 Upon arriving in Teotilán de Valle, a Zapotec municipio about an hour bus ride from the city, our group was received by the entire Vida Nueva Cooperative in the founder's house (Pastora). The women were extremely warm, welcoming and seemed very excited to see us. Pastora’s home was dedicated to weaving- looms and yarn were everywhere we looked. We all sat down at a long table and chatted about the cooperative. The group was founded 14 years ago in an effort to gain solidarity for women weavers. Since their beginning, the women have started many initiatives to better Teotitlán as a community such as providing garbage and recycling receptacles, chimneys for in-house ovens, gift baskets for single women and urban gardening.
After our chat, it was time to eat. The ladies brought us pitchers of horchata, rice with a dank salsa, and some delicious tacos. Needless to say, we ate ourselves into a stupor. After eating, we continued chatting. The women showed us some of the raw materials they use for dying yarn and how they acquire them; pretty interesting stuff. The conversation eventually died down and we were assigned ‘parents-‘ shout out to my host mum Teresa! We all headed home for our first night in Teotitlán.
Our morning routine consisted mostly of hot chocolate and sugar pan. We normally woke up around 7:30, had some chocolate and bread, and then headed to the market with our mamas. We normally spent about an hour at the market in the center of town, picking out ingredients and prepared foods to sustain us for the rest of the day. Once at home, our host mom’s prepared us a second breakfast…quesadillas on homemade tortillas, rice, vegetables, huevos, frijoles….etc. Post-desayuna on Tuesday, we had a really informative platicar with the lovely ladies of Vida Nueva. We spoke mostly about what it was like to be a woman in Teotitlan—their rights, struggles, and successes as females in the community. Women have increasingly been breaking free of their traditional, oppressed roles in the community, and have been granted greater access to education, a say in who they want to marry, and rights to go into the city of Oaxaca. That being said, we were surprised to hear that many of the women we were speaking with only had up to a primary school education.
Later on in the week, we had another platicar led by Pastora about the use of traditional medicine in Teotitlan. She suggested going for daily walks by a river and hugging young trees for stress and depression relief, as well as a variety of herbal remedies for different types of sickness. Apparently a lot of people in the village are turning to western medicine, as it offers faster relief for their symptoms. We also got to participate in the dyeing of wool. We learned about how different fruits and vegetables are used as natural colors. For instance, the cochinia red beetle and pomegranate are used for red dye, and an avocado-like fruit (that we all got to smash up with rocks) is used for brown dye. The basic process for dyeing wool is as follows: Heat a big thing of water with the fruit/vegetable, let it boil for awhile to let the water absorb the color, and the yarn, stir it up and let it sit.
Wednesday morning the group piled into some taxis clown-car style and headed north to spend a day at the ‘campo’—a milpa farm about forty minutes outside Teotitlan. The air at the campo was crisp, and the breeze was a long-awaited break from the scorching city sun. Upon arrival we sat in the grass and at fresh fruit under the shade of a tree. Later that day we helped the women husk what seemed to be an endless supply of harvested corn. Each unwrapped husk revealed a new cobb of varying colors and shapes. Working alongside the women with the knowledge that our work would translate to months of food for them was unbelievably rewarding. After about two hours we broke for picnic of tortas (Mexican samwhiches), beans and tortillas. The rest of the afternoon we reclined in the grass, trekked freshwater back from the well, cut flowers to sell at the morning market and enjoyed the company of friends. With dirt-covered hands and full stomachs, we bid adios to the campo and made our way home.
Thursday was a free day. We all spent time with our host families and getting to know their day to day home lives a little bit better. Family time continued into Friday until we left the village to return to the big city. It was a great break and an amazing experience for all of us, but we were also all really happy to be returning to our lives in Oaxaca. What we all experienced in this past week is something that many attending UVM never will, and we are so grateful for that.
Here is a little Zapotec that some of us learned! Zapotec is the first language for many in this village while Spanish is their second, just like us!
zac xtili: buenos dias: good morning
zac chi: buenos tardes: good afternoon
zac shni: buenas noches: good night
Abrazos y Besos de Oaxaca!
La Vida Gang (Patrick, Codi, Jess, Amanda, Olivia, Gabby, Elena, and Gretchen)
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