antsy

I´ve been in San Cristobal de Las Casas for three nights now, and it´s been interesting enough. Observations:

I´ve never been in a place where everyone looks like me. After 20 years of being the brown kid, I forgot that most of the world is not white. Instead of sticking out, I blend in; and especially if I´m just walking around town, nobody knows the difference. I´ve never experienced this- being able to just disappear into a crowd. Anonymity is a new thing for me, and it´s comforting in a way.

I ended up not seeing La Cora de Los Abejas yesterday, because I was on the other side of town at the Museum of Mayan Medicine and really needed some hot soup. The Museo was fascinating- the exhibits of Mayan medicinal practices were set up in a respectful and sincere way, and the museum itself was run by local indigenous- and everything was blessed and sacred, so it truly felt like holy ground. The most interesting exhibit was at the end, in which a video of a Chamulan (?) Mayan birthing was shown, with explanations of each practice by a highland midwife. I was struck by the cultural significance of this video- a Mayan birth would normally be very private and forbidden to all but the child´s family and midwife, much more so to non-Mayans. This, more than anything else in Chiapas so far, has made me realize the desperation and hardship that indigenous people in the region are going through to preserve their cultures. The fact that a non-Mayan was even allowed to film this for archival purposes is a testament to how much pressure their communities are under.

It was also interesting that immediately following this exhibit was another attacking neoliberalism, GMO crops, and "biopiracy," or the patenting of indigenous resources by corporations and researchers. These themes felt very familiar, having just come from a week with La Via Campesina at COP16.

As I came out of the museum, I was pained to see a farm store advertising Monsanto seed across the street.

(I bought a tincture for "fear/anxiety and diarrhea")

I´ve been hanging out with a couple of traveling kids- Germans, Aussies, Dutch- and they´re fun, but are more interested in hostel-hopping and tourism. Not my thing. I´m splitting ways today/tomorrow.

I want to spend a little more time in San Cristobal, and I hope to make it out to caracol Oventik. There´s not really anything going on there, but come on. You can´t be in Chiapas without visiting the Zapatistas.

And the Zapatistas? I was talking to a punk kid from San Cristobal yesterday, and he told me about a recent critique in the Mexican anarchist community that is wary of the EZLN becoming another mainstream political mechanism, and in turn neutralized. It´s very telling that all of the anarchist and punk houses in the area packed up last year and headed back to DF.

Anyway.
No internet for a while, so this might be my last post for now?
I might have a phone now and then. 9256956503

wonderlust.