San Antonio Juarez and Tepango de Rodriguez

On Tuesday, we visited San Antonio Juarez in the municipio of Tzicatlacoyan to check on a series of stone walls being built to trap eroding sediments. As you can see from the following pictures, soil is a major limiting resource in this area of Puebla.

After San Antonio Juarez, we headed to El Aguacata for a meeting with some members of the local ejido about a town clean-up dat scheduled for this coming Sunday. Trash pic-up within the town will be focused around the steam that runs through the town, but we also wanted to focus efforts on a large trash dump site just outside of town (see below). It turns out that this section of hte highway belongs to another ejido, so we headed to Los Angeles Tetela to find their ejido inspector and ask about the possibility of their participation on Sunday.

When we got to Los Angeles and asked for the inspector, we were lead to a large tent in the middle of town where we found the inspector in the middle of a party, complete with mariachis and a stage. We pulled the inspector away from the festivities, got permission and a promise of participation on Sunday, and were then informed that it was in fact his birthday party and he would like us to stay and eat. So after some seafood soup and tequila, we finally headed back to Puebla.

On Wednesday, we headed in the opposite direction, towards Tepango de Rodriguez in the Sierra Norte of Puebla (about a 3.5 hour drive) for the 4th (and final) workshop for the Ordenamiento of the Necaxa-Laxaxalpan watershed. This workshop is the most important of the series that are held during the ordenamineto process because it uses public participation to give opinions on how land-use is zoned and what types of uses are deemed appropriate. In an ordenamiento there are 4 general catagories that can be assigned: conservation, restoration, protection, and use. Within each of these catagories, there are various specific types of activies that can be lefted completly open, conditional, or closed. Some of these activites include agriculture, industry, eco-tourism, urban growth.....

Tepango is 90% indigenous and is a mix of Totnacan and Nauha communties.

This is the view from the back of the muicipal palace, you can see the town quickly gives way to a more rural setting.

We had representatives from 15 of the 26 municipalities in the ordenamiento, as well as various representatives from other government agencies that have a presence in the region. Not much going on in the workshop picts, but you get an idea what it looks like. Afterwards the municipal president invited everyone to eat and we had a type of chicken soup (caldo de pollo) before heading back on the curvy, speed bump filled road.

Ex-Hacienda de Chautla

On Sunday I went to visit the Ex-hacienda of Chautla, located about 3km from San Martin Texmelucan (in between Puebla and Mexico City). The ex-hacienda has a lake, a castle, and of course an hacienda.

The castle....

There was a museum inside the hacienda that featured this talavera-tiled kitchen. You expect to see things like this in museums....
You do not, however, expect to see things like this.....

More Community Visits

Friday was another day in the field for PET projects (temporary employment projects). We started the morning with a trip to San Miguel Espejo to check on the construction of 30 cisterns. These cisterns are key to having a more reliable water source and in some cases mark the beginning of running water near/within certain houses. The side theme on all of these visits is always migration. Inevitably everyone wants to know where the towering foreigner is from, and this is usually followed by a list of all the relatives that are currently in the “otro lado” (other side). The fascinating (and sad) observation about many of the smaller Mexican towns is the lack of males, combined with on-going construction of large, slightly out of place houses. These houses are generally pretty easy to discern in any community.

My boss with the head of the PET committee, a finished cistern, and its owner

The "real" process for making tortillas.....

One example a house constructed with funds from the U.S. (though 100% made from concrete, notice the siding)

Our next stop was a small town called San Juan Amecac that received funds for a reforestation project. They are reforesting a section of their forest about 10 minutes outside of town. While we were in the forest, the ground started shaking underfoot for a good 20 seconds. Luckily it was an earthquake. I say luckily because we were within the eruption zone of an active volcano. Turns out there was a 5.7 earthquake centered in the southern part of the state. 2^nd earthquake in 3 weeks. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/pager/events/us/2009gyba/index.html

After georeferencing the forest plots, we headed back to the committee president’s house for some snacks. His story is another interesting, and fairly typical one. He has 9 children ranging in age from 1 to 22. The three oldest are all boys and are in the U.S. The 22 year old has been there for over 7 years. The youngest that crossed is now 17, working in a restaurant, and crossed when he was just 15. The sons in the U.S. don’t even know several of their brothers and sisters in Mexico. Sitting next to the parent’s house (where we were seated), is an enormous, 2 story house, that is being completed little by little has money is sent back to the family. That money arrives several times a year, in cash, brought by someone returning to the community. After having heard the same type of story from numerous families, I finally decided to ask the question that I always want to ask... How and where did they cross? I could never cross, I would be terrified, and with all the horror stories about crossings, I always wonder about the particular cases of the families we are talking with. The sons crossed from Sonora and were fortunate to spend no time in the desert. Just wanted to throw this anecdote in since it is something that is read about from a policy standpoint in the U.S., but I feel like often the issue is not connected with the actual Mexican families that are impacted. Yet, being down here it is an inescapable topic with direct connections to the people we work with. (less so in cities, like Puebla, but I have yet to visit a small town where someone doesn't have a close relative in the U.S.)

The last project was located in a town called El Aguacate (the avocado) that is actually within the limits of our other Valsequillo project. The town received funds to construct a jagüeye, or basically a retention pond that will be filled during the rainy season. From Puebla it is possible to get to El Aguacate solely using roads, but it is a much longer route. The fastest way is to cross the Valsequillo reservoir on a small car ferry, which is also a great way to see a little more of the reservoir.

The car ferry

La Presa (reservior) Valsequillo

San Luis de la Paz and visit of the Secretario of SEMARNAT

Last weekend I headed to San Luis de la Paz, Guanajuato for a little get together with some vols that are about done with their service. In a very out of context weekend for me, I did not take a single picture. Probably for the best though. Anyway on Wednesday, the Secretario (head) of Semarnat was here in Puebla to sign the coordination agreement between the federal and state government. It’s a big show at the signing, that took place in an ecological park, that includes the governor, the municipal president (pretty much the mayor of Puebla), the head of SEMARNAT, and then the state heads of SEMARNAT, CONAFOR, PROFEPA, and CONAGUA. The Secretario also took advantage of his brief visit to Puebla to check in on the progress of our Valsequillo project, which is quickly moving into its first phases of the diagnostic and participatory workshops. The press session after the signing was pretty much only questions about the project since there have been more than a few problems in the area of study lately.

For those that read Spanish, here is a fairly inaccurate newspaper article about our project, but the comments of the Secretario were accurately recorded.

http://www.lajornadadeoriente.com.mx/2009/05/21/puebla/ecl103.php

The Secretario after the signing, being mobbed by the press, this is where being tall really comes in handy in Mexico (both for him and for me)

Puebla's soccer team played against the Puma's on Wednesday night, so coming back from the signing, mascots and flags were flying everywhere in anticipation of the game. (unfortunately they lost 1-2).

Fun with Swine Flu (or H1N1)

So we were supposed to have the 1st and the 5th off before the whole swine flu out break (for international labor day and the 5th for the battle in Puebla). With the whole flu outbreak, the government closed down all "non-essential" businesses from the 1st til the 5th and PC has told us we cannot leave out sites. (although "non-essential" seems to be open for interpretation). Schools have also been closed since the 27th. In generally, things are a little quieter than normal and a lot of people are wearing face masks, but all in all it's not as bad as it probably looks on tv in the states. The biggest disappointment for me (aside from no travel), is the cancellation of the 5 de mayo parade and missing the chance to see tanks roll down the streets in Puebla.....guess I'll just have to come back another year.
So here are some swine flue-related scenes from around Puebla......

Important to make sure that everyone is well protected.

Public info about the flu on a telephone booth

Face masks for sale (at a costume store)

Some examples of closed doors that are seen throughout the city