Dean's News and Thoughts

Hi Folks, (El Salvador Trip is June 26-July 3; slots available)

Here's a heads up about two great upcoming events

Sat. April 12-Phil Ochs Song Night; Lexington, MA; www.joyfulnoisecoffeehouse.org, or 781-861-0142. For years Sonny Ochs (Phil's sister) has organized these very well attended events as benefits for local causes. This one at one of my favorite coffeehouses, includes Greg Greenway, John Flynn, Magpie, Emma's Revolution, Chris and Meredith Thompson, David Roth, and Yours Truly.

Fri. April 18; George and Ruth; Songs and Letters from the Spanish Civil War; First Parish, Watertown, MA; www.tremedalconcerts.org; 617-782-8718
Dan and Molly Watt team up with musicians Tony Saletan and Silvia Miskoe to present a deeply moving tribute to Dan's parents, George who served in the Lincoln Brigade, and Ruth, who wrote letters from New York, and organized delivery of material aid. Their beautiful correspondence is interspersed with multilingual songs from that struggle against fascism in the years leading up to World War II. this is a gem of an event, not to be missed!

and while I have your attention, mark your calendars for Sat. Jun 14; Sweet Chariot Festival South in West Roxbury. www.deanstevens.com; 617-869-3014

HI FOLKS,

I am busy finishing up the new CD. I think it will be called "At Last!!". It's been such a long time coming, with so many pitfalls, distractions, postponements, hibernations, money and time shortages. I am very excited about a possible fall release of this project. I can hardly wait to share what my many musical friends, both the songwriters and the players, have contributed to this effort. It feels great to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Finally!!

We are organizing another trip to El Salvador in late June. It's not a trip for everyone, but all are welcome. Most people who come have a marvellous time, and many come back repeatedly. There is more info about the trips on the website. (www.deanstevens.com).

In January there were eight of us who travelled to the villages. I called it the best trip ever, but I seem to describe every trip that way. It's a routine that I don't seem to get tired of, and I feel very proud of the relationships we have developed over the course of 17 years, and of the 150 or so people I have taken with me, and of the projects that we've carried out with these four villages.

On this trip we met with El Higueral's four new high school graduates, and with some of the others who have graduated already, about eight in total. We talked about their plans for further education. Some are working, others cannot go on with their schooling because of other family obligations, and some have genuine desire to continue. The step from high school to university is a BIG and difficult one for them. We're trying to locate some guidance resources for them, to see if we can make it happen, at least for a few of them.

We have been struggling to get the new students enrolled in school. Tejutla's high school went back and forth about whether or not they were going to give extension classes on Saturdays, as they always have. Finally they decided not to admit new students, which meant that three had to scramble to enroll in the regular day to day classes, and find lodging in the towns where they are studying. Two of them, we were thrilled to find out, are staying with former El Higueral schoolteachers, and one is with relatives. These three girls are in three different villages, Tejutla, San Francisco and La Reina. We also have one girl, Esmeralda, who is studying in San Salvador, afternoons. She is a domestic worker all day, then goes to school at 4 PM.

On January 4 we were in Izotalillo, the village that grows the amazing coffee that you can get from me, from St. Andrew Christian Church in Kansas City, or at some of my musical events. They had just been through a wicked wind storm, that did serious damage to every one of the fifteen roofs in the village. there were still twisted pieces of sheet roofing strewn about, and broken pieces of roof tiles everywhere. Lots of pine trees were blown down. It was a storm like had never been seen before, and they were on the front line, being up on that high ridge. The wind also blew most of their coffee crop to the ground. The coffee trees were all bare, all the leaves and fruit blown to the ground, a very eerie scene. The leaves will grow back, but this year's crop is gone. What coffee they had already picked and dried, maybe about 20% of their normal crop, is being held for us, which we will bring back in July.

They have managed to get some reconstruction aid from the governor of Chalatenango, and from some other NGO sources, and have been able to repair their roofs. We also did a fundraising appeal upon our return to the US, and Izotalillo's Sister Community of Crested Butte, CO came up with $2000. This will be used for construction of a new water tank. The materials have been purchased, and a mason is going to spend some upcoming days working with them on building the tank.

There have been two death's recently: Don Higinio, the very old man from El Higueral, who had recently lost his wife Nicolasa, finally went on to join her. This was an amazing man, beloved by the community, who hung on for several years after most people though he'd be gone. On one trip about three years ago, they were saying the last rites for him, but he came through, as he had several times before. I always loved the morning sight of seeing the very very old Don Higinio headed out to the fields. It was such a picture of hearty survival and deep strength that I so admire about these folks. The other passing was Don Benigno from Izotalillo, who at about age 50+, got sick very suddenly, and died. He leaves a wife and three teenage children in Izotalillo. He was also the father of El Higueral's Lucia, a young mother we have had a lot of contact with over the years.

On this trip we found out more about two El Higueral children who have eye problems: Dora Estela is a one year old who has something called ptosis, an eyelid that will not open properly. There is another boy, Edwin, who at age six, fell out of a tree, and one of his eyes sustained serious damage. We had both of these kids seen at an annual eye campaign realized by US opthamologists, eye surgeons and volunteers, along with a Salvadoran medical organization called ASAPROSAR. Dora cannot have her very treatable problem taken care of until she is about 5 years old. Until then we will keep track of her progress. Edwin's situation is more difficult, not treatable, except perhaps a cataract surgery, which may improve his blurry vision in the left eye a tiny bit. He will have this surgery soon, performed by a Salvadoran doctor.

Last week I got a call from Ernesto in Dallas, TX. It took me a moment to remember who he was, until he told me his nickname, Neto. He is Adelina and Orlando's oldest boy. He made the trip to the US, almost totally because of pressure from his family. Another of their boys, Manuel, had attempted the trip, but had been arrested, held in Texas for a month, then returned to El Salvador. In order to finance this trip the parents had put up a title for a piece of land to a local "coyote" as collateral. When Manuel didn't make it, they put up title for another piece of land as collateral for Ernesto's trip. He made it to Texas, but it doesn't sound like he's doing that well. He's working minimum wage for a contractor that washes vegetable boxes for a Walmart store. He's trying to get another part time night job. He barely makes enough to pay his expenses, and send money to pay the exorbitant interest on the loan that the coyote made to his family for his trip. By his account, he seems to be just spinning his wheels. He is very worried about the debt quandary that his family is in, and concerned about them losing their land.

There are six people from El Higueral in the US (Beto, Armando, Oscar, Daniel, Eduardo, Ernesto). Some have managed to slip into fairly stable work situations, pay off their trip, and save some money. Others have not fared so well. There are another six from Izotalillo (Rogelio, Ana Silvia, Cruz, Fermin, Petronilo, and Petronilo's wife). Their outcomes have been equally mixed. Some of them have left children behind with grandparents. Some have defaulted on their coyote loans. In a twisted way, they might be the smart ones: what good is a worthless piece of subsistance land on the side of a mountain, and what coyote is going to be able to repossess it, sell it, and evict the family off it? Better to provide immediate cash to your kin and to hell with the coyote and with your stake on a piece of remote land.

To some the coyote is a hero, risking a lot to bring people to a place where they can make a better life for their family back home. To others the coyote is a villain, bilking money from unsuspecting peasants in these villages, touting the trip as easy and secure. There are people that we know who are recruiters for the coyotes, getting a commission for every young person that they line up for the coyote to take on the perilous trip.

I always tell young people in El Salvador not to come to the US. Stay in your community, I will do everything I can to help you build your community, get education, and develop an economy in these villages. Don't leave your kids with your grandparents. They need YOU to raise them. Stay here. But it doesn't always work out that way, and the reasons are obvious. Grinding poverty, desire for a better life for their kids.

Still I feel deeply for those who have come to the US. They work ridiculously hard to survive. They are scared, fish out of water really, but learn to survive the best they can. They all talk about returning, but none ever seem to. Among the ones who have been here the longest, only one, Beto, has been able to stabilize his residency situation, and get a work permit, which allows him to visit El Higueral. Cruz, from Izotalillo, has done well, and bought some land in the vicinity of Izotalillo, had his family plant it with coffee, and is rumored to want to come back, driving a truck. The rest of these pilgrims are without documents, but there is usually plenty of work of all kinds for them here, though none with any job security or decent wages. So they live for years and years, underground, hidden, but also, ironically, a vital part of this economy.

I could go on and on, and will, when I have more time. Check out my concert schedule on the website, and the next trip dates, and the big CD release next fall, I hope!!

Love, DEAN

Hi Folks,

I just figured out, for the first time, how to check how many hits the news page received: 900. I am humbled. Of course I don't know if 899 of them got past the first sentence. If so, to the one set of eyes who actually read this Dean-drivel, thanks, I love you madly!

My summer started out with the customary trip to the villages, with another wonderful group, five of us from Boston, and two from Kansas City. Our trips focus mostly on the village of El Higueral, but we visit three others as well, and do crafts, coffee and other Sister City business in those places. I am really glad that there are several US people who share in my passion for these villages enough that they have returned numerous times. On this trip there were two of them, Ed White, who has come on five trips in a row, and Lee Fich, another repeat offender who has come I don't even know how many times over the years. There is also Carol Allen, who was not on this trip, but who has gone with me about ten times!!

These are really good times for our friendship with El Higueral. There are several endeavors that have gone really well that I'll list really quickly for you:

We sent money several months ago for construction of cement tilapia ponds. They have been experimenting with fish culture, mostly in plastic lined ponds: dig a hole, put down a huge piece of plastic, fill it with water. This worked for them, but eventually the plastic gives out when roots come up and rip it, so cement is the next step. Twenty six families built ponds, and have seeded them with fish. We are going to have a contest to see who can raise the biggest one. Last week I read a really interestiing article about farms in Vietnam that raise tilapia as well as goats. They build the goat pens directly over the tilapia ponds, because it turns out, tilapia thrive on goat turds, and it's a wonderful symbiosis, according to this article, in The Ark, which is Heifer Project's monthly magazine. It just so happens that several families in El Higueral just came into some goats, courtesy of a Heifer-like organization called Samaritan's Purse (I later found out that this is Franklin Graham's organization, as in Rev. Billy Graham's son. He was my classmate in high school at a religious prep-school on Long Island. He runs a very evangelical outfit, with a religious agenda, but hey, they gave El Higueral a bunch of goats). When I read about this, I immediately had to call Arnoldo, the amazing Directiva president and Catholic lay leader, and tell him about this. They are going to try it out on their tilapia. I hope it is a succesful experiment, because it would be an amazing new source of tilapia food. I hope this does not gross you out, or keep you from eating tilapia when you come and visit El Higueral!! It certainly won't impede me! Feta cheese flavored fish!!??

I'll tell you more about Arnoldo. Earlier this year his wife Maribel gave birth to Jocelyn, their first girl after six boys, the last boy having been born eight years ago. Arnoldo is a marvellous leader, and has spearheaded the tilapia endeavor, as well as the water project that will make the fish farming a feasible option. We helped them buy land that contains a spring, and channel it down a mile of pipe to the tank. This is the third spring they have now (two of them which we funded), and will assure a good water supply for years to come, allow for the tilapia, and for dry season vegetable growing as well. Arnoldo also leads the lay services at the church (sort of like a mass, but with no priest). His father Arturo used to have this task, as well as the catechism classes, but in Arturo's old age, his son, with whom he is well pleased, has taken over. They built the shell of a church two years ago, and we have been able to help with the windows and doors, and now with plaster for the interior walls, then they can put down the ceramic tile floor. Arnoldo is a marvellous guy to work with, very inspiring, and very thorough with his accountability.

Veronica is a quite disabled ten-year old girl with something that they originally called cerebral palsy, though now it seems like there is also some kind of dwarf condition in play as well. She is tiny. Put her next to my son Daniel, who just turned ten (Happy Birthday, Daniel!!), and you'd have Mutt and Jeff on steroids!! But the coolest thing is that Veronica has had this development breakthrough, and is talking up a storm, which she never did before, and is walking with sticks. The ABSOLUTE HIGHLIGHT of this trip was seeing her walk across the dirt floor with the sticks that her mother had just cut for her from a bush nearby, beaming ear to ear as she showed off her new skill to us, every once in a while whacking at her brother who pretended to try to trip her up. I want to get her some real cool kids' telescoping ski poles to walk with.

We had twelve students going to high school on Saturdays, as part of a distance learning program. We provide them with money for their tuition, supplies, and transportation and meals on the day they go to classes. This adds up to $400/year/student, and there was an idea afoot among the delegation that we seek sponsors to pay for high school scholarships. We already have some folks signed up. For a variety of reasons, three students dropped out of classes, leaving nine to hopefully finish the year. Among those nine, four will graduate from high school, after three years of study. Among those I'll mention two of note, actually I've got to talk about them all, because they are all of note:

Elba Portillo: if you've been following our doings since inception (1991), you will know that Elba is the kid who at age 8, in 1994, we brought to Boston for a successful heart surgery. She is now about to graduate from high school, and has a daughter Jenny, who is named, we believe, after my wife Jennifer, her honorary grandma.

Nelson, age 23, is the son of Rosita Recinos, the village health promoter, treasurer, and saint. Nelson was identified as a youth leader in the community, and recommended for a job with the Ministry of Health, promoting health in remote villages, vaccinating children and animals, keeping records, giving out advice and information, accompanying sick people to hospital. He is a chip off the old block, taking up where Rosita has not even left off. She is the community's real health guru, although her son is the one who has the official position, and makes the salary. On top of this full time job, Nelson is finishing high school, and becoming a wonderful musician as well.

Rosa and Rosa-we call them the Rosas. They live in the houses way up the hill. They are from the two poorest families in the village, and at first their families did not want them to attend high school, they wanted them to stay home and help around the house, perfom the "oficio", the essential woman's work in a traditional farm family: preparing tortillas, cooking, washing, taking lunch to the men and boys out in the fields, caring for the kids. Their schooling was made more difficult because their houses, being far from the villages, don't have the photovoltaic light that the rest of the village enjoys, so it was not as easy for them to study at night, despite the flashlights that I bought for them. One Rosa is very bright and has always gotten very good grades, until last November, when her mother died of cancer, and she has had to take up a big part of the household work burden. She is however, as far as I can tell, in line to graduate! The other Rosa was the shyest, meekest thing when she started studying, and has turned out to be a very eloquent leader and lay youth organizer in the church.

There will soon be a new project spearheaded by the same UCA (Jesuit University in San Salvador) engineers who brought the photovoltaic project 11 years ago. This will be a more expanded version of the existing electric project, supplemented by a corn mill that runs on diesel. They are spearheading the planting of a kind of tree (I don't remember what they are called) whose fruit is easily convertible into a kind of biodiesel, hopefully to run the corn mill. Sounds fascinating. Three young men from El Higueral are going to the university to study basic electrical skills, to be able to help install the new system.

Lilian is the third person from El Higueral travelling to Cuba for eye surgery. This is a project funded by the Venezuelan government, administered by the FMLN party in El Salvador, to send many people to Cuba for several different kind of treatments, laser surgery and cataract procedures. Think about that every time you buy CITGO gasoline, or when you hear the increasing US media tirades demonizing Hugo Chavez. Nuff said. We sent $200 to Lilian, and got her son Oscar in Boston to match that. This will allow her to obtain her passport, and to have expense money while she is in Havana (the plane ticket and the surgery are free).

Another amazing highlight: we saw a PUMA, or maybe a JAGUAR. We were having lunch on Maribel's front porch, when we heard some squawking chickens at a nearby house. We looked over the side of the hill, and briefly saw a big black cat, about the size of a golden retriever, with a big long black tail, vanish into the thicket. The kids told us they saw him with the chicken in his mouth. Not very many people in El Higueral have seen a "gato de monte", though they know that they come around to prey on barnyard animals. So we were magicked with an amazing sight. How many people in this world will see a big cat in the wild any more?

I just heard, when I talked to Arnoldo, about the death of Nina Nico, (aka Nicolasa), one half of the pair known as "los abuelitos" a very old couple in their nineties. Her husband Higinio, is the one whom I suspected would have been long gone. On one of our trips a couple of years ago, they were saying his last rites, but he came through, and is still there, amazingly, now a widower. They are the last of a generation of old timers, slowly fading away.

After I got back from El Salvador, I had to start working furiously in the courts during July (I work as a court interpreter, Spanish) so that we could afford to spend the whole month of August away, first on Swans Island, Maine, and finally, here in Denver, caring for Jennifer's folks. Be well, all of you, or at least the one of you that got through this entire missive!!

Our next trip is in early January. Come along if you like!! If you're near Boston in September, come and hear some amazing young string players in Watertown on September 7, at the Tremedal Concert Series, an endeavor which I am now booking and promoting, along with an amazing gang of long standing volunteers from the Watertown-El Salvador Sister City Committee. For information go to www.tremedalconcerts.org, or call 617-869-3014

Love and goat turds, DEAN

There is a new CD on its way, although it's old. I've been working on it since 1995. Then Daniel was born. Got sidetracked... Ten years later, I'm back at it. I like to say I'm halfway there. At this rate, I'll be done by 2025 or so. But I'll tell you that on my birthday, May 24, a certain Ritt Henn came into the studio, and having done his homework, written his charts and woodshed his parts, nailed bass parts onto 12 songs in two short days. Best birthday present I can remember. Thanks Ritt. He's one of the Sweet Chariot gang, and will be with us on Sat. Jun 16 in West Roxbury, near Boston!! I've also had shorter recording sessions with percussionist Tom Macdonald, and vocalist aoife O'Donovan, and Laura Cortese, vocals and violin.

The overwhelming task will be knowing when to stop. I hope it will be simply evident. Enough!! No more layers! Press the thing and get it out the door.

In the midst of promoting this Sweet Chariot event, comes news of the death of Tia Cande. You El Salvador travellers will remember the very elderly lady who would come to visit on the porch of the Community Center where we stay. Cane in hand, she would struggle her way up the hill to see us. In the early days she would bring us very beautiful embroidery. She was a widow, whose entire family, husband and four sons, had been killed during the 80s conflict. She returned to the village in 1988 with her nephews and nieces, and settled in a mud shed that a relative built. She had a piece of land that she owned, a home plot that she had gotten through the Peace Accords, which gave land to people displaced by the war. She always wanted us to help her build a house on that land. We wanted to help make this happen, but she became too frail, and her relatives didn't think she could care for herself in the house we were going to help her build. So instead, we built a small addition onto the home of Rosita, the health promoter, who cared for until she died. Still, every time we came, she came to ask why we hadn't built her her own house, which was all she wanted, to be by herself. I had to explain it to her every time we came, that this was the best we could do, and that her relatives thought the same. So she was disappointed with me, all the way to the end. I didn't build her her house. What can I say? She was a fighter, and she hung on for a long time, lived deep into her nineties, though no one knew for sure exactly how old she was. We will miss you, Maria Candelaria, better known as Tia Cande.

After a ten year stretch of very good health in El Higueral, we are having a rash of illness and death: Teresa, Don Teyo's wife, died earlier this year, and now, Tia Cande. We have two babies with vision problems. They will both have surgery, one in Cuba, the other in San Salvador. Thank you, St. Andrew Christian Church, for the extra money into the emergncy medical fund, to help make this happen. We also have two more people recently hospitalized: Enma (Arturo's wife, mother of many, many in the community, she had 20 live births, most of them are still alive). Lito (husband of Tila, brother of Jorge) was also hospitalized, for dizziness and nausea. Every time someone has to go to the hospital, a hammock is tied to a pole which two men can carry down the mountain, to Teosinte, where a truck is hired to take the patient to the hospital. Some day they hope there mght be a vehicle in the community, mostly to take sick folks to the hospital, but also useful to get merchandise to market, to move construction materials up the mountain.

The men are hard at work on the water project. A spring has been tapped and channelled about two miles down to the preexisting pipeline. Once this spring is online, El Higueral's water situation will be vastly improved. We have financed this project, from the spring purchase about 8 years ago in 1999, all the way to the present pipelaying. The work involves hauling enormous sections of steel pipe, up a steep mountain through nasty terrain. They are hoping to have the new water flowing in time for our visit at the end of this month, June 2007. This water will also help make the fish pond project (26 ponds have been built) possible, as well as allow for some vegetable gardening during the dry season. It's a remarkable project, almost done.

There are 7 of us so far travelling at the end of Jun 2007. More travellers are always welcome. We will also be picking up more coffee and crafts. Thanks for reading this. I'm wanting to submit these news items every time I talk to someone in El Higueral.

Hi Folks,

The next trip to El Salvador departs on Thu. June 28, and returns on Thu. July 5, 2007.
For more info. on these trips, go to the Central America, Crafts, Coffee, and Activist pages of this website. We visit 4 villages, the same ones we've been frequenting since 1991, and get updates on several projects that we're involved in with folks from these rural communities.

If you're interested in travelling with us, give a call, 617/327-7701 or an email at dean@deanstevens.com for details.

Boston Climate Action Network presents:
RACHEL WE NEED YOU NOW!
A Concert Honoring RACHEL CARSON on her 100th Birthday,
featuring
Magpie (www.magpiemusic.com)
emma's revolution (www.emmasrevolution.com)
Dean Stevens (www.deanstevens.com)
Geoff Bartley (www.geoffbartley.com)
and special guests: Jill Stein, Ken Selcer and friends.


SAT. MAY 5; 7:30PM
Central Congregational Church
85 Seaverns Ave.
Jamaica Plain, MA
Directions-www.centralcongregational.org
(half block from Green St. Station, Orange Line)
Admission: $20, sliding scale, kids free.
COME ON THE T, GET $2 OFF THE PRICE OF ADMISSION!!!

For info: www.massclimateaction.org/boston.htm
For info and reservations: 617-869-3014.

Proceeds to benefit Boston Climate Action Network

"MAKING BOSTON PART OF THE CLIMATE CHANGE SOLUTION"

The Sweet Chariot Music and Arts Festival is a sort of Algonquin Circle of musicians/songwriters/artists, who have gathered every summer for 19 years on gorgeous Swans Island, off the coast of Acadia National Park, Maine. We perform three sold-out concerts, that finance a week of festivities/food, merriment, and mostly the joy of seeing each other and watching each other's kids grow up. We've lately been doing these shows, or excerpts of them, in other parts of the country, in California, and most recently, in Boston.

Come see us for the Third Annual Sweet Chariot South Music Festival, on Sat. Jun 16, 2007, in West Roxbury, MA!!(see the home page, or the schedule page for more info, directions, phone numbers, etc.

DEAN

Hi Folks,

If I start a newsletter about our recent trip to El Higueral, I'm more apt to finish it than if I don't start. Right? Every journey begins with one step, etc., etc. I just took the first step. Having just returned, I'm already up to my neck in climate change activism, and immigrant support work. I also happen to be president of the board of my church, not to mention the biggest time thief of all: Dadhood. Up to my neck, and loving it!!


We had a GREAT trip. There were six of us, including repeat travellers Carol Allen and Ed White, as well as two members of my wife Jennifer's church, Avi Davis and Joy Martin. There was Shannon Koenig, who is active with the newly rejuvenated Arlington (MA)-Teosinte Sister City Committee. Shannon stayed on, then went on to study Spanish in Guatemala and Costa Rica. We were also joined by Jesse Dyer-Stewart, who is one of the El Salvador reps for the National Sister City Organization. I am hoping we can coordinate more with the National Sister City movement, especially on burning national political issues in El Salvador, such as antigold mining and anti dam-building activism in Chalatenango, as well as the anti-globalization/free trade work that they do. Another member of the delegation was Alex (se me olvida tu apellido, Alex!!), who has been working with Avi on stove projects in the lakeside town of Suchitoto.

I feel very strongly about our projects in El Higueral. There is a newly elected directiva that has a president, Arnoldo Arévalo, whose wife had just given him a baby girl, Jocelyn,the first girl after a string of six boys. Arnoldo is a fabulous leader, having served one previous term as president, and also a spiritual leader, filling the shoes of his aging father Arturo, who has always been the one who motivated folks to participate in the pastoral life of the community. Arnoldo is on fire with ideas to advance the community's participation in the directiva's projects. There are two new young people on this council, Norma and Eusebio. Arnoldo wants to form committees to support several aspects of the directiva's work, and especially wants to include the young people in these committees. He is one of my favorite beloved folks, and I look forward to working with him during these next two years.

Among the crowning jewels of our endeavors, I think, is the water project, ongoing, but near a milestone. By the end of the dry season (May), we are told that the men will have connected a third spring to the town's water supply. It is, they tell me, an abundant spring, which will ensure a good water delivery, and then some extra for watering vegetable gardens in dry season, and for their new interest in raising fish.
The work of carrying and installing water pipe up the mountain is a brutally gruelling thing. The terrain is really steep and wooded, no path, just straight up the mountain through the underbrush. The steel pipes are 4 meters long, and you carry one by yourself. Or else you carry a 40 pound bag of cement, to build the catchment box. The town's men are organized into work groups, each group going up the mountain one day of the week.

St. Andrew supplied another $1000 toward this work, as well as $1500 for purchase of cement and rebar for tilapia ponds, which will be built toward the end of the dry season. 26 families asked to be included in this project. Tilapia is delicious. Lent is upon us, and this is when people come looking to buy fish. Maybe we will have a contest to see who can grow the biggest fish.

We funded 13 scholarships for high school students to go to Tejutla to attend the distance learning classes on Saturday. There was a bit of trunover: a couple of students dropped out, and a couple added on. Lidia (Chila's daughter) graduated, and is working full time while she considers her college options. Then, after we got back from this trip, we found out that two students had not passed their first year of school. What angered me was that the school did not inform them that they didn't pass, until after the new school year had started, and they had already been attending class for four Saturdays!! I need to have a word with the director of the school, not to question their grading, but to protest that the students had begun the school year without knowing if they had passed the previous year!! What's wrong with this picture? Then, to add insult, they would not let them take the first year over, because the first year class is full.

This distance schooling is fairly poor quality, but it is something for these kids. It is a challenge, a socializing experience for them, and I hope it continues. It is a very popular program for rural young people who don't live near a town with a high school, and for working adults who want to keep studying. There are also rumors that the Ministry of Education has this entire program possibly on the funding chopping block. But despite all of this, I'd call the experience of the recently graduated Lidia a real success of this program, where she graduated, and tested well in national tests that put her against kids in the regular all-week schools. Maybe her success is more about her than about her schooling.

The lingering question remains: Our scholarship efforts cost about the same as it would cost to hire a teacher to give them classes, full time, in El Higueral. Is this an option? It's something to explore in further detail, but also a much more complicated endeavor than simply putting bus and lunch money into students' pockets, and telling them to go and study.

Some of our group spent a day in Teosinte. There are several US individuals and groups, in Arlington, MA, Eugene, OR, and Milwaukee, WI, who are interested in working with Teosinte. My main tie with this town is the sewing shop, where we buy as much stuff as the bank account and the space in the suitcases allows. I am reluctant to get any further involved in Teosinte: life presently allows me two trips per year, one week each trip. El Higueral is my focus, and I don't want to dilute that any more than it already is. But I am hoping we can help make some things happen there, enable some other folks here to get active with Teosinte.

We made our regular trek up the steep mountain to Izotalillo. Everybody made it with flying colors, and our customary güisquil soup was waiting for us there at Felix' house, as well as the business of coffee, which is our main reason for going up there. Izotalilllo has a more valuable, more dangerous and diasporatic export than coffee; its young people. In this village of 70 inhabitants, six young people have gone to the US. To get here they put up their family's land title as collateral, and make the dangerous trip to come to Minnesota, Virginia, or Long Island. Depending on what kind of work they find, it takes them between a year and three years to get the title back from the coyote who leads the trip to the US, and acts as the usurous financier as well. One man left his wife and five kids to come to the US. He then sent for his wife, who is in the US with him now, leaving the five kids with the grandmother. They have a new baby in the US. Although he is making good money, he has not yet paid off his trip, and his land title, as well as his sister's land title, is still in hock. Another young man has long since paid his trip, and built himself a house in Izotalillo, bought more land, plans to come back with a truck. Another man, the one I know best, paid off his trip, then brought his wife to Long Island. When she got to the US things went awry, and they split up on very bad terms, six thousand miles away from home. There are lots of stories. I am especially interested in finding a way to interview all of these folks, and compile the stories of their journeys north. I always tell everybody in the villages: DON'T GO TO THE US. STAY HERE WITH YOUR FAMILY, BUILD YOUR COMMUNITY!!. But I think we also want to be as supportive as we can to those who have come. Their journey is a journey of survival, don't forget, just as sacred as any of our journeys.

The plight of the immigrant is something deeply on my mind today, in the aftermath of an ugly workplace raid that happened last week here in New Bedford, MA, where 300, mostly women, Guatemalan Mayas were torn out of a factory by 500 ICE agents, and spirited away to Texas before they could even make a phone call much less consult with an attorney, leaving a whole bunch of children behind to be cared for by whoever was not arrested, leaving a bunch of children to be dealt with by one of my least favorite state entities, the DSS. The owners of the factory (which makes equipment for the US Army), are out on the street with a slap on the wrist, while three hundred are in custody, awaiting summary deportation. Not a pretty scenario. PLEASE, tell your US reps that this is outrageously unacceptable. (See below)

But mostly I wanted to talk about Izotalillo coffee. I am hoping to figure out how to bring more of it back than can be muled into the suitcases of returning travellers. I am talking to folks at Just Coffee in Madison, WI, and we are hoping to find a way for me to piggyback Izo coffee onto one of their shipments, which they are beginning to import, in an effort to start a line of Sister City Coffee. It's kind of what I want to do too, but I'm more specifically interested in bringing coffee only from the town of Izo, not from the regional coop, which is what Just Coffee is doing. I've got my work cut out for me.

We stopped by Nueva Esperanza at the end of the trip, as usual, to check up on them, and to deliver some materials from the Watertown (MA) SC Group. We had a wonderful lunch with them, and climbed to the top of the little mountain/molehill that is on their land. There is a beautiful view up in every direction, on a beautiful day like that. Nueva Esperanza also has a bunch of folks in the US, mostly in California, working in the Central Valley's pastures of plenty (to quote Woody Guthrie).

There is lots more news, but not to fit in this already overrambling missive. Thanks to all of you who are part of this. Thanks especially to St. Andrew Christian Church, who have been such a steady and bedrock source of support for all of the projects in El Higueral.

LOVE, Dean



Call to Action!
Rally to Support Detainees, Deportees, and their Families
Saturday, March 17 @ 2:30 PM
53 North Sixth Street (Corner of Sixth and Elm), New Bedford, MA
On Tuesday, more than 500 armed homeland security officers descended upon Michael Blanco Inc in New Bedford, MA. Over 350 employees, mostly mothers with young children, were swept up in the raid, shackled together in groups of three by their wrists and ankles and marched to buses bound for Fort Devens, 100 miles away.

Community activists in New Bedford have scrambled to locate the children and their parents. One baby who was breast-feeding had to be hospitalized for dehydration because her mother remained in detention, authorities said. One mother was located in Texas after her 7-year-old child called a state hot line set up to help reunite the families.

This is not a new story, but the story keeps getting more horrific. In recent months raids have hit nearly every state in the country. According to ICE's own numbers over 500 people are deported from this country everyday ! Each one of these deportations has a very human element that is about families and children. It's time that we pressure the President to "Stop the Raids" and lead on passing a Fair and Humane Immigration Reform Bill. Everyday we wait hundreds of more families are torn apart, children abandoned, and communities disrupted.

In New Bedford, families will be holding a huge rally at the federal building here calling for the release of all detainees, a congressional hearing on the raids, and immediate passage of humane and fair immigration reform.

What you can do:


- Call your Congressperson and ask them to "Release the Families and Stop the deportations!"


Bruce Chadbourne

District Director

Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement

US Department of Homeland Security

JFK Federal Building

Boston, MA



Dear Mr. Chadbourne:



We, the undersigned, write to communicate our dismay at the ICE raid conducted at the Michael Bianco, Inc. factory in New Bedford that resulted in the arrest of over 300 immigrant workers. As organizations representing all sectors of civil society in Massachusetts, we are outraged at the military style operation and devastating effect it is having on the New Bedford community, especially the families of those being detained. These types of raids tear apart families, spread waves of fear and panic throughout the community and hurt local economies. These actions do not make us feel any safer or stronger as a nation.



We wish to communicate to you our following demands:



1) We call for the immediate release of all the workers who have been detained. Many of the detainees are parents with children, some of whom are US citizens. All of them, however, are human beings, with certain inalienable rights. It amounts to cruel and unusual punishment for them to be detained on a military base and shipped across the country, far from their families, while their cases are being reviewed.

2) We demand that the detained workers have full access to appropriate legal representation. Our country prides itself upon respecting due process, therefore we expect that your treatment of those in your custody be consistent be with those values.

3) We also call for a moratorium on the raids. While the US Congress continues to seek a solution to the country's immigration system, with legislation to be introduced next week, we call upon the US Department of Homeland Security and the US Im migration and Customs Enforcement to put a stop to the raids so that the debate in Congress can be carried out in good faith, rather than against a backdrop of fear and repression.



Amidst the pain and trauma that this raid has already caused in the New Bedford community and beyond, we maintain hope that you will do the right and humane thing by responding positively to our demands.



Sincerely,



(Signatory organizations here.)



CC: Michael Chertoff

Barney Frank