our last days on the latino continent.we are back to mexico, but it seems that we feel tired of visiting colonial towns with baroque churches. or maybe we can feel this is almost it and no matter how much we enjoy it we will have to leave in a few days? in one of the churches in san cristobal we meet a guy who works in an orphanage for children, whose parents were killed by the government army duing the fights with zapatistas (kind on indigenious people's rights guerillas) and he invites us over. we walk in horrible rain and it turns out that the place he invited us to is just an office and kids live somewhere else. lost in translation i guess. later we will see a demonstration in front of the un's headquarters. some of the zapatistas are told to be held with no trial and their supporters demand either a trial or their relese.
the highlights of our time in san cristobal was definetly a visit to two mayan villages: san juan chamula and zinacantan, where mayas' ancestors under the cover of christainity practise their ancient believes. their church (not recognised by the vatican) from the outside looks like any other christian church in a any other small town. the difference makes what you see inside. there is no benches, no preists, no sermons. people come to make offerings of chickens, liquids (from coca-cola through water to alcohol), lit candles, sit with their families and pray. it may sound silly but i really felt there that there is one God, regardless what we call Him. the walls are covered with the pictures of christain saits and people seem to be praying to them. the truth is that when the spanish came there was not much choice given to the local mayas so in order to survive they pretended to accept the rules of christanity, at the same time continuing their own believes. so they still pray to the gods of the sun, the rain etc. the cross was used prior to christianity and it simbolised the relationshp between time and space. the main problem they had with christainity was the one of human sacrifice. the priests told them that it was bad, but could not expalin why the christains killed God's Son as a sacrifice. they were simple people, withouth our double standards.
the families here work as cooperatives, everyone contributes to the common wealth. they might have low-income jobs but all together are stronger. that's why people get married early to have kids early so they can start contributing early.
in oaxaca we wander around the museums and churches and cant belive that our time is almost up...
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