Agenda (also available for download in pdf format)

To the participants of the Mexican Immersion Year 3, from Mary Winter and Earl W. Morris

Some of you know us as ISU professors who have worked with extension field staff members in a variety of ways over the past 25 years. What you may not know is that we have been conducting research in Oaxaca since 1986, and have lived in the city for a total of 2½ years during that time period. Our research focus has been the examination of the response of ordinary Mexican families to dramatic changes in the Mexican economy that have occurred with dismaying regularity in the past 25 years. In the course of our work, funded in part by the National Science Foundation, we interviewed a probability sample of more than 600 Oaxaqueño families in 1987. In 1992, we revisited the addresses where we had interviewed families in 1987, and gathered data from 480 families. We also added households from the three largest communities in the central valleys to our sample.

Analyses of the data gathered have resulted in more than 50 journal papers, presentations, theses, and dissertations. Topics studies include women's labor force participation, women's health, housing and neighborhood conditions and changes, interhousehold exchanges of goods and services, the relationship of family food patterns to macroeconomic conditions and changes, family resource management processes, and the importance of education to Oaxacan children and their families.

We were absolutely delighted to plan and lead the Mexican Immersion Year 2, and are anticipating that year 3 will be as good as last year's experience. We have had considerable experience in this type of activity, having hosted numerous small groups during the times we lived in the city, and having organized the month-long Iowa State-University of Minnesota Field School in the summer of 1994. We are looking forward to sharing with you what we have learned and what we love about Mexico in general and Oaxaca and its residents in particular.

Our goal for the week is to provide experiences that will help you understand the joys and hardships experienced by Mexican families, some ordinary, some, like the artisans that we will visit, extraordinary. We also will get a glimpse of the some of the support systems available to individuals and families throughout the life span.

We will be aided in this endeavor by many of the people in Oaxaca with whom we have become acquainted over the past 18 years. Over 50 Oaxaqueños have worked for us as interviewers, coders, checkers, and data enterers. We have come to know them and their families very well. In addition, we have interacted closely with Mexican and American professionals living and/or working in the city. You will meet some of these folks during the course of our week in Oaxaca in January and February, 2005.

The climate. Oaxaca temperatures are mild all year. There are two seasons, the rainy season (April-May through October) and the dry season. The rainy season usually features a shower in the afternoon around 4, which cools things off nicely, but does not get in the way of outdoor activities. The dry season usually is just that, rainless. We can remember about three instances of rain in the 28 months we have lived in the city during the dry season. Rain gear should not be needed in January and February. (Now watch, there will be a downpour while we're there!)

We will be in the city and the central valleys during our favorite time of the year. Days will be warm but not hot, and you may need a sweater or light jacket for evenings. Bougainvilleas will be in bloom (they always are; in Iran , they are called “Crazy Woman” because they bloom all year around). And the lavender-flowered jacaranda trees, our favorites, will be just coming into bloom.

Hotel accommodations. We will be staying in a small hotel, La Casa de la Tia (The Aunt's House) , which is the kind that we prefer in the city. It is a small, family-run hotel in which maid service is offered by women who have been almost a part of the family for years, and all of the rooms are different. It was originally owned by the aunt of the current owner, Alberto Perez, hence the name of the hotel (“tia” means “aunt” in Spanish). In architecture that is typical of colonial cities, the hotel is built around two courtyards; each of the rooms opens into one of the courtyards. We will occupy almost all of the rooms in the hotel for the week we are there. In our opinion, the location of the hotel is what makes it an excellent choice for us. It is located in the middle of the block between the two main east-west streets in the city, on a quiet street, 5 de Mayo (or Cinco de Mayo) one block from the Zócalo, the vibrant, noisy heart of the city. The 1994 ISU-Minnesota Field School participants were among the very first guests of the hotel when it opened in 1994.

Breakfast. A small family-owned restaurant, La Salamandra (The Salamander), is right next door to the hotel. We have made arrangements with Señora Reyes, the owner, to serve breakfast for the group on six of the seven mornings we will be in the city. You can wander in any time between 7 A.M. and the time we will be leaving for the day's activities. You can order fresh-squeezed orange juice or fresh fruit (pineapple and papaya are always in season in Oaxaca), cereal, pancakes, or eggs al gusto (the way you like them), along with coffee or tea. She will have a list of your names; we will pay her a set price per person.

Transportation. The old city, the part surrounded by the Pan American Highway on the north and the Periferico (literally, peripheral road, which is now more or less in the middle of the city) on the other three sides, is a walking city. Motorized transportation is, at most times of the day, a decided disadvantage for two reasons: traffic jams are frequent on the narrow streets, and sooner or later you need to park the car, truck, or bus someplace, which is not easy. We will walk everywhere in the old city. When we are out of the old city, the driver and bus that will meet us at the airport when we arrive will chauffeur us around. We will board the bus a block and a half north of the hotel, at the corner of 5 de Mayo and Murguía. (Maps of the old city will be waiting for us at the hotel when we check in).

A note about street names: with only three exceptions, the names of the streets change at the Zócalo. Our street, 5 de Mayo, turns into Armenta y López when it crosses Hidalgo. So there is no “North” or “South” or “East” or “West” in street names. If the address is on “5 de Mayo” it is north; if it is on “Armenta y Lopez,” it is south. The three exceptions are the main east-west streets, Morelos, Independencia, and Hidalgo, which keep their names the whole distance through the old city.

The schedule. We will live by the typical lower- to upper-middle class Oaxacan family's schedule: (1) desayuno (breakfast) rather early. (2) trabajo (work until about two {we definitely think of this week as work, not in the sense of nose-to-the-grindstone stuff, but in the sense of concentrating on absorbing as much of Mexican culture and life style as we can comfortably handle} broken up by (3) desayunito (a mid-morning snack of fruit or bread, usually with coffee), (4) comida (the main meal of the day) about 2:00, followed by (5) a break (even a nap!), (6) trabajo de la tarde (afternoon work), and (7) cena , or supper. Some of the cenas will be on-your-own. There are many good places (with Spanish and English menus) near the hotel. Some of our favorites:

•  Del Jardin, in the middle of the west side of the Zócalo, where you can have a sandwich or tostada and watch the world go by;

•  Pasta Nostrana, kitty-corner from Santo Domingo, where you can get good pizza (our favorite is Pizza Leticia, featuring mushrooms, onions, and green peppers along with squash blossoms);

•  El Meson, between the hotel and the Zócalo on Independencia, where you can order individual dishes from a checklist menu in English and Spanish;

Where to shop. We will be visiting many of the crafts villages: black pottery, rugs, painted animals, along with the Mitla crafts market. In general, prices will be cheaper in the villages where goods are made than in the city. Shopping in the city can give you some idea of the prices that might be charged in the villages. Some of our favorite places to shop are:

•  Women's cooperative, Cinco de Mayo, 1 block north of the hotel

•  ARIPO, Cosijopi and Garcia Vigil (one block west and a couple of blocks north of Santo Domingo), a cooperative featuring works by artisans from the state of Oaxaca .

•  Benito Juárez market, 1 block south and one block west of the Zócalo. The center of the market is foodstuffs, but some shops in the aisles on the edge and the outside feature crafts.

•  Mercado de Artesanias (Artesans Market), J. P.Garcia and Zaragoza. This market is a long ways away, and we have never found much there that we could not find at any of the markets already listed.

Staying healthy. When living in the city, we have worked very hard at staying healthy. It is not fun to be sick when living in the city for a nine-month stretch, a disaster when in the city for nine days. Here are our rules:

•  Wash your hands a million times a day, with soap and water or disinfecting hand gel

•  Do not eat anything that is not cooked or peeled. This rules out fresh strawberries and lettuce, among other things.

•  Do not eat street food, meaning food sold by street vendors.

•  Order drinks without ice (“sin hielo,” or “seen yay'lo” phonetically)

•  When getting a glass with your drink, inspect the glass before poring your beverage into the glass; if the glass is wet, drink from the bottle.

•  Brush teeth with the water in the pitcher in your room; do not even rinse your toothbrush with water from the faucet.

About toilet paper. If there is a waste basket next to the stool, that means you are to deposit the toilet paper in the waste basket. Drainage pipes in Oaxaca are smaller than ours and plug easily. That arrangement is by far the most common. You will not find waste baskets in the very fanciest hotels or restaurants; they will be prevalent everywhere else, especially private homes.

Detailed Schedule for Mexican Immersion Year 3

Candelaria
A paragraph follows on Candelaria and its significance. The trip to Mexico will occur during Candelaria and will include some time visiting with families and observing preparation for the Candelaria Festival.

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What is Candelaria??
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If Candlemas be fair and bright,
Winter has another flight.
If Candlemas is dark with clouds and rain,
Winter will not come again.
(an old Celtic couplet)

Situated 40 days after Christmas and exactly halfway between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox, many Christians call Feb. 2 Candlemas and observe the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord and the Purification of Mary.

Mosaic law required Jewish women to go to the temple 40 days after giving birth to a male for a ritual purification and to present the child to God. Early Christians began observing the anniversary of Mary going to the temple.

It became tradition for Christians to bless all the candles for the year on this feast.

Excerpt from "GROUNDHOG DAY HAS RICH HISTORY: Midwinter holiday has its roots in ancient traditions, celebrations, by Patti Brown, Register Correspondent, The Des Moines Register, Saturday, February 2, 2002"