Lessons from Oaxaca

This morning after a lovely breakfast and time together for reflection, we climbed into taxis and rode to the building housing Services for an Alternative Education, where Miguel AngelbVasquez de la Rosa made a presentation on their work. EDUCATION is an NGO that focuses on responding to the most urgent needs of the people in situations of economic, social and political vulnerability. EDUCATION supports indigenous communities and organizations in Oaxaca in defense of their rights to civic participation, observation of electoral processes in indigenous communities and studies the traditional judicial system in the Coastal, Mixteca and Southern Mountain region of Oaxaca.

After an amazing lunch and walk in the neighborhood we went to a lovely convent where Witness for Peace had rented a room. Our next speaker was delayed because of some street blockades near his office - apparently a common thing. The occupy movement could learn a great deal by studying the social movements here!

Juan Gutierrez, from the Oaxacan Migrant Services Institute (IOAM), the state agency that provides legal assistance an other services to Oaxacan migrants and their home communities. They use various strategies (street theater, programs in schools, films and conferences) to educate Oaxacans about the risks and realities of migration, as well as works to create opportunities for migrants to build community and share information. Both our speaker and the agency director are indigenous people themselves, and have experience with binational community organizing. They are proposing some reforms to state government to better address the complex reality.

And complex it is. Agricultural workers migrate within Oaxaca on a seasonal basis. Because of the rural poverty (created in large part by a series of U.S. and Mexican policies) many also migrate within Mexico, going both to Mexico City and to agricultural areas further north. A sizable number go to the United StAtes (many also used to do that seasonally before the border tightened). In part because it is so hard to come back, the demographics shifted from migration being something that primarily men did, to something men and women did together, to more recently, whole family groups and communities migrating together. The other sizable piece of the challenge is the movement of Latin American and Central American migrants through the state.


The afternoon ended with a "game" of Soccer for Suckers, a fun way to learn about imbalance of power in the global economy, followed by an exploration of how the "Drug War" factors into the complexity.

The evening was for slow walks in the lovely cooler air, dinner near the zocalo, and preparing for tomorrow.