Anthropologist, Dr. Christine Eber holds up a small drawing of a drunk woman made by a young girl from Chiapas, Mexico. "Drinking for women is a way to discharge their grief," said Eber.

Life Lessons

In Chiapas, daily struggle for women

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Words and Images Adron Gardner

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"Iwant my life to mean something."

Dr. Christine Eber, a professor of Anthropology at New Mexico State University, recounted those words from Flor de Margarita Pérez Pérez.

For more than 20 years of research, Margarita is a woman who has acted as like a lens, a magnifying glass, into the indigenous culture and women of Chiapas, Mexico for Dr. Eber and her colleagues. Chiapas is a state in southern Mexico bordering Guatemala. The proximity to Guatemala, the homeland of the Mayan people has significance. Chiapas is also the home of a very large indigenous Mayan population.

The ndigenous population of Chiapas has long lobbied the Mexican government for social and economic equality they believe is granted to them under the Constitution of 1910. Chiapas is the birthplace of the Zapatista resistance and political movement formed in the 1990s. The Zapatista movement is the namesake of Mexican hero, Emiliano Zapata, a fighter from the Mexican Revolution who is remembered as a defender of the poor.

A common problem throughout Central America is the constant battles within the agricultural infrastructure of the region. Centuries-old tensions between Spaniard descendant peoples controlling the richest soil and the extremely poor indigenous populations left to tend land under either very harsh labor supervision or land with poor soil. Many of the numerous wars in Latin America in the 20th century have direct roots to this agro-economic struggle.

Dr. Eber first ventured to Chiapas in 1997 as part of a volunteer project. Women the subordinates in most cultures Eber met in Chiapas a unique woman who was more than just a mother, or wife. In Flor de Margarita Pérez Pérez, Eber found a woman who watches over the conditions in her community, working hard not only for her family and others, but also speaking out to anybody who will listen about the hardships the indigenous people as a whole face in Chiapas.

For an Anthropologist, just going to a foreign country for field work and research is not as easy as one, two, three. She could feel there were things the people wanted to speak about, but were initially afraid but after time, the people opened up to her. The experience also focused Eber and what she came to understand was her job as an Anthropologist, “My role was to understand their lives. And because they had been neglected, they began to talk to me more and more,” Eber said.

“The women don’t want any disharmony in their daily life with their struggle for rights as women...they don’t want to rock the boat. But they are stepping out of their traditional roles, even by going to school.” - Dr. Christine Eber

Anybody who travels through southern Mexcio and Guatemala will notice the color in the clothing for the Indigenous people. The sight of women weaving in small hamlets along the side of a tight mountain road is a common one. With weaving co-ops, Eber has worked to assist the indigenous women find alternative economic outlets, with their weavings.

Their economic plight and culture gap so huge and a far apart from the industrialized world, Eber believes the larger world would rather forget about indigenous populations. “These are the most expendable people on the planet.” Eber said, “But they are very proud.”

Eber has found not only social inequality for the indigenous Tzotzil-Maya people of Chiapas, but even more so, she has observed inequality for the women. Rampant poverty, food shortages and alcohol abuse are issues dealt with and witnessed by all in the community. Drinking for men, said Dr. Eber is more celebratory, but for the women it is a way to release their grief.

Documentary photojournalist and former professor of photojournalism R. Sterling Trantham had similar feelings about his experiences in Guatemala. “The poverty and alcoholism is a big problem,” he said, “But (the indigenous people) carry themselves with pride. They make what they do have go a very, very long way.” Trantham, who has photographed the religious ceremonies and practices surrounding Mayan deity “Maximon,” for a decade recalls the words from a Curandero (healer), when Trantham asked about the drinking in his life. The Curandero replied waving his index finger, “No longer for me. That brings the devil out.”

Outspoken women are not common in this culture that Dr. Eber studies. This has made Maragarita that

much more unique. Hoping their efforts can culminate in a book, Eber has been working with Margarita for more than three years now in interviews about her life story.

This is extremely important for Eber because, “No indigenous person has told their life story in these times from Chiapas,” said Eber.

There is a delicate balance for Margarita in her community. On one hand, this woman wants to improve the lives of her family and the people of Chiapas, but on the other hand the deep sense of community extends beyond the voice of the one. Eber said within the communities, everybody feels they are a piece of the whole. Everybody works together for the common good, so it is uncommon and not always accepted for one person to stand above the rest for one reason or another.

While working and living with Margarita, Dr. Eber has also convinced the woman to visit the United States to speak at NMSU on numerous occasions. According to Eber, Margarita has marveled at the availability of food like fruit but also been puzzled to why Eber and other Anthropologists have been so interested in her.

“For Margarita, her life normal as is she,” Eber said.

Dr. Eber felt her research has completely changed not only the way she works and teaches but also how she views herself as a piece of the larger puzzle.

“I realize I have to keep going back...I have so much to learn. I realize that my fate is kind of tied there now.”

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11/08/2006