Getting back to MX - Lesson 1 - A house

My family and I have been now in San Luis for 3 weeks. It has been great. I have just found out that the love for tacos can be inherited because Mia and Kika go crazy every time we drive by the taco place we always go to.

Finally!! We got our house last week. It is not very fancy or anything like that, it is actually kind of old and we have been working a little bit on it during our free time. (I have more tools now than ever before). We were supposed to get the house the last week of August, but of course... we are in Mexico now and that last week of August kind of became the second week of September. The real estate´s people excuse: We are working on it so we can give it to you in great shape. The only problem here is their operational definition of great shape!! (no electric power, lousy paint job, and the worst of all.. the oven... oh my God.. we had to use industrial solvents for that).

I do would like to say that I am not complaining (at least not anymore). We have decided to take it as a family project and work on it little by little. We are having a great time. Like I said, I have been eating like crazy and lost some weight which I think is just too good (the secret: no free refills in MX). When we go out Mia and Kika can´t stop celebrating every time a loud motorcycle or bus drives next to us. In conclusion, so many good things, too many new things, too many people we miss.

Caos en la UDLA

Pues ni que decir, estos últimos días han estado muy moviditos con lo que respecta a los acontecimientos en la UDLA. La verdad es que ni que pensar, hay demasiada información y demasiados sentimientos encontrados. He tratado de sentarme a leer y entender que es lo que esta pasando, pero los puntos son divergentes y confusos, además de que el cariño a personas afectadas y a mi alma mater limitan mi imparcialidad.

Todos los días llego a esta oficina a leer el blog del Dr. Gerardo Esquivel para enterarme, en resumidas cuentas, de los últimos acontecimientos. En fin, que tristeza que todo esto este pasando. A donde fuimos a llegar. Una de las mejores universidades privadas de Latinoamérica viendose afectada por el interés de unos cuantos.

A título personal, el cierre del periódico estudiantil La Catarina por parte de la rectoría como represalia a ciertos artículos representó un retroceso enorme para la UDLA. Qué cosa es eso? El Granma??? Ahora dicen que la acreditación de SACS está en riesgo (lo cual implicaría perder gran apoyo de instituciones en E.U.). Que el USAid piensa retirar sus apoyos. Y la 63a graduación? ni que decir! En fin, ojalá todo se solucione por el bien de la UDLA y todo lo que esto representa.

Luis A. Barroso, Ph.D. U.E.

It's been a while since the last time I posted anything in this blog. Well, I didn't have time to do so. I was working on getting my dissertation and final defense ready. Well, it happened! I just became a Dr. last Monday March 26th. It wasn't easy, but I did it. Now, the new challenge..... getting a job! (U.E. - Unemployed).

Most people who know about it ask me how I feel. The truth is that I don't even know how I feel. I guess I don't even know if you are supposed to be excited or something like that. It may be due to all the papers that I have to start to put together...who knows.

Anyway, I am happy for all the people who helped me and put their hopes in me. All those people who never doubt that I was capable of doing it even when I wasn't sure myself. Isela, Mia, Ericka, Papás, Mario, Ed, Wendell, Ean, Pelin, Nat, James, etc. I know I am leaving some out, sorry, but to all of you.... Thanks.

By the way, a friend of mine just showed me this little clip. I found it interesting...

Chomsky hablando un poco de Oaxaca

En este video Chomsky habla de la naturaleza represora que en ocasiones ha mostrado el Gobierno de México. Al comentar esto, toca en parte el tema de lo ocurrido en Oaxaca y hace referencia a la falta de estructura de este movimiento.


ps. Saludos y un abrazo mi buen Suso

Interesting behavior description...

I found this clip on the Seed magazine's website (http://www.seedmagazine.com). The clip shows a conversation between Chomsky and Trivers. Chomsky, the famous (and more famous now, after Venezuela's President Chávez speech at the U.N.) linguistics professor at MIT, talks with R. Trivers, the evolutionist professor from Rutgers University.

The conversation mainly deals with the behavior of organisms. They go into the U.S. - Middle East conflict (this had to happen with Chomsky at the table) and how similar events are judged differently according to the perspective. Then, they go into animal reactions in situations like these.

I found really interesting how Trivers describes the behavior of wasps and other organisms when dealing with oppression and abuse of power. Can the reaction from people all around the world (including Oaxaca) can be attributed to our intrinsic human nature? I don't know, but anyway... if you have 5 minutes to spare, maybe you will find this interesting too.

Dos de tres caídas....

Por fin, el pasado lunes 2 de Octubre tuve la defensa de mi "qualifiying exam." Mentiría si les dijera que fue pan comido. Estuve ahí, dentro de la sala de conferencias por mas de una hora, contestando preguntas de todo tipo. La mayoría de ellas, se referían al estudio que proponía para mi propuesta, pero algunas otras eran mas generales. En fin, al final de cuentas pasé.

Creo que los momentos mas angustiantes fueron a la hora de esperar el veredicto. Me parece que estuve aproximadamente 10 minutos fuera de la sala esperando el resultado pero parecieron eternos. Después de esa resolución, se me fue permitido presentar mi propuesta para disertación. En realidad yo pensé que iba a estar mas nervioso para esta parte pero no fue asi.

La presentación de la propuesta creo que me tranquilizó un poco y duró aproximadamente tres cuartos de hora. Después, como era de esperarse, vino otra tanda de preguntas. Esta vez, la preguntas se enfocaron en la teoría que estoy proponiendo, el analisis estadístico, y sobre todo, en la bolsa de valores. No se por que cada vez que se usa la bolsa para hacer un estudio, esta llama la atención por encima de lo demás, pero bueno, lo que sea con tal de que firmen.

Pues así es, ya pasé dos de los tres requisitos necesarios para acabar, y sobre todo, la propuesta, que para mí era la mas difícil. Ahora a trabajar en la defensa final. El departamento me ha ofrecido trabajo ahora en Otoño y hasta la Primavera. Hasta se me ha ofrecido un Post-doc en caso de no encontrar alguna posición en otra universidad. Eso es bueno, por lo menos parece que voy a tener algo bajo la manga.

Constant streaming of rumors

During the last few days I have been receiving calls from friends and family in Oaxaca. It seems that in a situation like the one they are living in, rumors about army's entrance into the city and/or different endings to the conflict are an every day event. There were rumors before "El grito" for the celebration of Independence. There are rumors about names and people (important people in politics) who are supposed to be behind the movement. One of my favorites: There were rumors about Oaxaca separating from the rest of the country to become an independent republic due to the lack of attention by the federal government.

It seems that the "Ricardo Rocha incident" brought a lot of attention from people from the rest of the country. It was then when calls from friends in Puebla, Mexico City and other places started. I also was able to watch an interview that López Doriga had with Ulises Ruiz. It was interesting and it seemed to me that it showed an evasive governor who at certain point was placed in an awkward spot.

Anyway, I just wonder: why doesn't he just step down? Wouldn't that be the right choice? I mean, if he had done so, I believe he would be admired by the society. Sort of like a martir, sacrificing himself for the good of the state. I don't know, I guess I don't know that much about the interests behind the whole thing.

By the way, the last rumor is that if an agreement is not reached soon between the federal government and the APPO, the army, which by the way is in Huatulco, will then enter the city. I just hope this ends with a solution and no harm.

Oaxaca news on BBC

Today, Oaxaca was mentioned on the BBC World news. It seems that the APPO vs State government problem is just getting bigger and bigger. The NY Times is also following the story in Oaxaca. It seems that is getting worse as time goes by and there is no possible solution yet.

Now, there are some news that talk about gunfire in the city and dead people. El País, the Spanish newspaper published today an interesting article about the conflict. It seems that the media are expecting something to happen in Oaxaca and that scares me.

Even the Mexican news, which highly concentrate in Mexico City and forget about what happens in the rest of the country, unless the President or another high level politician is touring around, are mentioning and pushing for a solution to the conflict.

Anyway, we will see what happens. I just hope nobody gets hurt and also pray for the city to recover its freedom.

Talking about something else, October 2nd is the official date for my proposal defense.

Cyclic revolutionary thinking?

During the last few days the Hungarian people have protested against their government. It seems that they do not agree with some of the new reforms implemented by their government. In return, the people, and specially college students, want the government to be overthrown. At the same time, there was a coup in Thailand. The militia took over power while the country's Prime Minister was in New York attending a U.N. meeting. These situations might seem too far away to affect my life, but they are not.


In Oaxaca, my hometown, there have been riots for more than 100 days. Everything started as the yearly strike (more than 20 years) from the public school teachers and evolved onto a situation of civil chaos. To me, many of the original arguments used by the teachers are actually right and fair, but it seems that this is one of those cases in which the medicine turned out to be worst than the illness. Blinded by their anger, the teachers and now other popular groups have virtually taken over the city. The original ideas have become communist propaganda and this has resulted on Oaxaca living in complete absence of local government, in a state of libertarianism.

Then, what is going to happen? Until now, the federal government has done nothing but to observe and to play the role of mediator. Is that a step forth or back? Should the government be more active (active, not necessarily as in repressive)? In the past, there have been periods in which movements around the World rose against their governments. The ones in the 60s had a communist/socialist agenda and the way the government dealt with such revolts was not always in the most peaceful manner. In Mexico's case, '68s movement is the most recent case.

Tlaltelolco occurred about half a century ago. Another half a century ago (100 years ago give or take), the Mexican revolution started. Ignited by discomfort with the ruling government, the revolution movement started from the people, and like in many other cases in our history, many of the ones whom started against the movement at the very beginning ended up victorious. How different is the Barbarous Mexico described by Turner in the early XXth century to today's? Do we have to go through the same again? Do we have to go through the same again every half century? Are we mature enough as a government and as a society to deal with our differences and problems for our own betterment? I do not think so... but I really, really hope so.

The start of an era

Today I received an email from my good friend Lucas. He is living in Damascus right now. He sent me a link to his blog and I was impressed. Actually, I was so impressed that I logged on to my blogger account and erased the old crap I had to start all over. I really don't know if this will interest anyone, but anyway I guess I got already into this and we'll see what we can do.

There is actually a lot going on to talk about: Oaxaca's and Mexico's current political struggle, conducted research maybe, job search, etc. who knows... Anyway, I guess I will try to make it as interesting (and clear) as possible.