July 04, 2008, Rural library honors librarian’s 35-year career, Summer internship program returns to San Miguel, By Arturo Yarish, Don’t hold back, By Nelda Falknor, Audubon builds new island homes for birds in El Charco, By Carol Wheeler, Luncheon for Mujeres en Cambio to feature celebrated local chef, By Joan Strouse, US voter registration assistance offered in San Miguel, By Ken Rowland

Rural library honors librarian’s 35-year career
July 4, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

The small rural community of Cruz del Palmar named their newly established library in honor of Juan Manuel Farjardo, chief librarian of the Biblioteca Pública.

Officers of the Biblioteca Pública, Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende-Midday and others involved in the project joined in the festivities of the inauguration last Sunday. A religious ceremony, folkloric dance, a delicious meal and lots of brief speeches of appreciation and gratitude marked the auspicious day.

Summer internship program returns to San Miguel
By Arturo Yarish

Summer Internship Program
July 3–29
Sponsored by the Center for Global Justice
(415) 150-0025

For the third consecutive year, the Center for Global Justice, in cooperation with renowned Mexican and visiting scholars, will present its highly successful international investigative/study program in San Miguel.

This unique Summer Research Internship has attracted student applicants and faculty from four continents and this year from Japan, Puerto Rico, Turkey, Spain, Canada, Mexico and the US, to examine and evaluate the effects of globalization in our region.

The participating interns from an impressively diverse group ranging from young multi-talented scholars to young-at-heart seniors citizens bring to the program their years of experience, accumulated knowledge, dedication to serious scholarship and community service. The diversity and the links that connect their collective variety of talents and interests are best shown in the contrast between the long-term educator/community organizer, Sara Rodriquez Huenchullan from Canada and her younger counterpart, Brent Adams from Colorado who are both committed to shaping a better world or, as Brent says, “rehumanizing” it. Sara, a community worker organizing La Casa Cultura Latino Americana in Calgary and Brent, an Ethnic Studies/Political Science major, hip-hop DJ, poet and community activist will undoubtedly mix and blend styles to help shape a better world.

While the Center for Global Justice faculty and staff express pride in all the extremely well-qualified students joining this year’s Research Internship Program, the staff also announced with particular pleasure, the return of Nadyeli Rojas Tovar, a local Mexican psychology student who is not only participating in the program for a second year, but bringing with her two more of her colleagues from the University of Querétaro.

This year the Center for Global Justice is particularly pleased to announce a 60 percent increase in the participating number of Mexican National university students from Guanajuato and nearby states. This dramatic increase in Mexican student participation was made possible by a very generous grant from the recently established Bernard Weisman Foundation, which has funded full scholarships for five Mexican students. The continuing financial support of the Bernard Weisman Foundation helps the center to realize one of it primary goals of establishing cross-cultural, educational opportunities for local students at their home base in San Miguel.

The grant also helps to give a vital, multicultural expression to its distinctive study program, which integrates intensive academics with advanced participatory research techniques, affording all participants a view of our historical epoch from below.

The Center for Global Justice, in cooperation with its planning staff and faculty, has crafted a sophisticated interdisciplinary curriculum for creative and diversely skilled students prepared to work cooperatively to address issues proposed by members of their local host communities in and near San Miguel.

Focusing on the economic and social effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, the visiting faculty and students, in close cooperation with many members of their host communities, will engage in participatory field research joining their academic training and service commitments to community-initiated projects.

For the first half of the four-week period, undergraduate and graduate students will complement their formal training with additional cutting-edge theory and methods in full-day seminar classes discussing such issues as Free Trade/Fair Trade, Democratic planning and Sustainable Cooperative Economic Development. Throughout the second half, interns will be placed with families in nearby rural communities where they will engage in the participatory research requested by the communities. Accompanied by faculty mentors, interns will learn firsthand how rural Mexicans live and creatively respond to the consequences of land privatization, migration, family stability, environmental degradation and globalizing economic relations. Their close living relations with urban and rural Mexican families will form the context for their concrete studies, analysis and subsequent reports responding to community needs. Student reports and services will form the substance of the student contributions to community research requests.

The Center for Global Justice invites all community members to join their faculty, staff and students at various public events that will be announced on our website www.globaljusticecenter.org and in this paper through our program this summer. Classes will be open to the public on a space-available basis only; please check with the center at 150-0025. All full-internship positions for this year’s program are full, but if you are interested in being a volunteer or full-time student for next year’s program, please contact Lydia Carey at grants@globaljusticecenter.org.

Seminar classes are presented in Spanish at the San Miguel campus of the University of León. Public events are presented at the Biblioteca Pública in English, and in Spanish at the Universidad Techología in Dolores Hidalgo. The center strongly urges people to plan ahead because current requests for online information suggest a strong public turn-out.

Arturo Yarish is a research associate with the Center for Global Justice and a faculty member for this year’s Summer Internship Program.

2008 Faculty & Staff

Gustavo Esteva (de-professionalized intellectual & founder of Universidad de la Tierra in Oaxaca)

Ross Gandy (sociology UNAM, Research Associate CGJ)

Cliff DuRand (philosophy, Research Associate CGJ)

David Stea (geography, Research Associate CGJ)

Bob Stone (philosophy, Research Associate CGJ)

Betsy Bowman (Research Associate CGJ)

Arturo Yarish (history, Research Associate CGJ)

Silvia Elguea (environmental philosophy, Research Associate CGJ)

Dawn McCarty (sociology, Research Associate CGJ)

Fernando Sánchez Cuadros (UNAM, DF)

Yolanda Millan (field representative CGJ)

Norma Suarez (general coordinator CGJ)

Carolina Avila (home-stay coordinator CGJ)

Sallie Latch (staff planner CGJ)

Atahualpa Caldera (field site supervisor)

Don’t hold back
By Nelda Falknor

Texas Hold’em San Miguel Style
To benefit CASA
Sat, July 12, 7:30pm
Instituto Allende
Ancha de San Antonio 20
US$10 at the door

The Texas Podiatric Medical Foundation with the help of CASA and their volunteers established a medical mission in 2006. The underserved of Mexico are treated for various types of painful foot problems. To date, more than 200 patients have received needed foot care. The podiatrists attending the mission offer their services at no fee and pay all of their expenses.

The Texas Podiatric Medical Foundation together with the Instituto Allende are hosting an evening of fun and sharing on Saturday, July 12. The public is invited to meet the Texas Team, our volunteers and the supporting staff at CASA. The event includes appetizers, beverages, music, entertainment and door prizes. We need your help to spread the word about our medical mission and CASA’s efforts. A donation of US$10 per person is requested at the door to cover expenses for the evening. Also, a generous sponsor is willing to match up to US$1,000 in donations. The funds collected in Mexico go directly to cover materials, x-rays, blood tests and other needed medical services.

In El Charco, Linda Whynman, accompanied by Bob Haas and Leigh Gersnoviez present Mario Mendoza, Director, with a check.

On Wednesday, June 25, Linda Whynman, president of Sociedad de Audubon, and other members of the board presented Mario Mendoza, Director of El Charco del Ingenio, with a check for 40,000 pesos. The sum was allocated by the Audubon board of directors to help create and refine new island habitats in the Presa at the Charco and at Parque Landeta.

The islands project began in 2004 as a way to expand the habitat for birds at El Charco. There are now 15 new islands and two new areas on the banks of the Presa that need to be shaped, refined and planted. Trees will be Sabinos, river willows and the Alamo or cottonwood tree. The islands are home to 156 species of birds and are the kind of habitat that encourages reproduction as well as protecting the eggs of reproducing birds.

Cesar Arias leads Audubon Board members Deb Moscowitz, Carol Wheeler, Al Lerner, Leigh Gersnoviez, Bob Haas and Will Smith on a tour of the Parque Landeta wetlands water treatment plant. Photo by Linda Whynman.

In addition to the island habitats, observation points also are being created. Two specially constructed peninsulas for sighting birds are in El Charco and in Parque Landeta. With the cooperation of El Charco, Audubon members will have access to those observation peninsulas at a special discount off the Charco admission price. With the new Audubon bird guide, new islands and the peninsulas, the possibility of viewing many of those 156 species increases mightily.

As the earth-moving machines dig silt around the islands ever deeper, further protecting them from currents and winds from the northeast, large stones need to be put in place to reinforce the banks. The Audubon contribution finances that project, too.

Whynman says, “We look forward to a continuing productive relationship with El Charco, further developing ecologically sensitive areas for the enjoyment of all the residents of our community. This year the community can look forward to great things happening with Audubon!”

Other events on the Audubon agenda this year include a late September trip to Veracruz to view the famous fall raptor migration and monthly presentations in Teatro Santa Ana. The July 15 event is a talk by Don Patterson, director of the ecology department for the city.

Carol Wheeler is a board member of Audubon México.

Luncheon for Mujeres en Cambio to feature celebrated local chef
By Joan Strouse

Mujeres en Cambio Luncheon
Thu, July 24, 2pm
Hacienda de las Flores
Hospicio 16
120 pesos

Please join with other friends of Mujeres en Cambio for lunch on Thursday, July 24 at Hacienda de las Flores. All proceeds from the lunch go to provide educational scholarships to 160 young Mexican women from rural communities surrounding San Miguel.

Donnie Masterton, chef/owner of The Restaurant, the restaurant that people in San Miguel are so excited about, will be our guest chef. Donnie is preparing pan-seared chicken with garlic and sun-dried tomatoes for us. Accompanying the meal is a wide assortment of salads, side dishes, and desserts all prepared by Mujeres en Cambio core group members.

Entry to the July luncheon is by pre-paid ticket only and tickets are available for 120 pesos each at Casa de Papel, Mesones 57A. For further information, contact Joan at 152-2820—sorry, no phone reservations can be taken.

US voter registration assistance offered in San Miguel
By Ken Rowland

The 2008 elections in the United States once again offer citizens a chance to express their choice in the social and economic direction the country will take. The outcome will not only effect residents of the US, but the entire world. It will be strongly felt here in Mexico.

The vote of people living abroad is extremely important. The last Virginia Senate race, for example, was decided by the count of voters living abroad. As the expat population in Mexico continues to grow, the votes we cast in US elections will have increasing influence.

US citizens living in San Miguel are allowed to vote for federal offices, for the president and for Congress. Your last US residence address is used as your voting address to allow you to vote for a US Representative and Senator. The only requirement is that you send a registration form to the registrar of voters in your last county of residence in the US.

If you voted from abroad in the last election, you may still need to request a ballot. The same form is used.

You may fill out and print the brief registration form, and get the address to mail it, by going online to OverSeasVoteFoundation.org. You can also fill out the form by hand and mail it in. There will be voter assistance offered in the courtyard of the Biblioteca every Monday and Wednesday during July and August from 1–3pm. Forms will be available there, as well as at the US Consulate.

If you are interested in volunteering to help at the registration table, please call Doug at 152-3744. Questions can be sent to rowlandken@hotmail.com.