This morning the group participated in an exercise that is an element of Gary Warren's Quest program -- a search for significant points in San Cristobal de las Casas.
The large group broke into smaller groups and each was given a list of sites to be discovered and questions to be answered. I joined with Miki and Deb to explore the city. What I would consider our most significant experience occurred at the Facultad de Derecho.
With some hesitation we slipped through the narrow, high entrance into the interior courtyard and began to observe the large murals on the surrounding walls -- telling the kind of pictorial story that I recall from my visit to Spain. These paintings recalled the history of the clash and encounter of the Spanish invaders and the indigenous peoples.
As the three of us were commenting on these paintings, a formally suited man of middle age passed by us along the corridor. We exchanged a greeting and he stopped to talk with us. Learning that I understood Spanish, he began to explain the murals and we learned that he is a professor of criminology -- derecho penal. He spoke with evident energy and enthusiasm for his topic. I asked his name but will have to search the faculty in order to recall it.
Let me put down a scattering of points that he made and refer to the three poems that he declaimed -- all in Spanish with me as translator. He talked of the importance of the mixing of peoples (including the blacks of Veracruz) and he pointed to the darker colour of his skin. He indicated that Chiapas has its distinctive history; unlike other states in Mexico, Chiapas had originally been administered by the Spanish from Guatemala. He noted that the priest Manuel Hidalgo had led the war of independence from Spain for the states to the north, whereas Chiapas had its own liberator some time later.
The professor talked about the Mexican love of jokes and laughter, of smiles and dance. At the same time he noted the acceptance of death in Mexican culture -- that Mexicans make friends with death. He then declaimed three poems of Nezahualcoyotl. We went away feeling welcomed to Chiapas and blessed by the gift of the teaching of the professor.
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