DAY 1

1. DAY 1 Migrating to Mexico’s Misery Belts

2. Migrating to Mexico’s Misery Belts Day 1 Objectives: Students will: (1) define the term misery belt, (2) describe the living conditions in a misery belt, and (3) identify economic/social, political and religious reasons why populations move.

3. What is a misery belt? • Partner A writes, Partner B reports out - With your partner, write 2 synonyms for “misery” • You have 10 seconds to “think” individually, 30 seconds to write, and 1 minute to report out. • What is the shape of a belt when someone is wearing it? • Hypothesize: what is a misery belt when you think about an urban (city) area?

4. Where do you find a misery belt? • Look at map of Mexico City – hypothesize where a misery belt might exist.

5. Misery Belt a circle at the periphery (edge) of a city where people live in poverty and poor conditions

6. Images of Misery Belts Source: http://ofoneaccordministry.org/global_mexico.htm Photo by Alejandro Montes Arce7/10/11

7. Misery Belt Images Photos by Linda Burke, July 2011

8. Characteristics of a Misery Belt • After viewing the photos and using your knowledge of economic “poor living conditions,” work with your partner to list a minimum of 5 living conditions that you would expect if you lived in a misery belt. • Partner B writes, Partner A reports out. • Take 15 seconds to think, write for 30 seconds.Report out. • Conclusion – Have we met Objectives 1 and 2?

9. Population Patterns Why would people move from one location to another? Pilgrims’ movement from England to U.S. Westward movement in the U.S. in 1800s.

10. Two reasons for population movement Populations move because _____________ and ____________________________. People move due to ____________________ and _________________________.

11. Population Movement & Patterns Now go back and, with your partner, indicate the reason for the movement. Write… • E/S for economic and social reasons • P for political reasons • R for religious reasons These are the three concepts to be explored during this unit.

12. Historical Overview of Religions in Mexico • OlmecsThe Olmec practiced shamanism. They believed each individual has an animal spirit. • Mayans Mayan religion was characterized by nature gods: sun, moon, corn. • Toltecs, Aztecs (deities, spirits) Good and Bad Quetzalcoatl (ketsahl KO ahtl) Texcatlipoca (teskahtlee POH kah) • Arrival of Spaniards with Catholicism

13. HOMEWORK – Day 1: Identify the three major cities: Mexico City, Tuxtla Gutierrez and San Cristóbal de las Casas – Draw a ring around the misery belt location for each city on the city map handouts. San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. Home to the Zapatista movement, indigenous traditions safeguarded San Cristóbal de las Casas Tuxtla Gutierrez Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas. State capital of Chiapas, close to the Sumidero canyon. Mexico City, D.F. Mexico City,DFa megalopolis, built on ancient ruins in a lake, population 25 million Map of Mexico

14. Independent Practice Handouts of two articles. • Read each article and: • underline characteristics of a misery belt; and • circle any phrases or words that are associated with political or religious factors. • Write a reflection of 1–2 sentences of how you would feel living in a misery belt. (Identify, the summarize for 5–10 minutes) Homework: complete for homework if not finished in class.

15. Ticket out the door • Write one new piece of information learned today on colored paper on desk – put name/date. Hand in to the teacher as you are leaving class.

16. Day 2 Migrating to Mexico’s Misery Belts Background – Religious Factors

17. Misery Belts, Religion Day 2 Objectives: Students will: (1) define indigenous groups of Mexico and summarize their locations in Mexico, (2)understand the interconnectedness of historical ritual belief, Catholic religious ceremony and patron saints in Mexico, and (3) identify and chart the five principle religions in contemporary Mexico.

18. JOURNAL Imagine you are living in a misery belt and it is the end of the day. Write three (3) complete sentences in your journal describing events you encountered during the day that remind you of the poor living conditions in your environment.” Report out.

19. Independent Work / Homework Review • Take out your city maps. Your assignment was to draw red lines around the predicted location of the misery belts. • Compare your answers with your partner’s answers. • This is not an exact science, but the ring should be similar. • Show with a: • thumbs up if there was total agreement in answers, • thumbs down if total disagreement, and • thumbs sideways if some answers were the same and some different. • Clarification from pairs showing thumbs down and sideways.

20. Independent Work / Homework Review Articles – Again compare answers with your partner to see if you want to change or modify answers. Your assignment was to: (1) underline characteristics of a misery belt; and (2) circle any phrases or words that are associated with political or religious factors . Report out on characteristics, political factors, and religious factors. Who wants to share how it would feel to live in a misery belt?

21. Mexico’s Indigenous Groups • Definition based on linguistic criteria—what language people speak • Mexico's 12 million indigenous people speak more than 60 languages and live scattered throughout the country's 31 states and Mexico City. • In the Chiapas region more than 70% of the population is indigenous.

22. Mexico’s Major Indigenous Groups Group Number Nahua peoples (Nawatlaka) 2,445,969 Maya (Maaya) 1,475,575 Zapotec (Binizaa) 777,253 Mixtec (Ñuusávi) 726,601 Otomí (Hñähñü) 646,875 Totonac (Tachihuiin) 411,266 Source: http://www.cdi.gob.mx Source: CDI (2000)

23. 59% 27% 15% 39% 19% 48% 28%

24. Catholicism & Traditional Deities • When the Spaniards arrived in the 16th century, they forcibly converted the indigenous people to Roman Catholicism, creating an interconnected Catholic-Indian religion that still exists today. Many indigenous groups worship God, Christ and traditional deities. • The priests built their churches on sacred sites.

25. Source: West, Cristina. Los Voladores de Cuetzalan.[Video file]. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYeJ-aR3uQI.

26. Los Voladores de Cuetzalan Voladores climbing up the 100 foot pole Voladores getting ready: chanting. Mirrors on hats to ward off bad spirits The pole represents closeness to the gods and the ritual is to bring good luck to the harvest. The practice was banned in the 1800s but stayed alive. One young voladorastarted when she was 13 and isnow20. The blend of Catholicism and ritual ceremony seems contradictory to us but is accepted practice to the indigenous peoples. They go around the pole 13 times as they descend. Thirteen represents the 13 months of their calendar.

27. Religious Festivals - Patron Saints’ Days Xico & Mary Magdalene (Santa Maria Magdalena) “We arrived in Xico on the 2nd day of a 9 day festival. As we made our way up to the church, bottle rockets were already going off. We got there just as mass was starting. We got to the church just as the "bulls" started to dance in front. There were men and boys with cow-bells around their waists, dancing around bulls made of papier-maché, with a large framework covered in fireworks over the bulls. They marched, spun, danced and made lots and lots of noise. Finally, the statue of Mary Magdalene emerged from the church and the "bulls" lead the processional up the streets of the town to another church. We followed along with the mariachi band until she was placed on the altar of the other church!”

28. Religious Festivals - Patron Saints’ Days

29. Religions in Mexico Religious Group Total Number Percentage Jewish 125,900 1 Muslim 199,700 2 Seventh Day Adventist 488,945 5 Protestants 3,972,000 3.8 Catholics 87,958,000 83.1 Orthodox Christian 91,800 1 Jehovah's Witness 1,700,000 1.6 Mormon 1,082,000 1 Pagans 1,151,000 1.1 Non-religious 2,628,700 2.5 Agnostic 2,521,600 2.4 Atheist 107,100 1 Sunis 167,706 2 Other 3,639,749 3.4 Total 105,834,200 Source: The Archives of Religious Data. http://www.thearda.com/internationalData/countries/country_149_1.asp. Note: Listings in red are not religions.

30. Independent Practice/Homework t • Circle the top five religions in Mexico on your handout. • Compare your answers with your partner. • Chart the top five religions in Mexico in a pie graph or a bar graph. http://www.swiftchart.com/example.htm

31. Day 3 Migrating to Mexico’s Misery Belts Case Study: San Juan Chamula

32. Religious Expulsion Day 3 Objectives: Students will: (1) describe differences between religious tolerance and religious intolerance, (2) paraphrase the reasons and consequences of San Juan Chamula’s religious intolerance that led to relocation to misery belts of San Cristóbal de lasCasas,Chiapas, and (3) construct a timeline of the Zapatista movement from 1994 to 2001.

33. Journal Identify examples below of Religious Tolerance with the letter T and examples of Religious Intolerance with an I. • _____ 1. A religious leader accepts the beliefs of others and does not try to change their minds. • _____ 2. Village leaders expelled the La Cruz family from the village because they converted to Protestantism. • _____ 3. Indigenous students are not allowed to come into the local school because they belong to an evangelical church. • _____4. A new family of Baptists move into a Roman Catholic neighborhood and the neighbors welcome them with food, coffee and gifts. • _____ 5. Political bosses placed statues of Mayan deities in the public square out of respect for the town’s minority religion. • _____ 6. One family ridicules another when they find out they go to a different church.

34. Journal Answers • T 1. A religious leader accepts the beliefs of others and does not try to change their minds. • I 2. Village leaders expelled the La Cruz family from the village because they converted to Protestantism. • I 3. Indigenous students are not allowed to come into the local school because they belong to an evangelical church. • T 4. A new family of Baptists move into a Roman Catholic neighborhood and the neighbors welcome them with food, coffee and gifts. • T 5. Political bosses placed statues of Mayan deities in the public square out of respect for the town’s minority religion. • I 6. One family ridicules another when they find out they go to a different church.

35. Review of Homework/Independent Practice • Take out graphs and look at your answers – compare with your partner’s. • I need two volunteers (one pie graph and one bar graph) to go to the board and put their graphs up. • Compare to answer sheet and pass papers forward.

36. Homework Answers

41. Forced Relocation for Religious Reasons • In the late 1960s early 1970s Christian missionaries converted thousands of Mayan Catholics to Protestantism. • The Mexican constitution prohibits any form of discrimination, including on the basis of religion. • However, the local village leaders, or caciques, used religious reasons to expel local families from the community. They stated that evangelicals and protestants failed to follow tradition and they didn’t contribute to fiestas. • In reality, evangelicals and protestants resisted making financial donations demanded by community norms since the money was used partly to fund local Catholic holy day festivals and Saint’s Day fiestas.

42. Sanctions (punishments) for resisting participation in community festivals: • families arrested • sheep seized • personal possessions seized • torture • families withdraw from community land, land taken back by community leaders • water and electricity cut off • loss of community rights “Since 1974, over 20,000 indigenous people expelled for religious reasons have settled within … the misery belt around San Cristóbal de las Casas.” Source: Sullivan, Kathleen. “ Protagonists of Change”. Women’s Work, Women’s Worth. Winter 1992. http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival- quarterly/mexico/protagonists-change.

43. Case Study: San Juan Chamula  In  San Juan Chamula, the largest of the indigenous villages in the Chiapas highlands   the religious conflict has existed for over 25 years. In the last 25 years, 35,000 community members or one in five non-catholic residents known as "Chamulas,” were expelled from their homes and fields for being evangelical or protestant. Another few thousand have been driven out of Zinacantán, Tenejapa, and several other indigenous villages in the mountains near here. Earlier refugees had built a ring of misery, encircling the city with muddy slums packed closely with houses of cardboard and scrap lumber. Source: http://www.gbgm-umc.org/honduras/old/articles/chiapas.html. Photos by Trina Bryant

44. Reflection on Religious Expulsion From the late 1960s on, how did a person’s religion affect how they were welcome or expelled in the area of San Juan Chamula, Chiapas? Give two examples. Describe at least three examples of religious intolerance that occurred in San Juan Chamula.

45. Day 3: Expulsion to Misery Belt,Political Factors • While some would characterize the expulsion in San Juan Chamula as founded in religious conflicts between a Catholic majority and an evangelical/protestant minority, others have identified political reasons for the expulsion. • To better understand the role that political affiliation plays in expulsion to the misery belt, it is important to understand the Zapatista movement. This movement supported the rights of the indigenous groups.

46. The Zapatista Movement Independent practice and homework • Two handouts: “The Zapatista Movement” and Timeline of the Zapatista Movement • Construct a timeline of a minimum of 10 important events • Write a 1–2-paragraph reflection: why were certain events were major and others were minor. • You may identify the events with a color code; include a legend of what the colors represent.

47. Day 4 Migrating to Mexico’s Misery Belts Political & Economic Factors

48. Rural-Urban Migration Day 4 Objectives: Students will: (1) describe three facts about the PartidoRevolucionario Institutional (PRI), (2) understand the relationship between political party affiliation in PRI and expulsion from indigenous communities, and (3) understand three factors that in the 1970s–1990s led to migration from rural lands to the urban areas.

49. Journal Essential Question : The PartidoRevolucionario Institutional (PRI). What is it and what is its role in indigenous communities?

50. PRI - PartidoRevolucionario Institutional • Created in 1929 and has been the ruling party up through the 1997 elections • Created to administer power • Other parties participated in elections but it was a known fact that political PRI would win • PRI created political stability and economic growth in agriculture and industry. • Unions were part of PRI, including Mexico’s teachers’ union with 1.3 million members • Pre-1997, the president would remove/replace governor or assembly member at will • In the indigenous communities, a leader’s responsibility: Turn out votes for PRI so that communities received benefits/services in return (for example, electricity, sewer, paved streets, etc.) • PRI was the most central party • 1997—first time there were free elections in Mexico • The dissatisfaction during the uprising of Zapatista rebels and indigenous peoples led to a change of mood across the country and for the first time, the PRI lost • Today, the PRI must truly compete to get votes