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Members of Tsobol Antzetik (Women United), a cooperative of Mayan weavers working to support their families by selling their products in the U.S. for fair trade prices.
Photo by Rebecca Wiggins

By Crystal Massey and Rebecca Wiggins

In June of 2010, Sophia’s Circle/Las Cruces Chiapas Connection sent a delegation of four people to the highlands of Chiapas to visit weaving cooperatives. Over a period of two weeks, we listened to their concerns, shared in their laughter and learned about their goals. Following is an account of our visit.

The day was dawning bright and beautiful as 19-year-old Luz strapped on her tumpline, securing an eight-gallon container of water to her back with a band across her forehead supporting its weight. She then quickly set off for home, navigating the foot trails slick with summer rains that led to her house in a small community located in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico.

Getting water from a communal spigot is a chore she performs several times a day. Her home has no running water. In order to wash clothes, bathe and clean, she must carry it from a location near the school. Though Chiapas contains nearly 50 percent of Mexico’s watershed, many indigenous families like Luz’s do not have direct access to clean, potable water and, unless they have water catchment systems, must carry it for long distances.

Luz and her mother are members of Tsobol Antzetik (Women United), a cooperative of Mayan weavers working to support their families by selling their products in the U.S. for fair trade prices. The women of Tsobol Antzetik are artists, breadwinners, active community members, mothers, sisters, daughters, teachers and grandmothers. Some are Abejas (a Catholic social justice organization), and others are members of the support bases of the EZLN (the Zapatista Army of National Liberation). All of these women are part of the resistance, which means they take no handouts from a government they believe is corrupt. They do not participate in traditional politics.

They and many others believe that giving handouts is a strategy used to coerce and control rural communities. Only those who officially support the government receive assistance. Stark reminders of these tactics are visible in the communities we visited. Following Luz back home, we gingerly stepped over pipes carrying water through other families’ corn fields. In addition, in her community a new health clinic is under construction, its modern concrete walls and design a clear indicator of something new and promising. The clinic is part of the government’s anti-poverty program, Oportunidades (Opportunities). According to the World Bank, the program’s focus is to provide aid to rural and urban communities by helping improve the education, health and nutrition of their families. Monthly grants are provided to keep children in school rather than working in the fields, basic health care and preventative care is provided, and nutritional supplements and stipends given out. Because she is part of the resistance, Luz will never have access to this clinic.

Ana is a weaver in the co-op. When we first arrived, her 10-month-old baby had not yet been named. It is common for people in this community to wait at least six months to a year before naming their children, since highly marginalized rural indigenous communities in Chiapas face an infant mortality rate of 75 deaths per 1000. Norma was named three days before her baptism. The government’s solution to high infant mortality: Oportunidades, which Mexican President Calderón describes as an “advance towards combating the poverty suffered by our people and above all, to guarantee better access to health conditions.”

But Oportunidades is described by sociologist Molly Talcott as “…essentially sterilizing women and attempting to contain women’s resistances [sic] by enlisting them in a small cash assistance program, which in these times, is badly needed.” In 2003, a Mexican newspaper reported that health care workers employed by IMSS-Oportunidades, have to meet sterilization quotas. Sixty-one percent of families in Chiapas use Oportunidades.

One of the ways to combat the challenges of living in the resistance is by weaving. Children, women and men often create artisan products to help supplement their family’s income. Every spare minute of each day is spent working on these items, in between preparing food, working in the fields, taking care of children and other household chores. On a typical day Ana gets up at approximately 4 a.m. She goes to the kitchen and grinds corn into nixtamal for tortillas, and puts the beans that have been soaking all night onto the fire to cook. When there is a break during the day, Ana weaves. She usually works until 9 p.m., at which point the family gathers around the fire in the kitchen for the evening meal, talking and laughing until it is time to go to bed.

Las Cruces Chiapas Connection, an organization based in this border-area community, helps sell co-op members’ products by finding markets in the United States. The income generated by sales helps people remain on their lands and feed their families. It also provides an economic alternative for young men and women who often see migration as their only option. NAFTA and other development projects have displaced thousands of Mexicans, making it difficult for people to earn a living. Luz’s husband is currently working in Cancun, Mexico, in order to provide for his new family. She has not seen him in over nine months.

Juan, Ana’s son, finished sixth grade and worked for several months picking coffee with an uncle away from home. He hated it. He missed his family and his community. When he came back home a friend told him about a weaver in Acteal who was taking on apprentices. He worked for six months winding thread onto bobbins and three-and-a-half years as an apprentice. By January of 2010 he had the 6,000 pesos necessary to buy a loom of his own. He hopes that his weaving will contribute to his family’s income.

Chiapas, rich in natural resources, has long been a target for development by the Mexican government and foreign investors. Under the administration of Vicente Fox, Plan Puebla Panamá (PPP) was unveiled. Originating in 2001, the plan called for massive development and infrastructure projects, including a super highway running from southern Mexico to Colombia. It was received with resistance from various groups claiming that corporations were favored over people and that the region’s biodiversity would be ruined. Mexican Energy Secretary Georgina Kessel has announced plans to begin drilling for oil in the Lacandón Rainforest, home to several indigenous communities, many of whom are in the resistance. A report cited by Kessel estimates that 17,000 new wells could produce over 500,000 barrels per day by 2021.

In 2008 PPP was renamed as the Mesoamerica Project (MP). Officially, the MP promotes integration and development, focusing on energy, trade, sustainable development, tourism and transportation. Unofficially, MP calls for the removal of indigenous people from their lands in order to open them for capitalist development projects. In 2009 regional security was added as a key component of MP. This has led to increased military presence which in turn is used to quell social unrest.

Ana’s husband is worried about being forcibly moved off his land and put into a “rural city.” He fears that young people will lose their traditions because their identities are tied to the land. Former President Fox estimated that 80 percent of rural residents of southern Mexico would have to relocate for PPP to be successful. The government promotes “sustainable rural cities” as models of development complete with educational facilities, electricity and running water. Dr. Japhy Wilson tells us that “once relocated in the rural cities, the ‘dispersed population’ of the Chiapas peasantry will no longer [be able to] dedicate itself to self-sufficient production in the milpa, …instead [they will become landless laborers working for] large-scale agroindustrial plantations. These ‘intensive plantations’ will include commercial forests, tropical fruits and flowers, biofuels, cacao, and coffee. The strategy is perfectly consistent with the Plan Puebla Panamá.”

Indigenous communities in the heart of Chiapas are already organizing against the Mesoamerica Project. They are no strangers to resistance, and know the consequences of standing up to the government and paramilitary groups. In 1997, 45 women, men and children of Las Abejas were massacred as they prayed and fasted in church to end the violence in their community. Paramilitary groups sanctioned by the government to squash the rebellion of Zapatistas and their sympathizers committed the murders. Though some arrests were made, perpetrators were released by the federal courts in 2009. Nevertheless, Las Abejas has a march planned for sometime in the fall, where they will walk from their headquarters in Acteal to the government center in San Cristobal.

Being part of the resistance has brought a renewed sense of dignity to the indigenous people in Chiapas. It is a difficult life, but a proud one as well. Father Marcelo, the first indigenous priest in the region, told us that he was glad we had come because he thinks we can learn from indigenous peoples who have a special relationship with Mother Earth that others need to emulate if we are to avoid self-destruction as a species.

To learn more about PPP, MP and “rural cities” visit www.ciepac.org, bulletins 560, 561 and 562. See also www.lascruceschiapasconnection.com. For more on Oportunidades, http://geo-mexico.com/?tag=social-geography., INEGI 2005, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición “Salvador Zubrán” UNICEF, http://www.banderasnews.com/1006/hbmesoamerica2015.htm .

Crystal Massey is a graduate student of Human Rights and Democracy at the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales in Mexico City, mother, wife, teacher and advocate for human rights.

Rebecca Wiggins is a doctoral student at UTEP, and a member of Las Cruces Chiapas Connection.

Commentary

By Steve Fischmann
Adding new electric generating capacity is expensive.  Data from New Mexico’s largest electric utility, PNM, shows that it costs $150 per megawatt hour to add new natural gas power generating capacity, $140 to add coal power, $130 for nuclear, and $85  for wind.  New generation is so costly that whenever new capacity is added electric rates go up.

By contrast, installation of energy efficiency measures costs about $20 dollars per megawatt- hour saved according to PNM.  In other words, electric consumers save somewhere between 75% and 87% when we invest in efficiency rather than building new electric plants.  Efficiency also largely eliminates the pollution, health, noise, and landscape impacts that come with new power generation.

Energy efficiency should be an equal partner with renewable development in our policies, but currently gets short shrift.  New Mexico Law requires that 20% of our year 2020 power generation from investor owned utilities come from renewable technologies, but asks for only a 10% improvement in energy efficiency during the same time period.

It’s easy to see how this came to pass.  The cost of wasting energy seems inconsequential for years until consumers are hit with the cost of a half billion dollar generating facility to meet growing demand.   We are lulled into complacency.  In contrast, the cost of implementing efficiency measures hits immediately.  Locked in a cycle of false economy, we balk at making the two dollar efficiency investment today and instead are forced into a ten dollar generation investment tomorrow.

We can dramatically improve adoption of energy efficiency without expensive government programs, or raising overall utility rates.  All it takes are revenue neutral changes in the way we charge for power.  Water utilities in El Paso, Santa Fe, and to a lesser degree Las Cruces have all experienced success using this strategy to reduce water usage.  It is time we applied the same common sense to our gas and electric utilities.

Power companies have historically charged lower rates to high usage customers.  The theory was that it is less expensive per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to service big consumers.  If you look a few years out that theory falls apart.  That profligate neighbor down the street who runs the air conditioner with the windows open, and never turns off the lights or the TV, is the same guy who makes it necessary to add expensive new electric generation.  In return for his low bills, that guy costs everyone else a bundle.  To add insult to injury, the low cost of wasting electricity has given home builders and appliance makers little incentive to design efficient products.  That has further inflated our energy bills.

Three pricing strategies for residential customers have the power to drive market based energy efficiency that will result in lower future utility bills.

Inclining Block Rates:  An example of this billing model would be charging residences 10 cents per kWh for the first 400 KWH of monthly power usage, 20 cents for the next 400 kWh,  and 30 cents per KWH for any additional usage.  While total billings would be no higher than charging a flat 20 cent rate, the savings for eliminating high cost usage above 800 kWh makes adopting efficiency measures very attractive.  Installing sun shades, CFL lighting, and efficient appliances suddenly becomes a fast payback.  And that guy down the street?  Odds are he will stop running his air conditioner with the windows open.

Decoupling:  This strategy has been implemented successfully in twelve states.  Utilities currently earn more money the more power they sell.  This has encouraged marketing practices that entice consumers to use more electricity.  Decoupling allows regulators to tie utility revenues to the number of residential customers served -rather than kWh delivered- through a monthly billing adjustment.  This gives utilities the opportunity to earn just as much money by selling fewer kWh, insulates consumers from big swings in energy costs during unusually hot or cold years, and maintains a stable bottom line that allows utilities to continue reliable service.

Eliminating Fixed Monthly Charges:  If my monthly electrical bill is $80, but $20 comes via a fixed monthly charge, my efficiency efforts can only affect the remaining $60 on my bill.  The fixed charge penalizes consumers who conserve electricity by effectively charging them more per KWH consumed.  It also puts a bigger burden on low income consumers.  Since the data tells us energy efficiency is the surest route to minimizing monthly utility bills and long term prices, regulators should require utilities to minimize fixed monthly charges and tie all charges to energy use instead.  Better yet, eliminate fixed monthly charges altogether.

The good news is that utilities such as PNM and El Paso Electric are more amenable to implementing inclining rates and decoupling than they have been in the past.  The bad news is that they threaten to undo the benefits of these strategies by pushing for higher fixed monthly charges.
The Public Regulation Commission can help contain utility price increases, improve our environment, and put money in your pocket by requiring implementation of all three pricing strategies.  Adopting phased in implementation of these strategies in annual increments would give utilities and consumers time to adapt while giving regulators an opportunity to adjust to any implementation surprises.   It is the best favor the commission can do for New Mexicans and our economy.

Steve Fischmann is State Senator for District 37, and chair of the interim Science and Technology Committee.

Local

LAS CRUCES, N.M. -

New Mexico State University has a long history of working with researchers at the National Solar Observatory, from supplying graduate students to work at the facility to collaborating on grants and research projects. ow it wants to make Las Cruces the headquarters for those efforts.

Currently, the NSO is using $280 million from the National Science Foundation to build a telescope in Hawaii that will be the biggest solar instrument in the world when it is completed by 2016. Operation of the telescope will largely be run remotely.

Over the next few years, NSO will consolidate its operations at a university campus, and NMSU is poised to make its case that those operations should make a home at its Las Cruces campus.

“The relocation of the NSO headquarters to New Mexico would enhance the view other people have of our state”, said Bernie McNamara, project manager. “It would demonstrate New Mexico’s interest in scientific research and clearly show that the state is willing to invest in projects that provide long-term benefits to its citizens. Several of the university’s educational departments would also benefit through the willingness of NSO scientists and engineers to teach in their programs. Students would have access to world-class mentors.”

The primary goal of the NSO is to study the sun and its effects on the Earth. Researchers at the observatory are interested in the origin, evolution and operation of this dynamic star.

NSO is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.

AURA runs two world-class observing facilities, one at Sacramento Peak in Sunspot, N. M., and the other at Kitt Peak, in Tucson, Ariz.

The observatories are responsible for the ground base-observing program for solar astronomy, data collection and research of the sun.

“The NSO also operates a global network of six telescopes distributed around the globe so that it is never in darkness; they are spaced so researchers can continuously view the sun,” said Jason Jackiewicz, an assistant professor of astronomy.

Hawaii was chosen as the site for the new telescope because of its optimal observing conditions. The telescope, Jackiewicz said, will have the ability to study the smallest spatial features on the sun. With a 4-meter mirror, this instrument will be three times the size of any current solar telescope. Five instruments on the telescope will simultaneously collect data at all times.

Because of the high-tech capabilities this new telescope will possess, the facilities in New Mexico and Arizona will no longer be needed and will either close or have their operations significantly reduced.

Several areas of New Mexico State would benefit from the work being done at NSO including the colleges of Business, Engineering, Education, and Arts and Sciences. Faculty and researchers are working on a proposal to convince AURA that NMSU is the ideal place to house their operations.

Proposals are due in December and AURA will announce its decision in 2011.

This year, the New Mexico Legislature signed a joint memorial expressing support for the consolidation of the NSO staff in the state.

“I am thrilled that the project is going forward to bring a center for the NSO here,” said Barbara Couture, president of NMSU. “I think we have every right to be a leader in that effort, and I know that we will be good partners with other research universities along with the National Solar Observatory, with the national laboratories and with businesses and the industry as they start learning how this research is going to be beneficial to us all. I’m very, very excited that New Mexico State University is taking a lead on this project.”

The estimated cost of the building is between $6 million and $8 million. McNamara said there is very little risk to the state in asking for this funding because if the project is not awarded, the funds will be returned to the state. If NMSU’s proposal is accepted, the state would be able to recoup its investment, plus interest, over a short period of time. The university would then continue to earn money from the building’s lease.

If NMSU is awarded the proposal, change will happen slowly because the completion of the Hawaiian telescope is still some years away, Jackiewicz said. Until that day arrives, the other NSO sites will need to be maintained. He said the goal would be to have the completion of the new facility in Las Cruces coincide with the completion of the telescope.

“It’s not a slam dunk, but New Mexico can make a compelling case for NSO to be here,” McNamara said. “In the final analysis, all we can do is put forth our best proposal. We just want to make sure that we’ve done everything we can to make sure that the benefits New Mexico is offering to this relocation effort are well explained.”

Border

By Margaret Markham

In the continuing uproar over health care reform, there’s been scarcely a mention of today’s far from ideal state of child health care — with needy children still faring the worst. Nowhere is this more so than for those with mental illness, claims bestselling author Judith Warner in her new book, We’ve Got Issues (Penguin Group, NY).

Despite advances in treating and educating such challenged youngsters, there still are “millions of children in our country who are suffering from mental disorders,” notes Warner, formerly Newsweek’s Paris correspondent. She blames the dilemma on the fact that “progress has been betrayed by both commercial interests and political compliance.”

Warner minces no words about what’s driving the mental health care of kids today. She points to “the bottom line cost control measures decided upon by health insurance companies.”

Her extensive research, the author relates, awakened her to the realization,  “There are virtually no guidelines, no gatekeepers other than the insurance companies, who essentially create protocols for care according to what they will pay for. The net result is that parents feel they’re all alone, navigating an all but non-existent child mental healthcare system.”

Perhaps the most hotly contested debate in child psychiatry today, Warner writes, is whether there are, in fact, more bipolar children now or whether large numbers of children are just inappropriately diagnosed with this disorder and accordingly medicated.

Over the past two decades, in the most serious cases insurance companies have stopped paying for long-term inpatient care for mentally ill children. As a result, psychiatric hospitals have been steadily closing, and residential treatment programs for the most difficult children, where tuition is most often paid with public funds, are packed. Now that more children are being diagnosed than ever before with learning disabilities and other mental health needs, many states can’t keep up with the demand for services.

It can cost up to $150,000 a year to educate a child with extreme special needs, Warner reports. She cites a 2007 survey disclosing how hundreds of thousands of Texas kids don’t get needed special ed services “because the state just isn’t doing its job in reaching out to identify them.”

Special education is mandated by federal law, guaranteeing to all children regardless of the kind of disability the right to “a free, appropriate education.” Nonetheless, that rightful aid has never been adequately funded.

Worse still, as the demand for such identified services has been steadily rising, school budgets are pinched to meet that challenge. Accordingly, school administrators tend to switch funds from other programs to comply with the legal demands of special education pupils. In a recent study, two thirds of children with ADHD who got top-notch care improved so much that their behavior was within normal bounds. On the other hand, Warner found in an interview with Peter Jensen, former associate director of child and adolescent research at the National Institute of Mental Health, those under less adequate health care fared far worse.

Children with similar disorders but under less-privileged circumstances in their own communities, where they saw pediatricians only about twice a year but got some kind of therapy and “haphazard medications” from their regular doctors, were far from a most favorable outcome.

Warner also cites a 2008 survey by Newsday which disclosed five times as many students labeled “autistic” in affluent areas of Long Island as in less well-off communities.

How come?

“New York State’s push to expand special education help for autistic children had pretty much entirely passed by those disadvantaged community children,” she writes.

On top of that, the author notes, “Poorer children who were not being taken for regular pediatrician visits were not getting diagnosed early. And poor and minority children were still being classified as mentally retarded.”

In the view of the author, “There is much about our current culture of childhood and the climate of contemporary family life generally that should raise alarms.” To make matters worse, Warner cautions, “Children with mental disorders have become pawns in much wider adult conflicts.” These include disputes about psychology versus psychiatry, about education and competition, and even about the very nature of childhood and what’s generally viewed as the sorry state of modern parenting.

To be sure, today’s cultural climate often leaves parents “utterly isolated,” and even now with more help available than ever before, “parents still feel lost… families are still stigmatized, and our society is still not doing all it can to give children with mental health challenges the childhood they deserve.”

Margaret Markham, an award-winning science writer and editor, has lived in Las Cruces for 30 years and last year was honored by the City of Las Cruces, which proclaimed Margaret Markham Day on Sept. 8, 2009 in recognition of “her life contributions and achievements.”

Environment

Richardson’s Executive Order Bans Two Inhumane Traps
In a bold move to protect endangered Mexican wolves, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson today issued an executive order that prohibits leghold and body-crushing traps within the Mexican wolf recovery area in New Mexico.
The order bans commercial and recreational trapping in this area by private persons for a six-month period beginning on November 1, 2010; requires the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish to undertake a study of which traps and trapping methods most threaten wolves; and directs the NM Department of Tourism to undertake a study on potential economic benefits of lobo-related ecotourism.
Conservation groups and a Game Commissioner applaud Governor Richardson’s action, which demonstrates strong leadership at a crucial moment for the Mexican wolf program.  Experts agree the program is in crisis, largely due to illegal killings. At least 14 Mexican gray wolves have been harmed by private traps set throughout the recovery area.  Two of the wolves had their legs amputated as a result.  12 of the 14 wolves were trapped in New Mexico.  The other two were trapped in Arizona, which has banned public lands trapping since 1994.
Studies show that animals captured in body-gripping traps endure physiological trauma, dehydration, exposure, and predation.  Animals that have been trapped and then released may sustain tissue damage and other injuries that can reduce their survivability, or increase the likelihood of their preying on domestic livestock because they are easier prey than native wildlife.
In June, WildEarth Guardians, the Sierra Club, and the Southwest Environmental Center petitioned federal agencies, requesting an emergency halt to all trapping and snaring on the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Forest Service have not responded to the groups’ request.

Please thank the Governor
Governor Richardson has been a champion for wolves throughout his time in office, more so than any other western governor. Please take a moment to let him know that you appreciate his efforts.  Call his office at (505) 476-2200 or send him an email (via his staff) at fran.lucero@state.nm.us. Tell him:
Thank you for issuing an executive order banning traps in the Mexican wolf recovery area to protect wolves from accidental trapping

Thank you for being a champion for Mexican wolves throughout your time in office.
And tell the next governor…
Unfortunately for wolves, Governor Richardson will be leaving office in six months. When you send an email, please cc the two candidates for Governor so they know how much people care about Mexican wolves:
Diane Denish info@dianedenish.com
Susanna Martinez info@susana2010.com
After you contact the Governor, please let us know you did by sending quick email to paul@wildmesquite.org. Our goal is to make sure he hears from at least 100 people. You can read the Governor’s Executive Order here <http://www.wildmesquite.org/news/trapping-wolf-recovery-area-banned/072810> .

Eat great food, help a great cause:
SWEC night at Andele Restaurante—Sunday, August 15
Do you like to eat great Mexican food?  Wish you could do more to support SWEC’s conservation work?  Now you can do both at the same time.
On Sunday evening, August 15, Andele Restaurante in Mesilla, NM will donate 10% of sales to SWEC. If you’ve never been to Andele, it’s one of the best Mexican restaurants around. (I recommend the green enchiladas!) So treat yourself, family and friends to dinner out  while helping to raise money for a great cause. Don’t forget the date: Sunday, August 15.
Andele is located at Avenida de Mesilla and Calle del Norte in the Town of Mesilla. Check out Andele’s menu here <http://www.andelerestaurante.com/> . For more information, call 575-522-5552.

Southwest Environmental Center to hold rummage sale
We’re reviving a tradition–the annual SWEC “Recycled Goods” rummage sale–to be held on Saturday, August 21, 7 am to 1 pm, at a location to be determined (hopefully downtown near SWEC). Do you have items in good condition you no longer want? We’d love to take them off your hands. Please call us at 575-522-5552.