HOW I CHOSE MY TOPIC:

A topic I have always been interested in further understanding has been the topic of women and what they bring to life.   I grew up in a family of one dad and the rest girls.  I know, I know I have heard it all before, “What does your father think of a family of five girls in the household?”, “Is the dog a female too?”,  or even “oh, poor father. , What does your dad do, to escape that.” Fortunately, I have an extraordinarily kind father, and he responds with the sweetest of all smiles. I am the third sister in the line of ducklings my mother and father have created.  I have heard enough feminine advice to fulfill many life times of emotions.    Within my family I have a my understanding of the lives of women, but this knowledge has only so far extended within the life I have lived in Vermont.

 

Before I had arrived in Oaxaca I had witnessed women working together in a variety of different community group settings.  I used to work at a church back in my home in Oregon.  The Youth Peace and Justice group at my church was run by three older women working together to help discuss with the younger generation what it means to live in a community, and what it means to bring peace and justice into the world.  Outside the church group my family has had a variety of family friends around, or even coming to visit our home for awhile. Over my lifetime I have also gained many female friends of many different backgrounds.  I think women are all completely unique and beautiful, but we all have one similarity: we know our own secrets.  Whether we are beautiful, strong, intelligent, magical and mysterious, passionate, sensitive, creative and talented, or humorous we all know how to play our own unique cards. These characteristics can work both to our advantages and disadvantages.  I have wondered, because I have been apart of women group dynamics, how might my perception of female communities here differ.  Even the characteristics of the women is most likely different from my perceptions on women in the community I had worked.

 

I want to explore first hand how the women in Oaxaca function in communities and society.  I want to discover what it is they see in themselves and each other.  I could do this by meeting with women in Oaxaca. I have been wondering how it is they actually cook; some of this interest comes from hopes to discover traditional methods the women have developed and their stories.  I have always found my individual story an unique experience.  Dancing in high school I discovered a love and passion for choreography. The women I met, through dance in high school, demonstrated the ways of presenting strength and energy through the flow of a day. The community of dancers I had worked with may relate to how the women in the villages of Oaxaca communicate and work with one another. 

 

Within my visit to Oaxaca Mexico I find that the women are the most influential pieces of Oaxacan culture.  The indigenous women of Oaxaca own the markets, run the homes and kitchens, and take care of the children, for these reasons the women are an inspiration to us all.  When I had visited Santa Ana de Valle I witnessed the visible strength these women represented by simply observing their presences.  The first day we visited the  women’s weaving group we were visiting gratefully demonstrated their work to us.  This was a great representation of women's roll in Oaxaca culture; each process that was shown was completed with intent, concentration, and care, which was watched with respect.  As these women explained their work they stood with patient and strong presences.  It appeared to me they had kept a strong relationship and connection to the earth, their work, and the materials they used which may have been passed down to them by their indigenous ancestors. Yes, this idea might be a bit romanticized on the lives of these women, but what is the good life?  They for sure demonstrate a life of dignity.  

 

The next morning in Santa Ana we visited la curandera, healer, Eva.  Her presence seemed humble and her understanding of nature also stood out to me because she spoke in a soft voice and was patient when describing her practice to the group.  Her eyes were gently, kind, and knowledgeable of her practice.  She described to us how some healers, or people, try to steal the ideas of her practice to make money for themselves.  Her practice is for the community and she enjoys the gift she has been born with, but she is also paid.  This honesty of her work revealed to me a humble character and her describing her practice demonstrated a piece of what she understands within nature and its connection to healing.  Another incredible aspect about Eva was the amount of respect she had gained from her community.  She described her work as a gift she began practicing at a very young age. Observing these women has leaded me to specific questions on the roles of Oaxaquenas.  How do these women define their roles within communities? What are the different perceptions on these women?  

 

DEFINING AND NARROWING MY TOPIC:

I started out looking at Oaxacan artists and discovered specific artists’ perceptions on women. First Rodolfo Morales, Rufino Tamayo, Francisco Toledo, and later even observing a local female artist selling paintings in Oaxaca.  I observed some Oaxacan dances and discovered stories of how the women are defined in Oaxaca through these dances.  Alejandra Robles, a well-known Oaxaquena artist, has incorporated some of these dances into her individual way of performing.  I didn’t start looking at women's lives in cooperatives until after visiting Santa Ana and Teotitlán.  This is when my questions in understanding Oaxaquenas started to narrow.  How do the women work together in their communities? Do the women work together in their communities? I observed this through watching different generations of women in the pueblos and when living with these women.  I participated in cooking tortillas with my mother at Vida Nueva, I participated in daily errands, and chatting with my mother and sisters too.  Their relationship to one another in the family I stayed with in Vida Nueva wasn’t too different from relationships I have with my own sisters, but there were still cultural differences I couldn’t quite understand and name from my visit to Vida Nueva.  

If I were to attempt to name a few of these cultural differences I would first include the aspects of the market in Teotitlan.  My sister spent her time in the market to communicate with people in her family.  The market wasn't just a place to go to buy food, it was a social hour amongst the women. I usually spend time with my sisters back home, but I don't spend time with them chatting in markets or chatting as much as I had witnessed Rofina and her sister chatting throughout their day.  One night I had spent the entire time with Sylvia, Rofina, and their mother cracking nuts with a hammer and just chatting.  They talked, laughed, cracked nuts, and ate the nuts.  I watched them the entire time, and nothing seemed to bother them, they were carefree, living together, and just simply enjoying the moment.  I like to compare this part of their communication with my own family because I like to think my sisters are special for similar reasons.  A cultural difference among this family would be how far away the houses of the sisters were from one another.  Each day Rofina and I walked a good six blocks, took a left, and another two blocks to reach Sylvia's house.  It was common for Rofina to walk to Sylvia's house.  One of the days, as Rofina and I were walking over to the house, Rofina asked me, "Do you like to walk?" I thought this question was a bit odd but I answered, "Yes, walking is no problem.".  Walking is apart of one of her habits, she enjoys walking because that is what she does in life and she has accepted it as part of her life.  That same day as we were preparing lunch she asked, "Do you like to cook?".  I replied nodding my head.  I couldn't figure out why she was so curious  if I liked to walk, cook, and she even asked if I like to eat.  I can only assume that she might have asked because she is so conscience of these tasks herself, they were strongly apart of her life and how she defined herself living her days.  There were definitely even larger cultural differences than these questions she had asked me, one I can simply name is the market because it showed a entire category of cultural difference but not all of these differences were as simple to name as I thought they would be.

 

The women’s cooperative at Vida Nueva became a large interest in my study because of these apparent differences in the women’s relationship inside Vida Nueva’s women’s weaving group.  The way the women communicated in the community differed from how I have observed women communicating in the United States.  The women’s cooperative acted in ways family act.  Although the women were there to work they were also apart of the cooperative to live and take care of one another.  The first time I recognized this group functioning like a family was when they had my group and I over for lunch at Pastora's house. They had prepared tortillas, rice, and chicken for our group.  Before I had only witnessed the women cleaning together, but that is also apart of a family definition.  This lunch was special because the women described ways in which they make colors for their dyes.  We ate listening to how cochineal, the insect that lives on cacti, can make the color indigo.  The women enjoyed explaining this process with one another, I could tell that they all had good relationships with one another.  After lunch Pastora took us inside one of the rooms to show us special tapete work of the group.  This specific tapete told a story. The previous year the Vida Nueva group created a project that told of each individual women's creation.  This to me demonstrated the group as a family because they don't only work together but create and take time to live with one another.  The second time I viewed the group of Vida Nueva functioning as a family was while I was waiting for my turn in the temezcal.  I watched as the entire group was lined up together chatting, laughing, and staring at our group.  I could see in all the the faces a sense of joy, comfort, and care.  I could also see how their relationships might have developed through their lives.  Pastora's face particularly showed characteristics of authority, hard work, care, joy, and dignity. It was a beautiful sight to behold.

 

Defining and narrowing my topic: part 2

I want to discover the different perceptions on women’s roles in Oaxaca.  My ultimate question is, "How do the women in the cooperatives of Oaxaca support one another.".   I want to know what it means to be a woman from both the perspectives of women and men who work in these cooperatives. To me their work seems honored, but this is only my own individual perception.  What don’t I know about the life’s work of a women living in a pueblo, or working in a cooperative?  What are their struggles?  It has been suggested that the husbands sometimes beat their wives in the pueblos. This may be a result of alcohol abuse.   The women also often marry at the age of 14 and can have up to 12 children within their life time.  Do the cooperatives help protect women in pueblos from such abuses? It is interesting to me the huge perception difference according to all classes, genders, and generation on the lives of women in Oaxaca and specifically who work in the pueblos. This is the reason why I want to study the lives of women in traditional villages.

 

 Chinas Beverly. The Isthmus Zapotecs, Women's Roles in Cultural Context.   Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc. 1983

This book provided information on social contexts and ways the women of Oaxaca treat one another. In the villages the women protect one another, it is non-formalized and usually includes their protection over one another with sexual aggression.  Machismo is apparent in some of these smaller pueblos of Oaxaca.  The book describes the ways the women unite together to protect one another from borrachos of the town.  Usually, however, the status of men and women are equal; it was described, “In San Juan Evangelista, one is first a human being, an individual, and only second and incidentally a man or a woman.”  Also,“The phenomenon of machismo, so often cited as a male characteristic in Latin American cultures, seems to be largely absent in intra-group relations in Zapotec culture.”  However, I have heard different sides to this argument already.

 

Another book which offers a second perspective is  Stephen, Lynn. Zapotec Women. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1991. Within this book Lynn Stephen interviews women within Vida Nueva and tells of their stories.  The book also highlighted some insights into how women of the pueblos view their own lives.  

 

I have begun interviewing my host mother about her views of  women in Oaxaca, especially the women living in pueblos.  My host mother, Viki, also took us to visit her family, and we saw the family prepare a meal for us over an open fire, it took a bucket full of corn, chiles, and hand made tortillas, but these women presented the same dedication to the work I have seen the women of the villages perform.  The other day I had a conversation with my mother.  We began talking about cooking in the kitchen.  I asked her if the women in the pueblos had control in their kitchens.  She had revealed to me that when the men leave the women are able to fulfill their tasks.  She thought that the people in the pueblos are ignorant because the women in the pueblos are beat up by “drunk” husbands.  She said the women don’t stand up for themselves because they are timid, but when the men leave the women have more power and control over their work within the kitchen, weaving, and within the community. She told me that the women are forced to marry at a very young age, so it is a difficult situation to escape because it becomes their lives.

 

Her point of view on the women in the pueblos rid me of all my romanticized perceptions on the lives of these women.  It also gave me new perspectives on their characters. At first I didn't want to believe Viki and instantly thought she was just criticizing the women.  I thought it was her expressing, as a women of upper class, her annoyance of these women and thought she was justifying her own life.  However, there is truth to what she had told me.  The women are stuck in their lives, their is some ignorance to the ways they allow themselves to be treated.  I also think these women should be even the more respected for the dedication they bring to their lives when coming from some awful situations. 

 

Vida Nueva had inspired me to focus on the women’s cooperatives in Oaxaca.  The women’s cooperatives show the unique differences of the women and the ways they function in Oaxaca. I began to think that this was a specific way to further comprehend and understand the women of Oaxaca.  My first question became; how and why are women’s cooperatives in Oaxaca created?  I wonder what the women in some of these cooperatives would say about being a member in a cooperative.  How have these women created such an environment in their cooperatives?  What are the successes and shortcomings of women’s cooperatives? When the women answer these questions it may describe and explain how as individuals they understand their living and relationship with community. It will express what they know, don’t like about such a group, and what they do like about it. These answers would reveal how and why a cooperative is formed and created.

 

PLAN OF ACTION:

I plan on interviewing three different women.  The questions will vary from person to person, but I hope to get an overall view on how women support one another in cooperatives around Oaxaca.  I plan on interviewing a family member of the family I stayed with in Vida Nueva.  I have already spent a whole week in Vida Nueva with Rufina and her family and spent another day there a few weeks after the first visit.  Once I visit again I look forward to meeting a friend of Rufina’s I can talk to about her life at Vida Nueva and with the women’s weaving group, she is an 87 year old women so it will help with a generation range. For the second interview I want to interview the president at  the MARO cooperative, which stands for Mujeres Artesanas de las Regiones de Oaxaca.  It is a women's cooperative that collects all traditional Oaxacan clothing from the different regions of Oaxaca. For the final interview I plan on talking to Luisa, who has information and an understanding of women cooperatives and communities in Oaxaca.  She had worked at Nueve Lunas for a while and had experienced living with medicinal women.  I want to gather the view points, feelings, and insights of these people's perspectives on women cooperatives.  Living in Vida Nueva for a week allowed me to further understand the ways the cooperative functions and why it was created, but I want to explore these questions further and more personally with three different women.  How do the women work together in these cooperatives?   The resources I need to reach this goal include contacting the women at Vida Nueva, a women at MARO, and Luisa.  I will explore my topic through conversations, observation, and participation.

 

TIME LINE:

Village stay in Santa Anna

Febuary 19th-22nd Talk to Luisa and Gustavo

Febuary 27th-March 5th Village Stay at Vida Nueva

April 4th-5th- Talked to President of MARO

April 8th- Talked with Luisa

 

Earlier in Oaxaca- Visited museums, saw work of Roldolpho Morales, Toledo

Middle- Visited Santa Ana twice, went to the museum in San Augustine Etla, Talked to my host mother and her family. 

Later in Oaxaca- Visit to Teotitlan; visits to Vida Nueva three times.  

 

THE PROJECT:

Doable: The places I have visited and the people I have spoken to allow this project to work.

Timing: There has been enough time to discover the main questions of my independent study I wanted to start exploring.  However, more time would be preferred to explore further into the questions I have begun asking.

Teaches: This project improved my Spanish, and I have learned Zapotec along the way.  I am very excited about this topic because women are a very complex, and there is always more to learn. Evidence of my learning will be seen in paintings, writing, and maybe a performance.

 

REFLECTION OF THE PROJECT:

Como las mujeres son sostenedores para todas las mujeres en las cooperativas?

Interviews:

MARO (Mujeres Artesanas de las Regiones de Oaxaca)

Before I went in to interview the president of MARO, I wanted to be specific and sure of my own questions.  What it is I really wanted to know was how does the making of traditional clothing create support for the women working together in cooperatives?  Who is it that are working in these cooperatives? Whose work it is to make traditional clothing? Is it only women? It took me two days to gather information from Nola Quomini Chiqueno, the president of MARO, who revealed to me how the ways in which this specific cooperative is run. More often than not, making traditional clothing is women's work.  It is women who are most likely to work in cooperatives becasue women's work is usually more delicate than men's work.  Women's bodies are smaller proportioned and their movements are lighter which allows them to manage holding smaller items and working with their hands.  Men's work tends to be more physical and requires strength, but women's work requires concetration, patience, and support. 

 

A man can work in the cooperatives, and many men do work in the cooperative at MARO.  The women, or person who makes the traditional clothing, receives the money they have earned after a product is sold.  MARO survives off of tourism. There are specific groups of the regions of Oaxaca that are apart of the MARO cooperative.  The people continue to keep and make their traditional clothing by selling at their main station MARO but it is also shipped and sold in the United States and around the world. Each region has their own group they organize for the cooperative and have a president, or representative, transport their work to Mujeres de Artesenias MARO in Oaxaca city.  I met Joquila of the Sierra Norte during my interviewing she had a load of products she handed to the desk.  She was also dressed in her traditional dress of Sierra Norte.

 

Younger girls of the regions want to become doctors, lawyers, or teachers and are losing interest in working for cooperatives.  There are enough people in the younger generation to continue work in the cooperatives.  However, it isn't guaranteed how long this will last.  The government in Oaxaca supports MARO becasue MARO makes money from outside of Oaxaca selling to the United States and other countries.  MARO is a collection of different groups within the regions of Oaxaca, and each region support the other groups by making their specific traditional clothing, the ultimate goal is to continue this practice.  Each region has meetings, las reuniones, where they can decide on issues for the cooperative or the group.  These meetings happen so it is possible to continue gathering together as a community in smaller groups within the cooperative.

 

Products sold at MARO are authentic and traditional practices done by the women and men of the cooperatives, and the proof of their work is seen within the material of the clothing.   The products aren't plastic and don't have "China" written on any tags.  Nola assured me that this specific cooperative is respected in Oaxaca and doesn't have too many problems with maintaining work for the people.  She said most cooperatives survive once the cooperative is well known within Oaxaca.  Cooperatives protect the traditional arts of Oaxaca by selling their traditional clothing to tourists, so it is tourism that allows these cooperatives to remain.

MARO started in 1992, and it is made up of a group mostly of women, who wanted to organize the cooperative to continue with traditional arts in the regions of Oaxaca.  There are 200 people working in the MARO cooperative now.  The regions that sell their products at Las Mujeres de Artesianas include:  Sierra, Valles Centrales, Papaloapan, Costa, Canada, Mixteca, and Istmo.

 

Each region is unique and beautiful in its own way.  The magic of the arts is made through the materials, shapes, designs, textures, and colors which reflect Oaxacan identity.  The individual artist of these traditional crafts are recognized for their work which gives strength to the people standing up against the accelerating technology use in life today and for the people to keep their traditional arts.  These artist are involved throughout the entire process.  On the MARO pamphlet it states, "The members of MARO are artist, craftswomen, and administrators, involved in all stages of production from the purchase of raw materials to the selling of their own products." 

 

Vida Nueva

The following is a reflection at my stay at Vida Nueva.  It doesn't reflect  on the women's cooperative but rather on the family who had hosted me in Teotitlan for that week.  It is me reflecting on the concept of family.  The women's cooperative had also appeared to me as a family but I think because I had spent the most time with my host sister and her family I learned through them what it means to live as a family in this pueblo.  I had returned weeks later to revisit my family.  Felix my uncle for that week had his mother come over to visit me.  I wanted to understand the family structure further on my second visit, and further understand the way family life is set up in the village of Teotitlan.  I talked to Rose, Felix's mother, about when she had lived in the village in her youth.  I asked her about the changes she had seen over the years.  She also allowed me to draw a picture of her as she brushed wool to make yarn, she even put on a traditional dress of Teotitlan for me to draw in the picture.  Her story was interesting, she told me of her first boyfriend and  the controversy it brought up among her family.  She said the village has grown much over the years, the market has changed, but she is proud that the traditional dress has remained among most of the women.

 

Reflection of Vida Nueva: El Arte De La Familia 

My stay at Vida Nueva has made me question the art of family. I stayed in the village with my sister, Rofina, her brother and parents.  Every day we visited her sister and her family, a family of her, her husband, and three children.  I have grown up in a family with three other sisters and our family grew up really close to one another.  I also became really close to my cousin’s when I was younger, I have twenty-six cousins in all.  Silvia and Felix, my aunt and uncle for the week, spent their time discussing what it means to be in a family, how to show love, care, and friendship to their children.  The rest of their time the entire family spent working.  They made tapetes every day.  Felix asked me if I would want to make a tapete this last week, I agreed and completed a tiny tapete by the end of four days.

 

The first day my sister, Roefina, and my mother for the week took me up to their family’s camp.  We waited for Felix to arrive.  They talked to one another in Zapotec as I observed the surrounding hillside.  The sun was just setting when Felix arrived and he began gathering miel from the maguey tree.  My youngest cousin, Angel, was helping his father.  From my first visit to the camp I could tell it was a special place to the family.

 

I have discovered in my own life that certain “places” are special to families.  Places such as where we were born, home, vacations we visit as families, or the common trips a family could have taken to grandma’s house. The dinner table is probably the most sacred place for any family.  Here at the dinner table we grow up eating next to one another, learning and communicating about each other, yet never do we know everything about one another. The dinner allows us to continue to grow and understand one anther.  The dinner table is the one “place” which doesn’t let us forget our origins and stays with us forever. I spent many afternoons and evenings sharing meals with the entire family of Silvia and Felix in Vida Nueva. We even had a birthday dinner for Eric, their son.  I have relearned this week that throughout all our lives it is family that knows us best. 

 

Felix took time from his work that week to teach me how to make a tapete.  Although I only stayed with one specific family, I learned what the family's functions were within the community of Vida Nueva.  Felix was very proud of his life work with tapetes, he was also a very proud father of three boys. So, what is the art of family?  As I spent time with Rofina, Silvia, and Felix I discovered different views and unique aspects of their family.   One afternoon I asked Rofina what they were talking about in Zapotec.  She said that they were chatting about the idea of family life; what it means to love, care, and have a friendship with the children.  This family was so beautiful in my eyes because they spent each day working together on their own unique tapete work. 

 

By the end of the week I felt like I had become apart of their family.  I was also reborn in the temezcal, and after my experience inside the temezcal it was Rofina who instantly wrapped me up and walked me home.  We went straight back to Silvia’s house and spent the rest of the night working and laughing.  The stars were crystal clear that night, and a special realization of the beauty of these people’s lives finally was clearly revealed to me.  It wasn’t even the fact that these people didn’t need anything significant in their lives to live, but it was their way of just knowing life instead of contemplating its many difficulties.  This isn’t to say every family in the village had the same kind of life as this family.  However, it does demonstrate an example of one specific family that I became really close to within only one week and the beauty of family wherever people live. Family allows us to be ourselves, create our gifts, expand our imagination, and it is family that allows us to be.  

 

Talking with Luisa

 

Luisa talked to me over Chocolate Oaxaqueno late one night after my classes. She took time to tell me about her experience with Oaxaquenas at Nueve Lunas. She had worked with the women for awhile observing their practices of traditional medicine and learning herself a traditional massage. Within the small span of time Luisa and I had to talk she described in depth the four groups of women in Nueva Lunas, Capulalpam, Vida Nueva, and women in Santa Anna.  One specific story she told me about the group of women in Teotitlan.  They were a group of single women and because they were single in the village they weren't respected by others in their community.  They wanted to disprove the assumption people in the village had concluded to, such as because they are single women they cannot contribute to the community.  They worked together that year to pick up trash,  decorate trash cans, and emptied the trash.  They worked hard that year to keep their community clean and in the end creating these trash cans gained the respect they wished for from the people in their community.  Another community in Santa Anna prepared beans, rice, and eggs in the morning for people in their community and later worked on another project creating baskets and distributed the baskets through their community.  One day of a Patrent Saint of theirs 10 of the women cooked for 1,000 people the entire day. 

 

The traditional medicine in Capulalpam has the largest hospital in Oaxaca.  She talked about traditional medicine with me for awhile as well.  One story was about a miracle child birth she had witnessed herself.  She spoke of specific women such as Dona Ketta and the personal influences she had on Luisa.  It was difficult not to recognize the power and respect these women have gained and continue to hold in Oaxaca.  We discussed how women in the villages view the women around them.  I asked her how they support one another, and she said by simply living together.  She also mentioned that women in the villages tend to view other women's strength based on the amount of work they do.  Luisa had worked with a community of women in a pueblo and because of this she has high respect for the women of Oaxacan villages.

 

 

REFLECTION and ASSESSMENT

 

--What were the highlights and challenges of your self-directed learning project?

Highlights for my self-directed learning project have been actually engaging and interacting with the people involved within my interviews and observations.  I enjoyed talking through what exactly I wanted to discover about the women in Oaxaca.  Another highlight has been creating a name for myself within this study.  Who was I to go into villages and observe Oaxacan Women?  I obviously wasn't a Oaxaquena myself, no matter how much I would like to consider myself one after months of learning Spanish and loving the culture surrounding me.  I loved the identity search within this process.  There are specific moments I would highlight amongst the rest.  The first moment to mention was my week stay in Teotitlan.  Second was my return trip to Teotitlan, and talking to Luisa.  Thirdly, I would consider the MARO interview as a important part of my project because I discovered information about women's cooperatives.  Specific moments with people I would like to mention are during my time in Teotitlan.  I enjoyed cracking nuts with my family, eating dinner, walking to the markets with my sister, and watching the sunset at their camp.  I think I learned the most about my host sister, her sister, and my host mother that week when we hiked up to their camp.  They were walkers and very patient women.  I couldn't understand their language because they spoke in Zapotec together, but they communicated with me through simply acknowledging I was there by smiling and making gestures.   Just being with these people has been the highlight of my self-directed learning project.  The challenges in this self-directed learning project have been adjusting and understanding what exactly I have been attempting to learn.  Yes, I ultimately wanted to know how the women in cooperatives support one another.  Although, throughout the entire project I gained much more than information on just this one question and I had made personal connections and interactions with the people I lived with for a week.  My challenge was creating the main question and staying focused on that question.  After I had chosen completely what my question would be the challenge was funneling what I had learn into a final answer.  I had experienced a week in Teotitlan before I actually knew specifically what I wanted to know from that community, but reflecting back on the week there was so much to refer back to that answered this one question in many different ways.

 

QUESTIONS:

--Go back to your original statement/question about your topic and write about what you discovered. In what ways did your SDLP/Autonomous Study challenge, expand, change, and/or confirm your ideas? Revisit the overarching questions for the program and respond to at least one of the questions.Please expand on this reflection in any way that is meaningful to you.

 

"How do women in women's cooperatives support one another?" has been my ultimate question.  I have discovered through a few different lenses answers to this question. Cooperatives in Oaxaca aren't always just women's cooperatives, men work there too.  Although, with time I had discovered how women in general support one another within both these cooperatives, but also within their families, communities, and overall their dignity in themselves and respect for all women.  Having a Self Directed Learning Project was challenging which is why I enjoyed this project.  It was a challenge to think and direct a project completely alone, because although I constantly think for myself, freedom to think outside of what we are supposed to think is difficult when not constantly put into practice.  This project had challenged my ideas and pre-conceived notions about women and communities.  I also feel as if I have developed a higher sense and understanding of what any community contributes to people where or whoever these people are.  I believe that communities bring a sense of peace and understanding among humans, but a bit of a contradicting feeling I have on this is the need of personal space and thought.  I personally couldn't see myself stuck to one specific community within my entire life, but I do understand the importance of communities.  This study not only helped me discover ideas I have about ways in which women support one another but also conclude to ways I understand communities.  How so?

 

The most important lesson I have learned so far with this autonomous study is the fact that what we chose to think sticks with us for the rest of our lives.  Patterns repeat in our lives, and we need to be aware of these patterns; and also learn to live life with intention.  It is possible to grow and break out of what we have learned in the past, but for the most part it sticks.  This semester has taught me, and allowed me to learn about people in my own community here in Oaxaca during this independent study.  The question to; why am I here in Oaxaca?; had stuck with me. And I answer back to this question that I don't know exactly why I am here in Oaxaca but I am here and I have learned much from what I have experienced. The world is going to continue to shape me as I return back to my home in Vermont and in any other future endeavors I encounter.  I will take back home and with me for the rest of my life a stronger sense of what community means, and this applies also to any other place in the world I might find myself.  Community doesn't need to be narrowly defined by a specific group of people you live for your entire life, community can be a much smaller group, it could possible be a connection between only two people, or it could be the people in your current environment you interact with.  

 

--In what ways are people working to maintain and regenerate their communities, cultures, and well being in Oaxaca?

The women's cooperatives are set up to give women a sense of place and community in their lives. These women have demonstrated forms of demands for respect.  They work hard, and work hard together, to protect their dignity.  The cooperatives allow people within pueblos to work together inside a group, and manage the work they have to do day to day.  The practice of Galaguetza's is particularly important for regenerating community, culture, and well being for all people living in Oaxaca.  Other ways in which Oaxaquenos demonstrate maintaining their communities, culture, and well being is through their arts.  Three famous Oaxacan artist include Rodolfo Morales, Rufino Tamayo, and Francisco Toledo.  I have found it interesting to see also the amount of traditional dancing that has remained in Oaxaca, along with the traditional dress.  Oaxacan food is another indicator in how  Oaxacan culture is maintained.

 

ASSESSMENT

question and description *How do women in women's cooperatives support one another?

I have always been interested in the ways women support one another around the world.  I wanted to approach this study through observation, communication, and participation.  This topic will reveal the cultural pride the women have in Oaxaca, and why they have that pride. 

3 page summary of background information with a minimum of 3 citations and how your topic relates to community, culture, and/or change *Three books

Action Plan:

How you explored you topic *interview

Resources utilized *books, people, living

Timeline *The amount of time I had in Oaxaca provided me enough time to explore this topic.

Evidence of your learning *paintings, quotes, experience

Reflection *I have learned about my own sense of community

Documentation/Representation of Learning *Painting and dance

Presentation/ sharing with group- *To have the crowd discuss what they think it means to live in a community.  What they have gathered in how the Oaxacan women identify themselves in Oaxaca.

 

SELF ASSESSMENT

Name: Erin Renee Burrell

 

	Total Points	Self Assess
Description of Topic Statement/Question about Topic Justification: I thought I had described my topic well in depth.  There were plenty of statements and questions in my topic that lead to a final product I was hoping would be answered.	15	15
Background information Minimum 3 substantial citations Justification: For the most part I had reliable resources, but I could have searched further into my back round information.  The three books I read had provided information on the people but it was my social interactions that had taught me the most about my project.  I could have read closer at the information provided, but I was also trying to balance this with my personal interactions with the people.	20	17
Research Plan: How you explored you topic,Resources utilized,Timeline Justification:  My Research Plan I was the most proud of because it involved all aspects of learning.  I went into this project not knowing exactly what to expect and because of this I learned more than I thought I would.  The process of learning about Zapotec Women, then Oaxacan women, and then my development and interpretation of community created a learning path I didn’t expect from the project but all the same learned more than I expected.  The timeline wasn’t a direct timeline but it completed my understanding of the women I interacted with and their development of community.	10	10
Peer Review I spent a lot of time and careful attention to the peer reviews I contributed to.	5	5
Reflection and Discovery What did you learn/discover about your topic? Highlights and challenges;In what ways did your study challenge, expand, change, and/or confirm your ideas? Justification: I discovered my own definition of community by exploring the many different parts and aspects of the community and culture down in Oaxaca.  A challenge of mine was keep a focus on what about the culture I wanted to learn, but ultimately I learned about the culture through my own experience.  This study challenged my ideas and perceptions on community because I was looking at different communities in a completely different culture.  In this way it had challenged, changed, but also confirmed my ideas on communities.   I learned through the experience with my own group how important community is among all people.	30	30
Final Presentation/Representation Justification: I was surprised at the end results of my final presentation.  The way I presented my presentation was unfamiliar to me. However, I thought it ended clearly and I even surprised myself on its end results.	10	8
Organization and presentation of WIKI Grammatically correct, spelling, coherent Justification: It took a bit of editing and re-editing but overall my organization and presentation on the WIKI proved to be grammatically correct.  I only attempted once to add my pictures and having the pictures could have made a difference.	10	9
Total	94/100
Additional Comments: