Marick in deep water . . . this time on the way to Potosi, Bolivia
marickpayton@yahoo.com
Marick in deep water . . . this time on the way to Potosi, Bolivia
Reports from Marick on his motorcycle travels through Central
and South America. The goals of this
trip are adventure and making a small contribution to the
welfare of the people in these countries through engagement in community/social service projects along the way. If you would like to receive occasional "reports from the road" you can subscribe to my email newsgroup by sending an email (no content required) to marickpayton-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
To view a flyer I created for tourists in Oaxaca explaining the repression of the indigenous Zapotecas in the region of Loxicha, south of Oaxaca, click on the following link. The Two Faces of Oaxaca You can view the web pages I created for the Organization of Pueblos Indigenous Zapotecas (OPIZ) of Loxicha
here. The following link reports on an expedition I made to the remote community of Ixtepec, in the Mexican State of Guerrero, to preserve archives from the 1500's. I found this opportunity to get closer to the real life of rural Mexico a very rich experience.
Ixtepec report If you are a fan of the colorful rural churches of Mexico, you may enjoy the following report on my ride from Oaxaca to Chilpancingo. The iglesia tour to Chilpancingo Report of my run to and back from Guatemala to renew my visa. Fabulous trip, lots of mountain riding and stays in the interesting city of Juchitan, San Cristobal de las Casas and Quetzaltenango.
MARICK´S QUEST: ¨The Ride to Bolivia¨
Pictures from Guanajuato, Mexico (set 1)
Pictures from Guanajuato, Mexico (set 2)
This link takes you to an excellent set of critical articles on Terrorism, compliled by my friend and political scientist Gus diZerega. (click here)
Guatemala has been described as “the land of beautiful people and perpetual Spring.” Indeed, its people, weather and geography are beautiful. However, the indigenous Mayan people have been subjected to brutal oppression for the past 500 years, with much of their land stolen by dictators and, with their collaboration, the United Fruit Company. The country enjoyed a brief 10 years of democracy from 1944-1954. However, shortly after the democratic government redistributed 400,000 acres of land from United Fruit to landless peasants in 1954, the CIA engineered a coup, which led to the return to military dictatorship and, not incidentally, the return of the land to United Fruit. In the subsequent 36 year-war between the indigenous people and the military government, whole Mayan villages were slaughtered. A capsule chronicle of Guatemalan history during this period can be found
here.
The Tun family in front of the home they and we helped construct for them. Front row: Byron, Leonzo Jr. and Vilvia; back row: Izabel, Jesmy, Leonzo Sr. and Juan.
In November of 2000 I participated with Habitat for Humanity in building houses for poor families on the shore of Lake Atitlan. This was a wonderful adventure and a most heart-warming experience. For a report and some pictures, click here.
I solicited friends and family for contributions to help fund home building in Guatemala, in conjunction with my trip. Their contributions were sufficient to fund the building of homes for two families. Additional information about this trip and more pictures are available in the links below.
Donors
More Pictures from Panimaquip
Pictures of the ruins of Antigua, where I studied Spanish a week before the house building
To see some of the CIA documents on it’s shameful involvement in Guatemala, click here