Migration Forum: First Entry

Current Project:

First Step is currently looking for two volunteers to teach English in Ziquítaro Michoacán for the Winter semester (February – June 2010), the Fall semester (August – December 2010) or both. Volunteers will be teaching English classes to community members of all ages. Classes will take place both in the local public schools as well as in the town center. Volunteers are not required to have a teaching degree, although experience teaching is preferable. Basic Spanish proficiency is required. If you are interested in teaching these semesters or any semester in the future please email Rachel Miers at rachelmiers@gmail.com for more information and/or an application.

Current Fundraiser: Cookbook

Obtaining non-profit status is a slow process so in the meantime we are heading a few fundraising efforts in order to provide the volunteers with a living stipend as well as buy needed classroom materials. As part of a school project, some of English students worked together with Katherine Ferry and Rachel Wickland to compile a bilingual cookbook with some of their favorite recipes (about 15 in total). We are selling the book (which can be sent via email in PDF form) for $12 or I send you a hard copy for $16. All of the proceeds will go directly to the project in Mexico. If you would like to buy a cookbook you can email me your request at rachelmiers@gmail.com (note whether you would like the PDF or hard copy version). I will then give you the address to which you can send a check. Any extra donations are greatly appreciated! Thanks for your help and staying posted with the blog!

Town Profile

Location:
Ziquítaro is located in the central state of Michoacán, Mexico and is roughly one hour and a half driving distance from Michoacán’s capital - Morelia. Ziquítaro is considered a “rancheria” or ranch town as it is a small community which originally developed around a ranch. There is no official sign or paved off ramp for Ziquítaro just a dirt road turnoff on the side of the highway. Ziquítaro is located about 5 kilometers (three miles) away from the highway.

Commerce & Population:
With the exception of small family run convenience stores operated out of houses, Ziquítaro boasts no established commerce as employment opportunities are minimal. A majority of the town is dedicated to sustenance agricultural production. While many town members work in the neighboring town six kilometers away, the majority choose to immigrate to the United States, their primary destinations being California and Texas. It is estimated that 2000- 3000 of the town's 4000 members are living and working in the US. Consequently, a large portion of family income is derived from remittances - the money sent from those working in the US. Due to this out-migration o Ziquítaro is inhabited primarily by women, children and the elderly.

Educational Opportunities:
Ziquítaro offers public schooling from kindergarten to junior high. The nearest high school is located a short bus ride away in a neighboring town. The junior high is a “tele-secundaria” literally translating to “TV junior high”. This educational program, which began in 1968, was enacted as an attempt to bring enhanced educational opportunities to impoverished rural communities. The telesecundaria program uses minimal resources as lessons are imparted through televised lesson plans which are sent to the schools via satellite and shown to students with the guidance of a Procter. Junior high, and in many cases elementary school, is often the last formal education the town’s children receive as immigration becomes a viable and attractive possibility once a student turns 14.

Religion:
The majority of the town members are catholic thus allowing for the church to assume a central role in the community. The town’s priest, Manuel Vazquez Rubio, has been working in the community for two years and has enlivened the town with his religious sermons as well as his work and supportive presence in the community. Much activity and energy revolves around the town’s religious festivities which span from December to January. The importance of the festivities are reflected by the significant increase in town population; on average over 1000-1500 town members return from the US to visit family members and take part in the communal religious celebrations, causing the town’s population to nearly double.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

First Entry

After months of planning Michel and I are here – safe, happy and ready to begin classes! This past Saturday we packed our mini red pointer to the brim and left Mexico City. After sitting in the City’s infamous traffic for over an hour and a half we finally reached the highway and drove the remaining four hours to Ziquítaro. We arrived just as the sun set, thus making it hard to navigate our way from the highway to Ziquítaro as there is no sign or official exit for the town, only a dirt road turnoff on the side of the highway.

We have been working closely with the town’s Priest, Manuel Vazquez Rubio, to make the project a reality. Last semester we traveled to Ziquítaro various times to work with the priest both conceptualizing the classes as well as informing the community about the project during mass and other community gatherings. In addition to supporting us with the classes he also offered us a place to stay – an offer which we readily accepted.

Although I had intended on beginning the classes the Monday after we arrived, the priest informed me that despite the previous prep work we had done things would probably take a bit longer to unfold. Apparently the townspeople had doubted that we were actually going to follow through with the project and thus hesitated to sign up. He was right. On Sunday we attended mass and once again presented ourselves to the community, yet this time we informed them that we were finally here to begin the classes and that registration would start the following day. Although I had the impression that people were interested in the classes, I was shocked by the town’s response; the first day of registration over 80 people had signed up and by the second day the number had grown to two hundred.

The more people singed up, the more I understood why the response was so positive. Nearly everyone who signed up for the classes did so for one underling reason; there is a good chance that they will immigrate to the United States at some point in their life. In addition to this inescapable reality, a few other factors were at play. For example, over half of the children enrolled in elementary school signed up for the classes because they currently have no teacher. Thus, their mothers saw the classes as an unsurpassable opportunity in which their children could have another chance at education. Many adults were interested in the classes because they either had a family member in the United States and/or wanted to help their children with their English classes.

qqqqqqElementary student registration in the church

In total I will be teaching four groups of elementary school students, one group of teens, one group of adults, and one group of kindergarteners while simultaneously teaching all three grades at the junior high. While most of the classes are extracurricular, I will be the official English teacher at the junior high (see “Town Profile” to lean more about Mexico’s rural public education program entitled TV-junior high or “tele-secundaira”). The junior high classes will ultimately be more formal and intense- a favorable factor as they are the age group most likely to immigrate in the near future.

Aside from dealing with the logistics of the classes, I have had time to ponder and explore my second motive for moving to Ziquítaro, studying the phenomenon of migration. Migration has become an inherent part of life in Ziquítaro, it is present everywhere; migration is talked about among town members as an everyday aspect of their lives - even the kindergarten teacher discusses the subject with her students - license plates from California and Texas are as numerous as those from Mexico, the young men who have returned from the states have adopted a particular hip-hop style, thus setting them apart from other town members, and while neither Ziquitaro nor the neighboring town of Penjamillo has a bank, Penjamillo boasts a plethora of stores where dollars sent from the US can be collected as well as converted into pesos – an act so common that dollars can be bought and sold at Penjamillo’s gas station (see sign in picture bellow). Migration has also paradoxically left its presence throughout the town in the form of an ominous absence for it has drastically depleted Ziquítaro’s population, thus leaving the streets empty for a large portion of the day, and further, making the sight of a complete nuclear family – mother, father, and children – very rare. While these observations are a mere sliver of what I have noted in these past few days, I will post more observations and anecdotes shortly once I have had time to reflect.

Ziquítaro's deserted streets, midday.