Oaxaca – What happened to our “peace”?

On the hillside overlooking the beautiful city of Oaxaca there is a statute of Benito Juarez, Oaxaca’s most famous native son. Juarez’s famous saying, “Respect for the rights of others is peace” is spelled out in white rocks, visible for miles. A year ago the narrow, winding road into town was closed so that it could be widened. Now there is an ugly brown landslide which has eaten away the green mountain and the “peace” is missing from both the saying and the city.

As the whole world knows, Oaxaca has been in turmoil for months. The conflagration that has been smoldering for years finally burst into flame, fanned by hidden people with hidden interests. What has destroyed the peace of Oaxaca?

To understand what is going on you have to discover who Oaxaca is. One of the most fascinating things about the city and state is the coexistence of three completely different societies in the same physical location. In all of the Americas, Oaxaca is the most ethnically diverse area. The ancient populace is Native American, more than a million people speaking 150 varieties of 15 languages. The other two million people in the state are Spanish speakers, originally produced by the rape of Indian women by the “conquistadores” but now making up the majority of the population, called mestizos. The third component of Oaxaca is the foreigners from the entire world who come to enjoy the climate and scenery, the archaeological ruins, the Indian crafts and markets, and the peace of Oaxaca. The Indians till the soil, craft beautiful and practical articles to sell, the foreigners observe and buy, and the Spaniards make a profit on it all. Although there is constant interaction between these groups, each remains complete distinct, for historical reasons.

The Zapotec and Mixtec Indians have inhabited the valley of Oaxaca for thousands of years, sharing and fighting over the lush farmlands watered by the Atoyac River. Cortez, who led the Spanish invasion 500 years ago, demanded the valley as his reward for conquering Mexico. There is a hotel on the town square called “the Marques del Valle” in his honor. The Spanish subjugated the Indian population not just militarily, but spiritually with the forced evangelization by the Dominicans, culturally by burning their codices and enslaving their nobility, and physically by transmitting European diseases which killed close to 90% of the population. After years of conflict Mexico and Oaxaca obtained freedom from Spain and other foreign interests during the time of Benito Juarez, the only Indian president of any Latin American country until recently. Since then a fragile peace has reigned in Oaxaca, with the Indians carrying out their millennial existence of farming, crafts, interlocking markets, and ancient religious practices overlaid with a veneer of Catholicism. They have survived by isolating themselves in the steep mountains and conserving their customs. It is staggering to think that several hundred thousand Oaxacan Indians are still monolingual; 500 years after the Spanish conquest they still have not learned the conquerors’ language.

The arrival of non Spanish foreigners in the last 70 years has changed Oaxaca dramatically. There have been tourists who braved the mountain roads, missionaries who lived among the Indians to translate the scriptures into their languages, engineers mining for gold, hippies looking for cheap high, anthropologists and archeologists who study the past and present Indian cultures, drug lords seeking isolated mountainsides for their crops; entrepreneurs making fortunes, snowbirds seeking sun, surfers riding the best waves at the coast, retirees quietly spending their last years, and radicals from failed revolutions who have found haven in Oaxaca. We all love Oaxaca, but like parties in a marriage, some want her never to change, and some have come to transform her into their vision of paradise.

For the last 4 months a group of teachers - who receive a paycheck from the federal government – and other malcontents have held the city hostage. They have burned busses, closed businesses, caused massive unemployment among Indian craftsmen and sellers, blackened Oaxaca’s good name internationally, scared away the tourists who sustained the economy, frightened the cops off the streets, interrupted all the public works improvements, blanketed the city with graffiti, blockaded the streets, beat up the trash collectors, “liberated” the Radio and television stations, invaded peoples homes, confiscated vehicles, turned the town square into a public bathroom and trash heap, all in their effort to “create a better society.

Amazingly enough, the city has functioned in spite of the efforts to disrupt civilization. The survival of the city is a tribute to the wonderful people of Oaxaca who stop at the intersections, drive carefully down whatever streets are open, buy and sell when they can, patrol their neighborhoods, attend the sick, discuss the situation with their neighbors of different persuasion, and pray for the peace of their city.

Most of the original protesters have gone home, several thousand are marching toward Mexico City, and no more than 4 or 5 thousand are barricaded in a couple areas in the city. There is not popular support for a revolution, 420 of the 570 municipal leaders in the state have asked the national congress to intervene on behalf of the besieged governor. The poor people and Indians are not in revolt, what they want is to be left alone so that they can earn a living, sleep in peace, and have a chance to educate their children for a better life. Those wanting to change Oaxaca have forgotten the wisdom of Benito Juarez, trampled the rights of her citizens, and crushed peace underfoot. There will be no true peace in Oaxaca until the Prince of Peace reigns in individual hearts and lives. May that be soon.