Ixtlilco el Grande and the ex-hacienda

Sorry I haven't written in a while, but I haven't had access to a computer since Saturday. We left Sunday morning to go to a small rural town called Ixtlilco el Grande, where we stayed with host families. I was with Katelyn and Kay, the other two vegetarians, haha. Our family was really awesome, though. We stayed with Don Evelio and Guadalupe and thier dog, Bobi. And Guadalupe was an awesome cook. She joked about coming back with us to the US to cook for us. My favorite thing we had was called a tole - it was a warm drink that you can make with different flavors. Cinnamon was my favorite, but lemon was really good too.

During the day we had a lot of activities with the whole group, and I was always really exhausted at the end of the day, even though I took a nap every day. One of my favorite things was when we went to visit the fields. A lot of people living in Ixtlilco depend on agriculture for their income, so it was really important that we saw them. It was really cool to get to talk with the people that actually grow the crops, a lot of which are sold to the US. We saw the sugar cane, the fig trees, and the greenhouses with the tomatoes.

We also visited this really awesome farm that was owned by a cooperative. Their main purpose is provide local jobs so people will not have to migrate to the US and Canada. We talked with some of the people that worked on the farm, and they were all really glad to have jobs that are close to their families. They grow a lot of different crops and have a fish farm and lambs and chickens. They sell organic eggs directly to people in the community so that they can keep the prices down.

We also spoke with a panel of people that had migrated to the US and returned. It really made me realize that there are so many more reasons to migrate than just financial. One person just talked about wanting to go to the states because he wanted to visit his grandchild who was really sick. Our family had never been to the US, but we talked with a lot of people who had. One night we had dinner with Guadalupe's mom and brother and his family. Guadalupe's brother, Jorge, and his wife, Amalia, had all their children living in Minnesota. The saddest thing was when Jorge said that now we had become friends, we could come visit them whenever we wanted, but they couldn't come visit us in the US. It was really terrible to talk about the privilege that we have as "Americans" just because of where we were born and the lack of privilege they have for the same reason. And there was/is nothing we could/can do about it.

Ok, so I don't want to end it on a bad note, so here is one of my best recent stories: Friday morning I woke up at 5:45 to walk up the mountain with some friends so we could see the sunset. We were trying to find a good place to watch it, so we asked a guy who was on his front porch (whose dogs also tried to kill us) where would be a good place, and he just said we could climb up on his roof! It was the most amazing view, and if it didn't take so long to upload photos, I would add one here. But I added an album on my facebook, so you can see some pictures there :)

written by

Kimberly on February 7, 2009 from Tepalcingo, Mexico

from the travel blog: Cuernavaca, Mexico

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Love the Orozco painting at the restaurant! How amazing to just casually stumble on something like that.

written by Kim Smith on February 14, 2009

Please let me know if you have contacts in Ixtlilco el Grande. I am looking for a place to stay for 4 months. nats5656@gmail.com. Thanks so much. -Natalie Ortega

written by

nats5656 on January 6, 2012

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