Radio y más radio/radio and more radio

Como parte de mi investigación tengo el privilegio de visitar otras radios comunitarias aquí en Guatemala. Hoy estoy en la cabina de Radio Ixchel, una radio en el pueblo de Sumpango, un municipio de Sacatepéquez, como 42 kilómetros distante de la ciudad capitolina. Hice una entrevista con Don Anselmo, un hombre de origines humildes, quien hoy en día es uno de los líderes del movimiento de las radios comunitarias al nivel nacional Yo conocí a Don Anselmo hace como 3-4 meses en la inauguración de Radio Ixmukané -- un día que ahora parece como si fuera hace una vida completa. Desde allí le he visto varias veces -- en la capacitación que asistí en Xela, y últimamente en una conferencia de prensa la semana pasada sobre los días de acción para las radios comunitarias. He tenido el deseo de visitar a su radio, pero las otras veces que intenté él no estuvo. Finalmente esta semana logremos sincronizar nuestros horarios y hoy salí para Sumpango. Queda bastante cerca a Antigua, donde paso unos días o noches cada semana, pero nunca he parado aquí. Porque yo casi nunca paso por esta parte de la ruta Panamericana; siempre salgo de la carretera en la pasarela donde comienza la carretera a Antigua, y llego a la capital por la carretera que pasa por San Lucas. Entonces, hay unos 20 kilómetros de la Panamericana que desconozco, y en esta parte queda Sumpango.


He pasado unas horas aquí, conociendo un poco de la historia de la radio y observando su función. También es una radio establecido en una casa particular -- la casa de uno de los tres  fundadores.  Está al punto de cumplir 8 años de transmisiones diarios, de 16 horas al día.  Impresionante cuando uno toma en cuenta que es solamente trabajo voluntario. Aunque los fundadores son hombres, ya de unos 40 o más años de edad, cuentan con la participación de 22 personas en total, la mayoría mujeres jóvenes (entre 15 y 24).  No hay director ni comité ejecutiva; se toma decisiones sobre programación en conjunto. O sea, una vez al mes, todos que tienen programas reúnen y discuten nuevas propuestas, los evalúan y toman decisiones.


No pude monitorear mucho de la programación porque tuvimos que ir a una entrevista para un canal de televisión, Vea TV (o Vea Canal, no estoy bien segura). Pero muy pronto espero pasar más tiempo con los compañeros y compañeras allá.

Wanderer in the city/viajera en la ciudad

Now that I've been relieved of any real responsibility at the university that was my official "host" for the Fulbright, I've decided to make my own networks and create my own intellectual community here. Since my research project has changed substantially since I arrived, I've had to figure out who has been working in related areas and how and where to find them. Although I don't have to travel to Guatemala on a weekly basis for teaching, many of the research centers, universities and scholars are in the capital city, and I also need a mental health break from the altiplano from time to time. 


This week I decided to explore some contacts at the Universidad de San Carlos (USAC), the public university that has had a reputation for political commitment/engagement by both faculty and students (the day before I visited a student organization had blockaded one of the avenues leading to the university to protest the general conditions of insecurity in the country).  I had met one of the vice-rectors of USAC at the Guatemala Scholars Network conference - he is affiliated with the Center for Urban and Regional Studies, and that seemed like not a bad place to start. So we set up a meeting. I also decided to try and track down one of the country's leading feminist scholars, a woman named Walda Barrios-Klee. Several people had mentioned her but no one had given me her contact information. So one morning I just went online and googled her and found her webpage and, without much hope, wrote to the email address that appeared at the bottom. To my pleasant surprise, within 5 minutes she responded and agreed to meet the following day (which was the day I was going to USAC).


 So I set off on Thursday morning, having arrived in Antigua the previous night. I successfully navigated my way around the Anilo Periférico (the "peripheral ring") that intersects the main entrance road to the city (the Panamericana/Interamericana/CA-1 that turns into Boulevard Roosevelt) and leads to USAC at one end and the Centro Histórico at the other end. 


With a little help via cell phone (where Guatemala would be without cell phones, I don't like to think) I found the right parking lot and building. Oscar, the vice-rector whom I'd met, was busy but his secretary was helpful and also introduced me to some other faculty there, and then gave me contacts for two other research institutes, the Institute for Inter-ethnic Studies and the Institute for the Study of Women. 


I had intended to visit the Facultad de Ciencias de Comunicación to see if anyone had done research on radios comunitarias (community radio stations) and was able, with Oscar's help, to get a meeting on the spot with the director, who kindly lent me a copy of a recent undergraduate thesis on community radio.


I was not as successful in gaining admission to the library of the Facultad de Comunicación; apparently the entire staff was at a meeting that ended later than it was supposed to. But I spent an agreeable half-hour wandering around the campus looking at, and photographing, political graffiti and checking out the various vendors who had spread their wares out on the pathways.  This felt, in some ways, like my ideal of a university -- a place where students spray-painted slogans on the walls, organized protests, and the faculty were engaged and welcoming.


Then off to the Feria de Libros (FILGUA) to meet Walda. Again, cell phones were crucial in helping us locate each other and I was pleased at the warmth of her reception. We talked for a bit and then walked around to check out the fair. I could easily have spent days and several thousand quetzales there. I only had time to visit a few booths as I'd made plans to meet a friend around 5, but we went to a few booths, including one that was giving out for free a lot of material on the armed conflict, the police, the massacres. I visited the booth of Cholsamaj, one of the Maya publishing houses, and maybe one or two others before heading off.  I purchased some poetry, books on race and gender, and wished I could have spent more time. Unfortunately, I realized, I wasn't going to be able to make it back before the book fair closed.


 Facultad de Ciencias de Comunicación

Reflexiones en la política de género//Reflections on the politics of gender

Es increíble y espantoso como un pequeño grupo de hombres pueden manipular  un grupo mucho mas grande de mujeres y descarrilar la agenda y la trayectoria de una organización de mujeres. Pero lo vi con mis propios ojos y lo experimenté en carne propia. Solamente que por falta de comprensión lingüística no entendí todo que dijeron, ni los machos derechistas (para ser 100% honesta) ni las lideresas de la asociación ni las mujeres socias quienes llenaron la sala comunitaria. Pero el "mensaje" era bien, bien claro: nosotros (los hombres) somos quienes mandan y ya. 


Esa reunión fue impulsada por una controversia alrededor de la candidatura de la presidenta de la asociación: Doña Fermina está postulando para diputada para el Quiché, con uno de los partidos de la izquierda, la URNG (el partido formado por la organización de las guerrilleras, con el mismo nombre; ahora después de los Acuerdos de Paz, la frente unida de las fuerzas insurgentes se convertió en un partido político). Los líderes masculinos de la comunidad, los integrantes del COCODE, son mayormente del partido del derecho extreme, el Partido Patriota, y en eso reside el raíz de la controversia.


Más sobre esto más adelante... solamente una introducción para ahora.
***********************


It's incredible and frightening how a small group of men can manipulate a much larger group of women and derail the agenda and the trajectory of a women's organization. But I saw it with my own eyes and experienced it personally. Only due to lack of linguistic comprehension, I didn't understand everything that they said, neither the right-wing machos (to be completely honest) nor the women leaders of the association nor the female members who filled the community meeting space. But the message was very, very clear: we men are the ones who run things and that's that.


The meeting was provoked by a controversy surrounding the candidacy of the president of the association, Doña Fermina is running for deputy (congress) from Quiché, and on the ticket of one of the left-wing parties, the URNG (the party founded by the guerrilla organization with the same name; after the Peace Accords, the united front of the guerrillas converted to a political party).  The male leaders of the community, the members of the COCODE (Community Development Council) are mostly members of the extreme right wing party, the Patriota, and therein lie the roots of the controversy.


More about this later: just an introduction for now.

Día hermoso/Beautiful day

Refrescada por una caminata por las calles de Antigua, ahora lista para otros quehaceres. Madrugué y fui al mercado central mientras todavía estaban cargando verduras y las vendedoras arreglando sus productos en canastas o formando lineas regulares de pepinos, ayotes, zanahorias, cebollinas. Los ojos son asaltado con una profusión de colores: 5 o 6 diferentes variedades de frijoles secos, grandes cabezas de lechugas, todavía húmedas con unas gotas de agua. Flores, güisquiles verdes y blancas.... más que uno puede facilmente comprender.  Tengo invitado como 15 personas mañana; no sé, realmente, que locura me poseyó pero así es el asunto y ahora tengo que preparar comida para esta cantidad de gente. Este episodio de demencia comenzó inocentemente con una serie de comentarios sobre una foto en Facebook, de un amigo comiendo cuando fuimos un día sábado hace varios meses a una piscina cerca de Chichicastenango. En el intercambio de comentarios, surgió la idea que yo invito los jóvenes de Ixmukané para una cena. Les ofrecí mi casa en Chinique o Antigua y escogieron Antigua. Luego, en la discusión más pragmática, parece que varios otros compañeros y compañeras se embullaron a participar, y entonces contamos con 9 colegas de allá, del Quiché, quienes van a venir en bus el viernes para cenar.


Bueno, decidí a hacerlo más interesante y invité Anselmo, uno de los líderes del movimiento de radios comunitarias; yo ya tuve planificado una visita a la radio donde él colabora, Radio Ixchel en Sumpango, y le dije que sería interesante si él y algunas pocas otras compañeras de la radio vinieron. Bueno, dijeron que sí. Luego me ocurrió a invitar una colega de Cultural Survival, una ONG internacional que apoya el movimiento de radios comunitarias. Dijo que sí. Y decidí a invitar mi amiga/colega/compañera en la lucha para libertad de expresión Kara Andrade -- fundadora del proyecto Habla Guate, un proyecto de periodismo ciudadano donde yo también de vez en cuando escribo algo -- quien también dijo que sí.


Entonces ahora vengo cargada con 8 libras de pollo, 2 libras de garbanzos (voy a preparar un "tagine" -- un guisado al estilo marocain -- de pollo con garbanzos), lechugas, tomates, cebollas, pimientas no picantes, flores y no recuerdo que otra cosa.


Primera vez que voy tan temprano; casi me golpearon unas carretas, cargadas por hombres corriendo rápidamente por los pasillos estrechos del mercado. 


Ahora, todo tiene que esperar para más tarde o mañana en la mañana; ahora tengo rumbo para la USAC (Universidad de San Carlos) donde quiero revisar materiales en la Facultad de Comunicación y hablar con el vice-rector sobre me proyecto. Luego, un encuentro con una de las feministas más destacadas del país. Soy muy honorada que ella, sin conocerme, concedió una entrevista/encuentro con muy poco noticias. Yo sabía de ella pero no la conocí.  Solamente busqué su información por internet, la escribí un correo y milagrosamente me respondió dentro de 5 minutos (muy pocas veces mis mejores amigas y amigos me responden así, tan rápdo) y me dijo que podría verme hoy.


Entonces, ahora rumbo para Guate....

Inescapable politics

The last week or two has been a series of shocks for the country as a whole, and especially for the Maya activists I know.  The bodyguard of the daughter of war criminal and presidential frontrunner Otto Pérez Molina (charges of genocide were recently brought against Pérez Molina) shot and killed an agent of the transit police.  An Argentine singer, famous for his messages of peace, Facundo Cabral,  was murdered a week ago en route to the airport after playing two concerts here. Don Alfonso Bauer Paiz, a revolutionary from the 1940s and 1950s still venerated by many young (and not-so-young) Guatemalans, died (in his case, at age 93, the causes were more or less natural). And then most recently, Enrique Sam Colop, a well-known journalist and one of the leading Mayanist intellectuals in the country, died suddenly at age 56 a few days ago. Colop was known, among other things, for what is widely considered to be the definitive translation into Spanish of the Mayan sacred text, the Pop Wuj (probably known to many of you as the Popol Vuh).  A friend wrote the following commentary about Colop:
"The cornfields are crying, the flowers are crying, the footpaths are crying, the rural townships are crying. Those who loved you are crying, those who loved you but never told you are crying, those of us who read you are crying... and upon reading your version of the Pop Wuj, we truly grew... we are crying because you had the courage to express in public what many of us didn't dare to..."


The death of Cabral was marked by thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of people taking to the streets in mourning and protest against the violence. There were statements from all of the political parties condemning the violence (and many using it as an occasion to attack the current government for not doing more to stop crime and guarantee security). The killers were apprehended fairly rapidly -- at which point the president immediately took the airwaves to laud the police for the speed with which they carried out the investigation (and to take credit for bringing about a speedy solution). His completely unironic enthusiasm about this great achievement prompted a friend to reflect that there was something deeply wrong with this picture. Instead of talking about how great it was that they found the killers in two days, the police and the government should have been to do more to prevent crimes like this from happening.


Electoral violence has become a commonplace. Many political candidates have been assaulted and several killed. A mayoral candidate in one municipality was arrested for having ordered the murder of two candidates from rival parties. This begins to sound like a plot from a grade B horror flick.


I have been discussing, intermittently, with friends why there is so much support for Otto Pérez Molina, especially here in Quiché where he led massacres. He apparently makes many campaign appearances in a highly militarized fashion, arriving by helicopter. During the war the sound of military helicopters almost invariably meant an attack, disappearances, torture, and rape, the very sound brings back a sense-memory, or an inherited sense memory for people who are too young to have many direct recollection of the war, of intense and lasting fear. His party's discourse stresses security (very much on people's minds with the high murder rate, the daily news stories about armed attacks, bodies or parts of bodies discovered on roadsides, in ditches), and taking a hard line against crime. "Mano dura" (literally, hard hand) is one of the slogans: and it is often materialized in the shape of a clenched fist. I don't think it's meant to be comforting, actually. One reading would be an assurance to citizens that the government will take a hard line against "delinquents" and organized crime. Another "take" is as a reminder of the  armed might of the state (and perhaps a call to historical memory -- there are still a lot of people who buy into the argument that the military actually calmed the country down and stopped the violence during the worst years of the war).  We haven't gotten much farther than "the Stockholm Syndrome" as a possible explanation, or that people have become so inured to military rule that they see it as the norm.


Here in my little town, Sundays are now filled with the sounds of election songs. I live near the Patriota headquarters and they had their sound system going until about 6 p.m.  


I have been thinking about what I will do on and around the election day. Although, as I've noted before, the elections and electoral politics were not part of my original research focus, I will be here on that day, and most likely everyone I know will be somehow wrapped up with the electoral process on that day. So I've thought about what I might be able to do that would allow me to be of some use on that day. Could I be some sort of observer (although I'm neither a Guatemalan, and thus capable of being a poll watcher, nor am I of the stature of a Jimmy Carter and thus good material for "international observer"). I don't yet have an answer; I've asked some friends who are involved with the Frente Amplio if anything occurs to them. 

The accidental gardener, or live and learn

I have been meaning to plant stuff in the small piece of land in front of my house. Really and truly. I brought back some seed packets on my last trip to the U.S. (which I shared with my friend Don Gorgonio). I bought some plastic planters and bases. I had plans to go with my friend Caterino to get some good soil to add to what is in the yard. But I've just never gotten around to it. There are roses growing wildly -- and I mean wildly. There are four very sturdy rosebushes that were here already, and a new one has sprung up. I cut the roses back when I remember to although I don't really know much about roses and the science or art of pruning.  When there are nice-looking blooms I cut them and bring them inside; a few weeks back I splurged on a red glass vase for the dining room table (Q50, about $6).  I have been fairly dutifully composting (not very scientifically; just putting my organic garbage in two spots in the "yard"). 


But still no systematic planting. A few weeks ago I noticed that among the weeds was a small pepper plant. What kind of peppers, I didn't know. But the white blossoms were unmistakably capsicum of some sort. They grew into 4 longish green peppers. A week ago, I was outside doing something and two women stopped on the sidewalk in front of the property and called down to me (my house is about 5 feet below the street level, and there is a plaster wall topped by chain-link fencing).  They wanted to know if I could sell them a ramita (branch) of my roses and also a tree that has a profusion of white flowers. They said it was called clavel. I told them that I could not sell them anything because it wouldn't be right for me to take money for something that was not mine but that belonged to the madre tierra (and was planted by the previous owners, not me), but that I would be happy to give them a cutting. I invited them to come down so they could pick what they wanted and we found a couple of branches that they thought were satisfactory and we managed to take them off (I don't have a machete or a clipper; I just use a pair of scissors so I had to break and then cut one of the branches they wanted, as they wanted one that was older and more established). They asked again what they could pay me. I said that they could bring me something that they had growing and we could do an exchange. Maybe they'll come by tomorrow as it is market day. But if they don't, no big deal. 


They took a look at the pepper plant and said I should let it grow more and turn red, but the plant is very low to the ground and the peppers are relatively heavy so they are sitting on the ground and when I looked today, one had already started to turn brown and soft at the bottom. So I took the remaining three and put one into a sofrito for the beans I was cooking, roasted another on top of the wood-burning stove to put into a salsa, and refrigerated the third for another day.


Then today I had a burst of energy and started to clean up the yard a bit. It's been raining a lot and there are vines growing around the rose-bushes and weeds and small flowers and all sorts of things I didn't recognize growing all around. There was one plant that seemed particularly profuse and difficult to uproot (I was doing this all just with my bare hands; no gardening gloves or tools).  It had thick stems, and several stems emanating from a single clustered room, and a somewhat pungent smell when I crushed some of the leaves as I grabbed the plants. I gave up after a while and went back to writing and cooking. 


In the early evening there was a knock at the door. I don't get a lot of visitors but the town is pretty chill so I just opened up and saw my landlord's wife standing outside with a small child in tow. She asked if she could have some epazote. I said I didn't have any (I thought she was asking for something she thought I'd have inside the house: I know epazote is an herb but I didn't have any, or so I thought). She said, "No, you have it growing all around outside." "Really?" I said. "Show me."  So she stooped and picked some leaves: they were from the  the very plants that I had been unsuccessfully attacking that afternoon. I had managed to uproot a bunch, but now I was thankful that I hadn't been more persistent. She said it was good for stomach ailments, and I realized I could cook with it as well, so I pulled off a few leaves, washed them, quickly shredded them with my fingers and popped them into a pot of beans that had been simmering on the stove.  


Being a good citizen of the 21st century I immediately posted my discovering on Facebook, and it seems that I know people who know a lot more about epazote than I do.  I have hear about it, come across it in cookbooks, and have seen bunches of the leaves occasionally at the farmers' markets or at greengrocers in my neighborhood (but a slightly different variety and I'd never seen the whole plant which was why I didn't recognize it). Since then I've gotten some suggestions from friends via Facebook about various uses -- find huitlacoches and use it to season them; add to beans for flavoring or to counteract the gas-producing properties; use it for a spiritual cleansing or my home or to treat intestinal parasites. All of which sound promises (not sure about where to find huitlacoches and I hope that I do not have reason to test out its anti-parasitical qualities (knock wood). Nonetheless, I'll have to figure out a strategy for where I will cultivate it in the yard and where I will try to uproot, so that it doesn't become unmanageable.

Ocurrencias coyunturales

Coloco aquí un reflexión/análisis sobre la situación política en Guatemala, escrito hace unos días por un colega, Benjamin Chaj.  Él es un observador muy astuto de la coyuntura actual en Guatemala y me dio permiso a compartir este texto. Si no están muy informados sobre los referencias, TSE es el Tribunal Supremo Electoral. UNE es el partido del actual presidente, Alvaro Colóm; su candidata presidencial es/fue la recien-divorciada esposa de Colóm, Sandra Torres (divorciaron para que ella podría postular pero los  Patriota es un partido derechista cuyo candidato presidencial es Otto Pérez Molina, general de las fuerzas armadas durante el conflicto armado y criminal de guerra (a mi juicio). Es producto de la Escuela de las Ámericas. Era autor de un masacre en Chajul, Quiché y otras atrocidades. Lider es otro partido derechista, cuyo candidato, Manuel Baldizón, proviene de una de las familias del elite tradicional. Harold Caballeros es ministro de una congregación evangélico quien es candidato (o quiso ser candidato) para otro partido, Viva. Benjamin también refiere a un hecho violento en lo cual un guardaespaldas de a hija de Otto Pérez Molina mató un agente la Policía Metropolitana de Transito.

********************************************

Por ciertas razones, en el contexto de la inscripción de candidatos, me  vi obligado a tener periféricamente,  relación con el TSE....luego de un análisis de la corelación de fuerzas en su interior,  inferí que prácticamente este organismo estaba dividido en dos: un 50% de funcionarios del más alto nivel mantenían vinculaciones y respondían a directrices de la UNE y otro 50 % respondía a directrices del Patriota....Este equilibrio, que muy bien se podría apodar como infernal, era el responsable en buena medida de que el TSE no resolviera ágilmente  solicitudes de varios partidos políticos.  Pensé en consecuencia que esta disputa por el control total del TSE duraría hasta el desenlace del 11 de septiembre, pero sorpresa, ocurrió antes.

La resolución del TSE negando  la inscripción de la Licenciada Sandra Torres, candidata de la UNE, nos confirma que el Patriota ya copo al TSE comprando sin duda alguna al 50% de funcionarios que de alguna manera controlaba la UNE....

De acuerdo a un ex-presidente del TSE entrevistado por una periodista de Guatevisión, luego de la resolución del TSE correspondía a la UNE presentar un recurso a la Corte Suprema de Justicia y eventualmente a la Corte de Constitucionalidad,  sin embargo la presentaron a una instancia menor, se equivocaron los dinosaurios de la UNE? de ninguna manera, sencillamente procedieron de esa manera porque evaluaron que la CSJ también ya estaba copada por el Patriota.....y generaban mayor opinión a su favor y crean algunas condiciones políticas si acudían a un amigo.....que fallara a su favor.....Como cabalmente ocurrió.

Lo anterior es extremadamente peligroso para la institucionalidad de este Estado depredador. Según se recuerda, el FRG “ya en el poder” copo también la mayoría de instituciones del Estado, pero el patriota sin siquiera haber ganado la primera vuelta ya decide  en el TSE y la Corte Suprema de Justicia, será lo mismo con la Corte de Constitucionalidad?

En este contexto,  no inscripción de la Licenciada Torres, llama poderosamente la atención que cuando la Presidenta del TSE públicamente comunicaba el fallo, la acompañaban varios embajadores, pero  sobre sale por su injerencia política la presencia del embajador  de Estados Unidos, que indica, que este arroz ya se coció y que Doña Sandra sencillamente no va.

Reflexión (PARANGON)

Sorprendió a muchos que el candidato a la Alcaldía  del Líder fuera apresado como sospechoso del asesinato de varios de sus rivales políticos, para este Sr. La competencia política electoral no existe. Sin embargo, pareciera ser que también el patriota se mueve en la misma lógica, pero por razones obvias no elimina físicamente, pero si políticamente, ejemplos; la no inscripción de Doña Sandra, la negación temporal de la Inscripción del Don Harol…y posiblemente la negación a la mujer de Arzú…No se permite la competencia…la consigna: ELIMINACIÓN FISICA O POLITICA DE LOS ADVERSARIOS…Sin embargo la reacción del guardaespaldas de la hija del Sr. Otto Perez Molina revela una tendencia latente hacia la eliminación fisica.....