the colorful dramatic murals of Diego Rivera. I've climbed the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon and walked down the Avenue of the Dead at the great ancient city of Teotihuacan (which means "City of the Gods" if you didn't find those other names dramatic enough). I've visited the house of Frida Kahlos and seen the bed she slept and died in and the eisle she painted on. I've seen the ruins of a court for an ancient ball game played by Mesoamerican civilizations often with very high stakes for those who did not play skillfully enough with that rubber ball.... I've eaten some tacos.

Oaxaca was an amazing place because of the city all that surrounds it. Four months ago teachers in Oaxaca convened in the center of the city to protest for higher wages as they have many years in a row apparently. But this year the governor sent in police to stop the protest and they ended up killing many people, including women and
children, and many more teachers are unaccounted for. The people didn't like this. And so they kicked-out the police and the local government and have been governing and policing themselves for four months with the occasional raid by the police.

They built up barricades around the center of the city made from tires, sheet metal, cars, buses, and who knows what else. You can almost always WALK around the barricades on the sidewalk and many of them are only up at night to impede the police attacks. There was one that was up right in front of my hostel at nighttime. Anyway, one person said before I went there that as long as you're not a Mexican politician you'll be fine in Oaxaca. That seemed to be true while I was there. It's amazing to walk around and see how people have decorated their city with political graffiti of all sorts, but most especially: "Fuera URO de Oaxaca" ("Kick URO, the governor, out of Oaxaca"). The federal government has yet to heed this request which seems to be the only thing the members of APPO, the group created during this crisis and now in charge of Oaxaca, all seem to agree on. The government wants the city back and makes threats but the people are clear that they won't give it back until Governor Uilises Ruiz Ortiz is kicked-out. We'll see what happens.

Me, I left Oaxaca last Sunday, actually just starting to feel a little uneasy there, I've been in San Cristobol a few days and now on Friday morning I go to Guatemala, a mere six hour drive away, and will hopefully be back in Mexico for the Day of the Dead on November 1st and 2nd. My plane leaves for Boston from Mexico City on December 14th, 2006, so I'll be back soon and in time for the holidays. I hope to stay in one city for awhile and teach English or at least study in one place and cut down on my expenses.

Thanks so much for reading this, kind readers, and always feel free to write with questions and comments.

With warm regards,
Eli Stranger in a Strange Land