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Living in southern Mexico has many advantages.  One of them is a sense of history.  This area has thousands of years of accomplishments behind it.  There are villages with traditions that are pre-Columbian.  Heck, there are plants that are pre-Columbian.  The tree in El Tule is 2500 years old.  Corn was developed in the Oaxaca valley between six and eight thousand years ago near Tlacolula (pictured above), where I go for barbacoa on Sundays.

These people have been up and down.  They were rulers for certain periods and they were the conquered on the flip side.  All that history gives them some serious perspective.  They are proud and humble at the same time.  Even the campesinos I speak with know about the new wave of anti-Mexican laws and they are pretty sanguine about the situation.  They have been for a long time.  It has been going on a very long time. Sure, there are lots of mexicanos living in El Norte.  South Jersey has huge numbers of oaxaqueños.  Life is hard, both here and there, but minimum wage here is about $.45 an hour – $4.50 for a ten hour day. What would you do?

If the US and Mexico can’t do something about the myriad of problems they share, things are just going to get worse.  I know I must just be a wimp, but it is painful to hear the hate spewing over the border.  The US looks pretty whacked these days, xenophobic and unable to face various aspects of reality, but maybe that is just my warped perspective.

Obviously, Mexico has big problems with poverty, corruption and cartels.  I am used to seeing soldiers and police in full-riot gear with very big guns on patrol.  Maybe that is what the US wants.

I do know that if “Show us your papers” becomes the norm, it is a two way street and ain’t no way I am ever going to pass down here, seeing as though I am a good foot and a half taller than most of the indigenous.  How we as a nation treat others with be reciprocated in kind.

I do know that living in a different culture makes me care about other cultures much more profoundly.  We all share this world.  That oil slick is not in the Gulf of America.

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