This post will have little to do with electronic waste. I had the opportunity to spend 8 days in Mexico this past week, four in Aguascalientes (population close to 100,000) and 4 in Mexico City (one of the largest cities in the world). This was a family vacation for my uncle’s wedding, not sitting on the beach sipping strawberry margaritas. I had the opportunity to really see Mexico and what life is like and I can honestly say that there are too many things I take for granted, flushing the toilet for example. There is not enough water pressure in the public water and sewer systems for the toilets to flush toilet paper. The paper goes in a little waste basket next to the toilet. That took some getting used to and it wasn’t just the house we stayed in. Most public bathrooms did not even have toilet paper available. I knew enough not to drink the water and there was a case of bottled water for our family to drink. Recycling is a way of life for us but in Aguascalientes everything is thrown away. There is no curbside recycling program. My uncle told us that people do not pay homeowner’s taxes until their property is complete. Most homes we saw had pieces of rebar jutting out of the roof as a way to avoid paying taxes, less tax revenue meant a struggling infrastructure which we saw everywhere we went.
I live in the country on a 40 plus acre farm. Everywhere we went from Aguascalientes to Mexico City, houses were built either touching each other or with less than a foot of space in between. There was maybe a 3 foot patch of green grass in front of the house but many families used that space to park their vehicles. I thought gas was relatively cheap in Mexico around $1.80/gallon. We saw only one brand of gas, Pemex, which is owned and operated by the Mexican government. My uncle’s new family operates a series of private schools, one in Aguascalientes, one in Pachuca, and one in Mexico City. All three schools teach courses in English and Spanish. The mother of the family grew frustrated with the lack of accountability within the Mexican public schools and developed a private school first in Mexico City. With violence growing in Mexico City and fear for their safety, the family moved to Aguascalientes about 10 years ago and built a private elementary school there. The school in Pachuca is also for elementary age students (they start kindergarten when children are only 3 years old!). I flipped through a workbook for the kindergarten class and they are learning things American students won’t learn until the 2nd or 3rd grade!
My uncle’s niece was our tour guide for our visit; she is attending college and will study abroad in Spain next semester working on a degree in Public Relations. I asked her what her feelings were regarding the Zapatista. She honestly felt they no longer existed. She explained that she felt the Mexican government used the Zapatistas as a scapegoat, blaming domestic issues on the Zapatistas, if the economy was bad it was because of the Zapatistas for example. When they first came out she felt they were fighting for good things, workers’ rights and less government control but felt their existence had faded, along with their power.
My grandparents (in their 80s) and I hiked to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun (The third largest in the world) which was built by the Aztecs. We toured the National Museum of Anthropology within the Chapultepec Park in Mexico City. We also saw the basaltic prisms in Hidalgo. It was an adventure to say the least!
