Re: Capitalism. Hooray :)

J J R (jrovira@juno.com)
Wed, 02 Dec 1998 23:05:35 -0500 (EST) 

Ugh, no, Sorry.  The people I was with were not the literary types, I'm
afraid.  I really, really wanted to read some works by local authors.  I
was reading Chekov's short stories and Joyce's Portrait when I was down
there.

What I was doing was contruction work on a school and medical clinic in
Chenalho.  It's about...eh...45 minutes outside of San Cristobal. 
Doctors and other Yuppie types from the US are going to fly down there
regularly with medical supplies to give the locals free medical care.   

And several children have had TERRIBLE problems with a cleft palate--it's
so bad you can see into the sinus cavity if they open their mouths and
tilt their head back.  Wealthy American doctors PAID to have the child
brought to the States (actually, the airlines donated the airfare),
operated on these kids (there have been at least two so far) on their own
time, out of their own pockets, and kept them in hospitals here until
they were healed up.  Then took them home.

While in San Cristobal I was aware of the immesne popularity of--GAWD I
can't remember his name.  Dresses in black with a mask.  No one has seen
his face.  Anyways, yes, he is a Marxist.  Yes, many of the people adore
him--in San Cristobal he's like a rock star or something.   They have
Marcos (THERE it is :) ) dolls, posters, toys...lord, you name it, they
sell it in the open air market.

Rolling Stone recently interviewed Marcos, and their interview rang true
to my experience, anyways.  Not that I met the man, but their description
of the situation sounded right.  Marcos is helping in a backwards
way--the Mexican government is doing WHAT THEY SHOULD ALREADY HAVE BEEN
DOING in the towns that refused to support Marcos....so if it weren't for
him, they wouldn't have their water and sewer utilities.  (I had to use a
damn outhouse and bathe in the river when I was there).  

When the situation was desribed to me by people living there, it sounded
very much like the situation in the United States with Native Americans
150 years ago.  The wealthy landowners are screwing the indigents.  

There's an element of religious persecution as well--over 30,000
evangelical Christians are living in a shanty town outside of San
Cristobal because they were evicted from their farms.  The area religion
is a mixture of Catholicism and the old Mayan religion.

And other members of my group that had traveled further south visited the
Widow's village--Reagan funded contras killed all the men in that village
and raped the women--most of the children were children of the contras.  

So I know the influences of capitalism on the area hasn't been all
peachy.  BUT, it's still the people with money who are trying to do some
good.  Greedy pig gringos :)

Jim

On Wed, 02 Dec 1998 18:49:08 -0700 (MST) WILL HOCHMAN
<hochman@uscolo.edu> writes:
>Jim, does your experience in Chiapas by any chance include reading 
>some of
>the fiction of Heberto Morales? will
>
>

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