Puebla conference y Zimatlan

The IV Summer Institute on Migration and Health gave an overview of migration and health. Between presentations, cultural tours and networking cocktails we had a full day every day. There was an overview of the issues involved with migration from health care access in the U.S. to the implications for family members left behind. Two important programs I learned about are the ‘Ventanillas de Salud’ and ‘Vete Sano, Regresa Sano’. ‘Ventanillas de Salud’ is a program to provide information and basic health care services to migrants at Mexican consulates. ‘Vete Sano, Regresa Sano’ is provided by the ‘Secretaria de Salud’ and focuses on migrants as a vulnerable population.

Participants came from many different Mexican and American states and even from Canada. The presenters were equally diverse. Two highlights for me were the presentations by Dr. Achotegui from the University of Barcelona on the ‘Ulises Syndrome’ and the mental health of migrants, and a talk about traditional medicine by Carlos Zolla, from the UNAM. I will never forget Maestro Zolla’s example of el ni~no volador, the ‘flying kid’ who flies off a swing and needs the assessment of the mom and the grandma who decide on multiple treatments, from domestic to traditional, to allopathic medicine.

Puebla is a beautiful city. The architecture, mainly Baroque, is similar to Oaxaca’s, but the streets are wider and seem busier. We also visited a beautiful nearby city: Cholula, one of the oldest in Mexico, and an important religious center well before the Spannish conquest. There are about 148 churches in the places where there used to be indigenous religious buildings.

Besides the cultural treats, Puebla{s food was also great. Puebla is famous for the variety of candies and for the ‘mole poblano’ although when it comes to food, I have to side with Oaxaca (of course) as the original home of mole and for the title of most representative and diverse cuisine in Mexico. Interestingly, an herb that is not consumed in Oaxaca but I saw everywhere in Puebla, including in cemitas, is papalo, with a taste very similar to tepiche. This is a plant of prehispanic origin.

Back in Oaxaca, as part of an ethnographic research class from UC San Diego, I will be living with a host family in Zimatlan for three days each week. This is a great opportunity to observe cooking practices and talk at length about health issues with the people of Zimatlan. There are three children in my host family, Cindy, Carla, and Eric, and they are very fun to hang out with. Both parents, Ana and Carlos work during the day but in the evenings like to talk about the comparison of life in the U.S. and in Mexico over chocolate and pan dulce. Zimatlan has a high migration rate to the US and fairly every person I have interviewed has a relative who has migrated to the US at some point in their life.

Next week we will be teaching a basic nutrition class to women’s groups called colmenas, beehives.

Nicandro, one of the program coordinators has started a blog about CENTEOTL’s activities:

http://www.grupos-con-centeotl.blogspot.com/

Visits to CECIPROC’s sites

A few weeks ago, by invitation of the program’s director, Dr. Alberto Ysunza, I had a chance to visit La Luz, one of the communities CECIPROC is working with in the coast of Oaxaca.  CECIPROC AC (Centro de Capacitacion Integral para los Promotores Comunitarios/Integral Training for Community Promoters Center) is a nonprofit carrying out different nutrition related projects in the Sierra and Coast of Oaxaca.

During the six-hour car ride to the coast the landscape changed dramatically throughout with the crossing of the Sierra Sur mountains. On the road, Laurencio, one of the program managers, had to swerve many times to avoid hitting a dog, then a cow, a donkey, and even an iguana, while driving curve after curve.

CECIPROC’s current projects include building bathrooms that allow the human waste to be used as fertilizer, training women to grow home gardens, and building brick stoves that reduce indoor pollution and deforestation.  The general focus of the programs is nutrition improvement of disadvantaged communities.  Herdez is one of the financial supporters:  http://www.herdeznutre.com.mx/

I stayed in Cacalotepec for a few days, under the tutelage of Moises, “Moi” for short, one of the community organizers. Moi belongs to the Mixe community, an indigenous group that prides itself in never having been conquered by the Spanniards. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixe.  He speaks two different forms of the Mixe language and Spanish.  His sense of humor, story telling skills and hospitality made me feel at home.  I also got the strong sense that he is deeply committed to working with rural communities to improve the quality of life.

At La Luz, Moi oversees the day-to-day running of a project based on the use of human waste turned fertilizer to grow vegetables for home consumption.  It is a similar project to the one two American women are implementing in Haiti:

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/03/28/opinion/1194838983811/american-ingenuity-in-haiti.html

From anecdotal evidence, the main activities of coastal towns like La Luz are fishing, and cattle raising.  Therefore, vegetables intake in the coast is fairly low and most produce is brought from outside of the communities.

 

As the community organizers, Moi and Laurencio explained, it took months to convince the women to use the dirt that comes from the toilets.  CECIPROC funded lab tests to prove the safety of the dirt that results after the human waste rests for 6 months and took pictures of sewage watered crops in Puebla, from where some of the produce distributed to the coast comes from.

 

During my visit, Emiliano, a local farmer taught the women how to prepare a bed to plant vegetables like cucumber, lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, radish, and squash.

 

The visit to the coast will be a highlight of this summer.  Although this area is sometimes unbearably hot, the raining season has started and everything is turning green.  The landscape of the ocean with the lush mountains was simply beautiful.

 

The last day I was in Cacalote, as Moi was driving me to the bus station, I shared with him that I hope to return to Oaxaca and stay in communities to learn the indigenous languages.  He was silent for a few seconds and said that sometimes accumulation of learning can be like acquiring material goods in self-interest.  I hadn’t expected that answer, but when he explained further that as long as you store what you learn to acquire prestige, there is little merit in this.  He mentioned, ‘if you learn something, then apply it as soon as you can, what good is it otherwise?’ Moi has mentioned multiple times that he did not complete a primary education.  However, multiple times I was challenged and impressed by his insight.