Week Two: Our Arrival in Mexico

By Janet Crenshaw






While on this program, I have discovered I am filled with contradictions. I am Catholic, but I’ve never read the bible. I judged the Border Patrol agents for being too passionate in things that I disagreed with, however I lack firm opinions other than what my liberal community has encouraged me to think. Also, I like wearing heels and skirts, but I also agree with our readings and discussions that gender is a social construction and that these are traits I have been socialized into doing. While I constantly asked questions this week about if something is right or wrong, I learned that it isn’t always about being right or wrong, but about being aware, conscious and educated about my decisions.



During the past two weeks, we have discussed the importance of acknowledging the contradictions in ourselves and of our world, raising awareness on social issues and questioning our intentions. On Wednesday, we visited the Diego Rivera mural (“History of Morelos: Conquest and Revolution”) in the Palacio de Cortez. As part of the social realism movement, Rivera painted this huge mural to show the history in a way that those who did not have an education or literacy skills could understand (although I was still really confused…). In the middle of the mural, there is an image of Spanish men with their eyes closed as they blind themselves from the violence they performed on the indigenous people. In our many reflections at the border and during this week, we have been encouraged to question our role in the system of oppression as consumers, Americans and as volunteers. Just as the Spanish hid from acknowledging their oppressive actions, I too sometimes feel that it is easier to turn my head from the effects of where I spend my dollar and instead enjoy the privileged life of a white middle class American. However, as this program has shown, while working for social transformation, we must push our comfort levels and discuss these contradictions in (as our professors call it) a “safe, uncomfortable” space.

After leaving the Rivera mural, we visited Xochicalco, an ancient sacred site that was once a center for knowledge, religious, and commercial trade. As Lisanne showed us, there was always a reason for why and where buildings were built. In the large meeting area, the pyramids were positioned in a way that permits a speaker to only have to talk normally for a large crowd to hear. Also, when one claps near the large pyramid, the sound of a cockatoo echos off the structure. In a film about the ancient cities of Mexico, the narrator dramatically tells of how these centers were almost as good as we are. However, about 100 years ago when a part of the structure was moved, the sound that was once made when you clap by this certain building could not be recreated. While we have many who excel in physics, we have not be able to recreate the necessary soundwaves. This excursion shows how we need to acknowledge ancient community knowledge, similar to the need to show support and acknowledge women’s knowledge. In Xochicalco, women’s work was respected, unlike how household labor and women’s role in development as received no economic value, as discussed in Liberating Economics. Also, in this community, gays and lesbians were seen as sacred because they had the energy of both male and females, and did not need an opposite to make them complete and balanced. So by acknowledging advanced ancient customs that are often viewed as inferior to present day technology and mindsets, we can question how we live today.



So while it is a contradiction to come to Mexico to study social issues that exist in the United States (that we don’t always realize), and how I encourage recycling, but sometimes I too get lazy, and how there is a sign above the sink warning about cockroaches, but sometimes people still leave dirty dishes in the sink, I have become aware of the many contractions that throw me off the balance that the Xochicalco community praised.



Drucilla K. Barker and Susan F. Feiner, Liberating Economics. (Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press, 2004),

Ann described each section of the Diego Rivera mural at the Palacio de Cortez for all of us.

By Kathryn Sweet
Our second week, in stark contrast to the first, was light on guest speakers and included more “internal class sessions.” After visiting the ancient city of Xochicalco, the group spent two nights at an ex-hacienda (plantation) – now a campground and B&B – called Santa Cruz. As this trip was billed as a “mini-retreat” in our schedules, several of us were expecting plenty of down time. I will say up front that it wasn’t that kind of retreat. While it provided a necessary and very thorough introduction to the program’s themes, the two days of intensive group discussion left everyone mentally and physically exhausted (I was asleep within ten minutes of returning to Cuernavaca!). That said, the ten assigned pre-trip readings provoked many thoughtful discussions – and hopefully each student and professor was able to take away something from those conversations besides an intense loathing of someone else in the group.

So, specifically, what did we do that wore everyone out so much? The 8:45 am icebreaker activities were probably to blame more so than anything else – in a group of mostly “morning people,” I suppose that was seen as the best time to get acquainted with our professors. The picture shown here is a fine example of one of Friday morning’s icebreaker: this one was called “back to back,” and required people to pair up and match up random body parts before discussing a really deep question. How often do you get to see your professor put her chin on a student’s thigh? (The woman in front with the gray pants, by the way, is Judy, one of the political science professors.) In any event, “back to back” provided some comic relief.

Since it’s difficult to give a detailed description of our discussions of ten articles, here are some of the main themes that came up. A particularly relevant one was our place in Mexico, as a group of mostly white American students. What’s the proper way to respond to the frequent catcalling that we’ve already experienced? Why should we resist the urge to just go and fix what we find wrong with Mexican society? We also devoted most of Thursday’s class to issues of feminism, gender, and the field of women’s studies. As a women’s studies major, I probably enjoyed this more than those who were new to the field. At the same time, I was interested to hear the perspectives of women’s studies novices (not something I usually get to hear in my upper-level women’s studies classes back home); the variety of viewpoints really seemed to enrich the dialogue we had. Everyone had something different to contribute to the gender-related discussions; they did not simply consist of the group’s three women’s studies majors pontificating.

Though the retreat at Santa Cruz was draining, it sped up the process of getting to know our professors – and managed to compress Women’s Studies 101 and Postcolonial Theory for Dummies into two days. It will be weeks until our next overnight trip, so hopefully now we can settle into our classes, using the knowledge gained at Santa Cruz as a basis for everything we study throughout the semester