Our campesino neighbor mused about the weather as we talked in front
of the church before Holy Thursday mass. Wind storms and hard rain in February
and March, the dry season! Who knows what is next? Yet, with the optimism that
farmers must have before the hard work of the planting season, he concluded, “But it’s going to
be a good year.”
As a precaution, more people are planting the
drought resistant “cajete” corn that
can survive 3 to 4 months of drought. Tio Juan and I (Phil) planted this corn
first in his fields and then in ours last week. CEDICAM is starting a project
funded by the Goldman Foundation to confront climate change by promoting the
planting of this ancient corn, developing family seed banks, and working with
academic partners to do careful seed selection to increase yields. As Juan and
I worked our way across the fields, digging and planting with the ancient “coa”, I
mentioned I was going to Washington DC in mid-April (Ecumenical Advocacy Days) to lobby against the Trans-Pacific Trade
Partnership (TPP), because of the negative effects of such trade agreements on
our campesino communities.This made me remember….On January
1st, 1994 we awoke to the flashing red light of our phone message machine. It was our son, Chris, who had been traveling in Central America. “I’m caught in
a guerilla war in southern Mexico”, he calmly announced, much to our astonishment.
“But I’m fine.
Happy New Year.” He had been there on the plaza of San Cristobal, Chiapas when the
Zapatista Liberation Army of indigenous peoples had marched in that midnight.
Local police and military personnel scattered in terror as the indigenous
leaders announced that they were declaring war on the Mexican state on this,
the day of the inauguration of NAFTA, because this trade agreement “meant the
death of indigenous peoples.”
As a result, six million campesinos were forced to leave their
indigenous villages of Mexico and migrated to the U.S. between 1994 and 2010.
Ecumenical Advocacy Days will bring together some 1000 activists in DC
from April 15-18 2016 to lobby against a trade agreement that would intensify these
pressures on indigenous Mexican campesino communities, the Trans-Pacific
Partnership. If approved, the TPP would eliminate all remaining tariff and
non-tariff barriers to all agricultural products that Mexico produces and might
import. The resulting price competition would virtually guarantee another
migration crisis in the U.S., as more millions would be forced out of
indigenous campesino communities of Mexico.
In addition, the TPP, which is really an agreement to protect
corporate “rights” to their profits, would give corporations the right to sue
governments over any attempts to give preference to local workers or
businesses, or to legislate environmental protections, if these interfere with
potential corporate profits. It will strengthen the hand of those that want to
impose genetically modified crops on farmers and lengthen patent rights on such
crops. The Institute for Trade and Agricultural Policy warns that the TPP tries
to return to the 1991 International Convention for the Protection of New
Varieties of Plants which increases plant patent rights, from now, at 5-10 years, to
20-25 years, and would prohibit the interchange of seeds by farmers.
While here in Mexico Pope Frances spoke with great urgency about our
need to find a different way to live on this planet. What could he mean?
Clearly, the agendas of the powerful, with their wars and trade agreements
represent instead “business as usual”.
How about living an economy that is instead based on the values of our
indigenous communities here? Here in Yukuyoko our economy is based on a low
input agriculture using native seeds, ancient planting models, and locally
produced fertilizer and equipment. (Produce local, use local inputs, and
rediscover local talents and abilities, the great reskilling*, the
Transition Town movement calls it). A commons is also an integral part of our
economy. The forests are free for wood gathering and the communal hillsides for
grazing sheep and goats. (Surely we can do more than have common parks and
highways: cooperative gardens on public lands, cooperative businesses,
community loan funds, and what else?)
Through a system of mutual aid (gueza) we plant our corn together,
going from one house to another saving having to pay laborers, and we pay no
taxes for the upkeep of the village since we do this through community work
projects called tequios. Fiestas are an essential part of our economy
and it is an honor to sponsor the music or food so that everyone, no matter how
poor, can join in. (Perhaps fiesta is the way to get us away from the computer
and the TV so we can think about these things together).
Wisely, our economy not only takes into consideration actual needs of our
villagers and our community. At its base, it has a profound respect for what
forms the basis of all economy, our Mother Earth, and for what this Mother
means for generations to come. (How to recognize our Mother in the world around
us and eschew the myth of the machine?)
Part of “the great reskilling" could be learning to
use the sun. I (Kathy) gave a solar
cooking workshop last week for a group of women, men, and children from Vicente
Guerrero, which is a partly shanty-town community located at the city dump
outside Oaxaca. This enthusiastic
group, working through their progressive Catholic parish, has been studying
holistic health, natural foods, use of medicinal herbs, ways to conserve water
and energy and protect the environment.
They are highly motivated to learn solar cooking as a way to reduce wood
smoke, help the environment through the use of clean energy, and save scant
family resources. There were
exclamations of delight as we sampled steaming pots of rice, vegetables, eggs,
potatoes, and pans of oatmeal cookies!
They were much interested also to learn an easy solar method to purify
drinking water. The remarks showed an “almost too good to be true” response. Yes, it really can be done!
We thank you so much for your messages, your prayers, and your
donations, which help to keep making these projects possible. If you wish to contribute to this work,
you can send a much appreciated tax-deductible donation to:
Instituto Paz en las
Americas, 2645 Mountain View Rd. Silver City, NM 88061.
We thank you very much, and we always love hearing from you.
Phil
and Kathy
Oaxaca mailing address: Kathy and Phil Dahl-Bredine, Apdo 29,
Nochixtlan, Oaxaca 69600, Mexico,
