A tribute to Oaxaca Bob,
June 15, 2007

Robert Joseph “Oaxaca Bob” Ouimette lived in San Miguel between 1985 and 1995. He first came to San Miguel as a traveling gypsy jeweler, and he won the hearts of many locals and tourists alike with his charisma and cranky sweetness. Bob was born in Norwich, Connecticut, but always felt like he was from New York City, where he first lived on the streets as a 13-year-old runaway.

In Haight Ashbury at the height of the Flower Power years, Bob really found ‘family’ as he had never before. He was an ardent Deadhead and traveled and partied with the Grateful Dead for a good 20 years. 

He once left San Francisco with $10 in his pocket, got all the way to South America, worked boats on the Amazon, got thrown off the boat, and was rescued by indigenous people in Peru. When he got tired of South America, he went to the US Embassy and asked for passage home, back to Alaska. Bob spent eight straight summers in Alaska, and the winters of those years in Mexico usually in Oaxaca. He lived by his wits and had many trades— for a few years Bob dived and fished with a harpoon, took folks into the back country on burros or horseback, and traded goods with indigenous people.

In 1983, in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, he ran into his future wife, Barbara, whom he had first met in 1976 in Santa Barbara, CA. Bob and Barbara lived in Mexico all year round for the next dozen years, and had two sons, Van, born in Chiapas in 1985, and Gabriel, born here in San Miguel. 

Bob returned to San Francisco, where earlier this year, he was diagnosed with lung and brain cancer. He was well taken care of at the end of his life, passing the last few months in the Laguna Honda Hospice in San Francisco. He and his former wife and sons became close again during these final months. He was very proud of the young men his sons have become. A hospice worker at Laguna Honda reported that Bob died peacefully, with a large poster of Jerry Garcia smiling down on him. Bob was only 57 years old when he died. His last wish was that his ashes be scattered in the mountains of Oaxaca, and his former wife will be passing through town, probably sometime next year, with his ashes, and will arrange a ceremony here for those who wish to publicly remember Bob. Until then, rest in peace, Bob, or at least make things a little livelier on the Other Side.

In Memorium

Louise Mc Gann November 5, 1915 - June 10, 2007 Garden Club Life Member Cherished friend of the community And beloved by those who knew her.

George McGann is finally reunited with his beloved Louise.

What a wonderful life they had lived together. We attended their Golden Anniversary and all San Miguel was amazed at the multitude of their friends who gathered here in town for the occasion, coming from different corners, reciting poems, singing songs in celebration of the famous couple. Not long after that George celebrated his 80th birthday. Again friends descended on San Miguel with banjos and other instruments for a grand festejo.

We can truly say that their friendships were deep and international remembering Roy Emerson during a tennis tournament in Zijuatanejo greeting the McGanns with a great Aussie abrazo. Louise was a constant and faithful companion to George at tournaments.

Louise, a devoted longstanding member of the San Miguel Garden Club, tirelessly invented new activities and inspired us all to achieve creative heights of accomplishment.

May she rest in Peace.

Romeo and Nina Tabuena

My life’s work with the Huichol
By Susana Valadez

In 1975 I was a grad student at UCLA in anthropology, investigating a little-known indigenous tribe of artists and shamans that has miraculously survived into modern times. The Huichol, who call themselves the “Wixarika,” inhabit the remote valleys and canyons of the Sierra Madre Mountains in the states of Nayarit and Jalisco.

My academic interests were ethno-botany, native spirituality, and psychedelic-inspired art, all of which have thrived in this ancient culture. The Huichols claim that their creators laid out a sacred path to higher knowledge that centers on the ceremonial use of the hallucinogenic peyote cactus. Through rituals and a lifelong dedication to uncovering the mysteries of peyote illumination, the Huichols access supernatural dimensions that are little known or understood outside their culture. The treasure trove of information contained in the shamans’ songs and in the vast repository of mystical symbols contained in Huichol art could fill volumes, and yet only a small percentage has been recorded by the Huichols themselves or outside investigators. 

Much of this esoteric knowledge, directly channeled to the shamans from the psychedelic realm, is so multi-layered that it goes way beyond my cognitive abilities to dissolve the barriers my own culture imposes on me and to really grasp it.

This viable part of Huichol cultural identity in the past enabled the tribe to maintain the delicate balance between survival and extinction. Recently, Western civilization’s encroachment has interrupted the oral transmission of this mystical wisdom. Evangelists, alcoholism, tourism, and abject poverty are eroding the culture at the core.

To rescue and conserve these stories and symbols for future generations of Huichols and for the ethnographic record, I founded the Huichol Center for Cultural Survival in the 1980s. My 18-year marriage to Huichol yarn artist MarianoValadez allowed me to integrate into his family and traditional community and I gained vast amounts of insider knowledge about the culture as a participant-observer. Our three children, Angelica 28, Rosy 23, and San Miguel resident, Rafael Cilau 19, grew up in a multi-cultural setting in Santiago Ixcuintla, Nayarit where Mariano and I provided rescue and aid to displaced Huichol migrants working in the tobacco fields. When Mariano and I went our separate ways in 1994, I relocated to a small town in northern Jalisco, Huejuquilla el Alto, that borders the Huichol homeland.

In my new location I founded a project that provides life-saving medical care, education, and economic aid to hundreds of Huichols. The Centro Indígena Huichol provides medical assistance, nutrition education, organic gardening projects, a soy dairy, financial aid to native religious practitioners, jobs for artisans, and my favorite project, a school for Huichol children. In this school our staff of Huichols and local mestizos teaches kids to read and write in their own language. A program for Huichol high school students teaches them to use computer programs to access and document their ancient heritage. The students utilize the Huichol Center Archive, which after thirty years of documentation is now a massive database on all aspects of the culture. We have now compiled over twenty books using Huichol language and iconography for our school children.

The Huichols and I will be in San Miguel this weekend to share our story with all who are interested and to raise funds for the project through the sale of the high quality, world renowned artwork and jewelry that we create at the Huichol Center. We will be at Mayer Schacter’s Atotonilco Gallery (slightly out of town near La Gruta, the hot springs), Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, June 15-17 from 10am to 7pm.

For more information about the exhibition, call 185-2225, or email me huicholcenter@juno.com.  The website is www.huicholcenter.org. 

Directions: Galeria Atotonilco is located five miles north of San Miguel, off the Dolores Highway. Look for a stone arch on the left, at El Cortijo, and turn left. Follow the main road for about 500 yards and turn left again when you reach the end of the road. Drive a half mile to a gate on the right where there is a yellow house. That is the Galeria Atotonilco driveway, so just follow it down the road to the red gallery building.

Most taxi drivers are familiar with the location.

Peer to Peer counseling: Changing your life and influencing others

Making it happen for 25 years at CASA
By Barbara Erickson

Mexico is the second-most populous country in Latin America (Brazil is the first). Mexico also has a relatively long history of advancing sexual education and reproductive rights and in the 1970s, the PRI launched a national family planning initiative, with popular ads on radio and television and a government-sponsored reproductive health program for adolescents. Over several decades, there was a dramatic decline in birth rates in Mexico and today, despite the continued value of large families, the average urban woman will have 2.3 children. 

Progress in rural areas has not been as dramatic with only 44 percent ofmarried women of reproductive age in rural areas using some kind of contraceptive. The Alan Guttmacher Institute reports other problems in Mexico—106,620 hospitalizations in Mexico every year are due to complications from unsafe abortion; 23 percent of all pregnancies are unwanted; 17 percent end in abortion; and overall low condom use, especially among teens.

In 1981, CASA established a peer-to-peer counseling program called Los Promotores specifically to work in rural areas with adolescents. The Promotores provide knowledge and contraceptive services for these two high risk populations—rural women and teens—and help stop unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions.

Nadine Goodman, CASA Founder, says, “There was no DIF (Desarrollo Integral de la Familia), in the early 80s which is the national, state, and municipal social service program. I got to know the wife of the local mayor of San Miguel, Luz Maria Gerez, and started to help with the first DIF in San Miguel. We started a sex education peer-counselor training program there. Then I started passing the word about being available for free sex education for teens at my home, around the proverbial kitchen table I gave talks and started training another batch of teen peer counselors.”

Peer-to-Peer Counselors are just that, youths who have come to CASA now by word of mouth or with a friend, or because they liked what they saw when Los Promotores worked in their community. Usually they have experienced some form of abuse or hardship and have come seeking a safe place to tell their stories and to heal. At CASA, they receive training in every area of sexual and reproductive health and human rights. The combination of their personal experiences and the training make them uniquely effective when they take their message into the communities. 

As important and as effective as it is to get this information out to teens and their families, the peer-to-peer program adds an extra dimension of value for those who participate. Dr. Hernan Drobny, primary care provider and former clinical instructor at the University of Michigan School of Medicine has mentored the CASA Promotores for three years. He is fondly known as Nano at CASA and has been instrumental in training recent Promotores as well as working as thesis advisor for the senior midwifery students. Dr. Drobny states, “There are three levels of accomplishments:

“First, the peer counselors have an opportunity for a life transforming experience. It of course does not turn out that way for each participant, but it has a long-term impact, perhaps lifelong for some. They have a cohort or community to share thoughts and ideas with little risk, with a chance to learn and work out ways of thinking about their lives and the issues around them. They learn a body of new information and the skills to share this information. And they have the wonderful experience of “doing the right thing” which can influence their choices in the future.

“The counselors are ambassadors for CASA. Their enthusiasm, energy and intelligence is clearly evident.

“It (the program) provides possible “seeds” for the community. The school kids may get some ideas or ways of thinking that may have some impact on their future lives and choices. The women have a forum to discuss, perhaps learn with their peers. I suspect that they end up with greater mutual respect in listening to each other’s ideas. Again, the enthusiasm of the counselors can spark projects and ideas for the communities.”

The peer-to-peer counselors at CASA do the inevitable; they grow up and go on with their lives. So every year there is a new crop ready to be trained and to make an impact in the lives of those they meet and teach. Promotores can stay for up to two years. Right now at CASA, there are twenty-nine Promotores. Since 1981, CASA has trained approximately 1000 peer-to-peer counselors, some who have moved into other positions at CASA and others who are now working in 14 different Mexican states in many walks of life. 

In 2001 President Fox’s wife Marta Sahagun Fox created Let’s Go Mexico a parent guide that includes 1950s style gender roles and stereotypes, running counter to 30-years of progress in Mexico. Mexico’s current president, Felipe Calderón despite his commitment to gender equity, also promises to continue the US influenced abstinence-only and marriage promotion programs, making the work of CASA’s Promotores program more vital than ever. 

Twenty-nine young Promotores alone cannot serve all of San Miguel, but they make an enormous difference. They estimate their programs reach more than 30,000 people each year throughout the state of Guanajuato; literally hundreds of thousands of condoms are given out free to those requesting the services and in many cases the promoters are also providing the only sexual and human rights education for many small rural communities.

After 25 years, the challenge remains to find the funding necessary to keep CASA’s essential programs alive and helping. If you would like to support this vital organization, please contact: 

Elsbeth Freidl in San Miguel de Allende at 152-2813 elsbeth@prodigy.net.mx  

Ana Peña - Director of Development at 15 4-6060 or 154-6090 anapena@casa.org.mx 

Nadine Goodman - Advisor at 212-234-7940 nadinemexico@aol.com  
 

Off to the Races!

Fundraiser auction To benefit Patronato Pro Niños Sat, July 7, 5–7pm Salón Acuario Cardenal 4 Residencial La Luz Salida a Querétaro US$100 152-7796

They’re off to the races! And you will be too, if you are the highest bidder at Patronato Pro Niños’ 2007 Auction and Raffle, Boots & Brooches, on Saturday, July 7 for a delightful carriage ride and champagne picnic. That’s just one of the more than 150 outstanding items that will be there for you to bid on.

The annual fundraiser to help children obtain much needed healthcare services includes a silent auction from 5 to 7pm, with appetizers and an open bar, followed by a live auction with a seated dinner and beverages of your choice. The auction takes place at Salón Acuario, Cardenal 4, Residencial La Luz, Salida a Querétaro.

This year’s elegant raffle prize is a gift certificate from Van Cleef & Arpels jewelers, renowned for their stunning designs. The winner will not only receive VIP treatment, and a coffee table book about the organization’s history, but will also have a rare opportunity to visit the firm’s prestigious archives in the New York store. To facilitate your travel plans, Frontier Airlines is providing two roundtrip tickets within the US. The raffle drawing is July 7 following the live auction. You need to be present to win.

Tickets to the auction and for the raffle are US$100 each and can be purchased in several ways. You can go to the Patronato Pro Niños office on San Francisco 1, Interior 4 (second floor); you can call Lily at 152-7796; you can send us an email at info@patronatoproninos.org ; you can purchase your tickets online at www.patronatoproninos.org/auction_raffle_2007 —as well as get a preview of the live auction prizes.