Update on the campo by Callie

Welcome back to our blog! I forgot to introduce myself the last time I wrote about our time in Tapachula. I’m Callie Thompson, a Peace and Global Studies major at Earlham College. I’m from Louisville, Kentucky and unlike the rest of the group, this travel seminar marks my first experience in Mexico! Tomorrow we are off to another campo experience, this time to San Lorenzo Victoria, Oaxaca, which we have been told will be very different from our previous campo experience in San Caralampio. Last week, Riley wrote an entry about San Caralampio and the struggles it has faced as a community in light of NAFTA and after years of losing more and more of its sons and daughters to migration. Before we leave for our next campo experience, I’d like to reflect some more on our time in San Caralampio and introduce you to some of the amazing families we met.

When we arrived to San Caralampio, we were greeted by several of our host family members. The houses we stayed in for those two days were made of different materials depending on whether the family had children in the US sending home remittances or not. Don Flavio, for example, receives no remittances. In his home, sheets instead of solid walls section off rooms. Doña Julia and Don Candido, however, have two sons in the states and, therefore, have been able to afford two brick additions to their home among other purchases, such as a tractor.

One afternoon, Don Candido sat with us on the porch and pointed at all of the things that his sons’ remittances bought. Then he described the day his first son left for the States. He said it was too painful to watch him leave so instead, he grabbed his hat and went to his cornfields to escape. He hasn’t seen that son for ten years, his other for seven, and now his youngest is thinking of migrating for the second time. As the border becomes harder to cross, migrants end up staying in the US for good, fearing that leaving to visit home will mean they may never be able to successfully cross again.

Despite the holes left by those who have had to leave to support their aging parents and young children, the community remains strong in its resistance to selling its ejidos (communally owned land). Although the majority of crop profits are swept up by big businesses, the campesinos continue harvesting, though unsure of whether their corn will sell that year or not. They have continued raising cattle and selling even when the market prices are down. They are even trying to create their own organic fertilizer to replace the expensive ones that they were manipulated into using back in the 80s, which made their land chemical-dependent. These forms of resistance were inspiring to us. Overall, we were blown away by the strength and work ethic of the community members.