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Testimonials from Participants in Cuernavaca 2009

The following are selections from reflections written by the participants of the Oaxaca Travel Study in the summer of 2009 after our return from the trip. They are used by the kind permission of the writers.

–Dr. Peter J. Baird, Cuernavaca Travel-Study program leader

 

"Peter (the director of our trip) and his wife Joy came to visit and show me around the town. We walked to the Zocalo down Alcala Street. I couldn’t believe it, this town got better and better with every block; the old cobble stones streets, the street vendors and the delicious foods cooking everywhere, bright colors and old buildings and churches, it was fabulous. Everywhere I looked a thought about how I could capture this and bring it back with me. All that day, I took pictures that were unbelievable and tasted amazing foods and walked and walked."

"The last week of my trip was all about the part of me that is a mother. It was all about how to bring Oaxaca back to my children. I spent a lot of time looking into classes that might work for my girls if we came here. I looked into language, painting, cooking, weaving and pottery classes. I asked every child at the school what they liked and didn’t like. I asked their parents what they would do again and what they wouldn’t. I met families that moved to Oaxaca and some that were visiting for months. I visited families’ homes and looked into places in town that were child friendly. I searched the markets for special little trinkets that would bring the magic of Mexico back. I talked with every one I could on the street speaking as much Spanish as possible. I felt so energized and powerful. Si se puede!"

–Cindy Garcia, Vision specialist with the Sacramento County Office of Education

 

"In the fast taxi she cannot remember the word for up. She wants him to go up the hill; she stalls on the word hill, too. In the mercado, she is uncertain of what she samples, does not know the word for grasshoppers before she knows the texture of their tiny bodies in her mouth. She is lost in the calles with all of her clothes in a bag, she’s looking for a lavanderia, but she missed some turn in the directions."

"She can remember the words for birds as specific as the colibri. She knows how to count, conjugate, and sing Las Mananitas. She can name a range of colors and times, and she can report on the weather. She can identify the deaf, the blind, and yet she cannot ask where the Laundromat is. And her tongue is as tired as her arms in carrying all of this through these foreign streets."

–Heather L. Hutcheson, English Professor, Cosumnes River College, Sacramento

 

"On my last day in Oaxaca, I took a walk up into the hills above my host family’s home. I climbed paved and cobblestone streets, which gave way to even steeper gravel and dirt roads, which eventually narrowed to footpaths meandering off into even more remote locations beyond the city’s limits. I chose to stop and sit on a large boulder overlooking Oaxaca at one of these intersections of a rural footpath and the beginnings of a city road. I watched and listened as the city awoke to a new day – in many ways like any city but also in ways uniquely Mexican and distinctly Oaxacan."

“I fell in love with this city’s geography upon my arrival. The draw of this mountain valley has lured people to settle here for thousands of years and I was not immune to its pull. These hills, and sites like Monte Albán, are palpable with their history – a history both beautiful and tragic, mysterious and complex in a place that has endured the excesses of tremendous wealth as well as the devastation of great poverty; a place whose culture bears the contradictions born from years of conquest and colonial rule.”

“I found great personal appeal in the cultural differences that those of us living individualized, work-focused, fast-paced lives in the United States might at first resist – the slower pace of life, the emphasis on community as the organizing focus of life, and the sense of endurance that’s born from generations living a very long time in the same place and surviving the upheavals of both good and bad fortune. Then too, I found great value in allowing myself the luxury of stepping outside the boundaries of my own comfort level – giving up a known language and the understood rules of navigating a place and a culture, to experience the awkwardness, isolation and lessened self-esteem that results when we exist as newcomers in a foreign place. It’s a humbling but life affirming experience – to be striped of an attachment to an identity and to play at the edges of one’s own self-definition. Given that as of 2008, Mexicans accounted for 32% of all immigrants living in the United States, this trip afforded me the opportunity to personally experience some of the challenges they must face when they attempt to learn our language and navigate our social and cultural ways.”

–Suzanne Flint, Sacramento State Librarian

 

“I saw many impressive and moving things in Oaxaca. I had already been to Monte Alban a few years ago, but Pedro’s expertise enriched my experience. I also had a wonderful time at the Guelagetza. It was beautiful to see these different groups display their traditions, especially their native language. They would yell from the top of their lungs about who they are and where they come from. They wore their stunning vibrant traditional clothing. Despite a downpour, the groups continued dancing. At the end of every performance, they would throw offerings into the crowd. Unfortunately I was sitting too far back to catch anything. To finish the night I saw the best firework show I had ever seen. Another experience that was extremely useful was the grammar class that I took. I had a wonderful professor that would bring in very interesting articles in which she would introduce the culture and difficult grammar concepts at the same time. I definitely will adopt her style of teaching in my own practice. I had a wonderful experience and I plan on returning next summer to the ICO. Thank you for accepting me.”

–Tessa Hernandez, BMED graduate, Spring 2009, preparing to teach her first year of high school Spanish

 

“Very briefly: I loved pretty much everything. I thought my placement into the Spanish class was just right and thoroughly enjoyed the class. You already know how happy I was with my family. And I thought the Sacramento group was a serendipitous blend; I loved cruising about the streets with them all. Placing the six of us single women in the same neighborhood worked really well.”

"My Spanish is much improved. I had little when I went, and now if I see things written in Spanish, I can get the gist of it. I tuned in while driving to a Spanish language radio station, found myself listening to a sermon in Spanish (pickings were slim), and understood much of it. Of course, it helped that the genre and content were familiar to me.”

"Advice: rain jackets were probably not necessary.”

–Joanna Zadra, ESL Teacher, American River College

 

“I found the people in Oaxaca to be very open and friendly. As a city that lives on tourism, this isn’t strange, but I’ve been to many “tourist cities” where that is not the case. As a near-total vegetarian, food can be an issue when traveling, but I found there was no reason to worry in Oaxaca: both en casa and eating out, I had plenty of variety, choices, and ate almost nothing but delicious food."

"Additionally, I was happy to get the chance to understand the basic structure of the Mexican education system and see a bit of the culture. I think you can understand people only so well when you haven’t seen the society and culture they’ve emerged from, so I was happy to get a better view of that in light of the teaching work I’ve done with Mexican immigrants for the last few years. And lastly, it was great to have an intensive Spanish language experience for 2+ weeks. It was humbling to see how much I have yet to learn, but also gave me a shot of confidence in the abilities have already."

–Tom Pearson, Consumnes River College aid and Sac State student in ESL Master of Arts program

 

“Cando cruzo la frontera siento que puedo dejar libres algunos aspectos intrínsecos de mi personalidad que en los EEUU se quedan más atrapados y sofocados; esas partes de mi interior son: la parte dulce y sentimental, la parte juguetona y juvenil y la parte cortés y respetuosa.”

“Lo que más me llamó la atención esta vez al llegar a Oaxaca fue que no había cambiado tanto. El zócalo es más o menos como era, hay gente indígena vendiendo su artesanía colorida y botanas ricas en todos lados, los edificios son los mismos pero pintados de colores más vivos, y el mercado sigue vigente con todo el ajetreo de antes. Se venden las famosas cerámicas negras y verdes en la calle y los peligros y placeres son los mismos. El realismo mágico te guiña el ojo en cada esquina.”

–Thomasina Turner, Spanish Professor, Cosumnes River College, who wrote in Spanish about her Oaxaca experience