Feed the Hungry’s cooks in La Campana: No old women in rebozos
By Dianne Walta Hart, March 9, 2007

Isidra made a sweeping motion over her ponytail as she bent forward and walked toward Cristina, “So what did you expect us to be?” She looked over her shoulder at me. “

Old women in rebozos?” I laughed, indicating that of course I hadn’t expected shawls, but still I had to admit that I didn’t think I’d find hoop earrings, cropped jeans, short boots, tank tops, ruby red lips, and the stylish look of clerks in a San Miguel de Allende shop. Not here in La Campana, a rancho ten miles from San Miguel on a road so difficult to navigate that the last two miles took almost twenty minutes by car.

Isidra and Cristina, Feed the Hungry’s cooks at La Campana’s school, credit the fact that they’re so fashionable to having lived in San Miguel, a town they love, for years. “We like to look like women in San Miguel, we like to wear makeup, and we like to look good!” they said. But no matter how sophisticated they look, their lives and customs are firmly rooted in their birthplace, La Campana.

As is common in many ranchos, the lifeblood of La Campana is the school, immediately identifiable as the largest and most substantial building in town and located close to the church in the center. Since a secondary school didn’t exist when Isidra and Cristina were ready for it, they didn’t attend one; the idea of leaving the rancho to travel over such rocky roads didn’t occur to them or their family. Besides, their families needed money, and when their mothers went into San Miguel to work, they followed, often living in Mexican homes and working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Isidra is 31, the shorter of the two cooks, more assertive, talkative and oozing with energy. She says she’s afraid of nothing. Dogs should look out for her, she warns with a big smile, because she always has a rock at the ready. And snakes, well, if she saw one, she’d kill it. She’s always happy, she says with laughter, although when the discussion turns to health and medical care, it is clearly not the case.

She met her husband, Fernando, while working in a San Miguel flower shop where Fernando’s father was one of the employees. After a tumultuous courtship of six years, they married when she was 23 and now have two children, ages two and seven. Fernando often finds work in San Miguel, but the women agreed that as San Miguel becomes busier, more workers flock in from other parts of the country. Because of this, Fernando left two months ago to dig ditches in Fort Worth, Texas, a site favored by many from La Campana. Isidra and Fernando communicate by letter and phone calls, but calling to and from the single phone in the rancho is complex, requiring that someone run to get Isidra. Often she will race to the booth with the hopes that he’ll be able to call back, only to find that the phone is busy with other La Campana workers in the US calling their families. 

Cristina, 28, is a dark beauty with smoldering good looks. More pensive, more tentative, less sure of herself, she fears nighttime sounds, sleeping alone, heights, dogs, snakes and tragedy.

Happiness comes from childhood memories of throwing a rope over a tree to make a swing and, these days, getting a hug from her husband when he comes home after a week working in San Miguel.

She married Juan Miguel when she was 21—no tumult and only a year-long courtship—and they have two children, five and nine. Two years ago, Juan Miguel returned from his ditch-digging job in Fort Worth and is now a bricklayer’s helper in San Miguel. The lack of transportation between La Campana and San Miguel requires him to stay in San Miguel on weekdays since the last bus leaves San Miguel at 5pm, earlier than he gets off work. Cristina and her family live with her mother in a single-room house with a sheet metal roof.

When the cooks’ husbands crossed the border, they did so as undocumented immigrants, or as they said, mojados, wetbacks. No trusted “coyote” lives in the rancho, forcing the La Campana immigrants to travel to the border by bus and then search for someone to take them across. It’s a dangerous business, and presently seven La Campana minors, incarcerated in a border jail, are waiting for relatives to go north to claim them.

When Feed the Hungry started working with La Campana in the fall of 2006, the community delegate recommended Isidra and Cristina for the cook positions. Both women greatly appreciate the jobs because they’re doing something for their rancho by feeding 230 children every school day, helping their own families by having a job, and being able to be at the school that their children attend.

Part of La Campana stretches up a bluff called El Picachito, almost inaccessible by car, but most of it lies to the side of the bluff in the foothills of the Picachos and below the mountain, El Pilón. Old people in the rancho say that the road to Jalpa, and then on to Querétaro, is the old royal road that figures importantly in Mexico’s history. 

When I asked the cooks about the government statistics that say 750 people live in La Campana, they said that even though other ranchos are written with bigger letters on the map, La Campana is the largest rancho in the area. I was curious why so many would live in a place so difficult to reach and their only explanation was that while they had only two children each, other people had ten or twelve.

Isidra and Cristina explained the name of La Campana, which means “The Bell.” Legend has it that years ago some mischievous children were on a hill called La Cuchilla and when they struck a large rock with a stone, they heard the sound of a bell. Isidra and Cristina have seen the rock of the legend, but they’ve never heard the sound.

The land around La Campana lives up to Isidra’s description as más piedra que tierra, more rock than soil. Nonetheless, the fields are planted with corn, beans, and some sorghum.

Cattle, goats, burros, sheep, and horses wander freely over the open range and drink from the ponds that are scattered on the lower parts of the hillside.

Water is pumped to the town through tubes, but it’s scarce and used judiciously. Since there is no drainage, flush toilets do not exist except in the schools. Both Isidra and Cristina plant flowers in their small gardens and nail flower-filled cans to the walls of their houses in an attempt to make their one-room homes more beautiful. Five small tiendas sell unrefrigerated chicken parts, vegetables, canned food, bottled water and drinks.

In their opinion, the worst part of living on a rancho is the lack of medical attention. The small clinic, attended to by a doctor once a week, is overwhelmed on that one day, and so is the hospital in San Miguel, where the medical practitioners tell them to come back the next day and the next and the next. Both have been touched by illness lately, Isidra by her sister’s recent death at 36 from cancer and Cristina by her father’s death two years ago from diabetes, so the precariousness of health in a remote rancho is real to them and adds a layer of sadness to their good humor. Isidra’s sister left 5 orphans and Cristina’s father died at 42, leaving the cooks with responsibility for their extended families. When they had their own babies, they delivered them in San Miguel after walking down the rocky hillside from La Campana, hoping then for a ride.

As in many places, alcohol—wine, beer, and tequila—is abused in La Campana by some of the men who work elsewhere during the week, show up on weekends, and then proceed to drink up whatever pesos they’ve made. In order to survive, their wives either have to work in San Miguel or climb up into the mountains to collect planting soil and firewood that they sell from burros. And, in fact, both Isidra and Cristina go to the mountains in their free time to get firewood for their own homes.

They told me that the rancho custom of asking one’s husband for permission exists in La Campana and is sometimes so strict that the wife has to ask the husband to go to the bathroom. They chuckled at their joke, but the sharp edge of truth was clear. They claimed that their situations differed from many, however, in that their husbands were either out of the country or gone for days on end, but still, when possible, they check with them before they go to another rancho or to San Miguel. Talking to me, however, was part of their job, and they cleared it with no one.

As one can imagine, transportation figures prominently in their lives. They have to go to San Miguel regularly to buy medicine and other supplies for their families, but that entails paying ten pesos to travel on a crowded bus that makes fifteen stops on its once-a-day route between La Campana and San Miguel. It’s no wonder that in their priority of wishes, after expressing a desire for their own homes where they wouldn’t have to sleep five to a bed, they dream of learning how to drive and having a little car.

What do they do for fun? They laughed heartily and said they had none. Puro trabajo. They do nothing but work and prepare food all day long and when they have a chance, they sleep. What about dances and weddings? They are too tired to go. Parties? Maybe next year. The circus? It doesn’t come to La Campana because the road is too ugly. A market day? No, for the same reason. Soccer games on the field just below the rancho? Not for them. Television? Yes, but electricity is expensive. On Sundays, do they go out for dinner as a family, maybe to some of those lunch spots on the highway to Querétaro? No, they’d love to, but there’s no bus on Sundays. 

Then the surprise comes when I ask if they ever get together with friends. Absolutely not! Jealousy is a problem among couples. Cada pareja en su casa, each couple in their own house, and if you stick to that, you avoid problems. Before they married, both Isidra and Cristina had other boyfriends who are now married and living in La Campana, but if the former sweethearts were to encounter each other on the street, all parties would avert their eyes and act as if they hadn’t seen each other. Everyone agrees that it’s better that way.

While Isidra might deny that she has any fun, when she talked about the annual January pilgrimage to San Juan de los Lagos in Jalisco, it was apparent that nine days of walking, praying, singing, going to mass and confession, dancing, listening to firecrackers and bands featuring coronets and drums had left her with an even larger smile on her face. 

Isidra is the more talkative and aggressive, but the cooks, friends since elementary school, often answered in unison. If I asked a question of one, the other said her answer was the same. When asked to describe their lives, Isidra said it’s one where she worked in San Miguel as a child, goes to the hills to get firewood, goes on the pilgrimage, plants corn and beans in May and June, and now cooks for Feed the Hungry. Simple as that. Cristina described her life in a similar way but since her family has so little land, there was no springtime planting, and although she hasn’t been on a pilgrimage, maybe she’ll go with Isidra next year. They looked at each other and laughed, as if there’s always the hope that fun might be had in the future. And certainly, these proud women will be looking good when the opportunity arrives.


Through kitchens in 27 schools, Feed the Hungry feeds more than 3,000 school children every school day in San Miguel de Allende, Gto., Mexico and in the surrounding countryside. For more information, visit www.feedthehungrysma.org. 










A behind-the-scenes look at some of the biggest stories of our time
By Alexis White

Photo ©2006 NPR, by Steve Barrett CEPET reading John Burnett, NPR reporter and author “Uncivilized Beasts and Shameless Hellions: Travels with an NPR Correspondent” Fri, Mar 16, 6pm Bellas Artes Auditorium 50 pesos

What is it like to be a 6-foot 7-inch American standing in the middle of a “Death-to-America” rally in Peshawar, Pakistan?

Find out when John Burnett, the award-winning National Public Radio correspondent, discusses his newest book, Uncivilized Beasts and Shameless Hellions: Travels with an NPR Correspondent (Rodale Press).

The program is presented by CEPET, the Center for Journalism and Public Ethics, (Centro de Periodismo y Ética Pública). Tickets, on a first come-first served basis, will be available at the door. The 50 peso admission fee will go toward CEPET’s freedom of information training programs for Mexican journalists as well as its freedom of the press monitoring and networking activities in the country.

Burnett’s book is a behind-the-scenes account of his experiences in a career that spans two decades of covering stories for NPR. In addition to reading excerpts from his book, Burnett provides audio field recordings that form the basis of its chapters. A question and answer session follows his presentation.

A regular contributor to NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition programs, Burnett is an NPR roving correspondent, whose beat covers the length and breadth of the United States and the world. He has reported from some 25 countries, and covered the biggest stories of our time as well as the ones that often fall between the cracks as events unfold.

NPR listeners will recall hearing Burnett at the start of the war in Iraq. He was embedded with the First Marine Division and moved with the troops from Kuwait into Baghdad. His reporting was cited when NPR’s overall coverage of the war received a prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award. His discovery and reporting of the accidental US Air Force bombing of an Iraqi village, gave brutal meaning to the so-called “fog of war” and earned Burnett a national Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Association for investigative reporting.

Burnett also reported from New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. His reports from New York City, Pakistan and Afghanistan following 9/11 contributed to coverage that 

garnered NPR the Overseas Press Club Award as well as an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award. The emergence of Central America as a major drug smuggling region was explored in depth in his series “Cocaine Republics.” Closer to home, Burnett investigated corruption among federal immigration agents on the US-Mexico border, reporting for which he won a 2003 National Headliner Award.

“John Burnett is a reporter’s reporter with a special gift for telling stories that enable listeners to see,” said Leonarda Reyes, founder and director of CEPET. “We are privileged and honored to have him as our guest and know that those who attend will be treated to an engaging and highly informative program.”

CEPET is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote 

independent investigative and public interest journalism that will contribute to a more informed society in Mexico. It sponsors training workshops in partnership with IFAI, (El Instituto Federal de Acceso a la Información Pública), an independent agency charged with implementing and overseeing all aspects of Mexico’s freedom of information law (Ley Federal de Transparencia y Acceso a la Información Pública Gubernamental). The workshops bring together experienced journalists for training in techniques and aspects of investigative journalism with a focus on public interest issues.

CEPET also plays a major role in protecting the rights of journalists by issuing alerts to national and international organizations about threats to freedom of the press (freedom of expression). It has just received a US$5,000 challenge grant (every dollar contributed will be matched up to that amount) in support of this awareness program, which earned CEPET a nomination for the 2007 “Defender of Press Freedom” award from Reporters without Borders.

Editors, reporters, columnists and writers working in Mexico’s media industry, as well as Mexican journalism professors and students, belong to CEPET. Mexico has over 300 daily and weekly newspapers, 1,600 magazines and thousands of radio and television stations.

For further information about CEPET or how to contribute to its challenge grant, please contact Leonarda Reyes at leonare@cepet.org. 

International recognition for local PACEMD Center

Leaders in emergency medicine from the US and Mexico held a summit meeting in San Miguel from February 22-26 to develop strategies for improving emergency medical care in Mexico and to designate the local PACEMD (Pan American Collaborative Emergency Medicine Development) Center, Meson de San José, San Miguel de Allende, as an International Emergency Medicine Collaborative Center.

After extensive discussions, summit attendees agreed to develop a national federation of emergency medicine organizations in Mexico. To accomplish this, they reformulated PACEMD Mexico and PACE Challenger Foundation (USA) and established mechanisms to provide community-based emergency medicine training throughout Mexico, including the development of web-based, multimedia strategies for emergency medical education. Furthermore, they initiated the process to start a Border and International Emergency Medicine Fellowship Program, using the established PACEMD network in the US and Mexico.

The National Association of Emergency Medicine Conference will be held this year in the city of Guanajuato beginning May 1. The local PACE organization was instrumental in bringing the conference to the state of Guanajuato. Additionally, organization members are working to bring the International Congress of Emergency Medicine to San Miguel in 2014.

The mission of PACEMD is to educate and provide facilitators for collaborative, institutional services in emergency medicine. The organization also develops programs to meet the needs of communities during emergencies and to provide technical assistance in these areas. For more information about the work of PACEMD, visit their website at www.pacemd.org. 

Surprise yourself

You’d be surprised at what your old garment, chair, kitchen tool, lamp, frame, or jewelry could do if only it were in the hands of a recycler. And the folks in charge of the Biblioteca’s Bodega de Sorpresas know that San Miguel is full of people who recycle every imaginable thing. Some call it resurrection, some call it creativity. To the kids who receive scholarships from the proceeds of the Bodega’s weekly Thursday sales, it’s manna from heaven.

“No matter what condition your discardables are in, we’d like you to give them to the Bodega de Sorpresas, for we sell everything imaginable, and all the funds go to scholarships for local kids,” said Lolita Dolores Perusquia de Garcia Barcena, chief of the Bodega de Sorpresas.

Located in the back of the Biblioteca, the Bodega de Sorpresas boasts broken strands of beads for jewelry designers, chic clothing for those who enjoy a certain fashion sense, and—of course—books, books and more books.

You say you always give your discardables to your housekeeper/cook/gardener? Generosity makes the community a better place, so take a small bow for recycling at home, then check out the other types of gifts you can find at the Bodega de Sorpresas from 10am–1pm every Thursday. You’ll be surprised at the values you find on unique gifts for every type of friend.

Surprise yourself the next time you have a few moments, by doing a little spring cleaning and donating whatever you find that you’re not using to the Bodega de Sorpresas. Gifts to the Bodega de Sorpresas can be receipted for tax deductibility in the US, so the gift you give can yield a gift to yourself come tax time.

For more information, contact Lolita Dolores Perusquia de Garcia Barcena, chief of the Biblioteca’s Bodega de Sorpresas, at 152-3754 or 044-415-103-2931.

Center for Global Justice campo trip to Peñón de los Baños

Global Justice trip

Peñón de los Baños

Sat, Mar 17, 9am–3pm

300 pesos

150-0025

Venture beyond the familiar cobblestone streets of San Miguel and experience a piece of México profundo. On Saturday, March 17, the Center for Global Justice returns to the rural community of Peñón de los Baños to discuss with the campesinos how they can hold on to their ejido land (collectively owned land) and preserve the way of life they value against the commercializing forces of agribusiness.

Neighboring ejidos have sold out to agribusiness concerns, but the people of Peñón de los Baños have not sold out. Instead, they a have a profitable dairy business with 500 head of cow selling 1,000 to 3,000 liters of milk per day. But without their own pasteurization equipment, they sell very cheaply to an intermediary which sells to a huge multinational. With help from the Center for Global Justice, they are beginning to organize a women’s sewing cooperative and are considering building a hot house for growing tomatoes and other crops if they can get incorporated and get funding. Again the Center is helping with these plans.

On our next trip to their community, we will visit their schools, their community, their fields, cows and church, and also talk with the people about their lives and hopes for the future. Participants will learn first hand about the forces pushing people to emigrate to the United States and also about strategies for remaining here in Mexico. Among the forces pushing people to emigrate are the changes made in the Mexican Constitution in 1992 as a condition for Mexico’s entering NAFTA. Ejido land, granted by the Mexican Revolution, can, since 1992, be sold to outsiders under certain conditions. This change has had profound effects in Mexico as we will see. We will also share a delicious meal prepared by the women of the community.

Join us on this day-trip to the campo. A 300-peso ticket covers transportation, comida, and translation. Advance registration is required. Call 150-0025 for a reservation and come by the Center for Global Justice at Calzada de la Luz 42 weekdays between 9am and 2pm for your ticket.