Week 5: Experiencing Rural Life

The students pose near a corn field in rural Mexico.

The week of February 24th - March 1st was spent at our first home stay. This was a rural home stay. The families were very nice to us and showed us lots of hospitality. We were especially well fed. This home stay gave us a chance to practice our Spanish speaking skills and see a life style that was different from the one that we are used to experiencing in the United States. Some students had to bucket bathe, we all got to watch tortillas being made, and woke to roosters in the morning.

During our rural home stay we went out to other rural towns to learn about the different things that affect people in rural Mexico. We talked to farmers, women’s groups, and environmental groups. These different groups showed us the challenges that communities face along with the strengths that the communities posses. We learned that the main strength is the people.

A typical street in a rural Mexican town.

The different groups that we talked to showed us the importance of land to the people of rural Mexico. The land is how most people make their living. We got to ride out to the ejidal lands and talk to farmers about farming and the issues that they face. We learned about how the products for farming came from the United States, but farmers were not able to export their products to the United States.

Community efforts in these small towns help to fight for the rights of farmers, keep farmers farming, and empower women. Two of the groups that we talked to were women’s groups that were helping farmers and keeping communities together. While Mexico has a culture of machismo, women are very integral to keeping communities together.

A local recycling project.

A classroom in a rural school we visited.

Women we noticed in our time in the rural communities did much work. They worked in the home from the time that they got up until they went to bed. Women worked all day to have all three meals on the table for their families. They wash the clothes, feed the animals, and some times make crafts from home for extra income. The women in these communities are strong individuals.

One of the most moving things that our group experienced was the speakers who spoke to us about their immigration into the United States and their time in the country. It was a very moving speech that brought some of us to tears to hear about how our country treats immigrants. All of us learned something new about the experience of coming into the United States, whether it was about the cost, the extremes that people have to endure, how the border patrol belittles immigrants, or the feeling of hate that immigrants come to acquire against the United States [1].

We experienced many events in one week that opened our eyes to a different way of life, a different way of being, and a different way of seeing the world. It was a great experience that I wish more people from the United States could have to help them understand why people come to our country, how we are a part of creating those conditions, and the conditions that people endure to get there.

[1] Migration panel, 27 February 2008.

-By Erin Whitcomb