# Pueblo Nuevo Solistahuacan - End of the Line



## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

We set out early on the morning of Mardi Gras or Carnaval as it is known in Southern Mexico, to get from Villahermosa, Tabasco to San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas over Federal Highway 195 - a distance not so far as the crow flies but an arduous seven hour drive from the swampy plains of Tabasco through mountainous Chiapas which, while a seemingly interminable undertaking over twisting mountain roads, is a drive so beautiful and spectacular it must be done if one ever has the opportunity. One problem with this and other highways between Tabasco and the Chiapas Highlands is that all of the highways transit through rural indigenous territories where political unrest is the norm rather than the exception. The possibility of coming across áreas where internecine political squabbles - some quite serious and dangerous- have errupted, is always there and, as a stranger unacquainted with and not privy to the local grapevine, the only way to be sure that one will pass through uninterrupted or be boxed in or even endangered for an indeterminate period of time by political infighting is to actually undertake the journey. These very serious local political squabbles can take place on any of the three major highways between Tabasco and Chiapas so choosing one highway over another to facilitate one´s journey is subject to the luck of the draw as these highway stoppages are a primary tool used by indigenous villagers to assert their rights with state , federal and municipal governments and governmental agencies dare not interfere with these traffic interruptions no matter how serious. 

So, here we were, four hours out of Villahermosa and three hours from San Cristóbal and constantly reminded that this was mid-day on Mardi Gras day, Tuesday, March 4 and we could expect wildly drunken conmmunity parties along the way with numerous borrachos walking (or, actually, stumbling along) the highway and in such a state of inebriation that at any minute they might fall into the path of our car and the last thing on earth you want to do is run over or even cross a villager inadvertently even if it´s not your fault.

So, here we were four hours out of Villahermoas and still three hours to our home in San Cristóbal when we innocently enter the village of Pueblo Nuevo only to find, about half way through the community that the road is blocked and we are suddenly surrounded by countless village men in a really bad mood and some in state of drunkenness so, of course, not being suicidal, we pull over at their instructions and wait along with several other motorists and truckers , to see what is happening. Thank God my wife´s Spanish is pretty good so she approached a villager who seemed to have some authority and the following conversation ensued:

WIFE: What´s happening? 
VILLAGER: We are blocking the road because the municipality reneged on its promise to maintain our supply of wáter and we now have no wáter so we will block the highway until they deliver us our promised allocation of wáter.
WIFE: (very politely) When do you expect this problem to be resolved and the road to be reopened?
VILLAGER: Oh, sometime today or tomorrow or maybe the next day or perhaps next week or, who knows.
WIFE: Well, we are simply trying to get home to San Cristóbal, is there any way we can get through?
VILLAGER: (my interpretation inferentially) Well, I could try to get you through but I don´t think it´s a good idea for you to drive through that very large crowd of aggitated folks who might take offense at your presence.
WIFE: Is it posible for us to simply turn around and return to Villahermosa to take Highway 187 to San Cristóbal? 
VILLAGER (as interpreted by me): Good idea but I´d go now if I were you while you can still get out of here.

So back to Villhermosa we drove so we could turn around and take the other highway to San Cristóbal turning what was supposed to be a seven hour drive into a 14 hour drive. But, at least, I´m still here to write this. 

One must exercised patience down here to remain alive but it sure was a beautiful drive.


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## lagoloo (Apr 12, 2011)

I do understand that having those two locations to enjoy is important to you and your wife, but I'm trying to imagine myself undertaking those journeys by car on a regular basis. No way.
The experience you just described would end it all, beautiful drive not withstanding. 

But........good luck folks. You're braver than I!


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

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lagoloo said:



I do understand that having those two locations to enjoy is important to you and your wife, but I'm trying to imagine myself undertaking those journeys by car on a regular basis. No way.
The experience you just described would end it all, beautiful drive not withstanding. 

But........good luck folks. You're braver than I![/QUOTE

Click to expand...

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lagoloo said:


> ]
> 
> Perhaps less brave than foolish but, I must admit, Lagaloo, that that unsympathetic and actually,bordering on hostile, encounter in the wilds of the Chiapas wilderness operating under strictly indigenous law, was a lesson in vulnerability. We will go back there if at all, with antennas at the ready to anticípate trouble. This is serious business, folks. Do not go into these hinterlands without a command of, at least, Spanish, and then thread lightly.
> 
> These people have been [cut] by every foreigner who ever showed up there in the last 500 years. Why should they believe your intentions are unabstrusive to their culture..


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## terrybahena (Oct 3, 2011)

Interesting and effective form of protest, yes? While we were in down in Guerrero we left for the mountain city of Ometepec, about an hour and a half south of us, and came into a tiny town (don't know the name). The road was blocked at the intersection to continue in any direction but the way we came. They were protesting CFE corruption & over charging them. Hubby, being Mexican got out and chatted with them for a few minutes, and then we agreed we could make the short trip another day. 

And as it turns out I love taking all day drives, there's always something new to see and/or discover.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

I wonder how effective these roadblock protests are in terms of fixing the problems that the people want solved. Or maybe it's just a way for people to let off steam, so they won't try more violent forms of protest.


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

> These people have been [cut] by every foreigner who ever showed up there in the last 500 years. Why should they believe your intentions are unabstrusive to their culture..


[Cut] It’s about deeply rooted problems which have existed for generations … long before Chiapas was part of Mexico. [Cut] But, yes, the government is almost always the “bad guy” in Mexico. And when Chiapas was part of Guatemala it was the Guatemalan government which was the “bad guy,” too. And amongst all these “bad guys” are the indigenous themselves. One sect doesn’t like or trust the other. One sect takes land from the other and fighting breaks-out. Conflict is a way of life in the region, unfortunately. My advice? Leave the locals and stop abusing them, as you suggested you are in the line I quoted above. :wave:



Isla Verde said:


> I wonder how effective these roadblock protests are in terms of fixing the problems that the people want solved. Or maybe it's just a way for people to let off steam, so they won't try more violent forms of protest.


Such protests are commonplace, throughout the country - from what I’ve witnessed. People are generally unrepresented in government, or they believe that’s the case. So when they have grievances which go unresolved they resort to disruption of transportation and commerce on highways as an attention-getting tactic. There are times when the grievances are addressed as a result of the protests, and at other times the leaders or participants are paid-off to cease. What I almost always sense in these demonstrations, and I’ve been blocked for hours on end at times, is a feeling of despair and worthlessness. And, yes, it’s a way to “let off steam” with violence not usually part of the scenario.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

[_QUOTE=Longford;3340217][Cut] It’s about deeply rooted problems which have existed for generations … long before Chiapas was part of Mexico. __[Cut] It But, yes, the government is almost always the “bad guy” in Mexico. And when Chiapas was part of Guatemala it was the Guatemalan government which was the “bad guy,” too. And amongst all these “bad guys” are the indigenous themselves. One sect doesn’t like or trust the other. One sect takes land from the other and fighting breaks-out. Conflict is a way of life in the region, unfortunately. My advice? Leave the locals and stop abusing them, as you suggested you are in the line I quoted above. :wave:_

[Cut]

As far as violence not being part of the scenario, there is massive violence among the indigenous of Southern Mexico, most of it unreported in the media and most involving land and wáter issues and such problems as domestic abuse and alcoholism. Perhaps you can find issues upon which to expound down the Street there in Chicago.


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## terrybahena (Oct 3, 2011)

Isla Verde said:


> I wonder how effective these roadblock protests are in terms of fixing the problems that the people want solved. Or maybe it's just a way for people to let off steam, so they won't try more violent forms of protest.


Well I'm not sure, but before we left Guerrero, which was just a few weeks after we saw that protest (where everyone was really nice and visiting with each other), the Gov't paid everybody's CFE bills! All our neighbors were ecstatic! We had paid ours (it wasn't much), but almost everyone in our tiny town hadn't paid in months. Most had a small restaurant or store and ran big fridges...but they just didn't pay and it never got turned off. Ha ha I have learned in my short time in Mexico not to question a lot of things....just to notice and...not even try to make sense 'cause tomorrow it will be different.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

I feel it imperative that I clarify something I wrote. not in my original post but in a response to a follow-up comment that these people (the indigenous of Southern Mexico) ) have been f*cked by foreigners. For the record, I was referring to the notion that it would be unwise for obvious pale skinned foreigners driving a Jalisco plated car to try to run the barrier set up by the local community to protest their having been cheated of their promised water allocation by their municipality because the indigenous leaders of their municipality had reneged on their promise to them to deliver that wáter supply. By that I meant that our seeking the privilege of passage as foreigners would have seemed untoward and would have been unwise. This was, as is normal, a fight among the indigenous themselves over certain community rights; in this case wáter, and _not_ a fight among the indigenous community members and foreigners. 

Most crimes against others in indigenous communities in Chiapas, including occasional and rarely reported murders, occur as a result of disputes over land and water rights which are critical to the survival of every community anywhere. These fights for rights to vital resources have been going on long before the arrival of the Spanish colonialists and the establishment of colonies in the new world. 

I find it irksome that I have to explain this to responders such as our Chicago correspondent. This was meant to be a lighthearted post and nothing more.


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

terrybahena said:


> Ha ha I have learned in my short time in Mexico not to question a lot of things....just to notice and...not even try to make sense 'cause tomorrow it will be different.


In a relatively short period of time you've lived in three parts of Mexico and I think you've discovered one of the majic keys to expat survival in Mexico: Go with the flow. I've seen all to many expats crash and burn and return home because they've become frustrated with the content and pace of live they experience in Mexico. We witness and see in the postings of people that they apply standards in Mexico they applied 'back home.' Too many assumptions are made about why things happen the way they do when it will be the rare day that any one of us will ever fully understand the underlying issues. I've never met an expat who knows those answers. But when confronted by events we're impacted and we're going to comment and have opinions. Expat life in Mexico isn't as impacted by the war, the terrorism or by high crime rates in some parts of the country as it is by accepting Mexico for what it is and presents, as a whole.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

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Longford said:



In a relatively short period of time you've lived in three parts of Mexico and I think you've discovered one of the majic keys to expat survival in Mexico: Go with the flow. I've seen all to many expats crash and burn and return home because they've become frustrated with the content and pace of live they experience in Mexico. We witness and see in the postings of people that they apply standards in Mexico they applied 'back home.' Too many assumptions are made about why things happen the way they do when it will be the rare day that any one of us will ever fully understand the underlying issues. I've never met an expat who knows those answers. But when confronted by events we're impacted and we're going to comment and have opinions. Expat life in Mexico isn't as impacted by the war, the terrorism or by high crime rates in some parts of the country as it is by accepting Mexico for what it is and presents, as a whole.

Click to expand...

_Ruminations in the ether.

I don´t know Terry and would not presume to know whether or not she has discovered the "magic keys" to expat survival in Mexico and is "go(ing) for the flow".

Terry is, if I am not mistaken, married or, at least, living with a Mexican citizen and, in the past few years has moved from Playa Ventura, Guerrero to Rocky Point to Northern Baja and that is fine but how one construes that she has learned to "go with the flow" based upon those incongruous moves is beyond me. If I am not mistaken, some of these moves have been moves of opportunity which is fine but for the above quoted contributor to read into those moves anything beyond necessary actions needed in order to survive is a fabrication of the thought processes of the writer.

We lived in Terry´s home in Playa Ventura for one night and I know why she left that place at her first opportunity but I cannot read anything into that move beyond that. How does one surmise that the having had moved from one place to another constitutes magic discovery? One could posit that neither Rocky Point nor Northern Baja are representative of life in the rest of Mexico as both are located in nether regions only remotely "Mexican". Of course, we live in Chiapas which is, or was until 1821, part of the Guatemala Federation so what do we know?


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