Fran was born in the district of Cuicatlan in the
southern Cañada region in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, a mountainous area covering 4,300 square km. The Cañada, named after a hot low canyon that links the
Valley of Oaxaca to the south with the
Valley of Tehuacán in
Puebla, was the major Precolumbian route between the two valleys. It was conquered and controlled by the early
Zapotec state based on
Monte Albán at some time around 300 BC.
...and what is most amazing to a Oaxacan archeology nerd like me, is that it is thought that the the original inhabitants of Oaxaca actually walked through this canyon to populate the Valley of Oaxaca!!!
Her village, San Pedro Cuyaltepec, is situated in the municipality of San Juan Tepeuxila of which her uncle is now the President (this position rotates). According to a source on the web, Cuyaltepec has 646 inhabitants, though Fran thinks it is more like 2,000, and it stands at 6,800 feet above sea level.
Her village was populated in the early 1600s when the Spanish conquerors displaced everyone living at a more fertile and advantageous location. They destroyed the original village and created a prosperous finca or ranch that still grows coffee and other crops. This older location may be where the community still has rights to a plot of land...I will check on this.
Education in her village is limited to elementary school. Students who want to attend beyond that (and there are few) have to make complicated arrangements with relatives or strangers to let them live with them during the week, and then return home to their parents on the weekend. If they want to go to high school, they have to move to a village 4 hours away and live independently. That's what Fran did. Though she is only 23, she has lived on her own for 7 years on nothing but her wits.
There is only one person (other than Fran) in her village that speaks Spanish. Fran has told me that if a Spanish speaking stranger arrives in town -- a rare occurrence, everyone scurries home and hides to avoid them.
Women in the village are often married at age 14 and start having children. By their mid-twenties they may have 3-5 children who they can barely feed. Between the lack of nutrition, the hard work, and continuous childbearing the young women are often unhealthy -- with dry hair that falls out, rough and blotchy skin, and bad teeth. Many villagers have teeth missing. There is no medical or dental care close to the village, and no one can afford it anyway.
The men in the village are uneducated and mostly "borrochos" (drunks). Some of the women are drunks too. I will ask Fran to clarify, but I suspect that they make their own alcohol.
Family food is gathered from the land, not bought in a store. Each villager has at least one plot of land, though they may have to walk an hour or more to get to it. There is also communal land that all the villagers are entitled to use -- but that is a seven-hour walk away. This distant plot is fertile and planted with fruit and coffee, but it is too far away to carry much back to the village. If they walk there, they have to spend the night on the ground, and there are many poisonous snakes there.
There are no animals like chickens or goats allowed within the town's limits and most people are too poor to own animals anyway. Fran's father has spent 200 pesos on a chicken someone brought from Oaxaca. I don't imagine he's done that more than once.
It is a mystery, as always, why some people look around them and can't accept their condition, or the future it implies. Fran was one of those people. She left of village of extreme poverty and suffering with nothing but her youthful energy and intelligence, and so far she seems to be doing just great. Her supervisors at work promoted her more quickly than her workmates and treat her very well. Her teachers at the Learning Center can see how serious and intelligent she is, and go out of their way to help her. I don't know where she learned her organizational and people skills, but she has more of them that most people I know. In other words, no one has to tell her what to do and when to do it. She knows how to buckle down, how and when to take a break, and how to ask for help. She will go far!
Here are some photos of the country around her village, and her village. All are very recent except the one dated 2009.
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| Fran's little brother (right) and a friend walking on the main road through Cuyaltepec |
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| Distant view of Cuyaltepec |
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| Street running behind the Municipal Building. Fran's house is out of sight to the right... |
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| New road running into town. Fran once walked all night, alone, on trails to get to her village when she was dropped off on the closest main road. |
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| Fran's uncle, currently serving as the municipal president stands near his truck. Indigenous communities rotate responsibilities every year (i.e. her father was just assigned to take care of the church, ring the bell, help out the priest.) Three years ago five villagers died, including a pregnant woman, when this truck capsized on a narrow curve. Anyone who owns a truck is automatically a main source of transport for the population as their is no public transportation. |
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| The countryside around Cuyaltepec |
