Hound Dog
Sep 19, 2009, 4:42 PM
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When we are resident in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, my wife studies Tsotsil, a Maya language variation, and Tubs here studies a bit of Spanish but she is the subject of this post. Her teacher, who is an indigenous young man from Chenalho Municipality a couple of hours from San Cristóbal, was assigned to teach in the municipality of Chamula´s school system just outside of San Cristóbal but when he came to our house in the city to tutor my wife he seemed depressed and she inquired as to his mental condition. He told her that one of his students was not progressing as required and was skipping class and when he had confronted the parents about the kid´s poor attendance record they informed him that the government was paying them $25Pesos a day for assuring the kid´s attendance at class and that they were reporting to the government that the kid was attending class and should he report to the government that the kid was not, in fact, attending class, they would have to give up the government subsidy which was essential to the the family´s being able to survive and if they lost the subsidy they would have to kill him. He reported perfect attendance.
The point was that, as is true of many kids in Chiapas, their value is in working the streets of the city to support the family and if the kid makes no money working the streets selling chiclets or junk food or bric-a-brac made in China to morons from Moline then the father beats the hell out of the mother who then beats the hell out of the kid who then murders his teacher. Get it? Government in Chiapas is basic.
(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Sep 19, 2009, 4:55 PM)
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