#cbdio

[mixteclinguistics-blog]

A very informative Power Point presentation by Leoncio Vasquez Santos, of CBDIO. Power points are kind of a pain to load and all, but if you’re interested in this topic I really recommend going to the trouble. It has a lot of interesting information about how indigenous (and especially Mixtec) beliefs affect the ways that these people encounter life in the US: history, healthcare, immigration, living conditions… really informative.

[mixteclinguistics-blog]

An interview with Leoncio Vasquez about Indigenous Mexicans and healthcare in the US

from Migrant Health Newsline March/April 2011 (pdf)

What barriers exist for indigenous people towards healthcare access? First and foremost is the process involved before even seeing a doctor; we get pages and pages of documents to fill out to see if we qualify for health services. At this point, language, literacy and even health literacy is a barrier as we do not speak Spanish and much less English. We still speak indigenous languages. Secondly, since we are so far removed from the U.S. health system, it is difficult for us to understand or grasp the concept of waiting for long amounts of time to see a doctor or nurse.  Eventually, we do see one for a total of 5 or 8 minutes. In our eyes and because of our cultural barriers, we do not understand how this process helps or improves our health. Another issue for us is that women who seek care for either their own health or as expecting mothers are commonly examined by a male doctor or nurse. This is also a shocking experience for women as routine medical exams often involve physical examinations and nudity.  It is something our women are not accustomed to as in our communities, pregnant mothers are examined only by women during pregnancy and by midwives at birth.

An interesting look at how Indigenous Mexicans handle healthcare in the US. Leoncio Vasquez is an interpreter at the Binational Center for the Development of Oaxacan Indigenous Communities (CBDIO).

[mixteclinguistics-blog]

The speaker on the right is Leoncio Vasquez Santos, who is the interim director for the Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indigena Oaxaqueño (CBDIO).

The speaker on the left is Miguel Villegas, who in addition to being a trilingual rapper, is also an instructor of Mixtec! Sounds like a busy guy!

Miguel and Leoncio put together another version of the same video in Spanish: congresove'etu'unsavi - YouTube

They are trying to raise money to help two speakers of Mixtec attend the annual meeting of the Mixtec Language Academy in Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca, you can see the crowdsourcing page here: Preserving the Mixtec Language by Miguel Villegas - GoFundMe.

This is awesome. And it also clarifies the question I had about The Academy of the Mixtec Language — it’s called, in Mixteco, Ve'e Tu'un Savi A.C. So now I know what to search for to learn more!

[mixteclinguistics-blog]

I was saddened to run across this article about Michael Kearny, an anthropologist whose work is everywhere if you start digging into the literature on the Mixtec in California. It turns out that he passed away in 2009.

Kearny would seem to have been truly dedicated to studying Mixtecs (and Zapotecs) in California. According to this obituary, he actually spoke Mixtec himself:

Michael Kearney “was not only an excellent teacher and scholar who trained several generations of researchers but he also was a partner committed to the struggle for justice to indigenous peoples,” said sociologist Mixtec Gaspar Rivera Salgado, who worked closely with him.

For the migrant indigenous community and its leaders, Kearney contributions have proven invaluable because besides the scientific rigor in his research, Kearney was an exceptional person. According to CBDIO’s Executive Director, Rufino Dominguez, Kearney worked hard to learn in depth from the indigenous communities and the proof is that he understood the Mixteco language and lived many years in San Jeronimo El Progreso, Silacayoapan, Oaxaca.

So far I have found his monographs most useful. Some of them are online; while rather old, I still find this one a really good introduction to understanding how Mixtecs live in California:

Runsten, David & Michael Kearney. 1994. A survey of Oaxacan village networks in California agriculture. California Institute for Rural Studies. http://caff.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Oaxacan1.pdf.

A more general bibliography of his work is available at UC Riverside:

Michael Kearny Bibliography

And props to platanos-fritos, whose post first brought this scholar to my attention: platanos-fritos: Invisible Indians

[mixteclinguistics-blog]

“I’m older now,” he said philosophically, “so I don’t have a lot of future dreams for myself. But I do this so my children will have a better life.”

Indigenous Farmworkers Are Breaking New Ground in California - ICTMN.com