Simplicity in Mexico

The Ethnobotanical Gardens in Oaxaca City

Simply simple. Original and oldschool. Less mechanized. Human powered. Back to basics. Do the Mexican's choose simplicity, or is is a matter of need for social/economic or other reasons? I often ask myself this question when I am travelling in countries that are culturally, and economically different then that which I have come to know in Canada. I don't know the answer. 

But I do know that through my street wanderings, and observations, I've realized that Mexicans are admirably simple in the way they do work.  Here are some of the things I've seen.

During  a hike in the cool and moist Sierra Norte mountains of Oaxaca state, quiet hillsides were farmed. With no road access, oxen pulled a simple disc plough back and forth, back and forth, in what felt like the heavens, where clouds settled among the farmers in the silence of the slope. Nearby, small patches of yellow flower topped mustard plants were sprouting skyward, gathering the weak rays of sun and morphing that power into nourishment for humans and animals alike.

Hiking in the Sierra Norte Mountains

A downtown street in Oaxaca city - a place with a population around 260, 000 people. Road work happens, as it does in any city that has car traffic. But, the tools and the people power are entirely different. Here, cobblestone streets have lines of men, spaced about 4 meters apart, hammering on a chisel like implement, to slowly break away the area that they are working on. The cling clang, metal on metal sound reminds me of a scene from 'O brother where art thou' when jailbirds are hammering away at a railroad track, letting their noises be the beat to their song. I can sense that this is difficult work as I walk by. But no worker seems to be in any rush. 

I respect the amount of time Mexican's spend on their ever so important tortillas. I wake most mornings, in my little casa, to the sound of the woman next door, moving her tortilla press back, and forth, pressing balls of her masa into a round tortilla, to be placed on her wood fired comal; a slightly concave calcium coated smooth metal plate - commonly seen  in Mexico set up in a variety of places cooking corn foods to perfection.  

Maybe it's not so much a simple thing, but it is so much a visible and healthful thing, the way that Mexicans freshly grind their chocolate and maize. Even in a city as large as Oaxaca, each neighbourhood has a small mill that residents of the area bring their grain or cocoa beans to, and the mill operator uses a stick to move around the maize of cocoa beans pushing it into a metal auger, which grinds the foods into a pulp, rich and creamy, ready to be made into the chocolate drink or pressed into tortillas. All too often in the western world, our grains and flours are over processed, rancid, and lacking in nutrition. Freshly grinding foods is a solution to this. Further more, it's a visible, decentralized practice. People are in their neighbourhoods, sharing a tool, rather then having big mega corporations process foods in an out of sight, possibly much more energy intensive, mega operation, where care for quality, I would argue, plummets.

And, perhaps because corn is still a novel food staple to me, but I like seeing maize, still in it's brown crispy husk, being dried on rooftops in the Pueblas (the rural areas), around Oaxaca city. Subsistence agriculture is visible. 

Another thing. Though (according to my cooking teacher) pressures are increasing, there are many of Mexican farmers who still farm 'criollo' corn. This is corn that is heirloom - old varieties of corn that have been saved by farmers and replanted, chosen for their deliciousness, quality, and resiliency in their local environments. Somehow, Monsanto hasn't grabbed all of Mexico's corn seeds! In a world where control and centralization is craved by nasty mega corporations, pressure is increasing. I'm very curious to read more about the agriculture of corn in Mexico...

Another awesome thing that I saw, a simple, less mechanized, smart way to do something: A man on the street riding a stationary bicycle which turns the wheel of the rock which sharpens his knife. Smart right? How about bicycle powered, washing machines? Or bicycle blenders? Or bicycle powered batteries for lights in homes? Or or or! 

Seeing double - at Monte Alban - an ancient Zapotec site

I was also lucky to see the simple spirit and colour of the Zapotec people. Mostly, I interacted with some women, in Teotitlan and San Migeul de Valle, two Pueblas outside of Oaxaca City. The woman we interacted with are entrepreneurs, supported by EnVia, a Oaxacan based non-profit. I got to hear their excitement and pride in their burgeoning, or old business: comedors (i.e. restaurants), textile businesses (making beautiful woven rugs), tailors, and clothing shops. These woman wear a three piece beautiful outfit (most noticeable being their beautifully ornate embroidered aprons, that actually look more like intricate dresses, then aprons to get dirty), they braid their long smooth black hair with coloured ribbon, they wear beautiful golden earings, and are all smiles. Though, there was a language barrier in my visits with these women, I asked stumbled Spanish questions, and a translator helped us communicate. Even though I've found it a challenge to communicate deeply with Mexicans because of this language barrier, on the day I visited these woman, there was a special energy in the air, where I felt the barrier was far less, as they seemed egar and proud to share their businesses. 

Simplicity by choice or necessity?

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I finish with a simple, powerful Spanish quote that I read each day while I've been in Oaxaca, that has prompted much internal dialougue. I walked by various colourful murals of street art here. It's an absolutely vibrant artistic community (that I'm sure I only saw the very simplest bit of) and my path home had no shortage of such art works. I felt like every day I was walking through a bright and sunny modern art museum, with colours that jumped at me, and Spanish words that left me vigorously recording words to later use google translate to ensure I had understood them properly. What is listed below was one such quotation, printed below a beautifully intricate and colourful piece of work on the side of someones house. The art depicted a picture of the skeleton of death, and the skeleton of a Zapotec, each reaching out for an anatomically correct heart...

"La vida empieze en donde la realidad termina."

"Life begins where reality ends."