Zapotec Post-Earthquake Reconstruction | Oaxaca MX

I am so excited to tell you that we were able to expand our accompaniment in Santa María Mixtequilla, thanks to you we were able to promote the organization among women. We have told you that the region where we live has suffered many territorial changes due to the federal projects that have been built in the last decade, added to the climatic emergencies and crises that have arisen. Mixtequilla is no exception, and it’s a unique town because the population doesn’t identify itself as original or indigenous people, even though the traditions are very similar to those of the entire Istmo. This makes this town a very vulnerable territory which is going through painful transformations such as the increase of violence, political arrests and social breakdown . 

A few months ago, we began to promote the organization of groups, mainly women, who are a vulnerable group that lags behind, who outside their homes have almost no decision-making power in the village. 

We shared with more than 30 participants two workshops that we enjoyed very much, where we began to listen to each other, to learn from the chisme and to think about what we can do to face the changes and dangers that are coming with the transformation of the country and the region. 

In our first meeting, we gathered to share the traditional hairstyle of the region, the braiding with ribbon, which is used for everyday and for parties. This is a tradition that has not been lost, but fewer and fewer women know the techniques, so sharing this knowledge in a collective space was very magical. Our colleague Sara, originally from Mixtequilla, said that "Braided hair has been an image that has been lost among the new generations, we all remember their grandmothers braiding their hair, we remember their skill and also how, despite having many jobs not only for care, they gave themselves the space to braid their hair, many recognized that since becoming mothers they don't even comb their hair -it is not really necessary-".

In the second meeting, our colleague Sara led a photo-embroidery exercise, where we were inspired, by talking about why we love the Mixtequilla and what makes us belong here. We were able to talk with a lot of nostalgia about the past, but also about what we want to resist and last, as well as our role in taking care of the territory. 

Zuleyma, who participated in this workshop, said "Mixtequilla is a beautiful town for me, because this is where I am from, thank God. My family is from here, my grandparents and parents. Many people do not value the land where they live, they only take advantage of it by doing things that many do not want. I wish it was like when I was a child, but times change and people think differently. We have to look for what is good, for the town and its people".

Soon we will continue to share with you what lives among the women and children of Mixtequilla. We are very excited about the bridges we are going to cross, to talk about our rights, to share our concerns, to feel safe and accompanied. Thank you for promoting the main axis of life, which is to take care of the community. 

The territory in which we live changes every day, because foreign projects have arrived and they are disarticulating our communities. Projects that pretend to bring work, but have brought more inequality and violence. That’s why at UMPO we continue to look for ways to create communities that demonstrate that our livelihoods are valuable and that they can provide us with a dignified life. 

Thus we had a beautiful experience led by our colleague Rosario, who is good at bringing together the collectives of traditional trades. This time we had the pleasure of sharing workshops with 35 food producers. The objective was to be able to strengthen ourselves, as food producers, to make our products more valuable. One of the main problems we experience when producing and selling food is first, that when everything is homemade and handmade it is difficult to standardize what we do. Second, it is hard for us to price our products, and third, to maneuver in our kitchens so that we can produce and have quality products. But what we realized during this program is that we all do the best we can, and that it is only a matter of meeting other people to talk about our lives as food producers to realize that our self-criticism is very high.

When we made the call to this program, we noticed that the general feeling of the collectives and entrepreneurs who came was that although each producer prepares different foods, listening to the stories of other artisans gave them a lot of encouragement to continue along the path of self-employment, which is not easy. Many of the women who participated were the economic pillar of their families and had also chosen these jobs to be able to perform care activities at home.

 We learned about food labeling regulations from consultant Itzel. And it was very nice, because we demythologized the myth that just because we are artisans, we cannot comply with these standards. There were debates, yes, because we questioned a lot if we want to sell our products in the kind of store that asks for labeling or if we just want to sell them locally. However, the juicy thing was just that, to see that we all have different perspectives, and that at least in terms of characterizing our products we all felt excited. 

Then we were joined by Uriel and Abigail, who have a brand of cosmetic and natural products, whom we invited to inspire us, as they have been entrepreneurs for almost a decade and now have a very successful project in the capital of Oaxaca. 

With them, a lot of "dirty laundry" came out, as we say in Mexico, because we went deep to see how much we know about our products and the scariest part, to know if we are making a good profit or losing badly in the sale of our products. 

Sometimes telling what we do in UMPO is complicated, but this experience tells us a lot, and reinforced in our hearts that big changes come in the livelihoods of our daily lives, as the cooks and food artisans live. Thank you for promoting the life of the Istmo de Tehuantepec, which we walk day by day, and which allows us to live a dignified life.