Conspiracy Theory

On the long bus ride from Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido, I sat next to a chatty Mexican musician on his way to Huatulco to play a few gigs. The conversation went the usual route: where we were from, family, job, Mexico, and finally US politics. At which point, Jose Luis (that was his name) busted out with an insane conspiracy theory he read on the internet and swore was true because the daring journalist who reported it had been fired and black-listed by the government from working at any other news outlet. Here's the theory:

Beginning with the George W. Bush administration and continuing with Obama, the government has been planning to replace the dollar with a new currency called the "amero" or something like that. The plan is to replace US dollars (along with Canadian dollars and Mexican pesos) with the amero overnight, so that someone who has $1 million when they go to bed one night will wake up with effectively $250,000, or 1 million ameros. This is somehow supposed to help with the national deficit, make government officials rich, and also, of course, anger every single American with any money, not to mention the Canadians and Mexicans. Obviously there will be a giant uprising with rioting, looting, etc. And that's why Obama is planning to withdraw troops from Iraq: he needs them at home to quell any uprising.

Here's what wikipedia has to say on the topic.

San Antonio Cuajimoloyas

Last week we went on an excursion to San Antonio Cuajimoloyas, a small Zapotec town in the mountains near Oaxaca de Juarez, knowing nothing about the excursion plans other than that it would take about an hour to get there via windy, mostly unpaved roads through the mountains. Bonine saved me from puking my guts out in the back of a 15 person conversion van. And the views were amazing.

When we got there, we learned that we would be spending the morning talking to the students, ages 13-15, of the local preparatory school. As we stood uncertainly in a clump in the middle of the giant cement basketball/volleyball court, the students timidly came out of their classrooms and formed a line behind their English teacher. After some insistent prodding by professors on both sides, we formed little groups with the students and started talking to them about their lives, answering questions about Chicago, the US, and exchanging jokes. At one point M and I sang our national anthem at the request of some Mexican students and in exchange for them singing theirs to us. M also jokingly introduced a female Mexican student to all 3 boys in our program after learning that she wanted to move to LA and was in search of an American boyfriend.

After a lunch break, we broke into informal games of soccer and volleyball, and then basketball. It was really fun playing against the students, even though they seriously kicked our butts. Height apparently does not make up for practice, age, and being used to the high altitude.

After the sports matches, we took a guided hike through the mountains. The town, which is still governed collectively according to Zapotec custom, had built cabins using citizens' collective labor and materials, in order to build up an ecotourism industry. So we hiked up to the cabins and then through the mountain pastures, meanwhile learning about a tree worm problem that was decimating the forest, local plants and animals, etc. Of course, we had no idea we would be enduring a vigorous hike, so many students were wearing extremely inappropriate outfits (flip-flops, shorts, etc.). But luckily no one broke an ankle.

At the end of the hike we were treated to a talk by Omar, a guy who runs an NGO called Ollin Tlahtoalli (Zapotec term for oral stories). He has been collecting and videotaping village elders from around Oaxaca, recording their oral histories. But his organization also offers courses on English, sports, literacy, etc. to help improve village life. It was a really inspiring presentation (even if his video editing skills needed serious work).

"Bush should go to jail"

Yesterday I was strolling up Alcalá, a pedestrian street paved with cobblestones that forms the tourism backbone of Oaxaca City, when a random Mexican man stopped me and asked the time. When I told him it was a quarter to three (tres menos cuarto), he asked if I was from Argentina, because in Mexico (he claimed), they say cuarto para las tres. Today I verified this, although at the time I strongly suspected he was messing with me.

When I said that no, I was not Argentinian but from the US, he immediately started talking about Bush, and how didn't I think that Bush should be sent to jail? I was so surprised at the comment that I kind of laughed, and said that yes he should, but it was very unlikely to ever happen. After that the conversation died out and I made my escape. The whole conversation had been friendly, I didn't feel that this random Mexican blamed me for Bush's actions because I was American. But it was very odd. There is definitely strong anti-American sentiment regarding the recent conflict in Israel/Gaza, as evidenced by this graffitti on the American Consulate.

Also, what is up with the dental work in Mexico? Instead of doing porcelain or tooth-colored caps, they put gold or silver frames around individual teeth. It gives me the creeps, even though I realize it's much more common. It makes people seem older than they are, or dirty because they somehow don't take proper care of their teeth. I'm not talking about an entire gold tooth; I'm talking about just a very thin outline around the outer edge of the tooth. I've seen it on women and men, both, and I have a very hard time not staring.