We had the very good fortune to visit Chihuahua (the city and the state) in Mexico the past two weeks. The tour was booked as the Copper Canyon Tour featuring a train trip on El Chepe, the passenger train that runs from Chihuahua City to the Pacific Ocean. This Tamahumara guitarist pictured is just one of several hundred photos I took.
Copper Canyon promotes itself as bigger, longer, and more beautiful than the Grand Canyon in the US and we thought this a little boastful until we saw it. However, friend Bill and I are old railroad men and we wanted to see and experience El Chepe, the train. That railway through the mountains was a feat of engineering beyond our expectations. The Mexican rail bed was very well maintained and one could walk like stately penguins through the cars or take photos from the passageways between the cars with comfort and safety.
The tour turned out to be one of discovery and education of Mexico. We had excellent tour guides and even though most of us had only a few words of Spanish, we felt very comfortable on the trains, on the rafts and boats and in the hotels. Dos cerveza por favor worked every time.
Mexico gets a lot of bad press with the drug problem but as our guide said, the Mexican drug problem will not be solved until the US solves their problem. There is a drug-use problem there but it is the trafficking that makes the headlines. We noted an armed presence of Federales, State and local police but the men and women with the carbines all seemed friendly enough and some did not mind posing for pictures with us.
It was what the Mexican government was trying to do to help the natives that caught our attention since we still have issues concerning some of the indigenous peoples here in Canada. The Mexicans are still using residential schools as a way to educate the scattered Tamahumara peoples (and other tribal peoples) but there were some notable differences from what happened in Canada. For one thing, the native children are encouraged to keep and speak their own language. It is the nuns who have to learn another language. The children are taught Spanish of course but there is an effort to keep their culture alive.
It was interesting to note that the focus is on teaching the girls since they will become the ones to look after the family. Sex education is a featured component of their education as the government tries to encourage the women to have only as many children as they can provide for. In fact, the monthly government allowances that are paid to the Tamahumara are given to the women, not the men. The men tend to buy drinks and treats rather than food and supplies. Moreover, it is not only the strong liquors that men like, but Coca Cola is a favourite with all the native peoples. Coke and a bag of chips.
In so many ways the Mexicans and we share similarities: they have raw oil but like us, most of it is sent to the States for refining and then sold back to the Federal Petrol Company, Pemex (no private gas companies yet to do price gouging). Petro Can might have worked here. The cost per litre is very close to what we are paying now. It should not have been a surprise but it was a wake-up call to see how many American companies run the businesses in Mexico. It makes one stop and think about how few truly Canadian companies we deal with in our country. The Mexicans were quite concerned with the NAFTA negotiations. They look at what Trump is doing much as we do, but they know that many Mexican families depend on the money earned in the States (and Canada) and do not want any walls.
The one thing that they had in Mexico that we did not have was a revolution. Their history is rich with stories of Pancho Villa, Zapata and Zorro as well as other leaders who did not make it in Hollywood films. There was a school tour of the Pancho Villa Museum while we were there and the kids were lapping it up. Darn, we should have had a revolution. Over what, I’m not sure. I guess we did try but all we did was throw a printing press in the lake back in 1837 (or was 1838?). Oh, and the Alamo – we heard the other side of that story.
From what we heard, the Mexican government is trying to help those who need it – much closer to our way of doing things than to the States. They are trying to build a health care system along with old age security. In Chihuahua State they have a water shortage problem in many areas and I am not certain how potable much of the water is in rural areas. We had no problems in our group but we stuck mostly to bottled water. And local beer.
Years ago, the Mexicans struck a deal with the Mormons and allowed them to own and farm some of the better land. Now the Mormons have great tracts of land that is flourishing with cotton, fruits trees, and grains. The Mennonites are also contributing by improving farms and creating commerce – much as they do here. The country is predominantly Roman Catholic, a religion the Spaniards brought with them as they searched for gold and silver in the New World. I think our tour guides were a lapsed Catholic and a Mormon who was not allowed into their church. The explanation was complicated.
The average wage is lower than here but the cost of goods is comparable. You could get a good meal for eight or ten Canadian dollars. Clothing was reasonable and you could purchase a good pair of hand-tooled leather cowboy boots for about $12 dollars but I’m past that stage of life. Cars were expensive but plentiful. The drivers are as good as here and quite skilled on the narrow, dirt roads up the side of the mountain. Ai Chihuahua, that was a white-knuckle ride!
We saw local dances, including the Mexican Hat dance, enjoyed a Mariachi band, and marvelled at the colours of the fabrics – many from natural dyes. We saw basket weaving and pottery firings, native foot races and even a deer dancer. There is so much more to Mexico than ocean resorts, as nice as they are. Put the Copper Canyon on your bucket list.
