pork

"Chickens sold at a market in Gaza Strip. The Israeli siege and attacks on Gaza have forced the cost of chickens to skyrocket in the Gaza Strip, 24 March. (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages) " (relevant because I eat so much meat lately)

My host mom checks the temperature of my arroz con leche by touching the surface with a teaspoon, pouring that bit on the back of her hand, and finally tasting it. She does this seemingly without thinking, and it usually leads to always having not-quite hot enough but cared for hot foods and beverages.

Speaking of food I am going to stop eating meat when we go to live in the community in Mexico City next week. I also believe that I am going to maintain veganism until Cheese Club starts up again in September. I try to avoid pork products but there have been times where the chorizo just looks too good. Toluca de Guadalupe consumes enough pig to make my Rabbi blush and I keep thinking of CCL's descriptions of swine feasting on half dead soldiers within battle annals.


Sunday was our fiesta del campo which celebrated...the weekend! All the families went into this woodsy, desert place and basically set up a party in the middle of the road with music blasting from pick-up trucks. All the families helped prepare delicious grilled meats and hot tortillas, cactus salads, rice, and different chilis and salsas. We danced a bit, but not very much because our bellies were too full.


Last week we went to Huamantla and surprisingly went to a puppet museum where we learned about puppets from around the world! Some were as old as 700 AD. Besides that and a few visits to some stunning churches, the past two weeks have been really packed with meetings that are testing my Spanish listening. The other day we met with the local representatives of all the CNUC chapters in Tlaxcala. It was a "good Spanish day" where I both understood and spoke quite a bit. Gustavo, the representative from our town (who also taught me how to dance to Cumbia) said, "Machismo es una enfermedad". Yesterday we met with the widows of ex-Bracero workers and ex-Braceros themselves, and today we met with trabajadoras sexuales (sex workers) who have organized themselves with the help of CNUC.

Our group is trying to organize an independent reading group to focus on strategy in the context of some of the things we are learning, and some of the things we want to learn. Unfortunately our weeks have only gotten busier and somehow we ended up watching The Little Mermaid in Spanish yesterday.

There has been a huge amount of anamosity towards protestors and demonstrations in Israel and there is still quite a bit going on in Greece.
Israel using excessive force against protesters
Israeli authorities ban Palestinian Cultural Festival

Also, a neo-nazi group in NJ tried to have a meeting in a library in Clifton and it got broke it up. Read about it here.

Marlena also sent me this interesting piece about what it means to have a Jewish identity that includes an Arab identity, written by an Iraqi-Israeli woman. It is somewhat nuanced towards a push for coexistance as a strategy for peace:
Reflections By An Arab Jew

i hope this finds you well as spring approaches

Yesterday marks the beginning of too-full bellies and struggling to sound halfway intelligible in Spanish as I talk to Elena, my new host abuelita and her huge extended family. The community here is located at the base of La Malintze, one of Mexico's largest mountains. "The community is close-knit and mainly non-indigenous campesinos. At least one member of most families migrates to urban areas or the US for work. The Consejo Nacional Urbano Campesino (CNUC) has a community center in Toluca [where we have class]" (from my syllabus). Tlaxcala reminds me of how I would imagine the plain states to be, or maybe like a much more temperate Arizona, only with more lushness and less cacti. The air smells like burning cedar and dust. For the first time on my trip I have my own room with a bed.

Oventic ended with the International Women's Day celebration. Indigenous and non-indigenous women from all over Mexico and internationals alike came to the caracol for the conference. We watched as women played all sorts of sports while men were in charge of cooking, cleaning, and childcare. I had left the day before the political speeches and other events, but I was pleasantly surprised to run into Gracie Janove who is also traveling in Mexico. I introduced her to my group and it turns out she knew one of the kids from middle school. ¡que weird!

I went to Oaxaca City and Mazunte this past week for spring break. Some highlights included discovering a new type of coconut that's green on the outside, swimming in too-big waves in the Pacific Ocean, eating tacos on the street in Oaxaca City, and discovering a dead spotted fish on the shore in Mazunte with mammalian-looking teeth: hard and defined, looking nothing like you'd expect on a fish. It seemed more like the teeth of a beaver, really. All week I ate tons of fresh fruit and fish, left with only a mild sunburn on my back, but an alarming amount of mosquito bites. I have so many bites that it's somewhat unsettling. I feel ok though, so I don't think I'm at risk for any sort of insect-born illness.

Once we got to Toluca de Guadalupe here in Tlaxcala, we introduced ourselves and were welcomed with a delicious meal of hot rice, shrimp soup (complete with shrimp heads with tiny beaty eyes) and pineapple juice. I was assigned my family and toured around the neighborhood with Lourdes and one of the other cousins who's name escapes me. After our walk I sat down to watch Anaconda with the family and ate a bag of cheetos con chili which was basically prepacked cheetos with hot sauce moistening each one, all slimy-like. Although the texture was so snot-like, I decided I liked these pre-soggied cheetos and ate the whole bag, not realizing Elena would soon offer me more food. I had a huge jelly-filled pastry with tea before retiring to my new room with hopes of writing my homework for the week.

Every day the women in the community prepare a huge, amazing lunch. Yesterday we had this soup made of tiny bits of spaghetti, zuccini, carrot, brocolli, tiny little k'nishes on the side, and whole pieces of chicken cooked in a salty, spicy tomato sauce. Handmade tortillas and limeade were served on the side. Host family situations is making me nervous, but I can rely on the fact that my Spanish is so bad that awkward conversation is inevitable, right?

Today we went to a worker´s center and learned about braceros. Most of us had an unusually difficult time understand the accent of the video, but the men there were super friendly and I look forward to learning more. Afterwards, Hannah and I went to the art museum here in Tlaxcala and saw some super early Frida Kahlo works. It was really cool to stumble upon such beautiful art in person.