Deal all,

Below you will find two letters written by Emilie
Smith, an Anglican priest and activist who went to
Oaxaca last week.   I am sending you these letters
because I think they provide a compelling and
unconventional view of a social struggle that is
overflowing with hope, pain, and politics.  Emilie
lives in Vancouver and has been involved in solidarity
work in Latin America for many years.  These letters
were originally written to people in the Vancouver
solidarity community and are shared here with Emilie's
permission.  Only names have been changed.    

NB: 
APPO: Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca
CIPO: Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxaca, Ricardo
Flores Magón

If you want to learn more, there has been a lot
written about Oaxaca in the alternative and not so
alternative press recently.  Democracy Now has
produced some excellent pieces over the last few
weeks, and for those who read Spanish, the Jornada
newspaper in Mexico has daily coverage.  
 
Kevin Gould
University of British Columbia
Department of Geography

*****************************************************
Report from Oaxaca #2

Dear Friends,

Mission accomplished!   My friend Maria fell asleep in
the middle of 
a 
meeting my first night here, and we had to practically
carry her to 
bed.  
That was her first good sleep in many, many, many
weeks.  Esperanza too says 
that 
she feels so relaxed that I'm here.  Juan even came
home from the 
barricades and had a shower!  Doña Emilia's daughter
got married today, 
and 
she couldn't change the date or anything, so I've just
come back from a 
very 
interesting wedding feast featuring some very good
mole, and dances 
which 
involved smashing crockery, and two men leaping around
with live 
turkeys 
stabbing at people while candy and oranges and sugar
cane were thrown 
into 
the air.  Very fun and surreal in the middle of all
this,  so what is 
'this', anyway . . .

Escaped Mexico City as soon as I could.  There were
two army roadblocks 
before our bus even got to Oaxaca city.  Trained in
Guatemala to eat my 
heart out at army road blocks, I was surprised when we
sailed through.  
Three Zapotec boys from the Sierra Juarez picked me up
at the bus 
station in 
the CIPO truck and we bumped through town, past army
vehicles and 
police 
anti-riot squads, past enormous hulks of burned out
buses and cars, and 
destroyed barricades.  The CIPO house is only blocks
away from where 
Brad 
Will, the U.S. journalist was shot and killed by
paramilitaries.  Dario 
and 
Juan were with him when he died, and I spent about an
hour on the 
phone my 
first night with a reporter from the Village Voice
translating between 
her 
and Dario.  It is truly horrible to hear first hand
what happened, and 
to 
see how exhuasted people are.  I'm trying not to get
too tired and worn 
out, 
so that I can help others out.  So far that's not
working too well, as 
I'm 
still trying to get used to everything.  Morning
Prayer helps, in the 
sun, 
out behind the house in a little chair with chickens
running around.

The next day was the first day of the Founding
Congress  of APPO, the 
Popular Assembly of the Oaxacan people.  APPO formed
after the first 
government repression against the teachers on June
14th, but have had 
provisional leadership up until now.  Nov. 10, 11, 12
are the days for 
this 
rather remarkable gathering.  Imagine feeding 1,500
people, with not 
much 
fuss.  (Í'm not going to say a word about the bathroom
situation).  
THere 
are huge lineups all morning to register.  Day one a
truck pulls up 
with 
bags full of boiled chayote (vegetable) and totopos
(giant dried 
tortillas). 
  Yum, yum (really!)  But it was Friday, so I was
fasting.  The inner 
working of the APPO congress is not my job to
describe.  It is 
incredibly 
complex, and in many ways dominated by traditional
leftist forces, 
leaving 
my friends who are struggling for indigenous autonomy,
not political 
party 
power, somewhat on the margin.  As usual they are like
leaven in the 
loaf 
and serve to inspire and challenge other ways of
thinking.  I was asked 
to 
give a greeting from Canada, and to talk about the
delegation that we 
are 
organizing under a new group organizing in Vancouver,
GATO, Oaxaca 
Support 
Working Group.  My message was well received, as the
Oaxacans are 
relieved 
to hear that others outside their state are listening.

Extremely long meetings are not my forte, so joy of
joys, I joined a 
delegation of the outgoing provisional council to
greet a caravan of 
indigenous leaders from Chiapas that was coming up for
the weekend.  I 
can't 
begin to describe this experience, but I'll try.  For
two days 250 
Tzotzil 
women and men travel, standing up in the back of
pickup trucks the 
whole 
way.  They are fasting the whole while, and praying
for peace in 
Oaxaca.  We 
go to Mass at the Soledad church in Oaxaca, and the
woman reading the 
message from the communities totally outdoes the
Bishop in eloquence 
and 
power.  I ask the Bishop for his blessing, and I think
he was startled, 
but 
then okay with that.  Outside the church the Tzotzil's
performed a 
Mayan 
ritual, and the Bishop swayed and danced (rather
awkwardly).  Back to 
the 
CIPO house for more meetings, emails, break my fast at
around 1am with 
black 
beans and black sweet coffee and then crashing on my
petate (straw mat) 
until the next day.

that would be today, although that seems so very long
ago that it's 
hard to 
believe.  Today more boring meetings, but I sat below
Maria and she 
braided 
my hair and I coloured a rainbow dragon in my
notebook.  We want to get 
a 
black dog for CIPOhouse and call it El Dragon.  So
again at midday the 
Chiapanecos, who live in indigenous autonomous
communities, came to the 
APPO 
Congress, amazingly dropped off two pickup trucks of
food to feed 
people 
with during the meeting, at the remaining  barricades,
etc.  And  then 
they, 
with me in tow again, headed off on a two hour
procession through the 
streets of Oaxaca.  They were still fasting, and it
was hot and we 
walked, 
women on one side, men on the other, for blocks and
blocks with 
Oaxacans 
clapping, and many crying to see such a sign of love. 
All of the city 
is 
occupied, but especially the central square, the
Zocalo.  There is no 
civilian movement allowed there, even the cathedral's
shut down.  So we 
arrive at the permanent police line.  The elders speak
at length with 
the 
police and suddenly the lines are opening up, and we
are squeezing 
through 
two nasty looking tanks and then along the deserted
street, lined with 
very, 
very scary police in full riot gear, down to these
wierd pads covering 
their 
legs and feet, all with plexiglass sheilds and faces
of stone.  We go 
all 
the way to the steps of the cathedral where we engage
in songs and 
prayers, 
much kneeling on stone (I'm glad I'm an
Anglo-Catholic).  This goes on 
for 
at least an hour, and much to my deep honour, at the
end the Mayan 
elder 
asked me if I would come and say a closing prayer.  So
on the steps of 
the 
cathedral steps this mild-mannered Anglican priest
basically stole from 
her 
All Saints Day Sermon, and prayed to our God, the God
of Life who 
created 
heaven and earth, prayed for those who build God's
Kingdom on earth, 
for the 
martyrs who have died for the love of God, and then
reminded the grey 
police 
who ringed the ring of beautiful Mayans that they are
sons of this same 
God, 
and owe Him primary allegience.   We then processed
out of this circle 
of 
death, back on to the streets.  I decided I'd had
enough, and slipped 
out, 
and home, to write and rest, sad that I didn't know
how to get to the 
aforementioned wedding.  Then Tito's son stopped by on
his way to that 
wedding so I got to go after all.  And that was just
today.

Tomorrow is the final day for the APPO congress, and
the chiapanecos 
are 
going home, so I won't be able to escape with them. 
As nothing really 
doesn't begin until around 12 anyway, I'll try to find
an early mass 
somewhere.  Things have been rather quiet.  (Only one
shooting at a 
barricade, strange what goes for quiet.)  But this
week the Federal 
government has given the governor an ultimatum: 
govern or else.  The 
teacher's, exhausted, seem to be planning to return to
school, but 
really 
it's anyone's guess.  THere are still scattered
barricades up, and the 
University is still in APPO hands, and the radio. 
We'll see.  In the 
meantime, I'm planning to meet with lots and lots of
human rights and 
church 
and everything else groups.  The Anglican priest in
town seems to have 
returned to the states, but during the Congress, a
really nice guy from 
a 
small town came up and told me he was an Anglican, and
he gave me his 
priest's name and said that they are doing lots of
work.  Oh goody, 
goody!

The CIPO pickup truck just beeped outside the
compound, everyone's home 
(or 
at the barricade) safe for the night.  We're off to
the outside kitchen 
for 
a dinner (it's around 11pm) of green beans and eggs
and black beans and 
black sweet coffee, and then one last planning meeting
for tomorrow, 
and 
then my lovely, lovely petate.  Bye all, I'll keep you
all posted.  
Thanks 
again for your prayers and support.  I don't mind
finding notes from my 
beloved in my in box, sometimes I'm sad and a little
lonely, and I wish 
I 
could eat some Vancouver food.

love emilie

p.s.  thought for the night:  always leave your
toothbrush in its 
little 
baggy.  Two GIANT dragon-sized cockroaches are perched
on the 
toothbrushes 
in the bathroom and sitting there pretending to be
invisible -- brown 
on 
pink.  It's not working, especially with those little
feelers wiggling.

*******************************************************
Oaxaca Report #1

Dear Friends,

I sawed the tip of my right index finger off in my
friend Tom's 
kitchen 
last night, and thus turned the Pico de Gallo into a
ceviche de dedo de 
Emilie, and now it's hard to type.  But that is as
about as exciting as 
it 
gets so far.  I arrived the night before last and
yesterday was very, 
very 
busy.  I met with people from Serapaz (Don Samuel's
working group), the 
Political Advisor from the Canadian Embassy, various
human rights 
groups, 
with the teacher's union here in the captal city, also
I went to the 
APPO 
occupation in front of the Senate building where I met
with lots of 
Oaxacan 
teachers and their supporters, and with a number of
indigenous groups 
etc.  
The stickers are very popular, Jefe!  Today I'm
continuing to meet with 
human rights groups and with the guys at La Jornada,
who's been 
publishing 
so much of our stuff lately.  Basically it seems to be
another calm 
before 
the storm moment.  Highways were blocked between
Oaxaca and Mexico 
City.  
Today there is a massive visiting of embassies,
tomorrow a big 
demonstration 
and Saturday a caravan of up to 80 buses and many more
cars to Oaxaca, 
from 
all over the country.  I'll keep you all informed. 
Much love, and 
thanks 
for your love and prayers.

Emilie





 
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