Migration

These photographs are part of a project with Marin Immigration Rights Coalition to gather stories from mexican and guatemalans who have migrated to the US in search of work. MIRC is producing a video and these images will be exhibited alongside excerpts of the stories collected.

the Border

From the air, flying south of Phoenix, a perfect grid of roads divides the land into large squares of farmland that are interrupted occasionally by irrigated crop circles, or mountains. Past a certain point the Sonoran desert becomes desert again, stretching south past Tuscon, Nogales and beyond; miles and miles of dry scrub land, seemingly empty of any life.

The Sonoran desert however, is currently the busiest sector for migrants crossing. Known as the Tuscon sector, it is here that a substantial amount of migrants are apprehended daily by border patrol; 378,000 in 2007 alone, an average of more than 1,000 a day.

The Tuscon sector covers 262 miles of desert, from Yuma county line to the Arizona, New Mexico state line. The ‘immigration highway’ travels through tough and dangerous desert terrain, the way through is impossible without paying the ‘coyotes’ or guides. Thousands of people risk it everyday in an attempt to reach America and the possibility of work, and
many don’t make it through; they get lost and die of dehydration or exposure , get picked up by Border patrol, or become victim to gangs that prey on them.

At the comfortably air conditioned Tuscon Federal Court, one can witness Operation Arizona Denial Prosecution Initiative in progress. The initiative, in effect since January 2008, is Arizona's latest response to illegal immigration and is modeled on a similar initiative in Texas. The initiative criminally prosecutes 60 ‘randomly selected’ migrants out of every 1000 detained by border patrol. This daily quota of 60 detainees is criminally charged ‘en-masse’ for illegal entry. The entire court proceeding takes approximately 45 minutes. Those caught with no previous convictions are given a criminal misdemeanor record and deported, those with prior convictions are sentenced and sent by the Federal Marshall to a private prison facility in Florence which is operated by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). CCA receives between 10 and 12 million dollars a month from the government for this service. Deportees are transported to the Mariposa border gate at Nogales, by a private security transport firm, Wackenhut. Wackenhut has a 5 year 250 million dollar contract with the government to transport deported migrants.

Nogales Mexico is divided from Nogales, USA, by a border wall constructed out of decommissioned landing strips from the first Gulf War. Flat roofed houses spill over the sides of brown eroded hills. There are some work opportunities here in the US owned maquilladores, but most deportees will return to a ‘port of entry’ further south to try and enter the US again. According to the Center for Migrants (Centro Comunitario de Atención a Migrantes y Necesitados), CCAMYN, 65% of migrants attempting to enter illegally fail on their first attempt; most will try to 3-5 times, and as many as 96% eventually make it. Whether the criminalization of illegal entry will change these numbers remains to be seen.

One and a half hours south of Nogales, the town of Altar, Sonora, Mexico is a hub for migrants preparing to cross. It is connected to the border town of Sasabe, by a 98 k dirt road. Migrants come from as far south as Central America, to this bleak, dusty town, to find a coyote to lead them from Sasabe, on the four-day walk, through the desert, to Tucson. Altar has profited immensely from the migrant economy. Once not much more than a cow town- it has doubled in size in the last 10 years, providing lodging, food, transport and coyote guides to migrants. In the town square, migrants gather to find a coyote. Stores surrounding the square sell backpacks and water bottles.

Migrants are also known as 'chickens', and the coyotes that lead them as ‘polleros’. The migrants stay in cheap and rudimentary ‘hospitality houses’ in Altar and are at the mercy of their guides, literally placing their lives in their hands. A coyote can cost as much as $3000 US. The town has an impression of lawlessness; certainly there is no visible sign of police. A well controlled system of hundreds of numbered vans and buses regularly make the trip to Sasabe. The cost is approximately 70 pesos. Armed, masked men reportedly control the road, and traveling without their protection is extremely dangerous.

The official figure is that 500 people a year die trying to cross the desert, but its probable that only one third of the dead are found, as a body can decompose and disappear within 10 days in this environment. Causes of documented death include exposure, hypothermia and the victims of gangs that rob them of the little they are carrying, often leaving them with nothing and sometimes, dead. Coyotes mislead their chickens into believing that the journey will only take a few hours, and not three to five days of strenuous walking through intense heat with only the water they can carry.

Crossing the border was not always such a daunting, dangerous task. In the early 1990’s the San Diego and El Paso sectors of the border were the busiest. Operation Hold the Line in El Paso, begun in 1993, and Operation Gatekeeper, in San Diego, provided added patrols and checkpoints to those sectors, and in effect, funneled the migrant traffic through this southwest desert area, perceived by to be too difficult to cross by foot or vehicle due to the rugged terrain, and desert.


NAFTA was supposed to reduce immigration by bolstering Mexico’s GDP with free trade initiatives. According to a report by The Council on Hemispheric Affairs, “It was ebulliently predicted by these incorrigible NAFTA optimists that by approximately 2024, Mexican GDP per capita would be half that of the United States and through trade liberalization policies, immigration would no longer occur in such high volumes as to create concerns. ” Mexican GDP, was one quarter that of the US in 2006.

Organizations and People

John Fife: John is a former pastor of Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson and one of the founding members of the Sanctuary Movement.

No More Deaths: No More Deaths is a diverse coalition of individuals, faith communities, human rights advocates, and grassroots organizers who work for justice along the U.S.- Mexico border, that includes movable desert camps, support of migrant aid centers, maintenance of water stations, Samaritan patrols that search the desert for migrants in need, and advocacy on behalf of migrant-related issues.

Grupos Beta. Mexico: Grupos Beta is a federally funded agency that offers basic services and information to migrants who are heading north on the desert and its dangers as well as their rights once they cross into the U.S. They also offer limited shelter and food to repatriated migrants and work with the Mexican consulates in the U.S. to locate missing people or to coordinate rescue missions.

DIF Shelter for Repatriated Minors:houses children between the ages of 14-17 who attempt to cross the border alone in search of work to support their families or to reunite with parents already in the United States.

CCAMYN (Centro Comunitario de Atención a Migrantes y Necesitados / Attention Center for Migrants and those in Need): CCAMYN is a catholic center located in Altar, Sonora, Mexico that offers free lodging and food for migrants heading north. The purpose is to give vulnerable migrants, who are often taken advantage of by their “guides,” a free and safe place to stay. They also give advice concerning dangers that they may face and encourage the migrants to watch out for each other.

Environmental destruction and and Health Harms in the Siria Valley, Honduras.

(A Good Reason Why Not to Buy New Gold Jewellry )

In October Rights Action led an educational delegation to Honduras, to investigate the environmental destruction and health risks caused by the Goldcorp Inc. owned gold mine, in the Siria Valley, Department of Francisco Morazan, Honduras. During our three day visit to the region, we were hosted by the Siria Valley Environmental Defense Committee, a local organization that has been reporting on the effects of the mine over the past 6 years.

Goldcorp’s heap- leach mining operation is harmful to the environment and the health of the surrounding communities for a variety of reasons: the use of cyanide to leech gold from excavated ore exposes the area to heavy metals. Multiple health harms are associated with heavy metal contamination, including skin diseases, skin infections, hair loss, respiratory problems and birthing complications. In addition, substantial amounts of water are used in heap-leach mining, resulting in regional water shortages.



Hector, from San Miguel Ixtahuacan, Guatemala, speaks with Roger Escobar of the Siria Valley Environmental Defense Committee.

The delegation was comprised of 15 people: eight from North America and seven from Guatemala. Guatemalan delegates from the munciplaities of Sipakapa and San Miguel Ixtahuacan, are facing a similar situation caused by a Goldcorp Inc.’s operation. Mayan-Q’eqchi’ delegates from the department of Izabal are opposing a Canadian Skye Resources nickel mining company that is trying to re-start open pit nickel mining. Two members of our delegation had seen their homes destroyed. See:Resources below on forced evictions.



A chain-linked fence, topped by barbed wire surrounds the “Entre Mares” (Goldcorp’s wholly owned subsidiary in Honduras) mining compound. Goldcorp, a Canadian based company, has its corporate office based in Vancouver, Canada.


click on image to see a larger view.

HEAP- LEACH MINING:
Heap- Leach mining using cyanide is the cheapest way to extract gold from excavated ore. Goldcorp Inc. claims to be the world’s lowest cost producer of gold. “Low cost production leads to high profits..." a community health worker from Porvenir told us, "...but causes high amounts of environmental destruction and health problems in our communities”.

For every two tonnes of mountain excavated, one tonne is discarded on site; one tonne is stacked in huge heaps for processing. At the end of the day, it takes two tonnes of earth, to produce 0.79 grams of marketable gold. Approximately 78% of newly mined gold each year goes towards jewelry fabrication – rings, bracelets, earrings. In the United States, demand for gold jewelry continues to rise. It is these high demands for jewelry that legitimate the large scale gold mining industry’s further exploitation of the resource.



Excavated ore is moved to large heaps, and saturated with cyanide solution that slowly leaches down through the heaps, and then channeled to tailing pools. The Siria Valley Environmental Defense Committee told us that some of the pools are not lined with plastic sheeting, which minimizes cyanide leeching into the groundwater, in order to cut costs. Low cost production also means there are no covers to prevent wildlife entering the pools.



Driving around the edge of the mine site, we were shown where some seepage had occurred.

CONTAMINATION IN AIR AND WATER :
Cyanide, a heavy metal, when found in groundwater, is toxic. Cyanide and oxicidized ore cause a further risk when entering the air, as does dust released during dynamiting.



HEALTH ISSUES
Dr. Juan Almendares is a former rector of the National University, former Deacon of the National Medical Institute, a former political prisoner and torture victim (during the time of the USA and western-backed military regimes of the 1980s) and a medical doctor. Founding member of Madre Tierra, an environmental defense and community development organization, Dr. Almendares has led environmental and health study brigades to the Siria Valley to investigate the impacts of the mine.

After more than 6 years of studies Madre Tierra has found dangerous levels of cadmium, arsenic, lead, mercury, aluminum in blood and urine samples, and in the earth and water.



The health problems documented and attributed to mine related causes are; respiratory problems, rashes, pigmentation of skin, chronic skin infections, dry eye, muscular weakness in infants (and newborn calves) and an increase in miscarriages in women.







The most extreme case we saw was in the relocated community of Palo Ralo de San Jose. A 2 yr old girl, Lesly , has impaired motor ability - she cannot walk or hold her upper body upright. The fact that her father worked for 7 years in the mine, dealing directly with dangerous chemicals is suspected as being the cause of her disability.

Goldcorp/ Entre Mares has stated that the cause of the health problems in the communities surrounding the mine is lack of hygiene .



WATER:
Our visit to the municipalities of Porvenir and San Ignacio was during the rainy season, yet we crossed 11 dry river beds on the way to the mine. The 1998 Honduran mining law reforms grant unlimited use of water to the mining concerns, for free. Over-use of water by the mining operation and heavy metal contamination in ground water has profoundly affected the communites around the mine. Water shortages have led to a decline in agricultural production. As a result the local economy has suffered and now the main source of income comes from remissions sent from the US., as younger people have left to find work and a livlihood elsewhere.



Wells for the local population have been dug by Goldcopr to offset the water crisis, but many have been found to be contaminated. Behind this “Entre Mares Water for Domestic Use” well, one sees the leach heaps.



The community of Palo Ralo drank water for close to 4 years from this well that Goldcorp/ Entre Mares dug. It turned out that the water was contaminated with dangerous levels of heavy metals. The company has since shut down this well and locked it. No follow-up studies on the water have been permitted.

THE PENDING CLOSURE OF THE MINE:
Goldcorp plans to close the mine in 2009. They have published a mine closure plan describing plans to reforest the entire disrupted area, including the leach-heaps! They have not announced plans to compensate for the harms and destruction that the mining operation has caused.



IMPUNITY IS THE NORM: MINING MADE EASY:
In the aftermath of Hurrican Stan in 1998, the Honduran Congress passed a new mining law, granting large incentives for mining concessions without public review or consultation. It is rumoured that North American mining companies had a significant influence on the new mining bill. Glamis Gold (later to become Goldcorp Inc.) received its concession without fully consulting the affected communities and began mining before it received a mining exploration license. Criminal charges were filed against Glamis Gold and the San Ignacio mayor for improperly granting the mining license. These charges languish today in the court system, typical of legal and administrative procedures related to the mine.

Our delegation spoke with Bertha Oliva, of COFADEH (Committee of Family Members of the Disappeared in Honduras). Sitting in front of photographs of some of the “disappeared” in Honduras, Bertha spoke of the structures of political and legal impunity, where the legal systems always works in defense and support of the interests of the wealthy and powerful sectors.
We also spoke with Clarissa Vega, former State environmental prosecutor, now working as a private lawyer. She explained that petitions have been filed in the Honduran courts –to no avail. Public outcry and national protests against mining in July 2007 led to police suppression and detentions. The lawyer reminded us: “There is a lot of risk to struggle against mining”.

Resources:
DON’T BUY NEW GOLD JEWLLERY No Dirty Gold Campaign

"Cyanide & Gold:Is a US Mining Company Poisoning the People of Honduras?"
J.Barnes, http://web.mit.edu/hemisphere/events/porvenir.shtml:

"Cyanide Be Gone! Keep Our Waterways Clean."
http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/gold/cyanide.htm:

www.rightsaction.org: information about on-going mining-related struggles in Guatemala.

Forced Evictions in El Estor : YouTube (search: El Estor evictions). Steven Schnoor

TEXT: thanx to Grahame Russell.

Honduras: Tegucigalpa

Woman in front of store.



Woman at market.



Exhibit at Military Museum.



Child with Halloween mask.



Religious paraphenalia.

Chiapas and the Zapatistas - a first encounter.

The highlands of Chiapas are overwhelmingly green, mountainous and dramatic. Its hard to imagine anyone 'conquering' this impossible seeming landscape. Over the last 13 years, since the Zaptista uprising of 1994, the Mexican government has moved 70 000 of its military into the area, mostly to repress the Zapatistas and their movement for autonomy.



My first encounter with the masked people of the EZLN was at CEDICI-UniTierra in San Cristobla del las Casa- the old colonial city center of the Chiapan Highlands. Hundreds of people were packed into a small conference room to hear the round table on 'Defending the Earth and its Territories,' with delegates from Brazil, India and Korea. I think many of the large crowd came to see and hear the mysterious subcommandante Marcos, the white skinned, spokesperson of the Zapatistas.



Marcos has been critized for gaining a cultish following, but his high profile stratergy has, in some incidents, used the attention of well known members of western civil society, to prevent repressive actions by the Zedillo and Chiapas state government. If we are looking for the romance of a heroic leader, Marcos with his poetry and metaphoric tales, could fit the bill. The Zapatista struggle, however, has been anything but romantic.



Emerging armed and dangerous in 1994 with a force that shook the government, the Zapatistas put aside their weapons and entered 20 months of lengthy negotaitions with the government that came to nothing. Called the San Andreas Accords, the government never followed through on its adoption of the Indian Accords. The Zapatistas began to create their own autonomous communities, claiming about 38 autonomous zones in Chiapas by 2000.





The governments response since 1994 to the Zapatistsa, has been the intense militirization of Chiapas, with over 70 000 troops, (2) occupying Chiapas and intimidating local communites. Over the last 13 years, thousands of Indians have been jailed, tortured or killed: suspected leaders, supporters, orgnizers, participants or those affiliated with the Zapatistsa movement. The threat of autonomy was too much for the then Zedillo administration and it, and the Chiapan government, reacted with added brutality. Many members of autonomous communities had to flee into the mountains(3) for safety, as the government troops destroyed their villages.

It was not, nor remains, only the army involved in this " dirty war". Government armed paramilitaries, mostly PRI supporters, have intimidated and killed Zapatistsa and their allies. Some of the more horrific incidents on record are: Acteal 1997, El Bosque 1998, El Charco, 1998.


The Church at Ateal , where 47 people, mostly women and children of Las Abejas (the bees) were gunned down in cold blood while the military at a nearby base did not intervene.




There is something almost magical about these masked men and women. Small in stature and beautifully dressed in bright colors and ribbons, their image has been commercialized on posters, t-shirts, coffee cups and dolls in the tourists markets of San Cristobal. The Zapatistsas are however, deadly serious about the" work" that they have before them.

The Intergalatica with the Zapatistas and the People of the World, at Morelia, 2007, was my second encounter with the Zapatistas and their deliberate and thorough way of community assembly - something so different from a meeting structure in the west. Over hours and hours, the speeches eventually merged into one consistent voice of struggle against the bad government and conditions of poverty. Its a strange process of acculturation to sit for hours and listen. In the assembly structure, each person is heard, each community represented.



The Zapatistsas have since 2006 begun organizing beyond their territory, through the Other Campaign, a stratergy developed in reaction to Calderón's contested election victory in 2006. It reaches north and south, east and west across Mexico and unites all indigenous people in the same struggle- essentailly one of autonomy over land and resources and against the "mal gobierno" that fails to address the needs of the indigenous communities in Mexico.



1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzotzil
2. The War Against Oblivion" Ross, John: Common Courage Press.
3. ibid

Oaxaca

(click on images for larger view)


(click on images for larger view)
The Mexican state of Oaxaca has been embroiled in a conflict since May 2006 that has resulted in at least 18 deaths and over 300 illegal arrests and detentions by the government. The conflict emerged in May 2006 with violent action by the Oaxacan Police towards the local teacher's union during their 25th annual teacher's strike and has grown into a broad-based movement of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) against the state's governor, Ulises Ruiz.



APPO is a broad based group comprised of indigenous and other communities, and the teachers union, human rights groups, and religious groups.



Oaxaca has a long history of popular organizing including agricultural struggles for territory, social struggles for infrastructural needs, and community struggles for the rights of traditions and customs.



"In Oaxaca there is a particular resistance, because of the way communities traditionally live, it enables resistance of oppression in all aspects of life," Fernandez Soberanes, Co-ordinator of projects for CMPIO; a coalition of indigenous teachers and member of the Oaxacan Section 22 teachers union.



Zapata looks out from the walls at UniTerra.


Ulises Ruiz, depicted in this poster as a Nazi like figure, with the initials of the Policía Federal Preventiva (PFP). 4500 PFP, a counterinsurgency police, were sent by the federal government to Oaxaca to end the protests in 2006. Ruiz, governor of Oaxaca since 2004, is accused of repressionof the protests, suppressing the freedom of the press, destruction of historical monuments in the city, and the detention and killing of his political opponents. Ruiz forms part of a history of institutional violence in Mexico that includes ignoring the needs of 75% of Oaxaca's population - the indigenous communities.



The APPO has made Ruiz's resignation or removal their one non-negotiable demand before they will agree to end the conflict.
" We reject the government of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, because we do not accept a government which uses public resources to benefit only one priveleged sector of society. We withdraw our support from institutions which do not fulfill their obligations and silence the voice of the people."
The Declaration of the People of Oaxaca:August 2006



APPO stated in a November 2006 Declaration:
" We're peaceful, not passive; we're plural and autonomous, yet united; we're from the base, not leaders or vangaurds. We're combining centuries of indigenous organizational stratergies with modern social movements. This is what we have to strengthen and consolidate."
Guelegtza Popular, Zocola, Oaxaca City, July 2007.




The Communist Party of Mexico is one of the many different groups of APPO occupying the Zocola in 2007.



"Oaxaca is a lab for social change," says Marcos Leyva, photograhed in his office at EDUCA. EDUCA has worked in Oaxaca for 15 years, focusing on human rights, gender issue and indigenous people's rights. It is now part of APPO.





Pedro Matias, a journalist with 20 years of experience watching governmental abuses in Oaxaca, describes the events of 2006 as only the last part of a long chain of events.



The teacher's "planton" in the government building on the Zocola continues, and is organized into shifts, so that schools do not have to close. In addition ot seeking salary increase, teachers have assumed broader social causes because of their close relationship with indigenous communities.


A helicopter of fireworks, symbolic of the government helicopters that tear-gassed participants in the mega-marches of 2006, goes off at the 2007 Geulegetza Popular's Fireworks display.



The Guelaguetza, in traditional communities, is a dance festival with gift giving of pineapple, mango, bread, chocolate. The government has turned this into an annual folkloric festival and tourist attraction. In 2006 the Government run Guelegetza was cancelled because of the conflict .In 2007, APPO staged the “Guelaguetza Popular" and called for the boycott of the "official" Government Gulegetza.



Oaxaca city roads around the Zocola are shut to Ruiz (PRI) supporters during the Guelegetza Popular.



Dancers at the Guelegetza Popular.






APPO security guard in Guelegetza Popular Parade. APPO has its own security to prevent outside agitators from disrupting marches.


Interactive art exhibit, red dots represent the barricades in Oaxaca City in 2006 . Barricades kpet armed thugs from entering neighbourhoods to beat and kill people, especially leaders of the movement. US journalist Brad Wills was killed at such a barricade, and it was after his death that Vicente Fox deployed 4500 Federal Police (PFP) to crush the popular uprising.
Protestors tried to use barricades to prevent these military and police forces from entering and occupying the city.


Estela Río Gonzalez and Itandehuí Santiago Galicia (right), explains how on August 1st 2006, she was one of 15000 participants in " La marcha de las caseroles ( the march of women beating their pots and pans with wooden spoons) that seized the state TV Channel 9. TV Caserole, as it was known, broadcast for 3 weeks " the voice and images of the people." Soldiers shot down the antenna and forced them out on August 21st.



Sergio Beltrán at UniTerra, shows video clips of a TV Caserole broadcast. UniTierra, an alternate education university, helped the women with video production. The take over of the station helped break the image of the "passive woman. "Cuando una mujer avanca, no hay hombre que se detenga” (when a woman is advancing, no man is held back), Ricardo Flores Magón.


Alba Cruz Ramoz, Mayem Arellanes, both lawyers, and Alma Soto, members of the November 25th Liberation Commitee, work with the legal body of Appo. Founded by well known Oaxcan painter- Francisco Toledo, the November 25th Commitee was formed in response to the illegal and arbitrary detentions at the mega- marches.



Dionisio Martinez, artist, in his studio in Oaxaca City. Dionisio was one of 150 arrrested and detained on November 25th. Two of his ribs were broken, and he was detained incommunicado in Nayuruit, 1000km away for 15 days. He is facing 9 charges, including terrorism. Dionisio spoke of devastating psycholgical and financial costs of the detention and legal proceedings. Behind him is a portrait of legendary guerrilla leader, Luciano Cabanas, from Guerrero, whose Guerrilla Army of the Poor terrorized government supporters in the 1970's. He was killed by the Mexican army in 1974.



Over the last 20 years, the church has played a role in launching social struggles in Oaxaca, including training teachers and Indigenous leaders and building Christian Base Communities. Often, however, the church hierarchy betrayed these struggles and abandoned people to repressive forces.


Padre Manuel Arias Montes is the parish priest in the Jukilita neighborhood of Oaxaca. Arias spoke of how priests built solidarity with APPO even as the church hierarchy allied with the government. Arias and other parish priests continue to work with civil society to make fundamental social changes. Arias embraces the importance of Indigenous spirituality in his work, and points to the importance of Indigenous cosmologies to find solutions to problems that they face. He talks of a long history of exploitation and repression, with the government propagating systems of corruption and impunity and the local governments becoming the worst caciques (chiefs) who take advantage of community members.

part two

Oaxaca : ( part 2 )

A wall of objects related to corn production at CMPIO, the Oaxacan Coalition of Indigenous Teachers and Promoters. CMPIO has, since 1974, been working with indigenous teachers within 12 of the 16 indigenous languages in Oaxaca, developing and implementing appropriate pedagogues for indigenous communities. Their goal is to build a state wide congress.


Juan Santiago, manager of districts for CMPIO, opens the door to the outsde corn garden at CMPIO headquarters.



Dolores Villalobo and Rafael Perez Cruz of CIPO-RFM, Consejo Indígena Popular de Oaxaca “Ricardo Flores Magón”. CIPO-RFM- founded in 1974, is named after Ricardo Flores Magun, an intellectual author of the Mexican revolution, and is an alliance of indigenous communities that works within communities for self determiniation, including control of territories and resources. Projects include building schools and teaching traditional values, such as tekio- community work. Villalobo sees indigenous people as a hope for the future and their capacity of strength in the assembly structure of organizing.



The State of Oaxaca is one of Mexico's richest in cultural and environmental diversity, yet it is economically one of the three poorest states in Mexico. The Mixteca region of northern Oaxaca is one of the hardest hit by poverty and environmental degradation with the highest migration rate in the state.


Veronica Ramirez Vicente with her child, Jaretzl, of Tres Lagunas, in the Mixteca region. There are not many children in Tres Lagunas- most people are over 60. The young leave to find work in the city or in the US.



Jesús Leon Santos goes over plans in the meeting room at CEDICAM (Center for the Integral Development of the Campesinos of the Mixteca Alta). Jesús pointed out, " there are a lot of good Mixteca farmers in Fresno." CEDICAM works against state sponsored government programs to privatize land- builds campesino schools that teach sustainable farming methods and encourages youth to see the opportunities in their home. Overall goals include food sovereignty and food security


CEDICAM carries the name ‘campesino’ (peasant or small farmer), not Indigenous in its name, even though the area is a primarily Indigenous area. Jesús said that they debated naming the organzation “campesino y indígena” but thought that it would imply a division into two groups. Instead, they went with the broader and more comprehensive label “campesino.” Jesús noted that academics tend to overstate the differences between campesinos and Indigenous. Nevertheless, with their milpas it is clear that farmers are following Indigenous practices.



Pedro Cruz, a campesino farmer in Tres Lagunas, explaing cover cropping, a sustainable farming method taught by CEDICAM.



Carlos Beas Torres of UCIZONI, (the Union of Indigenous Communities of the Northern Isthmus Zone) points to the Northern part of Isthmus region of Oaxaca on a map of the Americas. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec, is the narrowest part of Mexico which historically has been a transhipment point between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean and currently is a focus of the Plan Puebla Panama (PPP), a plan to bring new mega-projects to the Isthmus and privatize local resources. Torres describes the Isthmus region as experiencing a "new invasion of multinational megaprojects." UCIZONI is part of a Mesoamerican wide movement opposing PPP's huge infrastructure of dams, railroads and highways. Torres presents his opposition to these projects in terms of a global struggle against neoliberal capitalism that undermines local sovereignty. The government's goal to fund foreign capital projects does little for local sustainable projects.


A wind turbine energy project in development in La Venta on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. A Spanish company pays very low rents for the use of the land. UCIZONI and Community members are concerned about the potential environmental impacts of the windmills, especially on migratory bird populations and a lack of information and consultation with local community members.


Aleso Giron Carrasco of UCIZONI at a meeting with community members at La Venta. While UCIZONI received support from international environmental groups such as Greenpeace when they opposed a shrimp farm project, they receive no such support for their opposition to clean energy projects.


Members of La Ventosa Vive, a community organization fighting a proposed second stage of the wind turbine project at La Ventosa.



The Bénito Juárez dam, built in 1955, on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, dammed the confluence of the Tequisistlan and Tehuantepec rivers in order to create a reservoir to irrigate the Isthmus. The dam flooded the town of Jalapa and its inhabitants were moved to the community’s current location, Santa María Jalapa de Marqués, in 1961. With the dam now at the end of its useful life span, the government is considering converting it into a hydro electric project.



Community meeting at Santa María Jalapa de Marqués. Fisherman, teachers, and farmers attend to listen to the discussion on how the proposed hydroelectric project may impact them.



Evangelico Mendoza, community member of Santa María Jalapa de Marqués. The community feels that they had received the short end of the deal with the first dam, and that the government had not fulfilled many of its promises. Their new lands were not nearly as fertile as the river bottom land that they had lost, and the government did not deliver on their promises of a new, modern town. Many former farmers turned to fishing in the new lake behind the dam. The group complained about a lack of consultation with the affected communities, that corrupt officials were the only ones who benefitted from the 1955 project.



Mareote? Mendez Barriga, former resident of Jalapa listens at the community meeting. Given the history of experience with the current dam, the community is naturally suspicious that the hydro-electric project will have more negative impacts on their lives. The government promises jobs with the project, but the community suspects that there will only be short-term unskilled labor while the dam is built and then a few engineers will remain to run it.



Armando Melindes, a campesino from the original Jalapa community, which has no access to the water from the Bénito Juárez dam. A dry summer means the agriculture cooperative he is part of has to turn to irrigation and faces costs of up to five thousand US dollars a month to pay the electrical company to pump water to their fields.




Available as a 66 page color book: 'A Particular Resistance': written by Marc Becker, photography by G.Meyer.
Purchase book here or multimedia download here.
If you would like a free pdf copy for educational or presentation purposes, please request a copy by email.

Khayelitsha

"Drive by shootings"


In order to drive in or out of Cape Town, the Mother City of South Africa, and truly an exceptionally beautiful place, one has to pass by the sprawling slums of Khayelitsha and the Crossroads. Cape Town's opulence is surrounded by these dirt poor slums inhabited by millions of (black) people who come to the city from impoverished rural areas, to find work and live in tin shacks, at the mercy of the Cape winds and its wicked winters.



The "New South Africa" has done little to alleviate this situation and many argue that the government could implement development programs in rural areas that would build infrastructure and economy and allow people to find work and a future in their home regions.



The townships have grown so much over recent years, that in some cases the shacks line the main highways, only feet away from the tarmac. I have only visited Khayelitsha twice, once many years back on a " township tour" and more recently to visit a friend teaching at the Philani Flagship, a cooperative of women working in printmaking and the arts. I can't imagine going into a township now as a "tourist", and at present, this woud be my only access to enter.



These photos were made to document this odd relationship of poverty to wealth, the oddness being in the "passing by". In passing I see only the edges of a sprawling mass, and then eventually as I reach the Winelands or Table Mountain, it is out of view - in driving by- it eventually passes.



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continuing that thought...Tourism by another name
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It is possible to visit a country along a "tourist" route and not get even an inkiling of the depth and breadth of social struggles that may exist within that country. I visited Mexico in 1994, oblivious to the real politics of the country. I still wonder at the ability of any tourist, myself included, to run through a country, partaking of all it cultural and geographic sites of interests, and leave, completely unaffected by what's really going. And in so many countries there is something not so good going on. Its too easy to ratchet up another name on the list of countries visited and too easy to purchase another 'authentic' souvenir for placement on a culturally diverse mantlepiece. I suppose its a particularly western privelege at work- where the vast reality of millions of people in the world never gets fully realized, by those whose reality it isn't.

I recently took my first "solidarity trip" to Mexico and on seeing and hearing many disturbing things, realized some options: pity, sympathy and guilt, which all reinforce the great priveleged position of privelege; or solidarity and action, where one can become engaged in a deeper understandings of issues that run underneath the surface of all poverty and wealth disparities. Hopefully that inspires action. Certainly it seems, if one looks closely at an issue, its more likely to inspire action, than if you see only the surface.

John Ross has a word for this kind of travelling in his book "Against Oblivion", - revolutionary tourism. There is both a sense of sceptism and belief elicited by that term. How revolutionary can a tourist be- how much can a solidarity trip change the lives and actions of westerners, who may even indirectly be complicit in the poverty of so many, and can and mostly always do, leave to go back to the West ? I dont know the answer. One of the wiser people I met on the Mexico trip stated what may seem obvious, its an individual's question to answer. Personally, I suppose the progress is that the question is now there to be answered.

The Tankwa Karoo

The Karoo is a semi desert in central South Africa, the Tankwa Karoo, is probably its most isolated and driest part. The Tankwa is an "impoverished” place- with nothing in the way of opulence. Flat and endless with distant mountains skirting its edges - there is a particular beauty about it. Each water hole, river or tree seems something miraculous. The people who survive here are equally amazing. There is a mix of the old Afrikaaner sheep farmers, the new farmers, chasing the current pot of gold scheme in hoodia, and the laborers or 'Colored" people.



So the word "Colored" in South Africa stems from the same bigotery and racism that it arose from in the US, but it has stayed-as a term to describe a group of people, mostly from the Cape, with Afrikaans, San, Bushmen, Hottentot and Malay blood.



Suffice it to say - it all started with the Dutch, landing in the Cape in 1652. The San living in the Cape were quickly 'enslaved' by the Dutch. Slaves from the Dutch East Indies and political prisoners were brought to the Cape and the 'Cape Colored" was born. The San, the Colored and the Bushmen, have been pushed around and marginilized by white and black.



Ou (Old) Dawie and his wife live in a 6' by 6' tin shack a few miles away from his sons and daughter who live in a concrete house on the farm where they work. Ou Dawie carries water to his shack by donkey cart-and travels several days on the back roads of the Tankwa to visit family in the mountains, by the same donkey cart.



He points to the west, the Cederberg Mountains, as his birth place. His family may have lived in this region for centuries. There are rock paintings scattered all over this area and west, in the Cederberg. Early missions were established in the Cederbeg in the 1700's.