Practicing Leadership: An Unusual Summer Vacation in Mexico

Christine Ferreira

When I was asked in late 2011 to chaperone a group of Culver City high school students to Mexico for three weeks this summer as part of the Culver City Sister Cities program, I knew that I was going to be in a for a treat but I had no idea what a wonderful and educational experience this would be.

Culver City’s sister city program received a grant to participate in a U.S. State Department-funded program called the Youth Ambassadors. We were going to travel to central Mexico with students from Modesto and Los Angeles to study issues of poverty and the environment, and to learn about Mexican history and culture. Students applied through the Culver City Sister Committee, and had to fill out an application, turn in transcripts, get letters of recommendation and write an application essay. They also had to survive a daunting interview process with community leaders and Sister City committee members. I should make it clear that although my daughter was a participant, her participation was independent of mine. I did not go because she was going, and she did not go because I was going. I should also make it clear that this whole program was possible because of the incredibly hard work of Donna Thayer, the youth program coordinator of the Sister City committee.

The plan was that we would spend two weeks traveling and one week staying with a family in our sister city. We would have a series of 10 workshops focusing on poverty, the environment and developing a project to address those twin concerns. Unfortunately, because of security concerns in Mexico, the Culver City group was not going to be allowed to stay in Uruapan, our own sister city, so we were going to spend our home-stay in Aguascalientes. That was about as much as we knew when left for the airport on June 24.

The first order of business, once we were through security at LAX, was to find the other delegations. The four Culver City girls, Olivia Finnegan, Marlee Goldshine, Heather Reitzfeld, and Elizabeth Ferreira, were eager to meet their traveling companions. The girl homing and location system worked, as we first found the five students from Modesto and then the three from Los Angeles, with their chaperones. On the flight, students from the different cities sat together and began to get to know each other, which was a great sign for the rest of the trip.

We spent the next two weeks traveling and learning. Our first base of operations was Toluca, an industrial city west of Mexico City. While we were there we spent a morning at a government-funded preschool where we were assigned to help in the classes. The smiles on the faces of the visiting teenagers as they led children through games, helped to feed them, and danced, crawled and sang, were priceless. I am a teacher, and I was impressed by the preschool on a professional level. The classrooms were built around a central covered courtyard that provided a recreation space and a gathering space that was protected from the rain. We also visited an organic-mushroom and tomato farmer, who used solar power, no fertilizer or pesticides, and used bacteria to clean his water. “I take the water clean from nature and I give back to nature clean,” he said. We spent a lovely morning visiting a stained-glass artist, learning about his process and also learning about glass blowing.

From Toluca we traveled to San Miguel de Allende, where we stayed on a farm outside of town, where we would be far from any possible trouble on July 1, election day. We were now in the heart of colonial Mexico, the area where the indigenous Mexican people mined silver that was taken by the Spaniards back to Spain.  From San Miguel de Allende we visited the silver-mining town of  Guanajuato, with its tunnels under the town, and Dolores Hidalgo, where Father Hidalgo issued the Grito de Dolores to start the Mexican revolution. Walking into the church where Father Hidalgo stood was a highlight of the trip for me. On election day we stayed safe at the ranch, working on our projects, taking horse-back rides, playing soccer and generally just relaxing.

By now the groups were working hard on developing plans for community service projects for back home that would focus on issues of poverty or the environment. I have taught elementary and middle school, but this was my first opportunity to really work with high school students, and it turned out to be delightful. The girls were willing to wrangle with ideas and proposals until they put together a plan that was ambitious, meaningful and workable. It helped that three of the girls have worked together in the past as part of the Culver City High School’s Academy of Visual and Performing Arts, and they had a common passion for theater which they could translate into an environmental education program. It also helped that our public schools in Culver City have done such a terrific job teaching our children to read, write and communicate, and to be willing to grapple with ideas and concepts until they understand them.

We then traveled to Queretaro, a booming, bustling city of automobile manufacturers and international industry with a historic core that played a role in much of Mexico’s history. The revolutionary conspiracy of 1812 was discovered here, the Treaty of Guadalupe, which ceded the huge area of the United States that formerly belonged to Mexico, was signed here, Emperor Maximilian was executed here, and the constitution of 1917, after the second revolution, was also signed here. At this point the students were a little done with churches, tours and history; I tried to inspire them by telling them that in college they need to take a class in Mexican history or Mexican art history, because they had received an incredible education in those areas. From Queretaro we also visited an orphanage, which was a sobering event for many of our visitors. The orphanage was in the middle of the countryside along a rutted, bumpy road. We were not allowed to take pictures because some of the children had been taken from their parents and were in foster care.

Our next stop was Mexico City, where we were to meet the US Ambassador to Mexico. We didn’t have much time in Mexico City, I assume because of security concerns around the elections. We did an excellent tour of the Museo Memoria y Tolerancia, a beautiful museum dedicated to the history of the Holocaust and genocide worldwide. Even though many of the Culver City students had visited the Los Angeles Museum of Tolerance, they were interested to see history from the perspective of another country and culture. Our visit the next morning with the U.S. Ambassador gave our young ambassadors a view into the world of diplomacy, and the options that exist for them in high school and college and career opportunities as well.

Up until now we had been accompanied by Angus Fredenburg, who was our Sister Cities International  chaperone, and by Pedro Alba, a Toluca-area resident who made sure that we got to where we needed to be and gave us lots of background knowledge throughout our travels. I’m afraid I don’t know the last name of Jorge, our incredible driver, who calmly and capably handled 15 energetic kids and four tired adults for two weeks. But now it was time to say “goodbye” to these three and to meet up with Mariana Lopez Medellin, who took over as our guide and chaperone for our week in Aguascalientes.

After a six-hour bus ride north from Mexico City with the delegation from Modesto, we met our host families in Aguascalientes over dinner. This was a little nerve-wracking for many of the teens, as some spoke little Spanish and some were just shy. Not so much the two El Marino Language School Spanish graduates who were on the trip, because they both knew that they would be able to communicate with their host families. Of course, this was a terrific opportunity for them to improve their Spanish as well.

Our week in Aguascalientes went by quickly. We explored the city, and took a trip up to Zacatecas, where we took a tour into a silver mine and took a zip-line across a wide valley. We also spent a day at an old hacienda that had been abandoned during the revolution and then turned into a nature preserve used for educational programs for low income children in Aguascalientes. One highlight for the teens was seeing the Green Line, which was a 15 kilometer strip that lies atop a Pemex oil line. Construction is not allowed along the Green Line in case there is a rupture in the pipe, so it had turned into a no-man’s land that was abandoned and dangerous. Mariana’s boss, Lorena Martinez Rodriguez, the mayor of Aguascalientes, had looked at the Green Line and saw an opportunity for parkland and recreation areas, and she had transformed half of the strip, which had in turn improved safety and property values along the strip. This was a great opportunity for California teenagers to see how one person’s vision can make a change for a community.

Our stay in Aguascalientes wrapped up with a wonderful Ballet Folklorico performance by a group of high school students, some of whom were coming up to California later in July. Our kids were just blown away by the dancing and were especially delighted to be able to try on the beautiful folklorico costumes. Then we had a farewell dinner with our kind and generous families, after which we all had to pack up for our trip back to Mexico City and then on to home the next day.

This was not your usual summer vacation trip to Mexico. There were no beaches, no beers and margaritas, and not a whole lot of swimming pools. It was a great opportunity to learn about our Southern neighbor, with its incredible history, culture and nature. The great part is that I still get to work with the four girls, as we put into place our community service project here in Culver City.

Christine Ferreira is a Culver City parent, a teacher, and the chaperone for the Culver City Sister City Committee's 2012 Youth Ambassador Program.