Los Mochis to Zacatecas

From a hostel in Zacatecas I salute all workers on Labor Day! This morning I stumbled upon a huge march of unionized teachers who are protesting the fact that their union leader signed a contract with the Calderón government that takes steps toward privatizing the education system. Without state funding, teachers would have to be fired and conditions in public schools would become worse than they already are. With radical chants against the neo-liberal government, the community took to the streets in support of the teachers. This is not a local problem, it is a problem that teachers and workers face around the world, and especially today we should recognize that privatization will only worsen the plight of those already suffering from a lack of funds.

I was impressed by the radical chants today after the rather depressing political conversations I have had thus far. While I was stuck in Los Mochis, a city near the coast that faces Baja California, waiting for the rain to let up enough for the train to go, I split the cost of a hotel room and taxi with a woman from Hermosillo. Flor Amanda Ochoa, a remarried widow and mother of two, laughed out loud when President Felipe Calderón came on TV. She told me it was the government's fault that families are being massacred and she blames the police for committing political violence. She dislikes Calderón for all of his rhetoric about security, but she appreciates the economic policy that he inherited from Vicente Fox two years ago. To me, both aspects of her opinion are depressing. I agree that the state is responsible for many of the deaths and violence happening in large part due to narco-trafficking, and that makes me sad. Won't Calderón and those funding him in the US learn something from what happened in COLOMBIA!? And on the other side I find it depressing that people blindly support foreign investment which only whisks profits out of the country or puts them in the pockets of the domestic super rich.

When the train was finally able to get through the misty mountains (which I am told are golden, but I only saw grey and green) also known and Las Barrancas del Cobre, I ended up at an international hostel in Creel. There I met up with a diverse group of tourists who also wanted to explore the mountain range. As we hiked to hidden waterfalls and hot springs, we talked about politics and social policy in our respective countries and in Mexico. The rest of the group held a perspective that looks down upon the silliness or the laziness of Mexicans that my Jesuit education and prior experience in Mexico had taught me to leave behind. The group laughed at the bright yellow cowboy boots and matching belts that are all the rage in the state of Chihuahua and they couldn't understand the serious demeanor of the hotel manager who really had a sense of humor but didn't understand English very well. Oh well, some people just haven't studied the social, historic, economic, and cultural realities that drastically change one's perspective on things.

In front of the church in Creel signs with red writing demand justice and peace. When I asked what they were all about, I got a confused answer from the driver who took our group around to the various hiking spots. He said that the same thing happened in Creel that has been happening in Sinaloa and Ciudad Juarez for a long time; family-based narco-trafickers are battling over growing and transportation rights with guns. Only two weeks ago 14 people were shot, including a 1 1/2 year old baby, all male members of the same family. Obviously this had the town in shock and explained why there were police circling the city constantly. Investigations like that one take a long time and justice is a hard term to define between gangs. On Saturday, people around the country took to the streets in white to demand peace, but when people would rather take the risk of drug trafficking than take the low wage of a teacher, peace will be hard to come by.

On Friday I took a bus to the city of Chihuahua where I shared the cost of the room with a German couple I had met in Creel. Andrea and Michael are super nice and very well traveled, so we had a nice time sharing stories and social anecdotes about our respective nations.

Then I met Gilberto, a furniture salesman from Monterrey, in the lobby of the hotel. We drank coffee and watched the rain while he told me another depressing political perspective. He is the epitome of capitalist, and well, it was just hard for me to listen to such a one-sided perspective for very long.

Luckily the rain let up enough for me to walk to several great museums in Chihuahua. The Casa de Chihuahua had an incredible exhibition of the ecology, history, and culture of the entire state, as well as a great photo exhibition of Mexican fashion from 1900-1950. I also went to Pancho Villa's house (a prominent leader of the Mexican Revolution) and Benito Juarez's house (a fighter for independence from Spain). My favorite museum was the Casa de Quinta Gameros because it had amazing contemporary art in a Baroque setting, plus a great story. Apparently the husband had the house built for his wife and the wife fell in love with the Colombian architect. After I had enough of the museums I walked around and took photos of the graffiti around the city. It took me all day, but at long last I found some pieces worth documenting that weren't just scribbles on the wall that exemplify how bored and not creative young people can be.

Last night I jumped on a bus and journeyed 14 hours to the lovely city of Zacatecas. Finally the sun is out, there are great people in the streets, and I had an amazing breakfast. While I wouldn't go as far as to say that I wasn't having fun before, my mood is certainly lifted just by being here. The protest will continue with a big party tonight, so I will certainly be reporting about that soon.... until then, SEGUIMOS ADELANTE!