Women with Corbos in El Pino, Las Mercedes The vegetable garden

Women with Corbos in El Pino, Las Mercedes
The vegetable garden project in El Pino, Las Mercedes is an incredible testament to the
effectiveness of organizing in women's empowerment. Before this project, there was not a women's
committee in El Pino. According to the women themselves, the communal vegetable garden has
motivated and encouraged women's organization greatly. Women in this community are working
together in synch, old and young, side by side, and are seeing the fruits of their labor. There are
twenty-three people in total working this plot of land, including five young men. The work is done
as collectively as possible, and there is certainly no shortage.
Their seeds are sown on the side of a steep hill, that ends, hundreds of
meters below, on the banks of the Suchitlan reservoir. Aside from
agriculture, which puts the beans and tortillas on many families'
plates, many in El Pino scrape by with fishing.
Because it is not possible for all of the members of the committee put
in the same amount of work, when the crops are harvested, people will
receive an amount relative to the time they contributed. Because of
the size of the group, and with larger families in this community, the
women believe that the harvest will go towards mostly towards family
consumption.
Here's a snipet of our conversation:
Is this your first time planting fruits and vegetables?
Yes, its our first time.
How do you like it so far?
It's a lot of work, but its definitely worth it.
And how do you feel working?
GOOD! It's hard work, but we have fun, and we laugh a lot.
It's better to work together, united, because you don't notice the work so
much!
It's our first time using a corbo, too!
And they erupt into laughter, each woman immediately aware of the
machete in her hands, the all-purpose tool traditionally carried by
campesinos. A man's tool, off-limits to these campesinas. Suddenly, the
women realize that they are doing something out of the box, something
bold and daring. And not only do they like it, but they're good at it, too!
Scaling the sides of the hill, the women use these weapon-tools to dig
holes, to whittle the ends of sticks and poles to put into the ground, to
cut weeds and clear land. The simple act of using this tool gives them a
sense of power and independence, and the sucess of their vegetable
garden has enabled them to see that they have many abilities and skills
beyond tortilla-making, sweeping and child-rearing.
As the dark rain clouds collect overhead, and the thunder rumbles
among the Chalate mountains, we are proudly shown the seedbed, where tomato seedlings are
protected from the big rain drops that could damage them by a mosquito net, and then the retaining
wall, built with large rocks, to protect from mudslides. The women plan to build a number of these
along the hill; after the most recent national emergency, they fear losing this labor of love in the
next storm.
What do you hope to acheive with this project?
We hope to continue, to continue planting and harvesting, and working. And we hope you keep
visiting us! And keep supporting us, especially with seeds, and especially in our organization.
June 2010