Children of the World

The trip continues.

 

From Guatemala we drove into Southern Mexico. They were having a bit of a guerrilla uprising at the time. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation, a revolutionary leftist group (Marxist type) was causing havoc. The group was (and still is) based in Chiapas, the southern most state of Mexico.

So where do we decide to go (you may ask) to Chiapas of course! On the way we were stopped several times by the Mexican military looking for any Zapatista's who may have hijacked our bus. Interesting experience having soldiers in ski masks (with very lethal looking guns) force you off a local bus and demand identification (passports, etc.) while they searched the bus and all your personal possessions looking for anything that may incriminate you as a Zapatista supporter, (we either passed muster thank heaven or my dirty boxers really turned them off. Plus, I hadn't purchased my Zapatista Guerrilla doll at this point in time.

This first picture is of the road (trail actually) to a small village in the center of the Chiapas district. The big white building is the church, a combination Catholic and Mayan (Voodoo-ish is my best description) a religious house of worship where parishioners may be sitting on the floor (no chairs inside the church) praying, eating lunch, drinking or just feeding the chickens or goats which were also in the church (true story, I attended a service) while the Padre prays and holds the service.

The Church is the center piece of the Villages in rural Central American countries. There's usually a large square where they set up a market place, congregate, eat, visit and gossip (or tell tall tales).
The people of the area are primarily of Mayan decent.

The Zapatista's aren't a particularly violent group against tourists so we were comparably safe. They are primarily against the government and the military. They are mostly farmers and the very poor, workers who want nothing more then some equality and government assistance, which they never actually get, thus their uprising. This has been going on since about 1994. (Actually it probably hasn't changed since the Spanish Conquistadors conquered this part of the world).

Back to "The Children", this little girl (above photo) and her small sister found this tourista (me) fascinating, as I walked around the square taking photos they followed (at a safe distance)  until I stopped and asked them (sign language of course, I speak very little Mayan) if I could take their picture. They readily agreed and posed for me but I couldn't get them to smile. After the picture taking I gave them a hand full of Peso's which I'm sure made their day and provided their family with a meal that evening.

This lady (pictured above) was also in the village square. She was selling hand crafted dolls of the Zapatista guerrillas. The two she is holding here, I bought from her. Thru a few words and some sign language she told me the doll was modeled after Zapatista Guerrilla's and that they were all around us but not to worry, they wouldn't harm us. She was delightful and when asked, she was more then happy to pose for this snap shot. The doll cost me a few Peso's (probably less then a dollar) but I also gave her a few more which thrilled her to no end. The locals, though supportive of the Guerrilla movement, were very friendly and courteous to us, we never felt threatened nor leery of anyone in the villages of Chiapas.