Creates Lifeline to Malinalco Migrants Art in Weavings and Woodcarving

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The march 17, 2010 News >wednesday 18

In an issue where it seems there is no common ground - here is some common ground... ELLEN CALMUS Director, Proyecto El Rincón [email protected]

BY MARIA GALLUCCI The News

ALINALCO, State of Mexi- co –Through towering green cliffs and down an endlessly winding road, this quiet pueb- Mlo is steeped in the mystical history of a once-powerful Aztec empire. More EL RINCÓN than half a millennium later, residents still pass down their hometown’s an- cient legends and recreate indigenous creates lifeline to Malinalco migrants art in weavings and woodcarving. But just as Malinalco proudly preserves its dynamic past, the town of just 6,500 people is finding that the stories of today’s generations are inseparably linked to a very current phenome- non: migration out of Mexico and to the United States. Over the past two decades, the Az- tec narratives have slowly made way for the complex accounts of Malinal- co residents whose fathers, sisters and sons have headed north to find work and prosperity abroad. And whereas shame, grief and guilt have silenced these stories in earlier years, today the town is finding its voice through the community-run non-profit Proyecto El Rincón (The Corner Project). “This is the home community of migrants…and this community group responds to the collective needs in a way that makes sense to (Malinalco),” explained Ellen Calmus, who founded the organization in 2005 after evolv- ing the after-school educational re- source center she set up for local children seven years earlier. Malinalco, located 65 kilometers south of Toluca and 115 southwest of Mexico City, is also the capital of the 23,000-person municipality of the same name. Calmus noted that immigration is relatively new to Malinalco, and that the El Rincón initiative has grown and adapted as the community itself evolves. She said that increased secu- rity on the U.S.-Mexico border, plus an economic downturn and soaring un- Albertina, second from left, supported her family for two years by stitching and selling handbags after her husband, a migrant in California, was killed by a drunk driver. employment in the U.S., have meant that the town’s migrant day laborers and to supervise her now-orphaned is essentially a storybook of mod- attending a stitching workshop at El his public defense attorney was con- have either been stuck abroad, unable child. With a private donation to cov- ern-day Malinalco, with each pasted Rincón. She supported her family for vinced of Mariano’s innocence, she to afford to come home, or left to jobs er a year’s worth of an Internet phone photograph chronicling the town’s two years through handbag sales until saw a plea bargain and subsequent de- they’re not as qualified to do, result- subscription, Calmus began facilitat- triumphs, hardships and endless ma- the insurance compensation for her portation as the only way out for the ing in more requests from families to ing more exchanges for other bur- neuverings of the U.S. immigration le- husband’s death finally arrived late Mexican immigrant. Conflicted with bring bodies back to Mexico. dened families, and she began devot- gal system. last year. what Calmus called his Aztec hon- The initial idea for El Rincón be- ing full-time efforts to the project a Take Albertina, for instance, the In Mariano’s case, his mother ap- or, Mariano refused to admit guilt to gan in 2004, after an after-school year later. Last October, the non-profit widow of a migrant who was killed proached the non-profit after her a crime he didn’t commit. A cultural participant’s cousin died in the Unit- moved from what the director called by a drunk driver in California. With young adult son had gone missing for translation between El Rincón and ed States. The young woman asked a “closet” and into more spacious no source of income and two young a year. A few phone calls to the United the attorney helped Mariano better Calmus to help make phone calls to home-turned-office. boys to put through school, Alber- States revealed that Mariano was fac- grasp the situation, and soon he was bring her cousin’s body back for burial Today, the director’s scrapbook tina began crafting handbags after ing a life sentence in prison. Although happily sent home to his mother in > march 17, 2010 The wednesday 19 News Concert at Carnegie Hall shines light on Tibetan culture

BY BEN SISARIO John Cale and Vampire Weekend. The New York Times The February concert included Philip Glass – another Tibet House NEW YORK – In 1988, when Tibet co-founder, who puts together the House US, a cultural organization concerts each year – along with Pat- in New York, held its first benefit ti Smith, Iggy Pop, Gogol Bordello, concert, things were not looking Regina Spektor, Bajah & the Dry good for the Tibetan homeland. It Eye Crew, Pierce Turner and Ten- had been under Chinese occupation zin Kunsel. for four decades, and the Dalai La- When the concerts began, Glass ma, its spiritual leader, had been in said in an interview at Tibet House’s exile for three. headquarters in Manhattan, Tibet On February 26, Tibet House was far below the radar of most presented its 20th benefit, and Americans, and Tibetan refugees things still don’t look so good for had trouble assimilating into Amer- THE NEWS PHOTO/MARIA GALLUCCI PHOTO/MARIA NEWS THE © ELLEN CALMUS/WWW.ELRINCON.ORG ELLEN © Tibet. Riots erupted there as Chi- ican society. “You had men who had Florencia, right, approached El Rincón after her son Mariano, center, went missing. The quiet streets of central Malinalco. na prepared for the 2008 Olym- spent their lives studying religious pic Games. The Dalai Lama, who is texts wrapping packages at Macy’s,” members with little reach beyond the still in exile, recently met with Pres- he said. rural mountain town. The organiza- ident Barack Obama, but in a con- Since then, the Tibetan cause tion has become the place residents cession to the Chinese government has become a regular topic of Amer- turn to in times of crises or urgency. the meeting was semiprivate; the ican public discourse, and the Da- “There is a greater proportion of Dalai Lama left the White House lai Lama a familiar face around the people who have been up north. The through a back door, near piles of world. In 1989, he won the Nobel challenge is to find a way for it to be a garbage bags. Peace Prize and is now a regular positive thing,” Calmus said from her Many would view these as dis- presence in the mainstream news office. “If you don’t create barriers to couraging signs. But for Robert A.F. media. He may be dressed in robes creativity, you don’t know what can Thurman, a professor of Indo-Ti- and sandals, but his organization is come out of it.” betan studies at Columbia Univer- tech-savvy: On February 22, an of- El Rincón also works to foster de- sity who helped found Tibet House, ficial Dalai Lama Twitter account velopment within Malinalco itself, of- the cause is as strong as ever. began sending out regular news fering summer apprenticeship pro- “The Tibetans are like the Na’vi,” updates. grams and counseling to children Thurman said, alluding with a The concerts, which celebrate whose parents have migrated north- chuckle to “Avatar,” James Camer- the Tibetan New Year (Febru-

THE NEWS PHOTO/MARIA GALLUCCI PHOTO/MARIA NEWS THE ward. For the past four years, master on’s science-fiction epic. “They’re ary 14 this year), raise $100,000 to El Rincón director Ellen Calmus, left, with woodcarvers have paired up with lo- hanging in there. Maybe not fight- $250,000 each year, according to Ti- office manager Maribel Sánchez, right. cal adolescents to carve Aztec and in- ing with bows and arrows, but they bet House, a nonprofit group found- digenous symbols into hand-crafted are staying connected to nature, and ed at the Dalai Lama’s request in and artisan keychains, broach pins, we think they will prevail.” 1987. Most of that money supports and wait the better part of a year to re- earrings and picture frames for do- After two decades the Tibet Tibet House, but some of it is also turn home north of the border. Two mestic and export sales, giving the House concerts, held at Carne- sent to other Tibetan groups in the years later, Janet is still awaiting the teens both peer support and the gie since 1994, have developed in- United States. chance to reunite with her family as chance to earn some extra spending to an institution of their own, shin- As Thurman sees it, the visibility she occasionally progresses through money. ing a light each year on the urgen- of the concerts and the Dalai Lama’s a slow-moving system. Calmus added that this year she cy of preserving Tibetan culture and example of nonviolence have drawn “I’ve had the encouraging expe- is hoping to develop a volunteer pro- offering music fans starry, varied worldwide sympathy for the Tibet- rience that when I explain a prob- gram that would maintain El Rincón’s lineups. Past participants have in- an cause and put pressure on the lem we’re trying to sort out for one infrastructure while the director fo- cluded David Bowie, Moby, R.E.M., Chinese government to reconcile. of our migrant’s families, people in cuses more on immigration policy the U.S. are usually glad to help,” Cal- discussions. mus wrote in a later e-mail message. “If you can approach this appar- “I think when people understand the ently impossible program (of U.S. whole story, including what it means immigration reform) by collaborat- for the family back home in Mexico, ing with the local community, things aspects of migration that otherwise start falling into places. Everybody

© ELLEN CALMUS/WWW.ELRINCON.ORG ELLEN © seem baffling start making sense to wins,” she said. “When policy doesn’t people up north, and they are more take the family situation into ac- able to understand these as human count, things get very bad. On the oth- Malinalco. stories rather than the inexplicable er hand, when you employ the fami- Janet, on the other hand, is still behavior of ‘aliens.’” ly perspective, you can fix things and anxiously anticipating a happy end- In the countless other stories in- work out solutions. (Reform) is not ing of her own. She had been living side and out of the scrapbook, El going to be a one-liner solution. in the United States for years with her Rincón has played a vital role in link- “When you can solve problems, husband, Gustavo, a naturalized U.S. ing the home community to the Ma- it’s not so polarizing. In an issue citizen, and when the couple’s U.S.- linalco diaspora sporadically scat- where it seems that there is no com- born son Alexis turned two, Janet de- tered across the United States. With mon ground – here is some common cided to lift the legal cloud hanging connections to consulates, congress- ground,” she said. over her and apply for a visa. She was men, lawyers and even prison war-

told to report to the U.S. consulate in dens, the non-profit can often provide For more info, visit www.elrincon.org/ FREMSON PHOTO/RUTH NYT Ciudad Juárez, submit her paperwork the missing link to desperate family english. The composer Philip Glass in New York at Tibet House US.