This is Sabotabby. This is Sabotabby not on coffee.

[sabotabby]

I've been in Cuernavaca for two days, without internet access and, more importantly, without coffee, so "today" in this entry actually refers to August 4 and 5.

We conducted two very different interviews today. First, we met with Manuel Aguilera Gómez, PRI economic adviser and former mayor of Mexico City. He was very cordial and happy to speak with us, but he failed to say anything completely damning. Paul said he felt like Frost in Frost/Nixon (without the crowning moment of awesome at the end). But we got some decent material.

After that, we went to the headquarters of the Frente Auténtico del Trabajo (FAT) to interview Benedicto. The thing with Mexican unions is that there are certain protections enshrined in the Constitution, but years of corruption and neocolonialism mean that “unions” are basically just protection rackets for corporations and government. Any attempt to start genuine, independent unions that actually represent workers tends to get crushed. So organizations like FAT are crucial for protecting the rights of workers and have a difficult and frequently dangerous battle. Anyway, Benedicto was super-nice and even took us out for lunch after. Here’s the sweet mural that’s in their lobby.



Tonight, I’m in Cuernavaca, Morelos, in a surreal suburb with rows and rows of cookie-cutter houses. The weather is much nicer than in Mexico City, and there are lizards on the wall rather than cockroaches (well, there are roaches too, but the lizards seem to ensure that the roaches stay appropriately insect-sized).







By the way, the Casa has some very strange books. Here is one about a lost little kitten named Metallica.






Baby gecko of cuteness. S. and Paul were rolling their eyes over my minor lizard obsession. Geckos (and gigantic stick insects, which I also saw but couldn't photograph) are commonplace here, but they're very exciting as far as I'm concerned.

Today [August 5] will be forever known as the day that sabotabby had no coffee in the morning and not even a hot shower, and somehow managed to not die, albeit barely. We met up with F. and R., schoolteachers from Morelos. We had a wonderful breakfast courtesy of R.'s mom, then along with her young son, headed to the archeological site at Xochicalco (House of the Flowers).










This is, I think, one of two pictures of me where my eyes were open.








Muchos mescale!



Then we drove into town—I think; it’s hard to tell what’s town, what’s suburb, and what are the sticks out here:


Case in point.

...and visited a secondary school to interview some of the teachers. I’m posting this notice in my classroom so that my kids know how good they have it.



Teachers in Morelos are hardcore as hell. They went on strike last year, not so much over wages and benefits, as the belief that students should not have to pay to go to school. Theoretically, universal, free public education is guaranteed for every child in Mexico, but Morelos is one of the few, if not the only, states where students don’t have to pay fees to attend. In Matamoros, where Paul filmed some scenes in the documentary before I got down here, many parents simply cannot afford the fees, so the children don’t go to school.

The classrooms at this school are smaller than mine, and somehow manage to fit 50 students. Still, it’s a very welcoming place, with great art. They gave me a book of presumably revolutionary love poems as a parting gift.



I’d managed to stay five days in Mexico without getting sick, but today, my luck ran out. I either caught a cold from S., or she caught one from me, because she was wretchedly ill and I wasn’t much better off. I passed out in the car on the way to the school, and I was sweating and feverish when I woke up. I passed out again when we got back to the house. I don’t know how much of that was from not having coffee and how much of it was a virus, but it ain’t good.

The good news is most of the filming is done! Paul’s going to shoot some more interviews and a march next week, and I want to get some street scenes, and we want to interview my friend Chris from Justicia for Migrant Farmworkers when we get back. But we have hours and hours of useable footage, and the time/place-sensitive stuff is more or less complete, so I can be under the weather and sleep a lot and not feel horrendously guilty about it.

Since I wrote that, the cold seems to have subsided. I'm still really tired. I've now had coffee, though, so I no longer feel like a corpse.

Comments

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Awesome pics!

[sabotabby]

Thanks! I sort of want to Photoshop the hell out of some of them when I get back, but right now I'm just trying to post as much as possible in a timely manner.

[corwin77.livejournal.com]

A) You look good for someone who hasn't showered/coffee'd.
B) I'm glad you posted I was afraid you'd gotten carried away by giant cockroaches!

[sabotabby]

A) I had a shower. Just, you know. Not a hot one. BRRRRR. I am going to be so grateful for every First World luxury when I get back to Canada.
B) I meant to post that I was going to be off the intarwebz, but I forgot.

[corwin77.livejournal.com]

A) Real showers are something I miss since I cannot get either my chest or right arm wet atm. It'll be months before I can actually shower again.
B) S'OK. I was just worried...about the cockroaches.

[dobrovolets.livejournal.com]

Lizards are a lifesaver in Mexico. I didn't see many roaches when I was there, but the room we stayed in in Mexico City was plagued with mosquitos. In contrast, our room in Oaxaca had a lizard, who kept the bloodsuckers nicely in check. I gratefully bestowed upon him the grandiloquently quixotean moniker, El Gran Señor Lagarto, Vencedor de los Moscos.

[sabotabby]

Lizards are great anyway. I personally am lobbying for Meansof Productions as a title, but Lagarto Productions is another one I really like.

[iclysdale.livejournal.com]

I met Benedicto Orozco at the LabourStart conference last month - he's indeed a fascinating character, and FAT is doing great work in Mexico.

[sabotabby]

I keep getting the sense that I've met him before too--possibly at the Mexican Labour Congress thingie. Small world.

[snarkitysnarks.livejournal.com]

Yay you're not dead!
I mean what no I do not assume that people are dead if they don't post for a couple of days that would be silly

Ohh this is so cool. I can't wait for the documentary. I have this feeling it'll make me feel outraged.

I’m in Cuernavaca, Morelos, in a surreal suburb with rows and rows of cookie-cutter houses.

Weird, it makes me think I'm looking at the Edward Scissorhands set.

Hope you feel better.

[sabotabby]

My mother totally thought I was dead. She sent me an e-mail asking if I was dead.

I said Edward Scissorhands too. That beginning scene where everyone is leaving in their cars. But it's not a permanent home for most people so there were hardly any cars.

[snarkitysnarks.livejournal.com]

See, when I have paranoid delusions I prefer to stew in them by myself rather than send people emails about them.

[seaya.livejournal.com]

Those rules are actually not all that draconian. They are like don't eat in class, don't leave school without permission, wear your school uniform, wear a lab coat to science class, etc. Oh and if you do alcohol or drugs they send you to rehab. That's actually kinda cool that they give a second chance that u.s. schools would not.

[terry-terrible.livejournal.com]

Thank you for documenting your travels, I'm enjoying this!

[rantipole6.livejournal.com]

Oh, poor little Metallica. She looks so cute and sad. Please tell me she gets back home to her farm with its many open windows or I'm going to start bawling!

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

As if a book in English about a kitten called Metallica wasn't already bizarre enough, it appears to have been written by an Icelander. How did it find its way to Mexico?