Im staying in a small community right now in the state of Tlaxcala. we are staying with families, which is an incredible experience. Extended families live together here, so along with my host mom, we live and eat with her brothers and sisters, sister in law, her kids, and her parents. the grandparents also have a ranch outside of town, which is the coolest little spot. they have a lake for fishing and a brick fireplace where we are going to learn how to bake pan de los muertos tomorrow for the day of the dead.
perhaps the most spectacular part about this state is the food. we are fed an incredible abundance of foods- from mole enchiladas, fresh figs from our tree outside, stacks of fresh corn tortillas, arroz con leche, fresh sugar cane, stews with vegetable from our garden, grasshoppers (yeah, we had them for dinner last night), jello (not so traditional) and all of the amazing traditional foods you could ever want. we are preparing for the day of the dead, which is a huge holiday here to remember loved ones who have died. we will have celebrations and go to the cemetary to make offerings. its a really interesting holiday because it pre-exists the colonization of indigenous peoples, but has been heavily influenced by catholocism since the conquistadores came.

this community that i am in in particular is heavily, heavily affected by immigration into the United States. Everyone either knows someone close to them or they themselves have been in the US to work. The husbands of two of the women i live with are currently in the us working. most people go to either jackson, WY, Utah, Virginia, or Altanta. Its crazy how these relations form between small communities in mexico and places in the US are built based on personal relationships. its been really interesting to be here, and to learn about the origins of immigration and the economic desperation that leads people to immigrate, not to mention how dangerous it is to cross the border, and how it devestates families here to have principally men leave their families for extended amounts of time.
there are a ton of vacant houses here, more houses than people because of all of the immigratoin. there are groups organizing around trying to institute economic alternatives to immigration so that people can live and work in their communities, and no longer be predisposed to having so few options. but it is difficult to do, because the local economies are severely intertwined with the international. Since NAFTA and the implementation of free trade, many farmers are pushed off of their land, can no longer grow subsistance agricultural, and therefore, many people either move to urban areas in mexico, or to the US. and there are not enough jobs. even if there were enough jobs, the way that people need jobs in the first place outside of their own communities is problematic. im doing my final project on this transformation, from subsistance lifestyles to entering the wage economy and where this breaking point is for people here.

there is a ton to write and say but i cant even begin to transmit all of the things i am experiencing here. generally speaking, i am enjoying it tremendously and learning so much. maybe ill end up writing a book or something about my experiences here. i hope you all are well and love you mucho....