AUGUST 1 , ZACUALPA:
Okay, this is completely out of order, but I wanted to write this before I forgot. As I write this I am close to the end of my trip here. My first fieldwork (after a weekend in the capital) was in Chinique, and then I went to Xela for the weekend, and spent part of the second week in San Andrés Sajcabajá. I then spent a week with a human rights delegation, and when that ended, I spent a weekend in Cobán. My last bit of fieldwork was to be in Zacualpa, the third town in the department of El Quiché which is heavily represented in the New Bedford Mayan community, and so I arrived on Monday, August 1, without having done a huge amount of preparation. I had contacted the alcaldía indígena -- I knew someone from the alcaldía indígena in Chinique and he was able to give me names and phone numbers for contacts in the other two towns. And I had contacted a friend with whom I'd stayed the last time I was here in 2019, a woman I'd met in 2011 and with whom I'd intermittently been in touch. I had wanted to find someone in the local Centro de Salud -- the state-sponsored health center. I'd gotten the statistics about reported infections and deaths for the entire department from one of the staff in the departmental office in Santa Cruz del Quiché, so I didn't need someone to talk about that. But I did want to talk to someone about the experience of health workers on the ground during the pandemic
I have a friend who works for the health workers' union in Santa Cruz del Quiché, and so I hurriedly texted her while I was on a long, long series of bus rides from Cobán to Zacualpa (there's no direct route so I ended up on three separate buses). Although I'd asked her about the health center, when she responded, she told me about people I could talk to about migration (those were contacts I already had). I asked again about the Centro de Salud and she said she didn't think anyone there was very interested in giving information.
When I got to Zacualpa, after leaving my bag with Doña Caty, my hostess, and chatting a bit with her, I decided to walk around and re-familiarize myself with the town. Like everywhere else, there is a lot that is new -- even since my visit in 2019. The municipal building was rebuilt after residents burned it down in 2015, dissatisfied with the elections of that year. But there were other, newer buildings -- some as high as 4 stories. I walked out on a road that I didn't know, just to stretch my legs a bit, and then when I returned to the town center, I decided on a whim to go to the Centro de Salud and see if I could make an appointment to talk with someone tomorrow (Tuesday). Thanks to Google Maps I was able to find the Centro pretty easily (I'd never been there before). There was someone at the gate, having what sounded like a complicated phone conversation. She paused her conversation to ask what i wanted and I told her it was a little complicated and I would wait. It was after 5 and so I didn't have very high hopes. When she finished her call (having ushered in a pregnant woman accompanied by an older woman, presumably her mother), I briefly explained that I wasn't looking for a medical consultation but that I was doing research about the pandemic in indigenous communities, and wanted to know if there was someone who could talk to me. She took me inside and led me to another woman, explained what I wanted, and the second woman looked into an office of the district nursing officer and said that he was in, and told him that someone wanted to see him. I cautiously entered, and explained again (this time in a little more detail) what I wanted, I apologized for intruding saying that I assumed that he wouldn't be able to talk with me but that I had just come to see if I could make an appointment for Tuesday or Wednesday. He explained that he had a report to turn in tomorrow, so I suggested Wednesday. Then he said, "Why don't we talk right now?" which was not what I had expected, and I pulled out my phone (which is what I usually use to record interviews) and notebook.
I won't go into all the details -- I'll ave those for when I get through the more chronological narration, but it was a productive interview. Really as much a conversation as an interview, as I told him what I knew about the pandemic and the immigrant community. And then he took me around the Centro, pointing out the delivery rooms, which included one that was set up to accommodate women who came in with a midwife. This room had a regular bed (no stirrups) covered with a bedspread woven in a traditional Zacualpan pattern and a mat on the floor. On either side, there were two other more standard delivery rooms.
So, sometimes even if you're not especially well prepared, things can turn out fine.
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