Zócalo: Jaguar Speak

Some of the happy diners at Susana Trilling’s Seasons of the Heart Cooking School.  Al Goodin organized another great luncheon to help restauranters during the business slowdown . (Photo by Al Goodin)

Third Monday on the 20th
Will Feature Crisis Writings

     Come join Oaxaca’s writers at Casa Colonial, Miguel Negrete 105, on the 20th at 4 p.m. for the monthly meeting of Third Monday at the Casa.  This month’s focus will be the crisis in Oaxaca.  

Members Directory Available

     Get your copy of the Members and Friends Directory at the Library Coffeeshop for 25 pesos.  Click here to scan the ads for assistance. If you were not included in the directory, need to update your listing, or want your listing deleted, please complete a form at the Check Out Desk.  An addendum will be printed shortly .

Bliss Wilson Joins Board
     Bliss Wilson recently joined the Library’s Board of Directors and will be in charge of fund raising activities.  She brings great experience in fund raising activities in the U.S.  You have probably seen her at the greeter’s desk or hard at work at the recent art auction and other Library activities. Bienvenidos!!

Memorial Established 
For Linda Ashley
     Linda Ashley, a long-time friend and supporter of the Library, died recently and a memorial in her memory has being established.  Contributions to the memorial are tax-deductible when made through the Oaxaca Lending Library Foundation.  For more details on how you can support this memorial click here.
     If you would like to contact Linda’s children you may write to:  oaxacamonkey@yahoo.com.

Zócalo Magazine Online:
Jaguar Speaks
     Zócalo Magazine: Jaguar Speaks is carried online at www.zocalomag.com. Check out the site and see how simply clicking on a link can take you to the Miami Herald’s Mexico Edition, Harper’s, the Atlantic Monthly, Stan Gotlieb’s site, poetry by Michelle and Rodrigo, a book review by Paul Stanley, info on the Garden Club, the Latin American Book Discussion Group, as well as many of the local art galleries, organ recitals and cultural events and the OLL (Oaxaca Lending Library) that continue to make Oaxaca the in-place. In addition to  our new sites check out the art, prose and poetry by Oaxacan’s Ex-Pats and Locals.
     Funds to print Zócalo: The Oaxaca Art and Literary Quarterly, are currently unavailable. Once funding is established, Zocalo will be printed. Local artists have contributed enough to make a 16+-page copy. Continue to support Oaxaca’s Art and Literary Quarterly.  In the mean time keep sending in your art and articles to: Alan Goodin at morknme6@yahoo.com. 

Donations Needed 
For Battered Women
    The battered women’s group in Oaxaca is in need of funding in order to provide assistance to women in abusive relationships. The group, MADA ” Mujeres Que Aman Demasiado” (Women Who Love Too Much), holds a free weekly group therapy session, provides training for women interested in starting a support group in their neighborhood, and offers low-cost workshops for women throughout the state of Oaxaca. Nationally, Oaxaca is rated number one in violence towards women and female suicide. In addition, it is rated one of the top five states in female homicide. MADA is one of the few groups in the state that service women suffering in abusive relationships. Donations are tax deductible and can be made through the Oaxaca Lending Library. Please contact: Bonnie at bg771@hotmail.com.

Books on CD  Now Available
   A new shipment of CDs on Tape has been received and processed. The CDs are a donation by Sukey Howard.  Thanks to Margie Barclay, Tonee Mello, and Javier Aragon and the Technical Services staff of the library for obtaining the CD’s getting them from the US, and in processing them so efficiently.

Bridge Players Gather Tuesdays
     Charles McNelly reminds bridge players that the Bridge Club still meets every Tuesday, 1:30 – 4:30 p.m., at the Library.  Just show up!

Library Grants Scholarship
     The Oll scholarship committee has granted a one year scholarship to Pergentino Abasolo Valle for $6,500 pesos. This is to pay for his food at the Rufino Tamayo Hostel.
     Pergentino is 16 years old and comes from San Mateo del Mar, Tehuantepec, a very small pueblo on the Oaxacan coast. His family are campesinos: he has two younger siblings. The family cannot help him and they want him to stay in Oaxaca, go to school and learn to support himself.  
     Pergentino is a small, shy young man who spoke only Huave except when he went to school. He has problems with Spanish and the transition from his small town to the Oaxaca urban life continues to be difficult for him.
     One of the requirements for receiving the stipend will be attendance at the Learning Center at least two hours a day, three times a week. He will be involved in tutoring, learning touch typing, introduction to the computer and group activities.

Muchas Gracias Amigos
     Anne Mayagoitia has donated a computer which is being upgraded for internet connectivity. Thanks also to Paul and Janet Stanley for the umbrella for the greeters’ desk.
     Marcus and Cicely Winter, Helen Hines, Toni Sobel, Patricia Freiberg, Anna Jolley, Jane and Thorny Robison and CJ Byrns for donating books,videos and DVD’s to the collection.

English Teaching Certification
     Gina Thurston, Director of TESOL Worldwide, reports that there will be two available positions in their September classes.  The program provides certification for Teaching English as a Second Language.  You may contact Gina via email at gina@tesolworldwide.com.  Dates and fees are also posted for 2007 at their website:
http://www.tesolworldwide.com/DatesFees.html.
     The classes are taught in Oaxaca.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

With the political turmoil in Oaxaca, the Library is working hard to stay neutral and in compliance with Mexican law.  For this reason, the Library has found itself verbally attacked and threatened from both sides–the left and the right.

The Board feels that our membership should be aware of these attacks and how we are responding to them. The crisis in Oaxaca has pushed many people, including expatriates, to the extreme left or the extreme right.  A Mexican member of the Library said this is happening in Oaxacan families too, pitting family members against each other. Most of us are old enough to remember how the Viet Nam War polarized Americans against one another. We got through that difficult time and so shall the Oaxacaños survive this crisis.

For several weeks, a group was meeting at the Library to discuss the situation in Oaxaca.  Because the discussions were political in nature, the Board checked with Mark Leyes, U.S. Consular Agent in Oaxaca, to confirm that this was not violating Mexican law. He agreed that discussions were acceptable but activism would not be.

A few weeks ago, we received a letter from Linda Anderson (possibly a pseudonym) complaining about”… self described anarchist-communist activist George Salzman,” whose views of the situation had been posted on the Crisis page on the Library website which had been set up to provide personal views of the crisis to members and friends outside of Oaxaca. She continued that “The ‘report’ is little more than propaganda for Mr.Salzmans’s political meddling in Oaxaca and provides support for the activities of the APPO.”

Salzman’s group, Oaxaca Study-Action Group, had invited Stephen Dunifer to address the group. The title of his presentation was “Project TUPA (Transmitters uniting the peoples of the Americas) and Community Radio”.  In more peaceful times, this topic would have been innocuous but in the present situation it wasn’t.  Salzman was advised that the speaker could not meet at the Library and the Crisis page was removed from the website (other viewpoints of the crisis by Janet Stanley and Bill Pumphrey had been posted).