Arrozola

On Thursday afternoon we (as in we from my school) went to Arrozola Xoxo, a pueblo about a half hour outside the city that survives almost exclusively on sales of the intricately painted, brightly colored carved wooden animals that inhabit pretty much every mercado and tourist shop in southern Mexico. Other than me and my schoolmates (totalling 8, including Luis and Fernando, our two teachers), I didn´t see a single other potential source of income that day for those folks. We walked from house to house while Luis, who seems pretty knowledgeable about local culture and politics, described the process. Usually we´d walk in on two or three women painting around a table, with one man outside somewhere carving. ¨Pueden sacar fotos, si quieren,¨Luis would say. It felt uncomfortable, rather like a zoo of wooden animals and live people. I did not want to take fotos. But of course I took a few, not entirely sure why...








Some of these families also sell their art at various mercados around the area, but some are not able to do that, or not without a middleman, who of course takes a disproportionate cut. Later, I asked the woman I´m staying with about whether the children of these folks are able to go to school -- she said that yes, generally they are, and that there is a government program that pays families if their children go to school. Senora Ruth thinks the program works pretty well, and it´s not new. A little like Opportunity NYC, no?

Anyway... In all, the excursion was intersesting, if a little depressing. That´s the disadvantage of visiting developing nations, I suppose. But, I suppose better developing than devolving... Speaking of which, what´s the news about the primaries?