oaxaca, conflict and beauty

oaxaca, ride down the hill
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imagine

imagine that california had a revolution.

imagine that governor arnold, recently come to power in a stolen election, was siphoning off millions of public dollars, and spending the rest on payback projects to his supporter and funders while ignoring massive poverty in the countryside outside of sacramento. imagine the teachers union going on strike for better pay, and, after getting fed up with their protests, gov arnold calls in the state troopers to beat some heads and break up the strike. finally outraged passed their limits and with no legal right to recall at all, the people of california riot and fully 1 in 4 people in the state march on the capital, kick out the sacto cops, take the town over, declare themselves the new government of the city and rule it unopposed for months.

oaxaca, monte alban temple
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one day, after weeks of low-level conflicts, something goes terribly wrong. the governor's paramilitary forces "accidentally" shoot an indymedia cameraman in the chest, killing him... while he is filming. the camera escapes, and the official story of "police act in self-defense after shots are fired at them" is totally blown away by the contents of the video. the world is outraged, the state looks like shit, and even the federal government feels embarrassed. george w. bush, himself recently installed as president after a fraudulent election, takes decisive action. federal troopers backed up by the military are flown to california, take over sacramento airport, and assault the city. thousands of arrests, scores of "disappeared" leaders, and a dozen dead protestors later, the governor is back in control of the capitol. the city center is closed off with barricades and cops with fully automatic weapons, and "the peace" is kept by an ongoing system of assassinations or leftist leaders, lawyers, and protestors.

oaxaca, monte alban temple
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sounds crazy, no? it is crazy, but that's exactly what happened in oaxaca.

politics in oaxaca

when i was in mexico city, i was amused to see a poster in the hotel, where the secretary of tourism explained how  oaxaca was now safe to visit, and "the police and barricades are now a thing of yesterday;" now doesn't that make a tourist feel like visiting! but upon arrive to oaxaca i found the secretary had lied: police and barricades were everywhere, and the city still seemed tense. every entrance to the main plaza had a squad of armored, fully automatic-armed PFP (federal preventative police) with metal barricades. people were allowed in and out of the plaza without much hassles, but the town had the feel of a military occupation.

oaxaca, monte alban, view of oacaxa
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a few days after i arrived a peace vigil was schedule at the local church. the police came out first and surrounded the church, surrounding an area nine square blocks in size, utterly stopping the peace vigil. the news the next day accused the state of suppressing freedom of religion.

a left-leaning candidate in a costal town announces he will run for mayor in opposition of the ruling party candidate. the next day he is assassinate in broad daylight in the town's main square. a local lawyer in oaxaca, long critical of the government and speaking for the rights of the opposition, is assassinated in broad daylight in his car in town. raids continue against suspects organizers, who are held without rights or bail in a legal system where you are literally presumed guilty until proven innocent.

oaxaca, burned out courthouse
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none of this gets covered much in the press. the mainstream press continue to call the coalition of labor, indigenous, students, and others, "terrorists." there is no oversight of government spending and the courts and cops are all controlled by the same people.

life goes on.

people shop, party, go out on the town. none of this needs to affect you , unless you really want to get involved. it becomes a backdrop to daily life. my goal was to study a situation i did not understand so i limited myself to the side lines.

oaxaca street scene
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i hooked up with a group called oaxaca solidarity network. they organized delegations to oaxaca. the get groups of citizens of other countries to come to oaxaca to interview victims of human rights abuses. they then get the delegates to document these stories and popularize them back in their home countries. they helps with with segments the aired on democracy now. my role was to assemble the links and documents the made up the results of the first delegation, and put them on a web site and cd for distribution. you can see the delegation results by clicking here.

oaxaca zocalo
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meanwhile, out in the countryside, the indigenous people that make up the bulk of the peasants in oaxaca continue to toil on farms for little or no pay, with little or no access to education or medication, and many without drinkable water. and the governor goes back to building parks and roads.

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sites and sounds

as i have been traveling i have been asking travelers and locals alike, "what cities should i see in mexico." all over the country the response have been the same, "you must see san cristobol in chiapas, and oaxaca!" within a few blocks of walking it was apparent why oaxaca was so important.

oaxaca hotel principal
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it is a beautiful town, with much colonial architecture and lots of cute cobblestone streets, friendly shops, beautiful public spaces, and great food. the zócalo (main plaza) must be one of the most beautiful in the country, with arched porticos, many restaurants, and much music. the churches and many of the buildings are beautiful.

it is also apparent that the recent conflicts have left the region with a severely damaged tourist industry. hotels were far from full, and the room prices down by half or more in the mid-range (although hostels were about the same). the language school occupancy was below 20% of usual.

el tule church and giant tree
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traveling without being able to talk the language is really frustrating, so getting some spanish, and soon, move way up my priority list. i signed up for a week of español, 4 hours per day, for $120, and spent the weekend before my class started exploring the area.

monte alban

perched high up on a hill with 360-degree views of the surrounding valleys, sits monte alban, a great zapotec cultural center. called "the sacred mountain of life" in the local language, the site is 1300 feet high and a large part of the original peak was shaved flat. around 400 bc the many zapotec communities in the valleys were threatened by a neighboring culture that had become very warlike. in response the zapotecs moved out of the valleys and built and formed the city of monte alban, with about 14 different tribes coming together. at its peak in 200 bc it had 17,000 inhabitants. by 900 ce, the neighboring threat had faded, the alliance dissolved, and monte alban was abandoned.

el tule giant tree
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i found it amazing to walk around this site on the same paths that its citizens walk millennia ago. many of the carvings are set out and can be touched. it created an awesome sense of the passage of time.

a cheap bus takes you from oaxaca 9km away to the base of the site. i met two friends here, patricia and andy, and together we cruised the pyramids, explored the museum, and sipped cold beers at the cafeteria. back in the bus parking lot we met several more travelers, including an italian couple(i was surprised i still remembered as much italian as i did), and two brazilian guys. we were so engrossed in conversations we didn't notice our return bus until it was pulling out of the lot. watching it head to town without us was a bit disappointing, but we soon flagged down a beater truck with wood-slat sides and a wooden board bed with holes so big you could drop through to the ground. this made a fine bus for the seven of us.

oaxaca street scene
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at the end of my stay here i had a pleasant surprise: shannon ryan was coming to town! it is so nice to have a real friend to visit with when you are so far from home. we spent a few days bumping around town and the surrounding area, and visited el tule, a little village a few kilometers out famous for its gigantic tree.

the next day i left shannon behind and hop the next bus to san cristobol de las casas, in chiapas.