July 14th, Tuxtla Gutierrez

Today we all awoke well rested....the Crowne Plaza had a ¨pillow¨ menu---initially I thought it was a bad translation for ¨room service¨, only to find out it really was a pillow menu---five different types of pillows available for our comfort. Given all of our adventures, it was a well earned pampering. We left in the morning to catch our flight to Mexico City and experienced our first Mexico taxi ride----very tame compared to China and Ghana. The drivers obey most traffic laws and only go 5-10 miles over the speed limit. One cab had a very interesting conversation with their cab driver. He had previously lived in the Southern United States for a couple years. He crossed the border illegally, purchased a fake green card, and worked as a landscaper. Through a series of misadventures, he was eventually deported back to Mexico. He has since tried to cross back on a couple of occasions, but has been turned back at the border. He is currently saving up the $2,500 fee for a ¨coyote¨ help him make the dangerous journey in October. He wants to return to the US for better opportunities and because his 6 year old soon is there. These types of conversations are especially powerful for us to hear and partake in because they give human faces and realities to the heated debate over Mexico-US immigration.

We arrived in Mexico City to see----*surprise*---our bus driver had traveled the whole night to be able to pick us up at the airport. It was over a 12 hour drive! Three cheers for Benito!

For the evening, we walked to the Comexus (Fulbright in Mexico) office to hear a lecture on the development of the Mexican identity. The professor was a former Mexican Fulbright to New York and addressed the topic from a philosophy disicpline. While most of us left the lecture with more questions than answers, we were reminded the of complications developing a national identity in a post-colonial country and an increasing global world. The answer to ¨What is Mexico?¨ is more complex than a few weeks stay......

Kim, Boston, HS History