This month, DC staffer Jenny struck out into the field to experience DC in Oaxaca. Jenny had explored the city with a friend years ago, but she felt as though she was truly seeing Oaxaca for the first time. What made a difference? Responsible tourism & connection! Read her reflections below.
Upon returning home from my trip to Oaxaca Women & Girl’s Empowerment trip, I have been thinking about how incredible Mexico is and how I am already looking forward to going back someday! My visit to Oaxaca six years ago and my trip with Discover Corps a few weeks ago was like night and day. When I had traveled with a friend a few years ago to Oaxaca, we did a few day tours to the typical sites and ate our way through the city, and although I thoroughly enjoyed my time there, this time felt fuller. It was impactful, I built a connection to the city and its people, and I felt as if I was in Oaxaca for the first time.
What is responsible tourism?
Responsible tourism improves the well-being of the local community. It aims to encourage visitors to meaningfully connect with local people, to learn about their culture and livelihoods, and to allow for a genuine exchange. This is exactly what I experienced on our visits to the villages of San Miguel and Teotitlán del Valle.
Discover Corps partners with an En Via, an organization that provides women with tools to develop professionally. The tour fees from the responsible tourism program that Discover Corps takes part in helps fund the loan and education programs that allows en Via to offer interest free loans and a free business course to women looking to start their own business. Each borrower receives eight hours of business training before receiving her first loan.
Our visits with local women
We spent a morning learning about ceramics with Cristina, a wonderful potter we visited, who told us she hikes 1.5 hours out to the mountains with some of the other women potters in the village to source her clay. It is best to get clay during the new moon, a secret she learned from her grandmother. She showed us some tips on how to shape the clay using natural elements like dried gourds and pieces of leather.
Shaping the pottery and doing something hands-on was really therapeutic and fun! We all ended up with different styles of bowls, everyone putting their own style and energy into their piece of art. Cristina’s business is now flourishing and it was really fun to hear about her story as she taught us a little bit about her craft and life in the village. She also shared that she is working on an order of pottery for a restaurant! A true success story.
We also visited Demetria, who got a loan for a new tortilla press to keep her tortilla business going when hers broke and she was unable to work. She connected with En Via, took the business course and learned how to manage business finances. Now she produces tortillas for special orders, tlayudas, and local restaurants. We got to stop and chat with her as she was making tortillas, and got to try some fresh tortillas, a true Mexican staple.
Activities in Oaxaca
Our cooking class also was very special! We got to take part in the preparation of tamales, a food typically made only around the holidays or for special occasions! Our trip was a few weeks out from the biggest cultural celebration of the year, Guelaguetza. Our hosts were a mother-daughter duo that work together giving cooking classes in their home and also tending to their on-site restaurant.
We started off walking to the mill to grind fresh cooked corn into corn flour, then returned to the beautiful outdoor kitchen by the garden to prepare the mole, press the flour into tortillas and assemble the tamales. We left them to cook over the fire, then enjoyed the fruits of our labor and had lunch in the garden. During our time together we got to chat with the women about life, about the importance of tamales, and the upcoming local festivities.
Other Trip Highlights
In addition to time in the community, we also got to visit the incredible archaeological site of Monte Alban, hike and see some beautiful views of the mountains at Hierve el Agua, and even have lunch on our guide’s farm!
This trip was unforgettable and truly a great week connecting with the women of Oaxaca, our local team of guides and partners, and my other wonderful travel companions – women who also traveled solo to Oaxaca!
–Jenny Hamilton, DC Travel Specialist