Field Notes 5\28-6\6
The Crazy White People in Santiago
5/28/09
Keywords: Santiago, gringos
Over the past few days I have seen a few older white men around town who my host family tells me have lived here since the 1970s. J1 and M4 and I talked to one of them at the market, he originally hails from Nebraska and has lived here in Santiago since 1975 selling avocado trees that he grows at his house. He asked us our names bud didn’t respond when we asked him his, and asked us to go to coffee with him next week. There is also another older man who I have seen wandering around the streets talking to himself over the past day or two. Today he was sitting at the Pescador restaurant near my host family’s house drinking wine and mumbling. The two men look like they could be brothers.
Diminishing Tuktuk Offers
5/28/09
Keywords: Transportation, Assimilation
As I have walked around the past few days I have noticed that the number of tuktuks that stop and ask me if I need a ride has diminished significantly. The first 2 days I was here I couldn’t walk more than 2 or 3 blocks without being offered a ride, and now I can make it considerably further. More people are also saying hello to me on the street.
Funeral in Chichicastenango
5/31/09
Keywords: death, Chichicastenango, tradition
While sitting in a café in Chichicastenango drinking a beer shortly before returning to Panajachel, I peered out into the throng in the market street outside and began to see people walking by carrying huge bouquets of flowers. As person after person walked by with their faces masked by gently waving sprigs of baby’s breath and long-stemmed roses, I remarked to my friends how beautiful and strange it was to see such delicate flowers weaving their way through the hot-pink, blue and green woven chaos of the market stalls. As my friends turned to see what I was talking about, the people carrying flowers disappeared into the crowd followed by people holding something different; a coffin, brown and somber as its bearers among the raucous and enterprising environment of the street. The contrast between the funerary procession and the enveloping entrepreneurial environment could not have been more distinct; none of the raucous price-calling or tourist laughter was extinguished or even dimmed by the sight of tear-streaked faces and the sure symbol of death moving through the crowd.
Funeral in Chichicastenango
Journal Note
5/31/09
Keywords: death, journal note, Chichicastenango, tradition
I don’t know quite what to make of the fact that we saw a funeral procession in Chichicastenango yesterday. At first impulse it feels almost fundamentally incorrect to have seen such a sorrowful process occurring in what, for me, seems to be a very selfish place; vendors hawk their goods however possible to bring in income for themselves, and consumers (mostly gringos) looking for the perfect souvenir for their trip but that’s about it. But the more I think about it, the more I can’t find any fundamental wrongness in the situation. Maybe it’s the lack of sense of occasion that rattled me a little bit and made our table in the café go silent for a few minutes, but who is to say that life and death can’t exist in the same street on the same day? It is kind of poignant to think of people trying to make a living in the exact same space that a family is moving to lay a life to rest.
Anticipating the first Interview
6/1/09
Keywords: Santiago, interviews, language
This morning at breakfast I asked L1 how to go about speaking to some of the contacts she had told me about last week. More than anything I just wanted to ask about what was culturally appropriate in terms of approaching a relative or complete stranger to talk about civil war reparations so that I can fashion my main interview questions and guide my contacts into feeling better about talking to me. L1, L2 and M1 all told me the best way to go about Doña F1 is to either go meet her at work (unanticipated) at 5 PM when she gets off or to sit on her doorstep and wait for her to come home. After asking if I should start talking to Doña F about the war immediately or make a date to do so later, M1 told me it’d worked for prior students to just start in on a topic right off instead of making a date as many times contacts will renege on arrangements to meet another day. I’m not sure how I feel about waiting on a contact outside her work or house without prior notice, though.
Cracking the C1 Code!
6/1/09
Keywords: Santiago, interviews, overcoming obstacles
One of the contacts that my family told me about is a relative I have met a few times. Every time we speak, it seems like she would much rather be doing something else and after a few interactions I assumed that she wouldn’t want to talk to me. This upset me as I had heard many times about the wealth of information this contact (C1) would provide me about the reparations system and was uncertain I could make friends with her. But this morning, I had a knock on my door. L1 had come to tell me that C1 was coming over and that I should go and talk to her. I told L1 I was unsure, but that I would try again. And whether it was because L1 or M1 had said something to C1 or because C1 herself had been worn down by my feeble attempts at friendship (the first scenario is more likely, while I would far and away prefer to believe the 2nd), C1 and I had a conversation today. Not only was she nicer and more open than I had seen her before-she answered my questions with a smile, and asked me questions back-she also asked me about my project, and said she would love to meet with me tomorrow after class to have a first interview. I am almost sure someone in my host family must have said something to her to get her to open up to me, but I’m not sure at all that it matters! I am looking forward to our interview and need to make sure I have my questions written out right so I don’t waste the opportunity. I wonder if I should bring a gift?Cracking the C1 Code!
Journal Note
6/1/09
Keywords: Santiago, interviews, overcoming obstacles, journal note
I have thought a lot about why C1 has been so reticent with me (at least up until today). Barring the notion that she may just be shy or tired or cranky when I see her, I have heard a lot about how she is a somewhat important person in the community, so maybe she felt talking to me wasn’t any sort of priority or option regardless of my living with her extended family. Another option I thought of, though, was that she had heard about my project and was less than enthused. I doubt this is the case now, since we’ve scheduled an interview. However, now more than ever before I feel like I need to proceed with caution and prepare extra well.
The Tiosh Abaj Quandary
6/1/09
Keywords: tourism, gringos, Santiago
A few times over the last week, a fellow student and I have gone to a local gringo hotel called the Tiosh Abaj to do some schoolwork. While I’ve chalked this up to just getting out of the house to meet up (I can never work on schoolwork in my apartment in Raleigh), I heard my classmate on the phone today giving another, pretty interesting and surprisingly salient reason for why we go to Tiosh Abaj. “My friend Leah and I are about to head down to a gringo hotel to do some work, you know, so we don’t have to be ON for a few minutes”. In the westernized, tranquil and mostly empty Tiosh Abaj hotel environment, we don’t have to be culturally appropriate or watch what we say or say anything in Spanish. We can sit and read outside our rooms, and not worry about stares. Simply enough, we can be students and nothing more.
New Student in the House
6/1/09
Keywords: gringos, host family, transitions
A volunteer named R1 arrived today, she’s going to live here at the house with me and my host family while she works at the hospitalito for a month. She speaks English, which is nice and I’m kind of glad I’ll have someone in the house I can talk to from time to time. She’s here for a little less than a month and is talking about how long a time it’ll be, which makes me feel like I’m going to be here forever. I don’t mind, it’s just funny to see someone entering into the culture a week after I’ve gotten here and to notice the already apparent differences between our outlooks and perspectives.
Early Morning Santiago Costco
6/2/09
Keywords: tradition, market, Santiago
I was talking with L2 in the kitchen before dinner the day before yesterday, and we were discussing my class trip to Chichicastenango. As she stirred a pot of nixtamal, I remarked on how big the market was, and how different it appeared to be from the market in Santiago. I asked what the biggest market days here are, and L2 told me Sunday and Friday. She asked me if I had ever been there early in the morning. “How early?” I asked. L2 told me around 5 or 6 AM on Fridays and Sundays the market is transformed into a wholesale store for vendors and businesspeople all over the lake and beyond. They apparently come and get what they need, and go back to their towns to sell it in their markets or stores. I commented on what I had heard a classmate say about the market (or lack thereof) in Cerro de Oro, and L2 told me that yes, the Cerro de Oro merchants come and buy everything they need here in Santiago every week. I had no idea the market served a dual purpose like this. I wouldn’t be surprised if the wholesale component of the market comprised a great deal of Santiago’s economic viability.
Town Hall Meeting
6/2/09
Keywords: Politics, Santiago, host families
See also: Politics 5/27/09
Many times during the evenings I go and watch television with my host parents after we’ve eaten dinner. Last night I walked into the TV room and found the whole family vivaciously commenting on what appeared to be a shoddily recorded tape of some sort of local political referendum. I asked what was going on since all the dialogue was in Tz’utujil. My host father Don S1 and L1 explained that on Sunday afternoon there had been a particularly heated town hall meeting in which the mayor tried to fleece the population of Santiago into voting for a bill that would raise taxes for the 4th time in the past month. Along with the tax increase the bill would make it harder for Santiago residents to get loans, and almost everyone except for the mayor was unequivocally opposed to the idea. As we watched the mayor speaking, Don S1 laughed at him and told me about how they had determined that the mayor was the only one in support of this law by calling the bank managers around town and seeing how they felt. One indigenous man had apparently stood up and yelled at the mayor, saying how he thought all the town people were ‘burros’ because they worked for a living instead of having a PhD. The crowd applauded, and when put to a vote the new bill was put to rest almost unanimously. Don S1 was very proud of the fact that he had gone and signed his name on the act to refute the bill, and L1 told me he goes to all the meetings he can although she doesn’t because they can get violent.
El Horno
6/2/09
Keywords: Gringos, Food
The other day 2 classmates and I finally found the mythical El Horno. A cheery and immaculate burnt-orange and yellow bakery on the main street in Santiago, El Horno boasts an amazingly tempting case of homemade desserts (brownies, cookies, cakes and cheesecakes of all varieties) as well as offering coffee, tea, and soda. I had been craving chocolate since my arrival in Guatemala, and so especially savored my huge piece of chocolate/coconut/walnut cake as though it were to be my last. Earlier today I mentioned to L2 that we had gone there, and her immediate reaction was “ah, si, El Horno. Es bueno, porque el dueño es Americano.” I nodded, but then later realized that this was confusing. Are American-owned establishments inherently good? Maybe she was trying to cater to my home culture? The more I think about the statement the more it puts me off.