Hunger and Misery in La Montaña

I first met Father Lawrence Moran, CSB, in 1978. He was visiting St. Mary’s High School in downtown Calgary. This was the school where he had been a teacher for decades before retiring and moving to Mexico.

Father Moran told me that he wanted to move from his present location in the State of Puebla to the area of La Montaña in the State of Guerrero. He had read in the newspapers that this mountainous region in Mexico was having a very dry rainy season and that thousands of indigenous people were confronting hunger and misery. Father Moran wanted to accompany these people and offer the solace of his presence, his love, his solidarity, and his gospel message.

Jump ahead thirty-five years. The indigenous people of La Montaña are again confronting hunger and misery. Only this time it is being caused, not by the lack of rain, but by the torrential rains caused last week by Hurricane Manuel.

This has been, according to the government, the worst “natural” disaster in the history of the State of Guerrero. The raging rains caused massive mudslides that destroyed homes, parts of villages, and roads. The flooding rivers washed away people, homes, animals, crops, belongings.

Perhaps the worst part is that the poor peasant farmers here in La Montaña try to eke out a living by planting corn and beans on the mountainsides. The rains were so heavy that in most places, the layer of topsoil that allowed such planting was also washed away. The soil was stripped away, and now the fields are bare rock or hard clay.

At the moment this disaster has caught the attention of all Mexico, and help is streaming in from all over the country. But the fear is that once this stops being headline news, these efforts will end, and the people will be left to strive on their own to stay alive in this challenging environment.

The Catholic Church is most active here in trying to make a difference. The local retreat center is still housing hundreds of displaced people. Priests, seminarians, sisters, and lay people—coordinated by the beloved local bishop, Don Dagoberto—are doing what they can to see that food, water, clothing, medicines, etc., are delivered to isolated communities whose roads and telephone services were destroyed.

Mission Mexico wants to help. People here appreciate this solidarity. At the same time, people suggest that the more important time for solidarity from Mission Mexico will be in the future, after the television crews and the government officials move on to other “big news” stories. That’s when the real struggle among the people for life will begin.

Thank you, reader, for supporting Mission Mexico and, through Mission Mexico, these beautiful people. I know that many readers can identify with the challenges of a major “natural” disaster. God bless, and have a great week.

Hurricane Manuel in La Montaña

There is usually no river here.

Ay, what a day! I left Tlapa in the rain this morning, and I arrived in Cuernavaca ten hours later in the rain. Because of Hurricane Manuel hitting Tlapa on the weekend, there has been no phone service of any kind, no Internet service, and—until today—no entry in or out of the area. The heavy rains washed out the roads in many places, flooded them in others, and left huge piles of rocks, trees, and mud in other places. This was the worst disaster in the area since 1989, when a similar storm occurred.

The metal roof from Mission Mexico

Besides roads being washed out, many homes and business were simply carried away by raging rivers and flooding. A number of years ago Mission Mexico supported the construction of a roof over the central court area of the Catholic Church’s diocesan retreat/meeting center, and that roof is definitely serving people now. Hundreds of displaced people are staying there now, and the roof is protecting them from the elements.

With no traffic able to enter Tlapa (for example, I was able to get out, but it involved climbing muddy mountain paths in the rain to get around sections where there was simply no more road), the town’s three gasoline stations have run out of gasoline. The people who could afford to do it stocked up on food and purified drinking water. Without Internet, the town’s banks have been closed. No one is sure how long it will take to restore things to “normal.”

When I left Canada last week, my mother was in intensive care in the hospital, after suffering a brain aneurysm and a heart attack. I could pray for her on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, but there was no way to communicate with anyone “on the outside.” I knew that my wife and two daughters in Canada—as well as Father Fred Monk of Mission Mexico—would be anxious. That led to today’s “adventure” to get to a place where there is phone service and Internet.

I was able to communicate with my wife and children, and with my sister (who tells me that Mom seems to be slowly recovering), and with Father Fred (who can cut back on his prayers for me now). Tomorrow I will head back to Tlapa; I hope I can get there.

The hurricane was an unexpected “welcome” to La Montaña. The flooding made me think of Calgary, High River, and other parts of southern Alberta that experienced such flooding recently. Unfortunately, it is very unlikely that the people affected by this disaster here will get any government assistance in trying to put the pieces of their lives back together again. Most of these are people who were already struggling to make ends meet in their lives. However, the church and other generous people will do as much as possible to support these people. The struggle to be faithful to the gospel values will continue. Please pray for us in this endeavor.

Mike MacDonald—Back in Mexico Again

Hi. My name is Mike MacDonald, and I just arrived in Mexico to live and work in La Montaña of the State of Guerrero as a representative with Mission Mexico.

It’s good to be back in Mexico. This afternoon I will go to my new home in La Montaña of Mexico, but right now I am enjoying the hospitality of my good friend Gerardo Debbink, in Cuernavaca. Gerardo is the director of Quest Mexico, a center dedicated to creating social justice through experiential education; Gerardo receives high school, university, and church groups from all over North America.
Returning to La Montaña, the most impoverished region of Mexico, will be challenging but rewarding, I know. I first visited the area in 1979, when I took a group of students from St. Mary’s High School from downtown Calgary to visit Father Lawrence Moran, CSB, who was working there. I later moved in 1982 to live permanently in Mexico (although I also lived for a time in El Salvador during the civil war there in the late ‘80s).

Father Moran, from Trochu, Alberta, dedicated the last-quarter century of his life to serving the indigenous peoples of Mexico. One of the great blessings of my life was the opportunity to accompany this true saint during a large part of that time. I will always be grateful to Pat and Maureen Doherty, their family, and the Our Lady Queen of Peace Foundation they started, for supporting Father Moran and me during so many years in Mexico.

The decision that I return to Mexico after four years in Canada involved several round-table discussions with my wife and two daughters, who will remain in Canada for education and employment reasons. They lived in Mexico with me; they know the almost-unimaginable poverty that exists there. They have seen how support from Mission Mexico in the past has been life-changing for families and communities in La Montaña. They want others to experience that solidarity. They want to make a difference. And they know that we will be able to spend some time together as a family on a couple of occasions each year.

In an e-mail to Father Fred Monk, the founding director of Mission Mexico, my wife, Julie, wrote:

This time has been very difficult for all of us with Mike heading off to new adventures in a warmer place. However, we all believe that our lives have purpose sometimes greater than the small
picture....Our daughters understand this and even though it is difficult and we already miss Mike, as a family we feel this work is life changing and will make the world a little better—and that, in a nutshell, is our hope for our time here on this earth: to leave the world a little better than when we entered it. Thank you for the opportunity to make a difference.

 During the upcoming months and years I hope to share with the reader of this blog site a variety of experiences from La Montaña. And I will share some of the stories about what Mission Mexico is doing. Or, to say it even better, I will share some of the stories about what you are doing through the support you offer to Mission Mexico.

There are heroic people living and working in La Montaña. Some of the most committed people in Mexico are dedicating their lives to affirming and facilitating the hopes and dreams and efforts of marginalized families and communities. You will read about many of these people in upcoming blogs. Mission Mexico simply wants to be a partner with these people in their struggle to turn these dreams into reality.

So the invitation is extended: please consider checking out these blogs once in a while. I will do my best to share this world with you to the best of my capabilities.

Vaya con Dios.