DAY 1
Migrating to
Mexico’s Misery
Belts
Migrating to Mexico’s Misery Belts
Day 1 Objectives: Students will:
(1) define the term misery belt,
(2) describe the living conditions in a
misery belt, and
(3) identify economic/social, political
and religious reasons why
populations move.
What is a misery belt?
• Partner A writes, Partner B reports out - With
your partner, write 2 synonyms for “misery”
• You have 10 seconds to “think” individually, 30
seconds to write, and 1 minute to report out.
• What is the shape of a belt when someone is
wearing it?
• Hypothesize: what is a misery belt when you
think about an urban (city) area?
Where do you find a misery belt?
• Look at map of Mexico City – hypothesize
where a misery belt might exist.
Misery Belt
a circle at the periphery
(edge) of a city where
people live in poverty and
poor conditions
Images of Misery Belts
Source:
http://ofoneaccordministry.org/global_m
exico.htm
Photo by Alejandro
Montes Arce 7/10/11
Photos by Linda Burke, July 2011
Characteristics of a Misery Belt
• After viewing the photos and using your
knowledge of economic “poor living
conditions,” work with your partner to list a
minimum of 5 living conditions that you would
expect if you lived in a misery belt.
• Partner B writes, Partner A reports out.
• Take 15 seconds to think, write for 30 seconds.
Report out.
• Conclusion – Have we met Objectives 1 and 2?
Population Patterns
Why would people move from one location to
another?
Pilgrims’ movement
from England to U.S.
Westward
movement
in the U.S. in 1800s.
Two reasons for population movement
Populations move because _____________ and
____________________________.
People move due to ____________________
and _________________________.
Population Movement & Patterns
Now go back and, with your partner, indicate the
reason for the movement. Write…
 E/S for economic and social reasons
 P for political reasons
 R for religious reasons
These are the three concepts to be explored
during this unit.
Historical Overview of Religions in Mexico
• Olmecs
• Mayans
The Olmec practiced
shamanism. They believed
each individual has an
animal spirit.
Mayan religion was characterized
by nature gods: sun, moon, corn.
• Toltecs, Aztecs (deities, spirits) Good and Bad
Quetzalcoatl (ket sahl KO ahtl)
Texcatlipoca (tes kah tlee POH kah)
• Arrival of Spaniards with Catholicism
HOMEWORK – Day 1: Identify the three major cities: Mexico City,
Tuxtla Gutierrez and San Cristóbal de las Casas – Draw a ring
around the misery belt location for each city on the city map
handouts.
San
Cristóbal de
las Casas,
Chiapas.
San
Cristóbal
Home to the
Tuxtla Gutierrez
de las
Casas
Zapatista
movement,
Tuxtla
indigenous
Gutiérrez,
traditions
Chiapas.
safeguarded
State
Mexico City,
capital of
D.F.
Mexico
Chiapas,
City,DF a
close to
megalopolis,
the
built on
Sumidero
ancient ruins
canyon.
in a lake,
Map of Mexico
population 25
million
Independent Practice
Handouts of two articles.
• Read each article and:
(1) underline characteristics of a misery belt; and
(2) circle any phrases or words that are
associated with political or religious factors.
• Write a reflection of 1–2 sentences of how you
would feel living in a misery belt. (Identify, the
summarize for 5–10 minutes)
Homework: complete for homework if not
finished in class.
Ticket out the door
• Write one new piece of information learned
today on colored paper on desk – put
name/date. Hand in to the teacher as you are
leaving class.
Day 2
Migrating to
Mexico’s Misery
Belts
Background – Religious Factors
Misery Belts, Religion
Day 2 Objectives: Students will:
(1) define indigenous groups of Mexico
and summarize their locations in
Mexico,
(2)understand the interconnectedness
of historical ritual belief, Catholic
religious ceremony and patron saints in
Mexico, and
(3) identify and chart the five principle
religions in contemporary Mexico.
JOURNAL
Imagine you are living in a misery belt and it is
the end of the day. Write three (3) complete
sentences in your journal describing events
you encountered during the day that remind
you of the poor living conditions in your
environment.”
Report out.
Independent Work / Homework Review
• Take out your city maps. Your assignment was to
draw red lines around the predicted location of the
misery belts.
• Compare your answers with your partner’s answers.
• This is not an exact science, but the ring should be
similar.
• Show with a:
• thumbs up if there was total agreement in answers,
• thumbs down if total disagreement, and
• thumbs sideways if some answers were the same and some
different.
• Clarification from pairs showing thumbs down and
sideways.
Independent Work / Homework
Review
Articles – Again compare answers with your partner
to see if you want to change or modify answers.
Your assignment was to: (1) underline
characteristics of a misery belt; and (2) circle any
phrases or words that are associated with political
or religious factors .
Report out on characteristics, political factors,
and religious factors. Who wants to share
how it would feel to live in a misery belt?
Mexico’s Indigenous Groups
• Definition based on linguistic criteria—what
language people speak
• Mexico's 12 million indigenous people speak
more than 60 languages and live scattered
throughout the country's 31 states and Mexico
City.
• In the Chiapas region more than 70% of the
population is indigenous.
Mexico’s Major Indigenous Groups
Group
Nahua peoples (Nawatlaka)
Maya (Maaya)
Zapotec (Binizaa)
Mixtec (Ñuu sávi)
Otomí (Hñähñü)
Totonac (Tachihuiin)
Source: http://www.cdi.gob.mx
Number
2,445,969
1,475,575
777,253
726,601
646,875
411,266
59%
27%
19%
15%
48%
28%
39%
Catholicism & Traditional Deities
• When the Spaniards arrived in the 16th
century, they forcibly converted the
indigenous people to Roman Catholicism,
creating an interconnected Catholic-Indian
religion that still exists today. Many
indigenous groups worship God, Christ and
traditional deities.
• The priests built their churches on sacred
sites.
Source: West, Cristina. Los Voladores de Cuetzalan.[Video file].
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYeJ-aR3uQI.
Los Voladores
de Cuetzalan
Voladores getting ready: chanting.
Mirrors on hats to ward off bad spirits
Voladores climbing up
the 100 foot pole
The pole represents closeness to the gods and the ritual is
to bring good luck to the harvest. The practice was banned
in the 1800s but stayed alive. One young voladora started
when she was 13 and isnow 20.
The blend of Catholicism and ritual ceremony seems
contradictory to us but is accepted practice to the
indigenous peoples. They go around the pole 13 times as
they descend. Thirteen represents the 13 months of their
calendar.
Religious Festivals - Patron Saints’ Days
Xico & Mary Magdalene (Santa Maria Magdalena)
“We arrived in Xico on the 2nd day of a 9 day festival. As we made
our way up to the church, bottle rockets were already going off. We
got there just as mass was starting. We got to the church just as the
"bulls" started to dance in front. There were men and boys with
cow-bells around their waists, dancing around bulls made of papiermaché, with a large framework covered in fireworks over the bulls.
They marched, spun, danced and made lots and lots of noise.
Finally, the statue of Mary Magdalene emerged from the church and
the "bulls" lead the processional up the streets of the town to
another church. We followed along with the mariachi band until she
was placed on the altar of the other church!”
Religious Festivals - Patron Saints’ Days
Religions in Mexico
Religious Group
Jewish
Muslim
Seventh Day Adventist
Protestants
Catholics
Orthodox Christian
Jehovah's Witness
Mormon
Pagans
Non-religious
Agnostic
Atheist
Sunis
Other
Total
Total Number
125,900
199,700
488,945
3,972,000
87,958,000
91,800
1,700,000
1,082,000
1,151,000
2,628,700
2,521,600
107,100
167,706
3,639,749
105,834,200
Source: The Archives of Religious Data.
http://www.thearda.com/internationalData/countries/country_149_1.asp.
Note: Listings in red are not religions.
Percentage
1
2
5
3.8
83.1
1
1.6
1
1.1
2.5
2.4
1
2
3.4
Independent Practice/Homework
t
1. Circle the top five religions in Mexico on your handout.
2. Compare your answers with your partner.
3. Chart the top five religions in Mexico in a pie graph or a
bar graph.
http://www.swiftchart.com/example.htm
Day 3
Migrating to
Mexico’s Misery
Belts
Case Study: San Juan Chamula
Religious Expulsion
Day 3 Objectives: Students will:
(1) describe differences between religious
tolerance and religious intolerance,
(2) paraphrase the reasons and
consequences of San Juan Chamula’s
religious intolerance that led to relocation
to misery belts of San Cristóbal de las
Casas,Chiapas, and
(3) construct a timeline of the Zapatista
movement from 1994 to 2001.
Journal
Identify examples below of Religious Tolerance with the letter T
and examples of Religious Intolerance with an I.
• _____ 1. A religious leader accepts the beliefs of others and
does not try to change their minds.
• _____ 2. Village leaders expelled the La Cruz family from the
village because they converted to Protestantism.
• _____ 3. Indigenous students are not allowed to come into the
local school because they belong to an evangelical church.
• _____4. A new family of Baptists move into a Roman Catholic
neighborhood and the neighbors welcome them with food,
coffee and gifts.
• _____ 5. Political bosses placed statues of Mayan deities in the
public square out of respect for the town’s minority religion.
• _____ 6. One family ridicules another when they find out they
go to a different church.
Journal Answers
• T 1. A religious leader accepts the beliefs of others and does
not try to change their minds.
• I
2. Village leaders expelled the La Cruz family from the
village because they converted to Protestantism.
• I
3. Indigenous students are not allowed to come into the
local school because they belong to an evangelical church.
• T 4. A new family of Baptists move into a Roman Catholic
neighborhood and the neighbors welcome them with food,
coffee and gifts.
• T 5. Political bosses placed statues of Mayan deities in the
public square out of respect for the town’s minority religion.
• I
6. One family ridicules another when they find out they go
to a different church.
Review of Homework/Independent
Practice
• Take out graphs and look at your answers –
compare with your partner’s.
• I need two volunteers (one pie graph and one
bar graph) to go to the board and put their
graphs up.
• Compare to answer sheet and pass papers
forward.
Homework Answers
100,000,000
90,000,000
80,000,000
70,000,000
Protestants
60,000,000
Catholics
50,000,000
40,000,000
30,000,000
20,000,000
10,000,000
0
Jehovah's Witness
Series1
Mormon
Pagans
Forced Relocation for Religious Reasons
• In the late 1960s early 1970s Christian missionaries
converted thousands of Mayan Catholics to Protestantism.
• The Mexican constitution prohibits any form of
discrimination, including on the basis of religion.
• However, the local village leaders, or caciques, used
religious reasons to expel local families from the
community. They stated that evangelicals and protestants
failed to follow tradition and they didn’t contribute to
fiestas.
• In reality, evangelicals and protestants resisted making
financial donations demanded by community norms since
the money was used partly to fund local Catholic holy day
festivals and Saint’s Day fiestas.
Sanctions (punishments) for resisting participation in
community festivals:
• families arrested
• sheep seized
• personal possessions seized
• torture
• families withdraw from community land, land taken back by
community leaders
• water and electricity cut off
• loss of community rights
“Since 1974, over 20,000 indigenous people expelled for
religious reasons have settled within … the misery belt
around San Cristóbal de las Casas.”
Source: Sullivan, Kathleen. “ Protagonists of Change”. Women’s Work, Women’s Worth. Winter 1992.
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival- quarterly/mexico/protagonists-change.
Case Study: San Juan Chamula
In San Juan Chamula, the largest of the indigenous villages in the Chiapas
highlands the religious conflict has existed for over 25 years.
In the last 25 years, 35,000 community members or one in five non-catholic residents
known as "Chamulas,” were expelled from their homes and fields for being evangelical
or protestant.
Another few thousand have been driven out of Zinacantán, Tenejapa, and several
other indigenous villages in the mountains near here.
Earlier refugees had built a ring of misery, encircling the city with muddy slums
packed closely with houses of cardboard and scrap lumber.
Photos by Trina Bryant
Source: http://www.gbgm-umc.org/honduras/old/articles/chiapas.html.
Reflection on Religious Expulsion
From the late 1960s on, how did a
person’s religion affect how they were
welcome or expelled in the area of San
Juan Chamula, Chiapas? Give two
examples.
Describe at least three examples of
religious intolerance that occurred in San
Juan Chamula.
Day 3: Expulsion to Misery Belt,
Political Factors
• While some would characterize the expulsion
in San Juan Chamula as founded in religious
conflicts between a Catholic majority and an
evangelical/protestant minority, others have
identified political reasons for the expulsion.
• To better understand the role that political
affiliation plays in expulsion to the misery belt,
it is important to understand the Zapatista
movement. This movement supported the
rights of the indigenous groups.
The Zapatista Movement
Independent practice and homework
• Two handouts: “The Zapatista Movement”
and Timeline of the Zapatista Movement
– Construct a timeline of a minimum of 10
important events
– Write a 1–2-paragraph reflection: why were
certain events were major and others were minor.
– You may identify the events with a color code;
include a legend of what the colors represent.
Day 4
Migrating to Mexico’s
Misery Belts
Political & Economic Factors
Rural-Urban Migration
Day 4 Objectives: Students will:
(1) describe three facts about the Partido
Revolucionario Institutional (PRI),
(2) understand the relationship between
political party affiliation in PRI and expulsion
from indigenous communities, and
(3) understand three factors that in the 1970s–
1990s led to migration from rural lands to the
urban areas.
Journal
Essential Question :
The Partido Revolucionario
Institutional (PRI). What is
it and what is its role in
indigenous communities?
PRI - Partido Revolucionario
Institutional
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Created in 1929 and has been the ruling party up through the 1997 elections
Created to administer power
Other parties participated in elections but it was a known fact that political PRI
would win
PRI created political stability and economic growth in agriculture and industry.
Unions were part of PRI, including Mexico’s teachers’ union with 1.3 million
members
Pre-1997, the president would remove/replace governor or assembly member at
will
In the indigenous communities, a leader’s responsibility: Turn out votes for PRI so
that communities received benefits/services in return (for example, electricity,
sewer, paved streets, etc.)
PRI was the most central party
1997—first time there were free elections in Mexico
The dissatisfaction during the uprising of Zapatista rebels and indigenous peoples
led to a change of mood across the country and for the first time, the PRI lost
Today, the PRI must truly compete to get votes
PRI and Indigenous Farmers
• In the 1930s land reform under the PRI
President Lazaro Cardenas established
Mexican ejidos
• Peasant cooperatives brought community
members together to farm large agricultural
parcels
• The PRI also helped farmers obtain federal
land grants
Non-PRI Party
• Not maintaining support of the PRI party was
a serious offense in many indigenous
communities. The PRI had helped farmers
obtain federal land grants.
• Support for a non-PRI party (the PAN, PRD)
often resulted in immediate expulsion from a
home and community
PEMEX – Petróleos Mexicanos
• PEMEX created by President Cardenas - 1938
foreign oil companies nationalized
• Mexican state-owned oil company
• 1970s: off-shore drilling, many farmers attracted
to better employment opportunities on oil rigs
• Exodus of farmers disturbed collaborative harvests
• Remaining farmers in downward economic cycle
of being forced to sell land or move to
metropolitan areas
Economic Recession 1980s
• Worldwide recession in early 80s
• Peso devalued up to 500 % in 2
years
• Measures of austerity by the PRI
government: no more subsidies
to farmers
• Many indigenous farmers moved
families to urban areas in search
of a better life
Consumer Prices Mexican
Peso Real Exchange Rate
Source: IMF, International Financial Statistics; U.S. Department of Commerce
.
NAFTA Influences
• North American Free Trade Agreement—1994
• Government provisions to give land to indigenous
farmers were curtailed
• Landless farmers moved from rural to urban areas
• Indigenous farmers spoke native language, not
Spanish = disadvantage for jobs
• Cheap housing in misery belts Náhuatl – Mixteco - Maya
• Mexicans left rural area to work in maquiladoras
(manufacturing operations) along Mexico’s northern
border.
Maquiladoras
With NAFTA the maquiladoras, which played an important role in
the growth of Mexico’s exports since 1979, found themselves
uniquely situated to play a larger role in vertical specialization.
These firms are mostly located on Mexico’s northern border and
import inputs from the United States, process them, and
reexport them back to the United States.
Maquiladoras specialize in the manufacture of electronics, auto
parts, and apparel and, with the signing of NAFTA, the
manufacturing sector of exports grew attracting additional
laborers to the urban areas.
How do we define poverty?
There is no common definition among countries.
Generally we define poverty as a state of
material deprivation.
• 18.2% of the population in Mexico is below
the poverty line based on food-based poverty
• Looking at CIA world fact data in 2008 - asset
based poverty amounted to more than 47% in
Mexico
Source: Mexico – CIA – The World Factbook
Concept Connector
• Factors affecting migration to misery belts
• The graphic organizer is to help you organize
your thoughts and understandings regarding
population movement in Mexico from rural
areas to urban ones.
Religious
Economic
Political
Day 5
Migrating to Mexico’s Misery Belts
From the eyes of a journalist
Final Performance Assessment:
Newspaper Article
From the Eyes of a Journalist
Day 5–7 Objectives: Students will:
(1) understand the elements of a newspaper
article,
(2) draft a newspaper article in Word, and
(3) organize and synthesize information
regarding relocation of Mexicans to the misery
belt in a newspaper article
Elements of a Newspaper & Article
Directions: Circle and label these elements in the sample newspaper .
Work with a partner for clarification.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Name of newspaper, volume, issue, date
Headline: the title of the article; expresses the main idea of the story using
direct and dramatic action verbs and nouns
Secondary story headline
Byline: Often listed after the title, gives the name of the person writing the
story and his or her title
Lead sentence: the first sentence in the article, it gives the most important
information to “hook” the reader’s attention
Body: the main part of the article, it contains the five
Ws: Who? What? Where? When? Why?
Three or four important details about the story
Summary or final detail
Unbiased writing – article is factual without writer’s opinion
Picture with caption
From the Eyes of a Journalist
You are a journalist and must write an article for
the New York Times on a recent event.
Event: There has been a mass migration of families from
a surrounding rural area of Mexico City, Tuxtla
Gutierrez or San Juan Cristóbal de las Casas. You are a
reporter/journalist and you must write a 400–500word newspaper article analyzing who, what, where,
when and why. The article must incorporate all
elements of a newspaper article, as well as what you
learned on population patterns, movement and
underlying reasons. Grading rubrics will be applied.
Day 6 and 7
Computer Laboratory
• We’re going to the lab to do more research
and “write” a draft newspaper article in Word.
Peer Editing
• Edit your own and then Peer Editing – Final
draft to be exchanged with partner
• Handout Peer Editing Rubrics – Review and
spend the period editing your partners article
Newsroom Deadline Day 9
• Final day: to the library again to publish final
revised article