Stories - Mexico/Caribbean

Capacitar in Chiapas, Mexico
Mary Litell,OSF

Palenque and San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas: Polarity - It seemed such a mystery, impossible to describe in Tzotzil, until one of the participants said, "Oh it's like jumper cables!" It seemed that everyone had some experience of a "dead" battery coming to life using cables on the positive and negative poles of a car battery. The rest was easy. At the end of each day of our workshop sponsored by SIPAZ (Service for Peace and Justice) in San Cristóbal, a small group of Tzotziles from Las Abejas, "The Bees", gathered to discuss the main points of the day in their own language and to ask further questions. They came from a camp of people committed to nonviolence who have been displaced by the low intensity warfare in Chiapas. Other participants included mental health promoters working with displaced children, pastoral workers, health promoters, women working with abused teens, and a religious rich community gathered together to focus on the theme of Trauma Healing and Transformation. Most were learning for the first time practices for maintaining health, energy and a peace-filled sense of self in the midst of a situation of conflict and violence. Their commitment was to bring these practices back to their communities or to people with whom they work. From us they asked only our time commitment, cultural sensitivity, and our accompaniment of their journey. At the end of our three days of work together, our group was filled with such radiant energy that goodbyes were not easy, knowing the danger under which these people lived.

The experience was similar in Palenque, where a small group of women gathered for a review of Capacitar practices and for learning some new work, specifically on the healing and transformation of traumatic stress. These women have regularly practiced Tai Chi and acupressure since Pat Cane and I first worked there four years ago. They wanted to discuss ways of sharing the practices with persons in local prisons, in their families, and with many in their communities suffering the effects of violence. We left Chiapas with a renewed commitment to solidarity with these inspiring grassroots leaders.

Belize

Belize, a country of 250,000 people, half under age 20, is one of the most culturally diverse places where Capacitar works. Mestizo, Maya, Creole, Garifuna, Central American immigrants, and peoples of European blood form the society of Belize. The people pride themselves on their rich culture and on their capacity to live and work together with respect and harmony. Last fall Hurricane Keith destroyed many homes, farming areas, banana and citrus crops, businesses, and several of the cayes popular with tourists, heavily burdening this country where over one third of the people live below the poverty level.

In such a small country everyone knows every one and there is a great interest in learning Capacitar practices. The Garifuna, Maya and Creole cultures in Belize have long traditions of healing based on energy practices. In a workshop last year in Dangriga, Garifuna women spoke of practices that their mothers and grandmothers used traditionally for cleansing and healing themselves and their families.

We recently facilitated Capacitar workshops in Belize City coordinated by Mary Lee D'Arche, RSM, Director of Help Age, an organization that works with the elderly who have few resources. The workshop involved training leaders who will offer an ongoing Capacitar program in Belize. A second workshop in Orange Walk sponsored by Muffles College and organized by Marilyn Panton, RSM, worked with teachers, staff and parents greatly affected by Hurricane Keith and the resulting floods in the area. Teachers spoke of the need to build self-esteem and to encourage positive attitudes and community in their students, who are the future of Belize. The growing drug trade and an increasing level of domestic violence have affected the lives of many Belizians, by nature a peaceful people.

During our visit we met with Joan Musa, wife of the Prime Minister and President of the National Women's Commission, and Agnes Flowers, Commisssion Coordinator, and Commisssioner Sylvia Sampson-Cayetano, to explore ways that Capacitar can be of support to the women of Belize. Plans are underway for future trainings for leaders as well as for women of the villages. We also discussed the possibility of collaborating with the Commission's work within the prisons using some of the Capacitar material on trauma healing. The people of Belize are characterized by energy and beauty, connection with nature and multiculturalism and have much to teach Capacitar in our growing work there.