Nourish and FCB

We’ve only been in Mexico for seven days, but Megna, Crystan, and I have already traveled to six stunning cities, including El Gustano, a tiny community of around three hundred people and Guadalajara, a modern city with a beautiful historic district. We were originally planning to travel directly to Mineral de Pozos after we flew in on Sunday, but Adriana invited us to travel to Guadalajara with a theater company from Chicago and boxing group from Notre Dame. She welcomed us into her house in Irapuato, giving us a chance to relax and settle in before diving into our project. Ian, a recent graduate from UNC Chapel Hill, and Kaitlyn, a Masters student from Loyola University, introduced the town of Irapuato to us and helped us ease into the peaceful swing of Mexican culture. The city center, or zocalo, is always teeming with local residents—families with young children, high school-aged teenagers, men in cowboy hats serenading every passerby with their guitars, and friends relaxing outside cafés and taco stands. There were many vendors selling giant balloons, carnitas, and fresh fruit from Vera Cruz. Both Ian and Kaitlyn are fundraising interns with Adriana and are both impressively knowledgeable of Mexican culture and Mexican way of life. Ian managed to convince a vendor into letting Crystan and I sample his carnitas for free. According to Ian, it is unusual for vendors to let us sample their food, but since carnitas is a dish of national pride, the vendor was more than happy to give us a sizeable portion of his cooking, but he stopped short of revealing to us his secret recipe.

We traveled to Guadalajara with the Chicago students and were taken on a tour of churches, palaces, and government buildings. The architecture of the buildings was breathtaking, and served as excellent subjects for the designated photographers of the theater company. On our way back to Irapuato from Mineral de Pozos, we were introduced to representatives of one of FCB’s largest donors, Georgina from a bank named Monex. She had flown in from Mexico City and was dining with Adriana and Carmen, one of FCB’s largest private donors, in a beautiful house overlooking the entire city of Irapuato.

We also met many university students from Mexico City, including Miguel, Fernanda, Mario, and Marvin. According to Kaitlyn and Ian, the Mexican government has mandated that every university student in Mexico dedicate a summer or a semester to public service work. As a result, Miguel, who studies food engineering, is going to dedicate a few months to identify effective strategies for increasing the output of goat cheese manufacturing in Tamaula while generating more competitive varieties for the market. Mario and Fernanda are both studying architecture, and Marvin is studying communications.

When reaching Mineral de Pozos, we attended a presentation run by Adriana about starting a weaving manufacturing business for local students. There were about twenty or so students in the one-room building. Nearly all the students in the building shared that they have relatives and family members in the United States, an accurate reflection of the economic situation in Mineral de Pozos. It was clear that job opportunities are not only sparse, but perceived to be sparse. The goal of FCB is to help future generations establish livings in their local communities and to diminish the perception of migration as the primary solution to their economic problems.

We were taken shortly to our host family’s home. By family, we mean Berta. We have all decisively concluded that she is the sweetest lady ever and felt at home immediately in her simple, picturesque home. It consists of three rooms, and the three of us are sharing one room and one bathroom—a very cozy arrangement. She was nice enough to sit down and ask us about our eating preferences, having recruited her cousin, Teresa, to help cook meals for us. Crystan has declared multiple times that she will never leave Mexico—everybody has been incredibly warm and inviting. Becoming a member of the community feels like a very natural process.

It wasn’t long before Adriana swooped in and took us with some students from Mexico City to a small community outside of Dolores Hidalgo, called El Gusano. The community consisted mainly of farmland, and local residents are trying to start a shawl industry. They have encountered little success, since the price of manufacturing their shawls is around forty American dollars, an amount that Mexicans would not be typically willing to pay. We circled at an after-school center, funded for by UNC. It consisted of computers, which adults are encouraged to use to master computer skills, and young women are given a stipend to supervise art classes. The children there ranged from around five to twelve. They gleaned a lot of pleasure from painting with their fingers, and demonstrated extraordinary imagination and talent. One little boy sketched a very realistic car from an existing model, and another painted a blue banana complete with three dimensional shading. Adriana is starting up soccer teams in adjacent communities to involve the local children in friendly competition. We played basketball and Uno with some of the little girls, and became fast friends. On the way back home, Karen, a supervisor of the theater company, shared that the women of El Gusano have to walk forty-five minutes every day with their produce just to take a bus to town and sell their food to make a living.

We shall be starting work with Jeff and Janice from Rice University on their photography project after they fly in on Sunday. We’ll be helping them recruit children from Mineral de Pozos for the project and more. Hopefully, he’ll give us more details when we meet him on Monday. As of now, we’re going to mingle with the Pozos community at the Blues Festival this evening. There is supposed to be hang-gliding, music, and local vendors selling their craft!