The Mayan Riviera

For our last week in Mexico, most of our group headed to the Mayan Riviera on the Yucatan peninsula with coast along the Caribbean.  This area is most famous for Cancun and its resort towns, and while we took full advantage of the beach and the sunshine, we also got to see some incredible Mayan ruins.

We stayed at a resort in Playa del Carmen, a resort town south of Cancun. We took full advantage of the resorts all-inclusive food and drinks, but we went into the town one night as well.  It’s pretty tourist-y, with lots of shopping and souvenirs, but it also borders a beautiful beach. Mexico got more than its fair share of beauty between its beaches and mountains.

One day we went to Tulum, a small set of Mayan ruins. While the ruins were interesting, it was the setting that was truly spectacular. Perched on the edge of cliffs running down to white sand and the bluest water I’ve ever seen, the whole place was surrounded by palm trees.  After exploring the ruins, we went down to the beach and were able to take a boat out to the coral reefs a few hundred feet from shore for snorkeling.  The coral was only a little more than a foot below the surface in places, and full of sea urchins, sea anemones, and bright tropical fish.  Really, the Mayans would do well in real estate today; it’s all about location, location, location.

On our last day we drove a couple of hours inland to Chichén Itzá, one of the New Wonders of the World.  This is the Mayan’s crowning achievement.  Its home to a massive pyramid, a structure with thousands of intricately carved columns, and a modern-day stadium-scale ball court.  There was also of course a place dedicated to displaying the skulls of their enemies and sacrificial victims where even the stones were carved with skulls, just to make sure you got the message.

One of the other interesting things we saw were pilgrims headed to Mexico City for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which is celebrated December 12 and is one of the most important holy days in Mexico.  We were constantly passing groups of people running, on bikes, or in trucks, all decorated with images of the Virgin and many carrying a lit torch.  Mexicans have a truly touching affection for their patroness, and they show it by making their way to her shrine once a year.

Finally, it was strange to hear so much English in Cancun.  The resort and town were full of American, Canadian, and European tourists, and we had some funny incidents where the hotel staff didn’t realize we spoke Spanish.  It was a slow introduction back to the US.

I’m writing this post from the Dallas Airport. It feels good to be back on US soil, but I know I’m going to miss Mexico.  This has been one of the most educational experiences of my life, and I know that I will be coming back to Latin America in the not-too-distant future. Once I’ve had more time to process everything, look for a post about what this semester has been for me as a whole. But for now, I’m excited to see my family and enjoy simple luxuries like flushing toilet paper and drinking water from the tap.

Chikicole: Learning Spanish from 4 Year Olds

This semester I had the chance to volunteer at a local kindergarten/pre-school, Chikicole, where I got to play with darling Mexican children and teach a little English.  This helped fill the hole that the kids at La Casa de Amistad (a Hispanic community center in South Bend) left in my heart this semester, and was a good chance to practice Spanish with people who had absolutely no reservations about correcting me or telling me they had no idea what I was saying: namely, 4-year-olds.

My most embarrassing language-barrier story from the semester comes from Chikicole, as well.  In my defense, it was early in the semester, and the first time we went to the pre-school.  I was playing and chatting with one of the little girls at recess when she pointed at a Nigerian girl from my group and asked blatantly, “Why is her skin black?” At first I was a little put off, but as Mexico is significantly less diverse than the US, I tried to turn it into a teaching moment.  “Well, she’s from the US,” I explained, “and people have all different skin colors there: black, white, and brown.” (Many Mexicans refer to themselves as morenita, or brown.) And this was where I went wrong; the word for brown is moreno, but what I said was morado, which means purple.

Her eyes got wide. “Are there blue people, too?” she asked. Confused, and not yet realizing my mistake, I replied that of course there weren’t blue people, just people like her, me, and my African friend.  But she was clearly entranced by the idea of people of all (and I mean all) colors in the magical land of the United States.  When I explained my confusion to someone else in my group, they caught my mistake immediately, and I experienced true mortification at the hands of a 4-year-old. I can only hope that someone set her straight before she got too attached to the notion of blue Americans.

I hope I helped teach a little English to the kids at Chikicole, but I know that they taught me just as much, not least of all that the colors unit in Spanish 1 might come in more handy than you think.  We have almost exactly one week left in Mexico, and we head to the Yucatan peninsula tomorrow to log some beach time and visit some Mayan ruins before coming back to the snowy Midwest.

Traditional Healing

Last month we went to Cuetzalan, a small town in the state of Puebla, for four days through Notre Dame.  The first two days we learned about traditional healing from native curanderas, many of whom were part of a multi-generational traditional of healers.  Cuetzalan has done an excellent job of integrating modern and traditional medicine, a combination we got to observe during our time there.

The hospital in Cuetzalan has two parts: a wing for Western medicine, and a wing devoted to the curanderas (healers), parteras (midwives), and jueseras (bone-setters.)  Many of the healers we met were older and dressed in traditional indigenous garb.  When we went to their smaller communities on the outskirts of Cuetzalan, it was clear they were well known and respected.  The hospital has been very successful in integrating traditional medicine because they too respect the position and knowledge of these healers.  By putting their trust in them, they have also gained the trust of the people who have traditionally relied on this form of medicine, and so brought them into the hospital where they can receive better care.  One of the most successful examples of this practice is the drastic drop in infant and maternal mortality that has occurred in the twenty years since parteras were invited to bring their patients to the hospital, where they can receive extra support if there are complications with the pregnancy or birth.

One of the practices we saw most regularly, and that a few of the group experienced first-hand, was a cleansing ritual using herbs and sometimes an egg, which are rubbed over the body to remove bad spirits and ill will.  This was practiced in the hospital and in the homes of the healers we visited.  While these herbs were not medicinal in the sense that we understand it in the US, the healers knowledge of other herbs, many of which grew wild in the incredibly rich surrounding rain forest, was impressive.

While accepting traditional healing methods, the hospital maintained a modern attitude toward medical records and patient care.  Many of the patients were on national health insurance, so paperwork was a huge part of this hospital, just like those in Puebla. While I’m not sure about the effectiveness of traditional medicine, it is clear that respecting the culture and traditions of a people is a huge part of caring for them in an effective manner.