The Future of Tindu (Days 2&3)
Written January 9, 2009
Hello WDAers and friends!
We just returned to our hostel in Oaxaca after spending three thoughtful and busy days in the small community of Santa Maria Tindu. Everyone on the delegation was impressed by the incredible graciousness and generosity of our hosts there. In this post I´ll talk a little about the last two days we spent there, as well as the situation of the community based on our meetings with the community nurse, informal talks with transnational community members in the home town association,and a meeting of all of the elderly people in the community.
So, Santa Maria Tindu is a Mixtecan community 4 1/2 hours north-west of Oaxaca, near Huajuapan. Although it was formerly a town of farmers (mostly corn), the rising cost of living in Mexico and falling corn prices have driven nearly all of the young men and women to move north, either to northern Mexico or the US. Today, Tindu is truly a transborder community; over 1000 people live in Madera, CA, and another 400 have settled near Woodburn,OR. 400 people remain in the town, and over 200 of them are people of the ¨¨tercer edad¨ - over seventy years old.
This summer, CAUSA introduced us to a small committee of people from Tindu who live in Oregon, and we met with them several times this fall to learn about their projects to help the elderly members of their community. The elders committee is a branch of the larger organization, which has collaborated with the Mexican government to develop the community, most recently to build 11 km of highway to the village and create a natural water treatment system that uses plants to treat sewage. However, this group is especially concerned with the plight of the elders in their community. Until visiting, I didn´t realize is that Tindu is almost exclusively elderly, except for the month when grown children return for the holidays. This is also the time when the autoridad, or main governing position, of the community is transferred from one person to the next.
On Friday, the committee we´ve worked with called a meeting of all the elderly people in town, announcing it over the town loudspeaker. The main square was filled with men and women, some in their nineties and many with difficulty walking, hearing or seeing. We did a ton of interviews and taping to use for the fundraising video. The committee introduced our delegation, and the idea of building a community center for elderly people. Then they opened the floor for people to speak. This was the hardest part of the trip for me, especially since many of the speakers put the situation very eloquently: “Our sons and daughters leave, and many send money back. Some come and visit. But many die trying to cross the desert, and they return in cardboard boxes.”
Elderly people’s income sources are limited to remittances from the US and weaving baskets and sombreros our of palms for a few pesos. It´s hard to feel hopeful about the survival of the community. At least it´s very clear that the elderly folks need more support, since the traditional social security system (their kids) is no longer around (they are all working in the US). The community nurse was an amazing woman who helped us get an application for the medical teams visit ready to discuss with the Oaxacan branch of Medical Teams Internation (we´ll meet with them next Wed). She described the greatest medicals of the elderly population, which are glasses, dental surgery and care, arthritis medication and walking aids. She also strongly emphasized the social need for a community center, since many elderly women live alone without relatives to visit or distract them from loneliness.
Our host mother told us about her experience living alone, while her husband and eight sons worked in the US or northern Mexico. One day she received news that one of her sons had disappeared while crossing the border. “I cried and cried for days,” she told us. “When I went to eat, or cook, or sleep, I couldn’t stop crying. Now every time I sit down to eat, I wonder, ‘does my son have something to eat? Is he even alive?”
Thanks for reading and staying up with our activities.
Take care,
Kristen