Notes from the Field

Members of the community light candles outside their homes and along the sidewalks every year on December 7th to help Jesus (the lost child) find his parents.  The tradition is based on the Bible story in which a young Jesus gets separated from his family during a festival in Jerusalem and his parents search for him for three days (Luke 2:41-52).  When they find him, he is sitting in the temple having discussions with the Jewish teachers.  The celebration of the lost child was reportedly started by a friar in the north of Veracruz several centuries ago as part of an evangelization effort, but has been embraced by local communities and continued ever since.  Here are some photographs from that night:                   .      

Although there is no lack of water at my field-site, there are problems with its distribution.  For many years, Pemex (the Mexican oil company) provided running water to everyone's home, but after a hurricane in 1999 destroyed many of the pipes, Pemex never bothered to restore the service.  While the government provided funding to build a new water system for some of the affected communities, others to this date still lack running water in their homes.  These are some of the alternative ways people get water: Wells.   Since there is abundant groundwater, many people have dug wells near their homes and get water by filling buckets and pulling them up with a rope.  Some people also keep pets in their wells such as fish or crawfish.                    Natural Springs.   There are several of these in the area and people can fill buckets and water bottles (the water is clean to drink) or hire a ...

For people in the community this is the biggest holiday of the year, and they plan and look forward to it much in the same way I do Christmas.  Although Todos Santos is essentially a holiday about death, the mood surrounding it is neither sad nor creepy, but quite festive.  The holiday (which lasts for several days from the end of October to the beginning of November) involves the decoration of an altar set up in a prominent spot of the home. Altars are dedicated to family members who have died and are decorated with leaves, flowers, fruit, cut-out paper, candles, candy skulls and photographs.  The dead person's favorite foods and drinks are also placed on the altar and often include tamales , bread, chocolate, beer and Coca-Cola.  Incense is burned and the home is filled with a special holiday scent.  Todos Santos is a time where families come together (often returning home from afar) to remember their dead relatives and spend several days feasting and communin...

Although it has not yet been used at my fieldsite, a community nearby developed its own currency (the "Tumin") several years ago as a way to stimulate their local economy in a way that didn't depend on money being injected from the outside. It helped to facilitate barter within the community by allowing people to sell products for Tumin, which in exchange could be used to buy other local products. Over time, established businesses in nearby towns also started accepting the currency. Businesses accepting Tumin display a sign that reads "Aceptamos Tumin" (We accept Tumin).  Within the community, people can use Tumin to buy anything from honey to a taxi ride.  Both Tumin and Pesos coexist, although prices in Tumin tend to be lower than prices in Pesos. In order to get Tumin, one must offer a product or service for sale in the community and accept Tumin as payment.  Roughly the size and texture of a business card, Tumin come in several denominations.  This is what...

Pepper is harvested in the area once a year.  Branches with pepper clusters are picked from the tree, and afterwards, people sit and pluck the pepper from the branches at home while they gossip and joke with each other.  After plucking the clusters from the branches, one's hands smell really good; sweet like cloves. Once the pepper is separated from the leaves and branches, it is dried and sold to middle-men.  When I asked about its ultimate destination, I was told it gets sent to Japan where it is used to make explosives.  I do not know if this is true, but here are some pictures of the process: A sack full of branches ready to have pepper plucked.  Pepper trees below.     Plucking the pepper from the branches.                      Pepper, ready to be dried and sold. 

In the past, farmers at my field site used to grow corn for consumption and sale of the kernels. Today, however, they grow it mainly for the corn husks which are worth nearly twice more than the corn itself.  Middle-men come around to the area to buy the corn husks from producers and then take them to facilities where they are bleached and exported to the United States.  I asked producers, "Do you know what the corn husks are used for?" Their answers included "they use them in the production of dollar bills" (I don't know if this is true) and "they are used to make tamales."   Here are some photographs of the corn-husk harvest and sale.