Hola amig@s :)
I thought today I could write a little bit about Guadalajara, the city where I'm living in. I'll start with the basics: it's in the Centre/North West of the country and it has 1.500.000 inhabitants. Pretty big for European standards...not so much for American ones! As far as I'm concerned, it's the biggest city I've ever lived in, so I'm pretty impressed (Bologna and the Hague have around 500.000 inhabitants, while Brighton - together with Hove - only has 270.000). As any big city, it has a bit of everything. It has rich neighbourhoods and poor ones, it has cinemas, theatres, hospitals, universities...You name it! What surprises me most, though, is that it really doesn't have a very good underground system. In theory, it doesn't even have any underground, but in practice it does, it's just that they like to call it with another name. They call it "tren ligero" ("quick train"), because for some parts of its routes it's actually overground. There are two lines, line 1 runs under a big street called "Federalismo", from North to South, crossing the centre. Line 2 joins it in the city centre, at a stop called "Juarez", under the "Parque de la Revolución" (which means "Revolution Park", but friends call it "Parque Rojo", "Red Park", and not because red is the colour of the revolution, but because it has a lot of red decorations...that's what I've been told). This line goes from there towards the east of the city, but it doesn't have so many stops.
The west part of the city, and all that lies in between the two lines, can be considered forsaken land, at least by the tren ligero system. For that piece of land, you have to take the bus. Ah! Mexican buses! Unpredictable and yet so strangely happy to accommodate your needs. You may NOT know where they stop, unless you're very lucky and you might spot a half-erased "parada" ("stop") on the asphalt of the street...but don't get your hopes up, that doesn't happen often. Truth is, it pretty much stops wherever you want it to stop. So it's not like in the UK, where I saw a bus driver completely disdain an old man who was desperately running towards the bus stop (and was really just 10 metres away from it!). Here there is no need for you to be exactly at the stop exactly at the time the bus comes. You can be in between two bus stops, and you're OK. The real problem is getting off...and don't bother asking the bus driver: they'll forget about you in a second and they'll obviously forget to tell you where to get off. You just have to be very very very careful, and keep your eyes out of the window ALL THE TIME, or you'll end up like me, too many blocks away from where you wanted to go. It is a good way to know a bit more of Guadalajara though! There's obviously no possibility to know the times of the buses, but, in all honesty, they are fairly frequent. And if you wanna know which bus to take? Well, theoretically there's this website: http://rutasgdl.com. In practice, I tried using it a couple of times and always failed. Here's where your ability to make connections really pays off: a call to the right person will do the trick, and you'll know all the possible buses from that stop to the other one. And really, they do get everywhere. You just need to use your imagination!
Enough with transportation, let me tell you what I like about the city. It's full, FULL of cultural initiatives! My Mexican friend (the one I knew before coming here) knows a lot about it as she's really into these things. There are concerts, muppets shows (yes, and not for kids...I was shocked too when my friend invited me to one of them!), people delivering their pomes to an audience on the street, book fairs, markets...and more! In particular, there are a lot of fairs and festivals. Right now there's a "cultural festival", while next month there's a fair based on dresses for the 15th birthday (do you remember I told you it is the most important one for Mexicans?). I'm not sure this last one can be considered a cultural event but...in general I like that there are many things to do every day. Too many, I wish I could do everything! I love sundays in particular, as a big street behind my house gets closed to the traffic (only in the mornings, sadly), and people get out to walk, cycle, take free dance classes, etc...I love to sit outside a café and drink a Corona (only 90 eurocents!! Can you believe it? In Europe it's around 4 euros each bottle), while watching people pass by. Of course, another thing I really like about Guadalajara (also called GDL) are its places to dance salsa! In particular, if you ever come here, do go to "La Mutualista", where they have live bands and lots of room to dance :D
GDL is an important city, not only because it's the second-largest in Mexico, but also because it's on the train tracks, and it's in a beautiful state (Jalisco). Right now, trains are only for goods (and for those migrants who dangerously jump on them with the hope of finding a better future), as the company that manages them was privatised and the new owners are not interested in carrying people. There are only a few trains that transport tourists (I'd say there are only two of such routes, if I'm not wrong), and one of them goes to Tequila, the town where Tequila is made. I took that train last year when I came to visit my friend....It's quite expensive, but they provide for a whole day of entertainments (which includes drinks like margaritas), and a visit to the Tequila distillery. Another town/city in Jalisco is Ciudad Guzman, where my Mexican friend is from. I went there last year too, and it's a very interesting place. Near the mountains, not too big and not far from GDL, I think it'd be a nice place to live in! Finally, of course, Jalisco has some really pretty beaches. The most famous ones are in Puerto Vallarta - where all Americans go, but I've also been suggested a place called Sayulita. Google it if you have any doubts! I went to Puerto Vallarta just after my birthday. The beach in itself was not amazing, but the bay, on the Ocean, is pretty cool. And Puerto Vallarta itself has a nice city centre.
I wish I could tell you more, but I don't wanna make this post too long. I'll leave you know, and maybe if you're interested I'll write another one about Guadalajara - in particular in relation to the flux of migrants! Just one last bit of information, Jalisco is supposed to be a very conservative state, but I haven't really experienced much more conservatism than in the rest of Mexico!
Cate
P.S. another bit of information I was thinking about last night while I couldn't fall asleep...There seems to be NO regulation about noise at night time. Several times I've seen builders work (and drilling) at night on private houses, and it seems like any bar can blast the music up all night without problems. Very different to Europe!
Showing posts with label Travels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Travels. Show all posts
17 May 2014
07 May 2014
Have you ever been to a Mexican birthday?
Hi everyone :)
An update on what's going on here. Saturday was my birthday, so it's the perfect occasion to tell you something about Mexican birthdays.
Many of you will know the Mexican tradition of the "piñata". For those who don't, the piñata is a container (generally very colourful) filled with candies and/or toys, that the birthday girl/boy has to hit until it breaks during the celebrations. No, I didn't get one of those, but I thought it was interesting to know that the tradition actually comes from Europe, and was brought to Mexico by the Spaniards. The name actually comes, according to Wikipedia, from the italian word "pignatta" (free lesson of italian, guys: "gn" is basically read as the spanish "ñ")...I would really like to know who, of the italians out there, knows what a "pignatta" is. Well, it's a pan, and among its characteristics there is the fact that it breaks easily if it's hit by something. Nowadays I've never seen a piñata at a European birthday!
Anyway, for my birthday, I had got a taste of other traditions. Firstly, the song "las mañanitas". All the Mexican people reading this will be smiling and nodding. It's a very, very popular song, not only in Mexico but in all this region apparently. I had heard it so many times during my month here, as we had a few birthdays at the comedor, and it was my Mexican friend's birthday at the beginning of the month (by "Mexican friend" I refer to the one I came to visit last year. It's getting a bit confusing as I now have more than one Mexican friend - I think). So when I woke up on saturday, I was very excited because this time it was gonna be sung for me. There are many versions, but in general it says something along the lines of "wake up dear, we've come to celebrate your (15th) birthday". It doesn't always say that it's the 15th birthday, but, if they are in the mood, the singers might say it even when you're turning 89. Even though you don't have to be 15 to hear it in the song, it is important to remember that the 15th birthday is the most important one here in Mexico, and that's why it says that.
Here is a version of "las mañanitas"...enjoy!
The migrants and volunteers sang it to me at the comedor (where I had brought a chocolate cake). One of the migrants also sang another birthday song, a Christian one. It was very nice! I didn't do much work at the comedor that day XD I sat with the migrants and played cards or dominoes, while listening to music on my tablet (migrants were showing me videos of bands from Honduras). It was a nice way to spend a birthday afternoon! Here, I learnt two more facts about Mexican birthdays.
Firstly, you have to hug people when they wish you happy birthday. It's a "must"! Don't make the same mistake as me, of simply giving a kiss on the cheek and saying "thank you". The friend I did that too smiled and said "do you know you hug each other when we give our birthday wishes, here in Mexico?". I could feel the disappointment in his voice, and I think I was only saved by the fact I've be living here for just a month, and that this guy knows something about dealing with different cultures himself...but from then, I was ready to promptly hug whoever said "happy birthday"!! ;)
Secondly, there is another tradition called "mordita". Let me show you with a video:
*I have just been informed its "mordiDa", with a "d". Oh well, still a long way to go before I learn spanish well...I'll change it from now on, but yeah. Be aware of these terrible mistakes!* You can hear the kids screaming "mordida, mordida, mordida!". "Morder" in spanish means "to bite". The birthday person is expected to give a bite (without cutlery, literally by biting the cake directly), allegedly to "see if it's good". You can see that she's moving one hand behind her head, and that is to check that the man is not doing what he inevitably ends up doing: trying to push her face into the cake. That's the real reason why they want you to bite the cake. You're supposed to do it (push the person's face into the cake) without them realising you're going to do it, but it's very difficult because nowadays everybody expects it. I luckily succeeded in avoiding this tradition too, although one of the volunteers really wanted me to "see if the cake was good"!
In the evening, we went to a typical Mexican restaurant. There were mariachis and there were also typical dances. The light was really poor (and I was getting a bit tipsy!) so I don't think I have decent pictures to show you, but basically the dances consists on couples dancing together. The women have these colourful dress with really big skirts that they move around as they dance, and the men are typical Mexican men, with sombreros and moving their feet as if they hadn't done anything else but dance since they were born.
We ate nice food, had our good share of beers, and then we ordered a bottle of tequila. I saw my Mexican friend talking to the waiter and I knew she was on to something, but I didn't investigate. I soon learnt what it was about anyway, as some waiters came next to me and, before I could realize what was going on, poured a shot of what seemed like "red tequila" (tequila with some tomato juice, I guess) into my mouth. They then shook my head while making as much noise as possible with some whistles. In a few seconds, they were off like nothing had happened...I had seen this last year, but I had completely forgotten about it....it was fun to try, but not my favourite way of tasting a shot of tequila!!
I'll leave you here, I feel like I've already written too much. Just to briefly tell you, we finished off the night dancing salsa (and, sometimes, pop music too) until 5am. It was a great birthday!
Hope you found it interesting :)
Mexican hugs to everyone
Caterina
P.S.: the title, once again, is an adaptation of the title of a Gogol Bordello's song, "Have you ever been to an American wedding?"
An update on what's going on here. Saturday was my birthday, so it's the perfect occasion to tell you something about Mexican birthdays.
Many of you will know the Mexican tradition of the "piñata". For those who don't, the piñata is a container (generally very colourful) filled with candies and/or toys, that the birthday girl/boy has to hit until it breaks during the celebrations. No, I didn't get one of those, but I thought it was interesting to know that the tradition actually comes from Europe, and was brought to Mexico by the Spaniards. The name actually comes, according to Wikipedia, from the italian word "pignatta" (free lesson of italian, guys: "gn" is basically read as the spanish "ñ")...I would really like to know who, of the italians out there, knows what a "pignatta" is. Well, it's a pan, and among its characteristics there is the fact that it breaks easily if it's hit by something. Nowadays I've never seen a piñata at a European birthday!
Anyway, for my birthday, I had got a taste of other traditions. Firstly, the song "las mañanitas". All the Mexican people reading this will be smiling and nodding. It's a very, very popular song, not only in Mexico but in all this region apparently. I had heard it so many times during my month here, as we had a few birthdays at the comedor, and it was my Mexican friend's birthday at the beginning of the month (by "Mexican friend" I refer to the one I came to visit last year. It's getting a bit confusing as I now have more than one Mexican friend - I think). So when I woke up on saturday, I was very excited because this time it was gonna be sung for me. There are many versions, but in general it says something along the lines of "wake up dear, we've come to celebrate your (15th) birthday". It doesn't always say that it's the 15th birthday, but, if they are in the mood, the singers might say it even when you're turning 89. Even though you don't have to be 15 to hear it in the song, it is important to remember that the 15th birthday is the most important one here in Mexico, and that's why it says that.
Here is a version of "las mañanitas"...enjoy!
The migrants and volunteers sang it to me at the comedor (where I had brought a chocolate cake). One of the migrants also sang another birthday song, a Christian one. It was very nice! I didn't do much work at the comedor that day XD I sat with the migrants and played cards or dominoes, while listening to music on my tablet (migrants were showing me videos of bands from Honduras). It was a nice way to spend a birthday afternoon! Here, I learnt two more facts about Mexican birthdays.
Firstly, you have to hug people when they wish you happy birthday. It's a "must"! Don't make the same mistake as me, of simply giving a kiss on the cheek and saying "thank you". The friend I did that too smiled and said "do you know you hug each other when we give our birthday wishes, here in Mexico?". I could feel the disappointment in his voice, and I think I was only saved by the fact I've be living here for just a month, and that this guy knows something about dealing with different cultures himself...but from then, I was ready to promptly hug whoever said "happy birthday"!! ;)
Secondly, there is another tradition called "mordita". Let me show you with a video:
*I have just been informed its "mordiDa", with a "d". Oh well, still a long way to go before I learn spanish well...I'll change it from now on, but yeah. Be aware of these terrible mistakes!* You can hear the kids screaming "mordida, mordida, mordida!". "Morder" in spanish means "to bite". The birthday person is expected to give a bite (without cutlery, literally by biting the cake directly), allegedly to "see if it's good". You can see that she's moving one hand behind her head, and that is to check that the man is not doing what he inevitably ends up doing: trying to push her face into the cake. That's the real reason why they want you to bite the cake. You're supposed to do it (push the person's face into the cake) without them realising you're going to do it, but it's very difficult because nowadays everybody expects it. I luckily succeeded in avoiding this tradition too, although one of the volunteers really wanted me to "see if the cake was good"!
In the evening, we went to a typical Mexican restaurant. There were mariachis and there were also typical dances. The light was really poor (and I was getting a bit tipsy!) so I don't think I have decent pictures to show you, but basically the dances consists on couples dancing together. The women have these colourful dress with really big skirts that they move around as they dance, and the men are typical Mexican men, with sombreros and moving their feet as if they hadn't done anything else but dance since they were born.
We ate nice food, had our good share of beers, and then we ordered a bottle of tequila. I saw my Mexican friend talking to the waiter and I knew she was on to something, but I didn't investigate. I soon learnt what it was about anyway, as some waiters came next to me and, before I could realize what was going on, poured a shot of what seemed like "red tequila" (tequila with some tomato juice, I guess) into my mouth. They then shook my head while making as much noise as possible with some whistles. In a few seconds, they were off like nothing had happened...I had seen this last year, but I had completely forgotten about it....it was fun to try, but not my favourite way of tasting a shot of tequila!!
I'll leave you here, I feel like I've already written too much. Just to briefly tell you, we finished off the night dancing salsa (and, sometimes, pop music too) until 5am. It was a great birthday!
Hope you found it interesting :)
Mexican hugs to everyone
Caterina
P.S.: the title, once again, is an adaptation of the title of a Gogol Bordello's song, "Have you ever been to an American wedding?"
15 April 2014
Getting ready
Hey guys!
This post might make you feel better if you are a last-minute sort of person. I had known I was going to come to Mexico since October, but it took me a looooong time to actually get ready for my trip. And even when I took the plane, I wasn't really ready. For example, I only bought the ticket less than two months before the start of my internship, even if I knew it might have been cheaper booking it earlier. I have a good explanation though! Well, sort of...Basically, on average, I've been taking a plane every two or three weeks in the last year or so. Yes, I know, not good for the environment, but you have to consider that my family is in Italy, I live in the Netherlands, one of my best friends is in the UK....and I love travelling!! ;) As you can imagine, then, I'm constantly on websites where you can book your plane tickets. Seriously, CONSTANTLY!! At a certain point I was in Italy, had booked my flight to come to Mexico but in the middle I had to go to the Netherlands and come back (as my flight was leaving from Bologna). The return journey Italy-Netherlands was not booked though...Well, it just isn't easy to juggle all the trips so that dates will match, and I don't end up having my flight for Mexico a day before my flight for Italy. I'm really not complaining, I know how lucky I am to have the opportunity to travel so much, and I even love organizing trips (the booking part too). It's just that sometimes it'd be nice to have months of 60 days! ;)
The other part of my life that I had to prepare before leaving Europe, was supposed to be the internship/research plan. I don't remember if I already wrote it: I have to do a research for my university, on something linked to what I'm doing in my internship. As I was the first one among my classmates to have found the internship, I was expected to have this sorted out pretty quickly. ....You wish! We did sign a document called "internship agreement" (basically like a contract between me, the internship organization and the internship supervisor at uni) soon enough, but the plans for the research are just taking such a long time! Yes, are, because I haven't written my plan yet and, by the way, I've just decided to change my topic. Fun times! :P I wanted to do it on the issue of migration as part of Mexico/USA relations, but now I'm realizing that I have this amazing opportunity to interview migrants, so I should do something with it. Right now I'm therefore considering focussing on the violence they encounter in their journey, but we'll see...
Last but not least, my spanish. To come to Mexico for more than a week or two, you need to speak spanish. To be honest, you're likely to need it even if you come for just a week, unless you go to reeeeaaally touristic places. Not many people speak english here (I do feel at home, as it's very similar to what happens in Italy), so unless you are one of those people who really don't care if their taco is made of beef or of larvas, I suggest you learn some basic words! (OK, they don't make tacos of larvas, as far as I know, but they do eat them in some parts of the country!) I have an advantage, since italian and spanish have (almost) the same grammar and several words in common. Plus, my father works with a spanish company and I have lots of memories of me sitting in the car with him talking - often shouting - in spanish (please note, on bluetooth or headphones...don't use your phone in the car!), and I picked up some words here and there. Before coming here I was supposed to start studying it for real but, well, you can all guess how that went...Between duolingo and Mexican tv series on youtube (let me know if you need some titles!), I learnt enough, and now I'm making progress every day. I hope.
I'm gonna leave you know, if anything else comes to mind about getting ready for Mexico I'll write another post. Oh, two last words. One on clothes: always check the weather of where you're going! And, if you're coming to Mexico, chances are you won't need a coat. Seems fairly obvious, but I have met people with the weirdest kinds of clothes for the place they were in. Lastly, I was just talking about how I like booking plane tickets...Well, yesterday I discovered eDreams decided to cancel my booking for the return flight. Without telling me. How nice of them! So, now I have that to sort out, and that is something that I do NOT like!
Cool, 'till next time!!
Caterina
This post might make you feel better if you are a last-minute sort of person. I had known I was going to come to Mexico since October, but it took me a looooong time to actually get ready for my trip. And even when I took the plane, I wasn't really ready. For example, I only bought the ticket less than two months before the start of my internship, even if I knew it might have been cheaper booking it earlier. I have a good explanation though! Well, sort of...Basically, on average, I've been taking a plane every two or three weeks in the last year or so. Yes, I know, not good for the environment, but you have to consider that my family is in Italy, I live in the Netherlands, one of my best friends is in the UK....and I love travelling!! ;) As you can imagine, then, I'm constantly on websites where you can book your plane tickets. Seriously, CONSTANTLY!! At a certain point I was in Italy, had booked my flight to come to Mexico but in the middle I had to go to the Netherlands and come back (as my flight was leaving from Bologna). The return journey Italy-Netherlands was not booked though...Well, it just isn't easy to juggle all the trips so that dates will match, and I don't end up having my flight for Mexico a day before my flight for Italy. I'm really not complaining, I know how lucky I am to have the opportunity to travel so much, and I even love organizing trips (the booking part too). It's just that sometimes it'd be nice to have months of 60 days! ;)
The other part of my life that I had to prepare before leaving Europe, was supposed to be the internship/research plan. I don't remember if I already wrote it: I have to do a research for my university, on something linked to what I'm doing in my internship. As I was the first one among my classmates to have found the internship, I was expected to have this sorted out pretty quickly. ....You wish! We did sign a document called "internship agreement" (basically like a contract between me, the internship organization and the internship supervisor at uni) soon enough, but the plans for the research are just taking such a long time! Yes, are, because I haven't written my plan yet and, by the way, I've just decided to change my topic. Fun times! :P I wanted to do it on the issue of migration as part of Mexico/USA relations, but now I'm realizing that I have this amazing opportunity to interview migrants, so I should do something with it. Right now I'm therefore considering focussing on the violence they encounter in their journey, but we'll see...
Last but not least, my spanish. To come to Mexico for more than a week or two, you need to speak spanish. To be honest, you're likely to need it even if you come for just a week, unless you go to reeeeaaally touristic places. Not many people speak english here (I do feel at home, as it's very similar to what happens in Italy), so unless you are one of those people who really don't care if their taco is made of beef or of larvas, I suggest you learn some basic words! (OK, they don't make tacos of larvas, as far as I know, but they do eat them in some parts of the country!) I have an advantage, since italian and spanish have (almost) the same grammar and several words in common. Plus, my father works with a spanish company and I have lots of memories of me sitting in the car with him talking - often shouting - in spanish (please note, on bluetooth or headphones...don't use your phone in the car!), and I picked up some words here and there. Before coming here I was supposed to start studying it for real but, well, you can all guess how that went...Between duolingo and Mexican tv series on youtube (let me know if you need some titles!), I learnt enough, and now I'm making progress every day. I hope.
I'm gonna leave you know, if anything else comes to mind about getting ready for Mexico I'll write another post. Oh, two last words. One on clothes: always check the weather of where you're going! And, if you're coming to Mexico, chances are you won't need a coat. Seems fairly obvious, but I have met people with the weirdest kinds of clothes for the place they were in. Lastly, I was just talking about how I like booking plane tickets...Well, yesterday I discovered eDreams decided to cancel my booking for the return flight. Without telling me. How nice of them! So, now I have that to sort out, and that is something that I do NOT like!
Cool, 'till next time!!
Caterina
12 April 2014
Singing helps the troubled souls
Hola familia! :)
First thing first, the title is a sentence from one of my favourite songs, "Immigrant Punk", by Gogol Bordello. Check it out if you're into (gypsy) punk/rock! I chose it as a title because today in the comedor (I hadn't talked about it yet, it's the place where i work in the afternoons: migrants can come in between 4 and 7 pm to have a shower, hot food and, in some cases, the possibility to call home), we had a very interesting visit. A group of migrants were bringing along two guitars and amazing voices, so they gave us a private concert after eating. They were singing Christian songs (they were part of a church - surely catholic, but I don't remember exactly which denomination) in spanish...it was really cool (*free spanish lesson* in Mexico, to say "cool!" you can say "chido!" or "padre!". The last one is particularly interesting for me, because it also means "father")!
Now I have completed a whole first week of working with migrants and it's been extremely intense. I wanted to write my posts in a logical order, so the next one was gonna be about getting ready to come here, but I really needed to reflect on my experience tonight...so here I am! Today it was a particularly emotional day as I was, for the first time, in charge of interviews. Let me explain, there's four main areas in the comedor in which volunteers are needed: the kitchen (where you cook and serve the food), roperia (=literally, clothes shop...of course it's not a shop, as everything is for free for migrants), interviews and door.
The door is where the first selections is made: only migrants who are passing through Guadalajara before continuing their journey can come in. The comedor is in a street with a lot of homeless people, so you need to be able to distinguish them. Also, sometimes migrants decide to remain in Guadalajara for a while, but they can't come in to shower and eat more than a few times, so you have to tell them "no" if you realize they're not continuing their journey. The first day I talked with my supervisor here in FM4 Paso Libre, he explained to me that it is important to understand that the organization, as it is small and voluntarily-founded, has its limits and cannot welcome EVERYONE. Sad but true!
When they come to the comedor for the first time (or their first time in this camino, as sometimes they have been deported so they're repeating their journeys), they have to go through an interview before showering and eating. This serves many purposes: it lets us know them better, it is useful for research aimed at improving the protection of human rights, and it gives us the opportunity to know if there has been any abuse, and of which kind. So, today I was at the interviews for the first time. It wasn't easy as my spanish is not so good yet (I know the grammar and everything, but I don't know that many words), but all in all I think nobody complained. However, it really gave me a lot to think about. Sooo many of the migrants just took it for granted that in their camino, it was normal for them to be robbed and to be pointed guns at. When asked "have you been victim of a crime?", they might often say "no", but then once you talk to them a bit more they'll tell you that one night, as they were waiting for the train, a dozen of armed men with their faces covered robbed them of all their money. And maybe even killed a guy who was travelling with them. Say what???!! Yes, it happened to one of the migrants I interviewed today. What's more, a couple of them told us that the federal police, at the border with Guatemala, asked them for money, otherwise they wouldn't let them come into Mexico. Interestingly, only migration police can deport people, but obviously most (...all?) migrants don't know it, and therefore they pay. It's disgusting and very saddening, but I always try to put on a brave face, as obviously I am not the only one who witnessed these things in person, so I don't really have anything to complain about compared to the people I'm talking to.
At the interview we see if they need anything - shoes? a new t-shirt? a hat? - and, if yes, we write it down on a piece of paper that they bring to the roperia. After receiving these things + a towel and a soap, they can go and take a shower. They then have to wash the towel they use (which, I find, is a very intelligent method to do it!) and finally they can go and eat a nice, hot meal, served with some agua fresca (a drink made of water, sugar and some kind of fruit, depending on the type) and/or coffee. Before today I generally worked in the kitchen, and I loved it. You really get the chance to talk to people (yes, you do that in the interviews too, but that's a more formal setting) and you see these big, beautiful smiles when you serve them food.
Well, to (hopefully) cheer you up after all the talk about robbery/human rights violations, let me put a few pictures I took today. All taken in the kitchen area, in the first one you can see three volunteers, in the other two the migrants playing and singing.
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Hopefully next post is gonna be about getting ready for Mexico, but who knows...Vamos a ver! ;) (=we'll see)
Ciao!
Caterina
First thing first, the title is a sentence from one of my favourite songs, "Immigrant Punk", by Gogol Bordello. Check it out if you're into (gypsy) punk/rock! I chose it as a title because today in the comedor (I hadn't talked about it yet, it's the place where i work in the afternoons: migrants can come in between 4 and 7 pm to have a shower, hot food and, in some cases, the possibility to call home), we had a very interesting visit. A group of migrants were bringing along two guitars and amazing voices, so they gave us a private concert after eating. They were singing Christian songs (they were part of a church - surely catholic, but I don't remember exactly which denomination) in spanish...it was really cool (*free spanish lesson* in Mexico, to say "cool!" you can say "chido!" or "padre!". The last one is particularly interesting for me, because it also means "father")!
Now I have completed a whole first week of working with migrants and it's been extremely intense. I wanted to write my posts in a logical order, so the next one was gonna be about getting ready to come here, but I really needed to reflect on my experience tonight...so here I am! Today it was a particularly emotional day as I was, for the first time, in charge of interviews. Let me explain, there's four main areas in the comedor in which volunteers are needed: the kitchen (where you cook and serve the food), roperia (=literally, clothes shop...of course it's not a shop, as everything is for free for migrants), interviews and door.
The door is where the first selections is made: only migrants who are passing through Guadalajara before continuing their journey can come in. The comedor is in a street with a lot of homeless people, so you need to be able to distinguish them. Also, sometimes migrants decide to remain in Guadalajara for a while, but they can't come in to shower and eat more than a few times, so you have to tell them "no" if you realize they're not continuing their journey. The first day I talked with my supervisor here in FM4 Paso Libre, he explained to me that it is important to understand that the organization, as it is small and voluntarily-founded, has its limits and cannot welcome EVERYONE. Sad but true!
When they come to the comedor for the first time (or their first time in this camino, as sometimes they have been deported so they're repeating their journeys), they have to go through an interview before showering and eating. This serves many purposes: it lets us know them better, it is useful for research aimed at improving the protection of human rights, and it gives us the opportunity to know if there has been any abuse, and of which kind. So, today I was at the interviews for the first time. It wasn't easy as my spanish is not so good yet (I know the grammar and everything, but I don't know that many words), but all in all I think nobody complained. However, it really gave me a lot to think about. Sooo many of the migrants just took it for granted that in their camino, it was normal for them to be robbed and to be pointed guns at. When asked "have you been victim of a crime?", they might often say "no", but then once you talk to them a bit more they'll tell you that one night, as they were waiting for the train, a dozen of armed men with their faces covered robbed them of all their money. And maybe even killed a guy who was travelling with them. Say what???!! Yes, it happened to one of the migrants I interviewed today. What's more, a couple of them told us that the federal police, at the border with Guatemala, asked them for money, otherwise they wouldn't let them come into Mexico. Interestingly, only migration police can deport people, but obviously most (...all?) migrants don't know it, and therefore they pay. It's disgusting and very saddening, but I always try to put on a brave face, as obviously I am not the only one who witnessed these things in person, so I don't really have anything to complain about compared to the people I'm talking to.
At the interview we see if they need anything - shoes? a new t-shirt? a hat? - and, if yes, we write it down on a piece of paper that they bring to the roperia. After receiving these things + a towel and a soap, they can go and take a shower. They then have to wash the towel they use (which, I find, is a very intelligent method to do it!) and finally they can go and eat a nice, hot meal, served with some agua fresca (a drink made of water, sugar and some kind of fruit, depending on the type) and/or coffee. Before today I generally worked in the kitchen, and I loved it. You really get the chance to talk to people (yes, you do that in the interviews too, but that's a more formal setting) and you see these big, beautiful smiles when you serve them food.
Well, to (hopefully) cheer you up after all the talk about robbery/human rights violations, let me put a few pictures I took today. All taken in the kitchen area, in the first one you can see three volunteers, in the other two the migrants playing and singing.
Hopefully next post is gonna be about getting ready for Mexico, but who knows...Vamos a ver! ;) (=we'll see)
Ciao!
Caterina
11 April 2014
Why Mexico?
Hi everyone :)
I am Caterina, an italian student who's arrived in Mexico 10 days ago and is planning to stay here for about 2 months and a half. Why? The short answer is: to do an internship. When I give this answer, though, I then have several people asking me: yes, but why in Mexico?
Just to be clear, I actually live in the Netherlands and the moment, where I'm doing a two-years Master in International Relations and Diplomacy. The master's module for these months precisely consists in doing an internship, with the end goal of writing a research paper on something related to the experience. This was actually one of the main reasons why I chose my course so, free tip to everyone who's thinking of doing a Master: consider whether it has an internship or not! It's a tip that my professor in my Bachelor gave me, and I think it's very valuable. Not only because employers do look at this kind of stuff (basically, working experience), but also because you can get the chance to try out a type of job, and see whether you actually like it or not. Of course, these Masters tend to be two-years long, so you have to see whether that's something you're OK with!
Well, let's get back to why Mexico. I was here last year, in July, after a week in Cuba with my mum. The week in Cuba was sort of a "prize" for graduating, and was probably my best holiday ever (no, we didn't spend all days on the beautiful, sandy beach...just one, tbh). When planning it, I realised Cuba was relatively near to Mexico (what a surprise!), so it could be a great occasion to go and visit on of my best friends, who lives in Guadalajara and who I hadn't seen for one year and a half. The decision to come here the first time, in 2013, was therefore purely out of chance. I was never really interested in Mexico, the picture I had in my head was of boring deserts with some cactuses here and there and, sometimes, pyramids. Nah, not my kind of thing.......how naive!! To cut a long story short, I fell in love. Purely, in any sense of the word, since one night I found a great Mexican man who made me go crazy with his perfect salsa moves.
After that amazing experience, then, all I could think about was: how do I get back there? So, when I had to find an internship, I decided to ask my friend's boyfriend, who's a professor of International Relations here in Guadalajara, if he knew of any organisation I could work with. I was thinking in particular of the issue of migration, something that is very interesting for me personally, both because I'm italian (and we get a lot of "illegal" immigrants there) and because it's strongly connected to what I study. Short flashback: last year, when I was here, we went to the Tequila distillery with a train. When boarding the train in Guadalajara we saw the other train, the one called la Bestia, carrying goods (and migrants) to the US. It was rather shocking, seeing these men holding onto the outside of the carriages, in such an unstable way that several of them never have a chace to reach the US. Since then, I had been thinking that I would have loved to work to improve their conditions.
And this is where we finally get to why I came here: my friend contacted the founder of this great organization (FM4 Paso Libre, I'll talk more about them in the next posts), who agreed to have me as an intern. I came here because, during my short trip last year, I realised there's so much more than cactuses and pyramids here. I came here because Mexico is a country that tens of thousands of immigrants cross every year hoping to follow the "American Dream", and where the issue of human rights is therefore particularly pressing. I came here because I thought I had a chance to do something meaningful, while enjoying it.
The whole blog is meant as an account of my weeks here. I hope that it will serve to explain better why I came here, and to inspire other to do something similar. As I'm writing, though, I'm just being particularly optimistic: I don't know what will happen to me here in the next months...It could end up being a horrible experience for some reason! I doubt that, but I'll keep you updated! :D
Ciao!
Caterina
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