Friday, October 30, 2015

Halloween and Day of the Dead: Same? Different? Little of Each?

This question doesn't even come up in Mexico's traditional, rural regions, but it's increasingly relevant in Mexico's urban settings, where television and the supermarkets have introduced the trappings of Halloween into Mexican culture.  Along the culturally porous frontier region between Mexico and its northern neighbor, of course, this is indeed an intriguing question.

Halloween: Western European Tradition

Halloween, or Hallowe'en — a contraction of "All Hallows’ Evening" — is also known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve. Regardless of what it's called, it is a yearly celebration observed in a number of countries on October 31, eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' (Saints') Day that begins the three-day observance of Allhallowtide — the season in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed believers.

Pre-Christian Roots

All Hallows' Eve is influenced by Celtic harvest festivals, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain (pronounced / sah-win or sow-in), which marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the year's "darker half". Traditionally, Samhain is celebrated from sunset on October 31 to sunset on November 1, which puts it about halfway between the Autumn Equinox (September 21) and the Winter Solstice (December 21).

Evidence exists that Samhain has been an important date since ancient times. It is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature, and many important events in Irish mythology take place or begin on Samhain. It was the time when cattle were brought back down from the summer pastures, and livestock were slaughtered for the winter.

Special bonfires were ritually lit. The bonfires' flames, smoke and ashes were deemed to have protective and cleansing powers and were also used for divination, especially regarding death and marriage. Some suggest the fires were a kind of imitative or sympathetic magic — they mimicked the Sun, helping the "powers of growth" and holding back the decay and darkness of the coming winter.

Samhain was seen as a liminal time; that is, when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld thinned and hence could more easily be crossed. This meant the 'spirits' or 'fairies' — Aos Sí (pronounced / ees shee) — could come into our world. At Samhain it was believed that the Aos Sí — gods and nature spirits — needed to be propitiated to ensure that the people and their livestock would survive the harsh winter. Offerings of food and drink were left outside for them.

The souls of the dead were thought to revisit their homes seeking hospitality. Feasts were held, and souls of dead kin were beckoned to attend. A place was set for them at the table and a spot was reserved for them by the bonfire.

Mumming (seasonal folk plays performed by troupes of actors) was part of the festival, as was guising, when people went door-to-door in costume (disguise), often reciting verses in exchange for food. The costumes may have been a way of imitating, and disguising oneself from, the Aos Sí. Impersonating these beings, or wearing a disguise, was believed to protect oneself from them. It is suggested that the mummers and guisers
"personify the old spirits of the winter, who demanded reward in exchange for good fortune."
On the custom of wearing costumes, Christian minister Prince Sorie Conteh wrote (2009):
"It was traditionally believed that the souls of the departed wandered the earth until All Saints' Day, and All Hallows' Eve provided one last chance for the dead to gain vengeance on their enemies before moving to the next world. In order to avoid being recognized by any soul that might be seeking such vengeance, people would don masks or costumes to disguise their identities."
From at least the 18th century, "imitating malignant spirits" led to playing pranks in Ireland and the Scottish Highlands. In the 20th century, wearing costumes and playing pranks at Halloween spread to England.

photograph
Traditional Irish Halloween turnip (rutabaga) lantern on display,
 Museum of Country Life, Ireland
The
"traditional illumination for guisers or pranksters abroad on the night in some places was provided by turnips, hollowed out to act as lanterns and often carved with grotesque faces."
Those who made them said the lanterns were to represent the spirits or, alternatively, to ward off evil spirits. They were common in parts of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands in the 19th century. In the 20th century they spread to other parts of England and became generally known as Jack-o'-Lanterns, which in North America are carved from pumpkins.

Christian Influences

Today's Halloween customs are also thought to have been influenced by Christian dogma and practices derived from it. Since the time of the early Church, major feasts in the Christian Church (such as Christmas, Easter and Pentecost) had vigils that began the night before, as did the feast of All Hallows'. Collectively referred to as Allhallowtide, these three days — eve of October 31 to sunset on November 2 — are a time for honoring the saints and praying for the recently departed souls who have yet to reach Heaven.

Introduced in the year 609, All Saints was originally celebrated on May 13, the same date as Lemuria, an ancient Roman festival of the dead. In 835, at the behest of Pope Gregory IV, All Saints was officially switched to November 1, the same date as Samhain. Some suggest this was due to Celtic influence; others suggest it was a Germanic idea. It is claimed that both Germanic and Celtic-speaking peoples commemorated the dead at the beginning of winter, which may have been seen as the most fitting time to do so, since that was when the plants themselves were 'dying'.

By the end of the 12th century the three days of Allhallowtide had become holy days of obligation across Europe and involved such traditions as ringing church bells for the souls in purgatory. In addition,
"it was customary for criers dressed in black to parade the streets, ringing a bell of mournful sound and calling on all good Christians to remember the poor souls."
In medieval Europe at Halloween,
"fires [were] lit to guide these souls on their way and deflect them from haunting honest Christian folk." 
Households in Austria, England and Ireland often had
"candles burning in every room to guide the souls back to visit their earthly homes."
'Souling', the custom of baking and sharing soul cakes (a small, round traditional cake) for all christened souls, has been suggested as the origin of Trick-or-Treating. The custom dates at least as far back as the 15th century and was found in parts of England, Flanders, Germany and Austria. Groups of poor people, often children, would go door-to-door during Allhallowtide, collecting soul cakes in exchange for praying for the dead, especially the souls of the givers' friends and relatives. Soul cakes would also be offered for the souls themselves to eat, or the 'soulers' would act as their representatives.

Halloween Customs in North America

The practice of guising at Halloween in North America doesn't appear until 1911, when a Kingston, Ontario, newspaper reported children going "guising" around the neighborhood. Another reference to ritual begging on Halloween appears, place unknown, in 1915, and a third shows up in Chicago in 1920. 

Trick-or-Treat is a customary Halloween celebration for children, who go house to house in costume, asking for treats such as candy or sometimes money, with the question, "Trick or Treat?" The word "trick" refers to "threat" to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given. But it turns out that Trick-or-Treat may be a 20th century invention. The earliest known use in print of the term "Trick or Treat" appears in 1927, in the Blackie Herald of Alberta, Canada.

American historian Ruth Edna Kelley of Massachusetts wrote the first history of Halloween in the U.S., The Book of Hallowe'en (1919). In the chapter "Hallowe'en in America", Kelley describes souling and has this to say on customs that arrived from across the Atlantic:
"Americans have fostered them, and are making this an occasion something like what it must have been in its best days overseas. All Halloween customs in the United States are borrowed directly or adapted from those of other countries."
Between the turn of the 20th century and the 1920s, thousands of Halloween postcards were produced showing children, but not Trick-or-Treating, which doesn't seem to have become a widespread practice until the 1930s. The term first appeared in the U.S. in 1934, and its first use in a national publication occurred in 1939.

Día de los Muertos / Day of the Dead: Mesoamerican Roots

Original peoples in South Central Mexico and North Central America (Mesoamerica) are known for having "very elaborate forms of spirituality" linked to the annual agricultural cycle grounded in the sun's annual passage across the heavens.

Mexico's geography, climate and natural forces, are very different from Europe's. The vulnerability of this land's early inhabitants to the vicissitudes of natural phenomena — volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, cyclones from the Pacific, hurricanes from the Caribbean and Atlantic, landslides, floods, and drought — honed in them a keen awareness that they were indeed not in charge; in fact, they were at the mercy of la naturaleza (forces of nature). The Mesoamerican worldview has been described like this:
"Rather than imagining a god separate from his creation, the thinkers of Mesoamerica conceived of the divine as the Life-Force itself, constantly creating, ordering, sustaining, destroying and recreating the world."
The Mesoamerican peoples perceived the cosmos as centered on the human world at the earthly level, around which the sun revolved in its daily cycle, rising to the zenith of Heaven, then descending into night and the Underworld. These themes appear in the design of the altars or ofrendas, offerings, that reproduce the Mesoamerican cosmovisión ("worldview"). The altars represent the
  • Underworld [ground level], where incensarios (censers burning copal) are placed; the 
  • Earthly level [midpoint], where offerings [bread, fruit, water, salt, tequila, cerveza] are placed; and the 
  • Heavens [upper level], with images and photographs of the dead.
Ofrenda, Offering, in private home;
a neighbor is placing her gift of fruit

The altars, characterized in most cases by their bright colors, are complete with copal incense and sweet drinks fermented from corn, chocolate, typical dishes like pumpkin or sweet tamales. It is customary to place the names of the deceased with their photographs.
"Here, what appears is a celebration of Life, there is a joy in being connected with the dead. (...) I believe that it is the end of a human cycle that is lived with great joy," observed Andrés Merino, a member of the Institute of Anthropological Research at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) .
During this celebration, in addition to going to the cemeteries, children often go out on the streets to sing praises and ask offerings on behalf of the dead, with a chilacayote (a fruit similar to pumpkin) with a candle inside. Dr. Merino believes this custom leads to confusing Día de los Muertos with Halloween.

Spanish Catholic Influences

The Catholic Hispanic legacy is seen, for example, in the pan de muerto [bread of the dead], made with wheat flour [introduced by the Spanish], eggs, sugar and anise; in the placement of fruits and flowers not native to the region [also brought by the Spanish] on altars, and in the use of candles and such Christian concepts as "souls" in referring to the dead who return this one night in the year.

Same, Different, Little of Each?

At first glance, Halloween and Día de los Muertos are similar. Both relate to the agricultural cycle, itself linked to the sun's annual journey, and both occur at the midpoint between the Autumnal Solstice and the Winter Equinox. The belief that the souls of the dead return home on one night of the year seems to have ancient origins; it is found in many cultures throughout the world but, as the saying goes, 'the devil is in the details'.

The European harvest festival was motivated by anticipation of the "dark part" of the year and the fervant desire to gain protection against it. However, Mexico's unique geography and the Mesoamerican cosmovisión that grew up in response to the natural challenges faced by Mexico's early peoples gave rise to both a form and meaning of Día de los Muertos that is quite distinct from the symbolism of Halloween.

Nonetheless, the medieval Spanish Catholic legacy that is part of Mexican culture in general and Día de los Muertos in particular does share common elements with the tradition of Halloween. This becomes more understandable when we realize that the region inhabited by the Celts included a large part of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain).

The pan de muerto, for example, is similar to the soul cakes that are part of Halloween, as is the use of candles and reference to such Christian concepts as "souls" for referring to the dead who return on this one night.

Pan de Muerto / Bread of Death in shape of human with crossed arms
Photo: Reed
As as it did in Europe, human welfare in Mexico depended on the agricultural cycle for producing successful corn crops, which culminated with the "harvest festival" or "festival of the dead" presided over by the goddess Mictecacíhuatl, known as Lady Death, and her husband Mictlantecuhtli, Lord of the Land of the Dead. Today, Lady Death is represented as La Catrina, the character created by graphic artist José Guadalupe Posada and made popular by his disciple and friend, Mexican muralist Diego Rivera.

La Catrina is in center in this detail from Diego Rivera's
 Sueño de la tarde dominical en la Alameda Central /
Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Central 
(1947)


Mexico / United States

Mexico and the United States are a single geological region, increasingly linked economically, socially and culturally. What better way, then, to introduce the cross-border cultural influence — which today pretty much runs in both directions — than by presenting Tucson Artist Hank Tusinski's ~:BANDA CALACA:~ now at the Tucson Museum of Art until January 3, 2016.

The work features a nearly life-size, 15-piece free-standing papier mâche skeleton mariachi band with musical instruments on an installation about 12 feet high, 25 feet long, and 6 feet wide. The work is unusual given that Tusinski is a devout Zen Buddhist:
"Tusinski’s work focuses on integrating the beliefs of Mesoamerica, Mexican contemporary indigenous communities, and contemporary Buddhists about death as a transformational process to be celebrated. A journey to Michoacán, Mexico, introduced Tusinski to the indigenous P΄urhépecha peoples’ use of music in their Festival of the Spirit as an embodiment of spirit. This is the well-spring of ~:BANDA CALACA:~." 
Tusinski says
“The fundamental dilemma of existence is the nature of life and death. There is potential liberation and joy in death. ~:BANDA CALACA:~ is offered with the intention of creating the opportunity to view this transition as energy that continues infinitely. The skeleton band represents the individual and the universal dance in the eternal flow.”
Dr. Julie Sasse, TMA Chief Curator and Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, said:
“Tusinski’s ~:BANDA CALACA:~ is a riot of color, pattern, and imagery. His work reminds us to celebrate life in death, to honor the past in the present, and to embrace the universality of spiritual openness.”
~:BANDA CALACA:~  ...  an energetic representation of the Life-Force itself ...

~:BANDA CALACA:~
Hank Tusinski
Photo: Courtesy of the Artist

See also: Día de los Muertos.


Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) Traditions

This morning I saw a photo on Facebook of an ofrenda (offering, altar) in the home of a thoroughly modern young Mexican friend in observance of Día de los Muertos — Day of the Dead. Her photo reminded me of the importance of Día de los Muertos throughout Mexico.

Graves in observance of Día de los Muertos in Tzurumútaro Cemetery,
outskirts of Pátzcuaro, Michoacán 


A few minutes later, I received a lovely note from a long-time, faithful follower of Jenny's blog, letting me know that she is referring first-time visitors to Mexico to Jenny's Día de los Muertos posts. It occurred to me that it might be useful to have them all in one place, so I've listed them at the bottom.

Día de los Muertos is actually a two-day celebration:
November 1 is dedicated to the souls of children who have died and to those of adults who have never married. In the predawn hours of November 2, it is believed that the spirits of all who have died are able to return to their homes, guided by the candles and burning copal (incense).
Families keep vigil through the night to welcome these souls either next to ofrendas set up in their homes, or at their graves in the cemeteries, which are bathed in candlelight. The profusion of traditional orange marigolds gives the light an unforgettable amber glow. In the background is heard the soft murmur of family members conversing quietly in quite an ordinary way. In no wise is this a sad occasion; rather, it is a profound moment for recalling Life in Death.

Día de los Muertos (Link to Page display of Posts described below)

These first three posts were written just after we  moved from Pátzcuaro, Michoacán — where we'd made our home for three years — to Mexico City. Feeling somewhat disoriented in our new urban setting and homesick for the traditions that now felt so far away, I found myself drawn to tell the story of Día de los Muertos as I had come to understand it from the Purhépecha tradition:
This highly personal post deepens the spiritual meaning of death in Purhépecha communities:
Then, last year, I came upon an article in the Mexican press that provided the long-sought answer to a key question about this powerful tradition:
Here's one describing Día de los Muertos Observances in other parts of Mexico:
Here's an excellent account of what happens in the first four years after death, grounding the tradition in 'Aztec' (Nahua) philosophy.

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Mexico: "Mamá, If I Were to Disappear, Where Do I Go?" - "Mamá, Si desaparezco - a dónde voy?"

Embroidery text:
"Mamá, If I were to disappear, where do I go?"


Prose Poem by Marcela Ibarra
Translated by Jane Brundage

— Mamá, If I were to disappear, where do I go? —
I don't know, son. 
I only know that if you were to disappear, I would search for you across the earth and under it.
I would knock on every door of every house.
I would ask each and every one of the people I met on my way.
I would demand, each and every day, at each agency obligated to search for you that it do so until you are found. 
And I would want, son, that you not be frightened, because I am searching for you. 
And if they don't listen to me, son;
I would strongly raise my voice, and I would shout your name through the streets.
I would break windows and knock down doors searching for you.
I would set fire to buildings so you might know how much I love you, and how much I want you to return.
I would paint murals with your name, and I wouldn't want anyone to forget you.
I would seek out other mothers and other fathers who are also searching for their children so together we might find you and them.
I would want, son, that you not be frightened, because many of us are searching for you. 
If you do not disappear, son, as I want and desire,
I would shout the names of all those who have certainly disappeared.
I would write their names on the walls.
I would embrace all the fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers near and far, who search for their disappeared.
I would walk arm-in-arm with them through the streets.
And I would not permit their names to be forgotten.
And I would want, son, that none of them be frightened, because we are searching for them all.

Poema en prosa de Marcela Ibarra

— Mamá, si desaparezco, ¿a dónde voy? — 
No lo sé, hijo.  
Solo sé que si desaparecieras te buscaría entre la tierra y debajo de ella.
Tocaría en cada puerta de cada casa.
Preguntaría a todas y a cada una de las personas que encontrara en mi camino.
Exigiría, todos y cada uno de los días, a cada instancia obligada a buscarte que lo hiciera hasta encontrarte. 
Y querría, hijo, que no tuvieras miedo, porque te estoy buscando. 
Y si no me escucharan, hijo;
la voz se me haría fuerte y gritaría tu nombre por las calles.
Rompería vidrios y tiraría puertas para buscarte.
Incendiaría edificios para que todos supieran cuánto te quiero y cuánto quiero que regreses.
Pintaría muros con tu nombre y no querría que nadie te olvidara.
Buscaría a otros y a otras que también buscan a sus hijos para que juntos te encontráramos a ti y a ellos. 
Y querría, hijo, que no tuvieras miedo, porque muchos te buscamos. 
Si no desaparecieras, hijo, como así deseo y quiero.
Gritaría los nombres de todos aquellos que sí han desaparecido.
Escribiría sus nombres en los muros.
Abrazaría en la distancia y en la cercanía a todos aquellos padres y madres; hermanas y hermanos que buscan a sus desaparecidos.
Caminaría del brazo de ellos por las calles.
Y no permitiría que sus nombres fueran olvidados. 
Y querría, hijo, que todos ellos no tuvieran miedo, porque todos los buscamos.

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Green Shoots 5: Ever-Widening Circles of Response to Environmental Threat

Hermann Bellinghausen reports on Mexico's indigenous peoples for La Jornada. Several days ago, his article "Where the Living Jungle Lives" appeared. The story of an outsider's first visit to the community, "Sarayaku: A Journey Into the Heart of the Resistance", includes details and photos that enrich Sarayaku, the Kichwa community described by Bellinghausen. Links to relevant articles are provided below this translation.

"Where the Living Jungle Lives"
Hermann Bellinghausen,
One afternoon late in 2011, while sharing manioc beer under an umbrella a few yards from the Bobonaza River [flows into the Amazon] in Ecuador's Amazon jungle, José Gualinga wondered, What is the "living forest" (Kawsak Sacha in Kichwa, or Quechua). Here's how he answered his own question:
"A space of beings where we people elevate our physical, psychological and psychic emotions. For example, in August most of the people move into the jungle, not in a community, but into the jungle, in little houses deep in the interior. There the children, women, everyone, re-create, pick up their life. They go to see the Masanga, the mysteries. This strengthens you and makes brotherhood, unity and respect for the natural world" (Ojarasca, October 2011).
At that time, Gualinga presided over Sarayaku's Governing Council. Before and after, he has taken on various responsibilities representing his people in national organizations and before the world. The Sarayaku defeated an oil company and the government of Rafael Correa himself. They are living proof that it can be done. Bearing the voice of his people, Gualinga has traveled. He does not ignore the essentials of the global environment, or the poisonous honeys of the "first world" or the stinky breath of the leadership circles in Quito [Ecuador], but he knows that in his place life is better without poisons and in harmony with the natural world.

The Kichwas of Sarayaku pulled themselves together. They let the land speak, and they live as she says:
"It is sacred territory, one must not destroy it. The living jungle is also the place where the shamans and elders transmit their knowledge—the science of the jungle, how to know the trees, plants, fish, animals, orient yourself, dream, have visions. This is our science, the relationship with this world. A language of communication with the animals."
Gualinga spoke of the Amazonian indigenous project that goes against the grain of the capitalism that has historically ignored the indigenous people and their existential choices. It is long-term; it is for today and for when we die. This future defines the present. Not the opposite, like the non-neoliberal project that subjects the future to the present. Gualinga confided:
"This proposal that all nationalities of the center-south Amazon region are developing—the Kichwa territory is one border, and the territory extends all the way to the Achuar and Shuar territory. The indigenous territory is five million hectares [12.4 million acres; 19,305 square miles]. The northeastern jungle, Sucumbios, Orellana are already affected, but here the jungle remains well protected."
Now, four years later, the people of the Amazon march once again in the Ecuadorian distances [outside the jungle] to demonstrate their rights and their principle of existence in resistance to the populist-extractivist government of Correa (who has already had to legislate on the rights of Mother Earth).
"As the government expands the oil blocks, we propose declaring the living jungle to be sacred of the beings, where our life is constituted. We propose plans of life: managing the natural resources according to our vision grounded in a fertile earth, applying the knowledge of the peoples and the social behavior that make Sumaj Kawsay (Good Living in Kichwa; in Spanish Buen Vivir). Within that [proposal] we are going to use the natural resources for education, health and our own economy. The platform, the great vision, is to maintain the Sumaj Kawsay, where the natural world is not contaminated but free."
This way of thinking is winning significant battles. In Argentina, impressed by the examples of Bolivia and Ecuador, a Supreme Court Justice wrote "La Pachamama y el humano", Mother Earth and the Human Being (published by Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, 2012). Justice Eugenio Raúl Zaffaroni undertakes a legal, philosophical and humanistic review, from Kant to Monod, of man's relationship with the natural and animal world. Zaffaroni calls for working "intelligently" in the search for a "friendly coexistence" between man and La Pachamama, Mother Earth. On page 12, he writes that if they continue preying on the rivers, mountains and animals that live there,
"the planet is going to continue living. It is not going to end, but we are the ones who are not going to continue living, we human beings."
The most lucid indigenous peoples in South America are moving forward on a risky, but possible project. They have managed to set legal limits .... In a 2014 interview with Lobo Suelto [Unleashed, Loose Wolf], Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui declared:
"What we do is transform ourselves into a collective will of 'doing'. We always project ourselves toward the outside as collective wills that break the barrier between the manual and the intellectual."
In her criticism of the government socialisms that, including Bolivia, just don't understand the indigenous peoples, the relentless Aymara thinker said:
"We are no longer alone, since also accompanying us are a whole lot of critters and the Earth." ... 
Are we speaking of a dimension more humane than democracy? Spanish original

* * * * *
There is no more fitting way to close this post than by presenting the ambitious campaign sponsored by AVAAZ to establish in the Amazon River Basin the world's largest environmental preserve: 135 million hectares [333,592,265 acres; 521,238 square miles] of Amazon jungle. That's more than twice the size of France! The petition states:
"But it won’t happen unless Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela’s leaders know the public wants it. That’s where we [AVAAZ] come in. 
"Colombia has just said it is on board. Now, if we create a huge global push to save the Amazon and combine it with national polls in all three countries, we can give the Colombian president the support he needs to convince Brazil and Venezuela. All three leaders are looking for opportunities to shine at the next UN climate summit. Let’s give it to them.
"The Amazon is vital to life on earth—10% of known species live there, and its trees help slow down climate change by storing billions of tons of carbon that would otherwise be in the atmosphere. Experts say this reserve would be a total game-changer for stopping rampant deforestation. Sign the petition now, when we reach 1 million signers, indigenous leaders will deliver our petition and polls directly to the three governments."
* * * * *
Let me give the last word to Paul Hawken:
When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. 
What I see everywhere in the world are tens of millions of ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.
Still Curious?
  • Paul Hawken (2007), Blessed Unrest; website links to Video (5:45): Paul Hawken delivering core message about this nearly invisible, but powerful worldwide movement. Highly recommended.
  • "Los Kichwas Amazónicas Protegen Sus Territorios Gobernándose A Si Mismos" [The Amazon Kichwas Protect Their Territories By Governing Themselves], José Gualinga, Kichwa leader;
  • Chakana Chronicles blog:
  • "How You Can Help" (Video, 2:36; Spanish with English/German subtitles): Patricia Gualinga, Kichwa leader, sets Amazon struggle in global context a la Paul Hawken. 
  • Eugenio Raúl Zaffaroni (Argentina Supreme Court Justice), "La Pachamama y el humano" [Mother Earth and the Human Being] (Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, 2012).
  • Previous Green Shoots posts in Jenny's Journal:

Green Shoots 4: Worldwide Social Movement Is Afoot, Under Radar of Mainstream Culture

When we moved to Mexico seven years ago, I recall idly wondering how we might be affected by living long-term outside the United States. For the first few years we were caught up in building some master of Spanish and becoming acquainted with the endlessly fascinating, complex levels of Mexican culture. We had neither time nor emotional space for thinking about it.

During the three years we lived in Pátzcuaro, we were especially attracted to Purhépecha culture. That interest, in turn, led us to explore in greater depth what anthropologists more broadly call Mesoamerican culture. We visited many, if not most, of Mexico's southern archaeological sites, all the while becoming increasingly aware of similarities between the linguistic and cultural groups we visited. Regardless of location, these groups share two major themes: a common cosmovisión, or worldview, and their profound relationship to la naturaleza, the natural world.

Meanwhile, disheartened by all that is not being done to deal with climate change, I had come to wonder if the relationship forged with Mother Earth by Mexico's indigenous peoples might be unique to Mexico. Fortuitously, I came upon the work of Paul Hawken, environmentalist, entrepreneur, and author whose influential writings have shaped corporate sustainability. Prior to the 2007 release of his book Blessed Unrest, the environmental magazine Orion published an article adapted from the book.

In that 2007 piece, Hawken relates that over the last fifteen years he's given close to a thousand talks about the environment. Afterward, people would gather to talk, ask questions and offer their cards:
The people offering their cards were working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. They were from the nonprofit and nongovernmental world, also known as civil society. 
They looked after rivers and bays, educated consumers about sustainable agriculture, retrofitted houses with solar panels, lobbied state legislatures about pollution, fought against corporate-weighted trade policies, worked to green inner cities, or taught children about the environment. Quite simply, they were trying to safeguard nature and ensure justice.
Arriving home from a trip, Paul would take out the cards, look at the names and logos, and reflect on their various missions. Then he'd put the cards in paper bags. Tellingly, he writes: "I couldn't throw them away."

Eventually, Hawken got curious: did anyone know how many organizations there were? His initial curiosity evolved into a "hunch that something larger was afoot, a significant social movement that was eluding the radar of mainstream culture."

Government tax census records in some countries enabled him to extrapolate the number of environmental and social justice groups. At first, Hawken estimated the number of environmental groups to be 30,000 worldwide — a number that swelled to 100,000 when he included social justice groups:
"Historically, social movements have arisen primarily because of injustice, inequalities, and corruption. Those woes remain legion, but a new condition exists that has no precedent: the planet has a life-threatening disease that is marked by massive ecological degradation and rapid climate change. It crossed my mind that perhaps I was seeing something organic, if not biologic. Rather than a movement in the conventional sense, is it a collective response to threat?" 
Hawken has a lot more to say—let me highly recommend Blessed Unrest—but consider these:
"After spending years researching this phenomenon, including creating with my colleagues a global database of these organizations, I have come to these conclusions: [1] this is the largest social movement in all of history; [2] no one knows its scope; and [3] how it functions is more mysterious than what meets the eye. 
"What does meet the eye is compelling: tens of millions of ordinary and not-so-ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world."
Hawken concludes the Orion article with these prophetic words:
THERE IS FIERCENESS HERE. There is no other explanation for the raw courage and heart seen over and over again in the people who march, speak, create, resist, and build. It is the fierceness of what it means to know we are human and want to survive. 
This movement is relentless and unafraid. It cannot be mollified, pacified, or suppressed. There can be no Berlin Wall moment, no treaty-signing, no morning to awaken when the superpowers agree to stand down. The movement will continue to take myriad forms. It will not rest. There will be no Marx, Alexander, or Kennedy. No book can explain it, no person can represent it, no words can encompass it, because the movement is the breathing, sentient testament of the living world. 
And I believe it will prevail. I don’t mean defeat, conquer, or cause harm to someone else. And I don’t tender the claim in an oracular sense. I mean the thinking that informs the movement’s goal — to create a just society conducive to life on Earth — will reign. It will soon suffuse and permeate most institutions. But before then, it will change a sufficient number of people so as to begin the reversal of centuries of frenzied self-destruction. 
Inspiration is not garnered from litanies of what is flawed; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, recover, re-imagine, and reconsider. Healing the wounds of the Earth and its people does not require saintliness or a political party. It is not a liberal or conservative activity. It is a sacred act
In Hawken's view, three intertwining roots make up this inchoate worldwide movement: the environmental and social justice movements, for sure, but — central to our interests — the resistance by indigenous cultures to globalization.

In Mexico, Miguel Concha, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) professor and a long-time, highly respected human rights advocate, lays out the challenges clearly and succinctly: "Mexico's Ordinary People Struggle for Life, Land, Water and Work". More specifically, the Zapatista movement in Chiapas probably enjoys the broadest international recognition, but other movements are just as far-reaching and important. To name just two: communal actions by the Yaqui Tribe in Sonora (against diversion of water from the Sonora River—in violation of indigenous water rights—for industrial purposes); and community actions taken in seemingly lesser places like Cherán, Michoacán (Purhépecha indigenous community successfully claimed its constitutional right self-government under traditional Uses and Customs and, hence, to defend its hereditary lands from illegal logging by organized crime).

Hawken's idea of grassroots activism isn't a new theme for Jenny's Journal. In 2010, we wrote a three-part series titled 'Green Shoots' (see below) that explored the notion of community that is at the very heart of indigenous cultures all over the world. But a healthy sense of community is by no means restricted to indigenous cultures.

Green Shoots 3 recaps highlights of Bill Moyers' conversation with Grace Lee Boggs, Ph.D. in Philosophy from Bryn Mawr and a civil rights activist in Detroit for more than fifty years. Ninety-one years-old when she spoke with Moyers (she died recently, October 5, 2015, at age 100), Boggs talked about the cultural revolution she saw brewing in our country at the grassroots level. When Moyers asked her what advice she had for young people, she replied,
"Do something local and specific—it doesn't matter what it is, just start."
Echos of Paul Hawken—actually, Hawken would probably say that what's happening in Detroit is yet another spontaneous human expression in response to the global environmental threat. If they're not already on it, Hawken would certainly add Detroit's grassroots community organizations to his ever-growing list—now conservatively estimated at 130,000—of organizations contributing to worldwide Blessed Unrest.

Still Curious?
  • Highly recommended: Paul Hawken, Blessed Unrest (2007); the book's website gives access to Video (5:45), where Hawken delivers the core message about this nearly invisible, but powerful worldwide movement.

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Reflections on Sustainability: "Water Is Life"

Written last May, this post brings together themes I've been mulling over for several months. It's taken a little time for me to get my head and heart around what seems to me to be the only message at this time. I plan to publish other posts soon centering on the same theme: the Health of Our Planet, Our Spaceship, Mother Earth, and what we can learn from Her Original Peoples—in Mexico, yes, of course; but also in the Western Hemisphere, and around the world.

Personal History Tells Bigger Story

I was born in Chicago six months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. As a Reserve Army Officer, my father was called up and stationed in California. My mother and I joined him there. When the war ended, my Dad—a civil engineer—looked around and concluded, "A lot of people here need water and sewage treatment plants." Given that water was his specialty, he decided to stay. He wasn't alone.

In 1940, California's population was 6.95 million. At the war's end (1945), it had swelled to 9.3 million. When I graduated from high school (1959), it was 15.47 million; at my college graduation (1963), it was 17.67 million. By 1970, it had risen to 19.97 million. In just thirty years (1940-1970), California's population had nearly tripled.

But that wasn't anywhere near the end of the Golden State's explosive growth. By 2014, it stood at 38.8 million—that's nearly double what it had been in 1970! One thing was absolutely certain: Everyone needed water.

Over the course of his 30-plus year, post-WWII civil engineering career, my father put in if not the majority, then a significant share of the water and sewage treatment plants up, down and across California. In retirement, he told me that across the years he had watched the water tables consistently drop: "I've never seen them restored. 'They' are going to have to fix that."

Given California's epic four-year drought, it appears the time has come for 'them' to take action. Governor Jerry Brown's executive order mandating a 25 percent decrease in urban water usage may have been historic. Yet Robert Reich asks a good question (Facebook, 4/4/2015):
Why did Governor Jerry Brown exempt Big Oil and Big Agriculture from his order this week to cut water consumption by 25 percent? Big Oil uses more than 2 million gallons of fresh water a day in California for fracking, acidizing, and steam injections – nearly 70 million gallons last year alone. Meanwhile, California’s farmers consume 80 percent of the water used in the state but generate only 2 percent of the state’s economic activity.

Oddly, the Governor’s order focuses on urban water use, which makes up less than a quarter of the water consumed here. California could save the same amount of water by requiring its farmers to increase water efficiency by 5 percent. And in this seismically-challenged state, there’s no reason to continue allowing water-intensive fracking, which has been shown to increase the likelihood of earthquakes (just look at Oklahoma).
Mexico's Original Peoples Knew It First: Water Is Life

The seventh anniversary of our arrival in Mexico to stay came up last July. For the first three years, we had the good fortune to have lived in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán. The people of this pueblo mágico gave us an unparalleled opportunity to become acquainted with the guiding cosmovision, myths and traditions of Mexico's original peoples.

Early posts in Jenny's Journal told stories about what we were learning and experiencing. One of the earliest on this theme is: Mesoamerican Culture: The Human Bond with Nature (8/22/2011). Two years later: The Enduring Power of Mexico's Natural Forces (9/19/2013). Both cite the oft-repeated Mexican dicho, saying, El agua es vidaWater is Life.

If I were to sum up our experience, I would say: Living in partnership with the earth; e.g., Mexico's Volcanoes & Mesoamerican Mythology (1/11/2012). One of my all-time favorite posts focuses precisely on that theme: "I Am the Earth."

The longer we live here, the more it becomes clear that familiarity with this ancient cosmovision lends cultural texture to much of what we encounter in Mexico. For example, toward the end of his formal announcement of a Zapatista conference scheduled for last May 3, 2015, Zapatista Subcomandante Galeano (nee Subcomandante Marcos) wrote:
Conference Begins on May 3. Why May 3? 
In our villages, May 3 is the day of planting, fertility, harvest. It is the day of the seed, the day of Santa Cruz, Holy Cross. In the pueblos, villages it is customary to plant a cross where the river begins, at the gully or spring that gives life to the settlement. This is how the place is shown to be sacred. It is sacred because the water gives life
May 3 is the day of asking for water for planting and a good harvest. On that day, the villagers go to give offerings where the waters are born. Or rather, as they speak to the water, they give it their flowers, they give it the bowl of atole (corn-based beverage), their incense, their salt-free pozole (chicken-corn soup). In other villages, they give a little drink, but alcohol is prohibited in Zapatista villages, so they offer a soda to the water. The pozole offered to the water is without salt, so the water doesn't dry up. During this ceremony of offering, they play music and everyone begins to dance—men, women, children, young people, old people—everyone!

When the offering ends, the socializing begins. The comida (food) they brought is shared: atole, chicken, beans, pumpkin. All the food is eaten communally at the very source of the life-giving water. When the meal ends, the people return to their houses. And now for pure joy, they continue the dance in the village and, still together as a community, they eat and have coffee with bread.
So there it is:
Zapatista vision infused with traditional Maya myth and custom overlaid with a patina of Roman Catholic Christianity: Holy Cross.
In distinct contrast to the so-called 'modern' approach taken in California by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown.

Qué te vaya bien ... May it go well with you.