May

Mexican Dances Step Across Cultures

by Eva Boynton on May 26, 2015

Female Mexican dancers in colorful costumes, showing one of many traditional Mexican dances that go across different cultures that make up Mexico. (Image © Eva Boynton)

Las Chiapanecas (The Women of Chiapas) whirl in an elegant tornado of color and tradition.
© Eva Boynton

One Stage, Many Colors

When you travel, timing is everything.

In a new city, any turn down a street can bring a surprise—like my walk down calle Miguel Hidalgo in Toluca, Mexico, that led me straight into a festival lit up with color, music, and dance. This was Toluca’s third Festival Cultural, highlighting National Teacher’s Day on May 15.

A single stage celebrated dances and music from around the world, showcasing performers of traditional Mexican dances side by side with those who embraced more modern influences. The event showed how Mexico goes across cultures to form an eclectic cultural identity.

Embracing the Present

Los niños (the kids) launched the festivities with flair. In colorful costumes, they performed dance routines inspired by movies, musicals, and—in this case—music by Christina Aguilera and Michael Jackson.

Young girls dressed in pink outfits dancing to jazz music, illustrating how Mexican dances can go across cultures. (Image © Eva Boynton)

A tip of the hat to JAZZ!
© Eva Boynton

Groups of performers, each from a different preschool or elementary school, garnered smiles and applause even when a child missed the cue or ran into a fellow dancer in a pirouette across the stage.

Ballarinas dancing in a group, showing how Mexican dances can go across cultures. (Image © Eva Boynton)

Ballet, originating in Europe and Russia, is a part of modern Mexico and
sometimes mixes with traditional dance.
© Eva Boynton

The dancers’ earnest effort, costumes, choreographed moves, and elaborate set changes demonstrated their dedication to the cultural celebration.

I had never imagined being at a Mexican festival singing along to Hakuna Matata, It’s a Hard Knock Life, and other familiar songs from The Lion King, Peter Pan, Annie, The Wizard of Oz, Grease, Chicago, and Cats.

Mexican girl performing a dance as the wicked witch from The Wizard of Oz, showing how performers in Mexico go across cultures in Mexican dances. (Image © Eva Boynton)

A pause in the performance by the scary Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz
© Eva Boynton

Yet, on this day at this Festival Cultural, jazz born in New Orleans and ballet originating in Europe seemed a natural part of modern Mexican traditions.

The performances celebrated these modern-day influences, and with a nod to the younger generations, they incorporated new colors of culture into Mexican tradition.

Crossing Paths with the Past

As Dorothy and Toto exited the stage, however, Aztec dancers entered the spotlight.

A shift in cultures, for sure. But as Mexico’s danzas folklóricas (folk or traditional dances) played out, it became apparent that these dances, from 31 different states, stepped across cultures and times themselves.

Each dance told a story of its origin and time, reflecting indigenous roots, local traditions, or historical events:

The Danza Azteca (Aztec Dance) comes from the state of Guerrero where Cuauhtémoc, the last Aztec emperor was laid to rest.

Traditional dancers dressed with feather headdresses, showing crossing cultures of Mexican tradition. (image © Eva Boynton)

Feather headdresses and the noisy seed leggings are part of the
traditional costumes worn for Aztec dances.
© Eva Boynton

Las Igüiris, with footsteps similar to the waltz, is a dance from Michoacán performed by women as a kind of bachelorette party. Such iconic dances have strong ties to indigenous culture since the region was less impacted by colonization.

Women dressed in red dresses and hats for a traditional Mexican dance, showing Mexican tradition. (image © Eva Boynton)

Even the petticoats worn for this dance are colorfully embroidered.
© Eva Boynton

During the 1800s, miners from South America migrated toward the California Gold Rush and stopped in Mexico to rest. Forms of Peruvian and Chilean dance, with their synchronous and passionate twirling of scarves, were adopted and changed by locals to create Chilena dances.

Women and men dancing in white and twirling scarves, showing Peruvian and Chilean influences on traditional Mexican dances. (Image © Eva Boynton)

Chilena dances, like “El Toro Rabón” (The Bull Without a Tail) or “La Iguana,”
(The Iguana) are named after animals found in the local environment.
© Eva Boynton

Dances from La Huasteca, the southern part of the state of Tamaulipas, were influenced by its neighbors (Nuevo Leon to the west and Texas to the north), including the leather outfits that resemble the charro suit.

Women and men dressed in cowboy-like outfits balancing bottles on their heads, showing influences of border culture on traditional Mexican dances. (Image © Eva Boynton)

These dancers keep their rhythm while balancing jars on their heads.
© Eva Boynton

And because dances need music and movement, get a better feel for them from this video (5:11).

If video does not display, access it here.

A New View of Mexican Dances

Glued to my seat, I watched the dancers until Oh, I couldn’t see much longer! My eyes were killing me, and my legs had fallen asleep. But by the time I left I had a new understanding of what happens when people go across cultures.

Little did I know that by stumbling upon this festival I would get my own education in how a place can honor its past and present with national and international influences. It was a day to celebrate the vibrancy of Mexican dances and the ever-changing nature of cultural heritage.

And that was only my first day in town . . .

Festival Cultural 2015
© Eva Boynton

The Festival Cultural was sponsored by the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (National Union of Educational Workers) as part of their efforts to encourage teachers to foster an understanding of Mexican heritage and culture in their students.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Eva Boynton 3 Comments

Crossing Cultures/Cultural Heritage & Traditions/Mexico

Mar

Mexico in March—Monarch Butterflies Take Wing

by Sheron Long on March 24, 2015

Students photographing monarch butterflies at their winter home in central Mexico, illustrating the impact that global citizens can have against the threats to the monarch butterfly. (Image © Carol Starr)

Documentary filmmakers meet a golden subject in the central highlands of Mexico.
© Carol Starr

Global Citizens Fly High, Too

Any day now, the eastern monarchs will leave their winter home in the Sierra Madre mountains of central Mexico and begin their epic journey across the US to Canada. Theirs is a know-no-boundaries flight pattern.

These pollinators are crucial to a continued food supply. Yet, like the honeybees, their numbers are dwindling: the 2014–15 estimate is about 56.5 million, a fraction of the 1 billion monarch butterflies that wintered in Mexico in 1996–97.

Who can help these fragile long-distance travelers? Global citizens, who work for monarch conservation with a know-no-boundaries fight pattern.

Monarch butterfly showing off its wing span, a sight that global citizens work to protect. (Image © Carol Starr)

The fragile wings of an adult monarch propel it on a
migration of up to 2,800-miles (4,500 km).
© Carol Starr

The Mysterious Monarch

Scientists still don’t know how monarch butterflies know where to go, though the mystery of their winter home was solved in 1975 when the decades-long work of Fred Urquhart, a Canadian zoologist, came to fruition.

Urquhart began a tagging and tracking program that pointed to a diagonal flight pattern northeast to southwest across the US, but he lost track of the butterflies once they crossed the border into Mexico. Help came in the form of Ken Brugger (and his dog Kola), who traversed the Mexican countryside in a motor home.

Brugger looked for monarchs in areas where a tagged butterfly had been found, and he researched reports of sightings. Following the lead of Mexican woodcutters, who had spotted swarming butterflies, Brugger stepped into a forested highland valley and saw an awe-inspiring sight:

Millions of monarch butterflies hanging in clusters from the oyamel trees!

Thousands of monarch butterflies hanging in clusters from oyamel trees, a sight that global citizens work to protect. (Image © Carol Starr)

The semi-dormant monarchs hang together to conserve heat during cold nights.
With thousands of butterflies in a cluster, some become so heavy that branches break.
© Carol Starr

Because they reached across borders, Brugger and Urquhart solved the mystery of the monarch’s winter home. For the full and fascinating story, see Found at Last, published in August 1976 by National Geographic.

The Monarch in Mexican Culture

Though the winter home had remained a mystery until 1975, people in the central highlands of Mexico had long experienced the fall arrival of the monarchs. Among the Purépecha, the indigenous word for the monarch means “harvest butterfly” because the butterflies reliably arrived at harvest time.

Coinciding with harvest time are celebrations on November 1 and 2, marking the Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), when Mexicans decorate the graves of their ancestors and honor them with feasts and offerings. The butterflies came to symbolize the souls of ancestors returning for a visit on these special days.

Decorated gravesites in a Mexican cemetery, illustrating Mexican traditions to celebrate the Day of the Dead and the butterfly as a cultural symbol of departed ancestors. (Image © Arturo Peña Romano Medina / iStock)

Fall colors brighten the graves in a Mexican cemetery for the
traditional celebration of Día de los muertos.
© Arturo Peña Romano Medina / iStock

Traditions are meant to continue, but in fall 2013, the butterflies did not show up on time, and that year the overwintering population dropped to a new low—about 33 million monarchs.

Challenges to the Fragile Flyers

Though weather and temperatures are factors, habitat loss is the most significant. In Mexico’s forest habitat:

The human population also depends on the oyamel forests for survival, and this leads to unsustainable and illegal logging.
Increased tourism to view the amazing colonies of overwintering butterflies has raised awareness of the monarchs’ plight, but it has also degraded the habitat.

Monarch butterflies in oyamel trees, a type of fir on which they depend for survival, illustrating the need for forest conservation by global citizens. (Image © Carol Starr)

The fluttering, flitting flecks of gold and orange and black attract
about 150,000 tourists per year.
© Carol Starr

In the flyway habitat through the US, the monarchs lay their eggs on the milkweed plant, vital food for the caterpillars, but milkweed is disappearing at a rapid pace:

Since federal subsidies for biofuels have driven up the price of corn, farmers have converted open acreage, where native plants like milkweed grow, to fields and fields of corn.
Use of herbicides, like Roundup, have wiped out much of the milkweed.
When roads, parking lots, grass lawns, and ornamental landscapes go in, native plants go out. Food—milkweed for caterpillars and nectar plants for adult monarchs—is lost.

Solutions from Global Citizens

In 1986, Mexico established the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, now over 200 square miles, and in 2007 it outlawed logging. The area is now also a Unesco World Heritage site.

Entrance to Mexico's El Rosario sanctuary for the monarch butterfly, illustrating the important work of global citizens in monarch conservation. (Image © Carol Starr)

The entrance to El Rosario sanctuary leads to a steep climb, but the
kaleidoscope of butterflies you see at the top is worth it!
© Carol Starr

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Monarch Butterfly Fund (MBF) work with Mexico to seek solutions to habitat loss. Recognizing the economic dependence of the human population on the same land, these groups help villagers establish income-producing alternatives to logging, with jobs in mushroom cultivation and at nurseries that grow trees for reforestation.

The Monarch Sister Schools Program connects schools in the US and Mexico that work together to restore the monarchs’ habitats and engage in cultural exchange.

Young student dressed up like a monarch butterfly, illustrating school efforts to develop global citizens who care about the monarchs' decline. (Image © Carol Starr)

Monarch festivals at sister schools in the US and Mexico
invite kids to walk in a monarch’s shoes, er—wings!
© Carol Starr

The work of such organizations proceeds from a global mindset, but citizens who buy into “Think Global, Act Local” can make a difference, too. Here are six ways:

#1. Spread the word like the students from American University and Technológico de Monterrey (see first photo) whose documentary will give others an “Oh, I see” moment or two about the butterflies’ plight. It premiers at the Mexican Cultural Institute of Washington, D.C., on April 28.

#2. Reestablish milkweed habitats like the senior living community and the Soil Mates Garden Club in Lexington, KY, who planted milkweed and other natives in their courtyard to create Monarch Butterfly Waystation #8781. Visit Monarch Watch for seeds and all you need to create and certify a waystation.

#3. Grow native nectar plants to feed adult monarchs on their migratory journey. Plantbutterflies.org offers plant charts and planting instructions.

Monarch butterfly sipping nectar from a wildflower, illustrating the need for global citizens to work for monarch conservation. (Image © Rafael Cespedes / iStock)

Invite a monarch to lunch!
© Rafael Cespedes / iStock

#4. Report sightings with the Journey North app to help scientists unravel more monarch mysteries and track numbers.

#5. Advocate for “fueling stations” on public lands with help from Pollinator Partnership’s manuals on planting a utility right of way.

#6. Reward the good actors by eating organic or by buying lumber that is Forest Stewardship Certified (FSC) and not taken through illegal logging.

Global citizens appreciate how what happens in one part of the world affects another. Like the monarch butterflies, they go beyond borders. May the populations of both increase!

⊂∫⊃

Experience the movement of the monarch butterfly and learn more about the mysteries surrounding them in this new video from WWF. Hear about the challenges ahead from Professor Chip Taylor, who also directs MonarchWatch.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Sheron Long Comments

Cultural Symbols/Mexico/Nature Discovery

Jan

Bike Co-ops of Mexico: A Cyclist Movement

by Eva Boynton on January 12, 2015

Repair class in a bike co-op that is part of a larger cyclist movement. (Image © Ernesto Asecas)

A repair class at a bike coop gets bikes moving and fuels a bigger cyclist movement.
© Ernesto Asecas

How a Broken Chain Got Me Going

A bicycle can travel the globe, but any pedal-powered steed may need a tune-up along the way. On a cycle trip through California and Mexico, I walked into Casa Ciclista, a bicycle co-op in Guadalajara, looking for nothing more than a new chain. Instead, I emerged with a renewed sense of empowerment.

Little did I know a simple part replacement would gear me towards self sufficiency and a “hands-on” community looking to solve problems: themes of a cyclist movement in Mexico.

Two people holding up a bicycle wheel, illustrating how people in a bike co-op come together in a cyclist movement. (Image © Eva Boynton)

The Cooperative: A Place for All

Bike co-ops are participant-run spaces for a burgeoning bicycle culture in Mexico. Each is unique in how it creates a free space for people to unite, learn, and make city changes.

Casa Bicitekas, a cooperative in Mexico City, describes itself as un lugar para todos (a place for all). Its aim is to be “a community center around the culture and art of urban cycling, offering a space for connection and coexistence . . .”

At each co-op I was warmly welcomed with a bed (literally). Not only did I find a vibrant community of people and talents but also cyclists who wanted to educate others as well as themselves.

Do-It-Yourself

In my Guadalajara layover, I learned firsthand the power of the co-op’s educational purpose. Cooperatives function as bicycle repair shops with tools and parts that are donated or collected. They offer essential working space.

Tools in a communal workspace inside a bike co-op, illustrating one way the co-ops build a community as part of their cyclist movement. (Image © Eva Boynton)

To replace my chain, a volunteer at Casa Ciclista directed me while my fingers stumbled around the bicycle’s nuts and bolts. Although he could have jumped in with his own hands, with more speed and efficiency, he had me use my own.

Co-ops are centers for teaching and learning. The volunteer made clear that the time we invested in my repair was time well spent.

Oh, I see the power of using my own hands. They were their own problem solvers, not limited by something gone awry. I was learning to wheel through Mexico on a vehicle I could power and maintain myself.

Hands-On Solutions

Bike co-op advocacy extends beyond the individual, playing a role in regional and national issues.

Each co-op recognizes the benefits and potential impact of bicycles. BiciRed (bici is short for “bicycle” and red for “network”), a national association of cooperatives in Mexico, explains:

The bicycle is the most efficient, healthy, economic, and sustainable means of transportation along the urban roadways of Mexico.
Greater use of bicycles can bring about a new model for city living that prioritizes the coexistence between people.

This creative 1-minute video from Bicitekas is a testimony to the bicycle as an option for moving around a city comfortably and rapidly.

If video does not display, watch it here.

When issues that affect the community arise, members of bike co-ops take advocacy efforts into their own hands. Cyclists at Casa Ciclista get their hands dirty to create bike parking out of car parking.

Cyclists from a bike co-op in Guadalajara turning a car parking space into bike parking. (Image © Casa Ciclista)

Seth Domínguez and Kerem Meyeus are two people mobilizing their own ideas for bettering their city, Toluca. Seth, Kerem, and Seth’s dog Manouche are the co-founders of a bicycle cooperative called La Bicindad de Todxs (The Bicycle Neighborhood for All).

Seth Domínguez and Kerem Meyeus, part of the cyclist movement in Mexico, stand in the communal space of their bike co-op. (Image © Seth Domínguez)

The name, La Bicindad, combines the words bicicleta (bicycle) and vecindad (neighborhood). The “x” in Todxs (all) makes the word gender inclusive. The name reflects the spirit of community and unity for action in this Toluca co-op.

Seth is interested in utilizing La Bicindad to advocate for a bicycle-friendly city by installing bicycle parking, improving bike lanes, and holding maintenance classes for anyone interested. He clarifies why community members are relying on their own hands:

The whole idea of La Bicindad was that in Mexico everything is very bureaucratic, I mean everything. So, we wanted to do something bike-related and not have to depend on government money or belonging to a cycling group.

Pedaling for Pesos

Cooperatives are an oasis to cyclists—hosted space, tools, and instruction for free. So, how do they fund themselves?

As a true Renaissance man, Seth is a bicimensajero: a bike courier. He makes a living by picking up and delivering laundry, dry cleaning, and food.

In addition, using a heavy-duty industrial sewing machine, Seth sews backpacks, panniers, and hip bags out of recycled bicycle tubes for their co-op store. The proceeds go to La Bicindad.

Backpack made from used bike tubes in a Mexican bike co-op, illustrating how co-ops raise money for cyclist movements. (Image © Seth Dominguez)

Although funding can be challenging, Seth makes a better wage on bicycle than when he taught English as a Second Language (ESL) to businessmen.

Ernesto Asecas, a coordinator at Casa Bicitekas, explains that his co-op runs off of donations, sales of t-shirts, books, stickers, and fund-raising parties as well as bicycle maintenance work around the city. The t-shirt sums up the co-op’s advocacy mission:

T-shirt created by Casa Bicitekas, a bike co-op that is part of the urban cyclist movement in Mexico City. (Image © Casa Bicitekas)

Time invested and handiwork keep the co-ops pedaling forward.

Bicycles Making the Move

When I started my bicycle tour, I saw the bike as a fun activity or means of commuting, cheap travel, exercise, team sport and racing. After visiting one bike co-op after another in Mexico, I began assigning new meaning to the bicycle: a public opportunity for personal, sustainable and social change.

The hands-on cyclist movement has begun, and it’s open to anyone.

Ride a bike!

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Thank you, Seth, for the interview. Thank you to the bicycle cooperatives in Guadalajara, Toluca, and Mexico City for hosting me along my bicycle tour. Hope to see you all again soon.

Eva Boynton 1 Comment

Adventure Travel/Mexico

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