Mexican villagers' stories lead off YVCC Diversity Series

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Yakima Valley Community College is kicking off its annual Diversity Series today with a presentation by award-winning author Wendy Call, who will speak about her experiences in southern Mexico.

Call's book, "No Word For Welcome," describes a region in the Mexican Isthmus of Tehuantepec, where local villagers are pushing back against economic globalization that threatens to encroach on their unique cultures and livelihoods.

That fit perfectly with this year's theme of "sustainable communities," said series coordinator Maria Cuevas, a Chicano studies and sociology instructor at YVCC.

In talking about sustainability, she said, "We only look at monetary growth; we don't look at how people in our societies are faring."

Cuevas says Call's account of getting to know the people and local economies in the region known colloquially as Mexico's "little waist" is a compelling story that brings the villagers to life outside of common stereotypes of Latinos.

"It's a story about humanity; it's a story about peoples," Cuevas said.

Included in Call's nonfiction book are a fisherman who's worried about the government trying to establish a commercial shrimp farm, and a schoolteacher who's trying to hold onto the village's unique dialect.

Call will read an excerpt from her book, partly in Spanish and partly in English. She said that many people from Yakima's Latino community probably have friends or neighbors who go back and forth to Mexico frequently.

"They're often more aware of all of the changes to Mexican life that are being caused by economic globalization," she said.

The people of the Tehuantepec region are a good example of a group that has a long history of dealing with globalization, and of retaining their cultural independence. They first had to ward off the Aztecs, about 700 years ago, Call said.

"What I'm most interested in is ... telling stories about how people are dealing effectively with really big challenges," she said.

The author, who this week was announced as the winner of Boston-based Grub Street's National Book Prize for nonfiction, will head back to Tehuantepec next week to do some book presentations and, she says, show the people she interviewed that all their stories were not in vain. It took several years to find a publisher, she said.

"They're very anxious to see that I did what I'd said I'd do, which is publish a book that tells their story," she said.

Call's presentation, "No Word for Welcome: The Mexican Village Faces the Global Economy," will be at 7 p.m. today in the Parker Room of YVCC's Deccio Higher Education Center, 16th Avenue and Nob Hill Boulevard. It's free, and Call will be accepting questions in English and Spanish after her reading.

Cuevas said that people in the Lower Valley can also go to YVCC's Grandview campus, where the talk will be televised.