Day 3 evening
The landscape changed quickly as we were leaving LA. The densely populated megatropolis was replaced by large expanses of dry land and brownish mountains. It reminded me of my time in Malaga, Spain where a lack of rain in southern Andalucia left a golden hue to the landscape.
After several hours of driving, we reached the welcoming home of Sarah, a friend and former NYC teaching fellow, who has returned to her hometown of Fresno to work at Fresno Metro Ministry which offers housing support, among other services. A long-time Fresno activist, Sarah is well connected on many fronts in the area. With her help, we set-up a dinner meeting with several members of CBDIO (Centro Binacional para el Desarollo Indigena Oaxaquena). We met at the best Oaxacan restaurant and, over a dinner of mole, nopales and horchata, had what Sarah referred to as ‘a meeting of the minds’.
After several hours of driving, we reached the welcoming home of Sarah, a friend and former NYC teaching fellow, who has returned to her hometown of Fresno to work at Fresno Metro Ministry which offers housing support, among other services. A long-time Fresno activist, Sarah is well connected on many fronts in the area. With her help, we set-up a dinner meeting with several members of CBDIO (Centro Binacional para el Desarollo Indigena Oaxaquena). We met at the best Oaxacan restaurant and, over a dinner of mole, nopales and horchata, had what Sarah referred to as ‘a meeting of the minds’.
It was amazing! With mixed English and Spanish abilities, we switched back and forth between languages, striving to get our points across about what was working, what needed improvement and what our hopes were for the communities that we served. Orelia, mother of two and the spouse of the Director of Indigenous Immigration in Mexico, has spent the past 10 years at times in Oaxaca and at times in Fresno. In our conversation, Orelia was able to express clearly her feelings as a parent wanting to be involved in her children's school, but not knowing how she fits in. She says she is reluctant to volunteer because she isn’t sure how she can help since she isn’t comfortable speaking in English. I mentioned that I thought with such a large Spanish-speaking population, I am sure that she would be needed. Still, she does not feel invited. I wonder if some of my students’ parents feel the same way. She did speak positively of one event at her children’s schools: the weekly coffee hour. Every Friday right after kids are dropped off at school, there is a coffee hour led by the Parent Coordinator, an ESL teacher, or a member of a community-based organization. Sometimes they have open forums for parents to share their needs so that programming can be built around them. Other times the school is sharing information about in-school activities or resources. Also, there are workshops on nutrition, domestic violence, higher education and immigration. Orelia is very connected to these meetings and feels like she builds community with other parents and members of the school there.
All three CBDIO members agreed that face-to-face interaction is a big priority. Emailing does not work for the community. Flyering, one-on-one conversations, and posters are best. Much of the CBDIO outreach happens at businesses which Oaxacan people are known to frequent, including religious spaces. Also, they have gone door to door when organizing and passed out flyers or put up posters. The best is to call someone up or speak to them and invite them to an event, said Yenedit, one of the other two CBDIO activists who grew up and went through high school in Fresno. She went on to discuss with me increasing teen involvement in events that CBDIO offers. It is hard to get them to come but sometimes their parents bring them. As with any organizing, people come if the content is relevant, but it also helps to have food and babysitters. Yenedit suggested to me that any parent outreach we do at my school needs to be interactive. Open space meetings allow parents ideas to be part of the planning and recognized that it is important to not just lecture at people. At the end of programming, it is great to allow parents to give positive and negative feedback to help inform future programming. This model is very similar to my teaching style and seems a very effective model for outreach.
One of the goals of CBDIO is to build indigenous identity through arts such as folk dance and Mixteco language classes. Miguel, the language teacher (among other things) at CBDIO, mentioned that many students are nervous to speak Mizteco, but he tries to have open and honest conversations about decolonization and the roots of both English and Spanish. Through these conversations, youth see speaking Mixteco as not only an element of their cultural identity but also a political act. Miguel plans to return to Oaxaca in two weeks for the Congreso on preserving the Mixtec language and was fundraising for his flight. This is just one example of how Oaxacalifornians are maintaining ties to their Mexican communities despite living in CA. It is possible that Miguel and my paths might cross in Oaxaca in a couple weeks. He said that he hoped so and I agreed.
Day 4- driving and reflecting
This is going to be brief. Today was what my good friend, Flynn, would call a ‘life admin day’. After a nice morning with Sarah and her family, we packed up and left Fresno for San Francisco. I used the car ride to reflect on my grant intentions and to compose emails to reach out again to contacts in CA and Mexico. Sarah offered to help me reach out to some CBDIO contacts in Oaxaca and Puebla to help enrich my experience there. I am hopeful that some of them will pan out. Also, I cannot wait to explore San Francisco properly tomorrow!