Experience of a Lifetime

In preparing for this particular blog entry, I felt completely overwhelmed about where to begin and how to sum it all up. I decided that the best that I can do is break our trip to Tuxpan, Jalisco into more manageable categories. Many more photos will soon come (thanks to Josh), but for now it is primarily the info.


Transportation
The Huichol community of Tuxpan is located on a small plateau in the Sierra Madre mountains. Josh and I began on a second-class 'tour' bus out of a station in north Guadalajara, and rode for around 6 hours on a winding road through the mountains. The views were incredible and included enormous canyons and craggy ridge lines. We arrived in a pueblo called Balaños and switched to a small and sturdy bus and rode for 3 more hours on a rough dirt road. Josh and I gaped out the window at steep drop-offs, with nothing to stop a vehicle from falling over the edge. All of our trust was in a bus driver we had only just met.
We were on one of the only buses that heads to Tuxpan, which arrives each day at 5PM from the south. The other, which we left on to head back to Guadalajara, arrives at 6AM from the north. The morning we left the bus was packed full of people. I did not notice until she was exiting that a woman who had been standing up near the driver was not only holding the hand of a small toddler, but also had a baby in a sling over her shoulder. No one had offered a seat for her! And at another point a mother and her small boy got on, and they were barely given enough room. I reached across the aisle and set him on my lap and he stayed.

Water
I am going to sound preachy here, but many of us- especially in the United States- take this for granted with long showers, sprinkler systems and swimming pools, to name a few. I have thought that I have had it bad in Guadalajara, having to rely on the delivery of huge water jugs for our kitchen, and not daring to wash fruit or vegetables under tap water. But in Tuxpan no one is coming by with water deliveries. A flushing toilet, let alone a toilet at all is hard to come by. Showers and baths as we know them are an abstract notion. Each day a little bit of water was pumped in through a hose at Maria and Juan's, which was enough to supply for clean? drinking water and the washing of clothes and dishes.


Food
There are limited resources in Tuxpan. The people who live in this harsh region are only able to grow corn and beans where they live, which must last them throughout the year. Though it is warm enough for year-round crops, the lack of water during the dry season limits production. There are the occasional chickens, cows and pigs, but for the most part, all food items must be brought in from afar. Hence, most of the food in the markets is the same; canned items, a little produce, and a few drink selections. When we arrived at Maria and Juan’s house, Maria, her daughter, and Maria’s ‘assistant’ were busy grinding the corn off of dried cobs. Every meal seems to revolve around tortillas, which were the best we have eaten during our time so far in México.

The Family (The confusing part)
Because Juan was elected ‘governor’ of Tuxpan, he is living there with part of his family instead of Huamastita (another Huichol community that is a 12KM hike away) for the year. At their small house in Tuxpan there are five kids currently living with Juan and Maria. This includes Eugenia who is three, and Paola (the baby with hydrocephalus) who is one. Jesús and Elizabet (2-year-old twins) are Maria and Juan’s grandchildren, and are living with them while Maria’s eldest daughter and husband are working in Guadalajara. Maria and Juan’s 13-year-old daughter does not attend school and stays at home each day to watch all of these kids and help with chores. The other four of Maria and Juan’s kids are still living in Huamastita, two of which are daughters and each has an infant and a husband. And another child to the eldest daughter (who is living in Guadalajara) is living in Huamastita with this bunch.
If you have been doing the math, this totals to 8 children and five grandchildren to Maria and Juan (who are still in their thirties).

Maria and her second-eldest daughter who is holding her sister Paola. Her baby was asleep in a hammock.

Tuxpan
The town itself includes various tiendas selling the necessities. There is a pavilion for gathering. A mysterious Huichol “church,” is located at the center of Tuxpan. Rarely a car goes by. A number of people simply sit in the pueblo center and pass the time. And from anywhere you look from this pueblo you see large, beautiful mountains.
There is no running water at Juan and Maria’s house, or most throughout the pueblo for that matter. People head to the nearby fields to go to the bathroom. Bathing is done down at a small well in the town center. There is a river nearby, but we did not venture down to see its state. People do have electricity in Tuxpan, yet use it sparingly. Stray dogs and cats roam the dusty roads in town. Burros can be found on every corner. Roosters crowed, dogs fought. This often annoyed the burros who would begin going into hysterics.

Juan and Maria's
Most of the Huichol families have separate little brick buildings for different sleeping quarters and the kitchen. At Juan and Maria's there were three buildings built around a small yard. In the yard hangs a clothesline, barrels for collecting water, a plastic table and chairs, a brick oven, and little patch of ground where there was always a little fire burning.

The kids were always dirty, as their yard is simply a gently sloping dirt hill. They would roll around and fall into the dirt and laugh at each other and themselves. Even Paola crawled along in the dirt. I found myself constantly comparing the scene to many homes in the states, and how overly cautious many people are with regard to cleanliness and safety. At the same time, it was incredibly hard to see them with runny noses combined with dirt and dry caked food.

They were always hungry. They had hot soup and tortillas for breakfasts, and it was less clear to me what they were having to eat for lunch and dinner, aside from more tortillas. The 13-year-old was often left to watch all of the kids as Maria would head into the pueblo center to see Juan or visit with other ladies.


We brought a tent along, but upon arrival Maria proudly showed us to where we could stay for our visit. We slept in a small concrete room that will soon serve as a little store run by Juan and Maria.
There was a thick smell of ammonia, so we kept the door open at night with a piece of cardboard propped up against the bottom to keep stray dogs and creatures out at night. On the third night as Josh and I were finishing a meal of canned tuna, veggies and tostadas, Josh looked up on the wall and exclaimed, “There’s a scorpion.” Sure enough, it was. All that I have known about scorpions is that they are bad, and in the videogame “Pitfall,” if you run into one, you die. So we (meaning Josh) acted fast and got rid of it. And then proceeded to set up our tent inside of the cement room. It felt so silly to do this as we looked out at the beautiful scene outside, but we did not want to offend.

My encounter

On the second day in Tuxpan I parted from Josh for a bit and began the hike to Huamastita. Along the way I came up behind a young woman carrying a baby, moving very quickly despite her load. It turns out that the baby was 5 days old. The woman had probably hiked into Tuxpan to deliver, and was then on her return hike. I offered to help carry the baby, but the woman declined (I cannot imagine giving my own newborn baby up for some strange woman that appeared out of nowhere to carry either). We walked up and down along steep terrain, I in my durable running shoes, she in plastic dress shoes. And she had the baby. It was quite a moving experience for me as I walked behind her, thinking about how I have trained for triathlons and running races in the states, and how ludicrous that would seem to her, as she was used to great physical feats out of necessity- not for recreation.



I had a lot of time to think while we were away on this trip, and thus wondered deeply about the Huichol community, and others like them around the world. How long will they continue to live so separate from the rest of society? There were many who were quite hesitant about Josh and I, especially upon sight of Josh's camera. This made us wonder if they are worried about their exploitation. Maybe they have been burned by others. Or possibly they feel that their exposure will only lead to a rapid demise.
In a time when life could be lived with conveniences, why are they living without many of them. Or do they wonder about us on the outside and shake their heads because many of us out here would not know how to survive without such conveniences. Whatever the case, I have a great sense of respect for the commitment that they have held to traditions that withstood the sweep of colonialism across this country.