A Whole New Meaning to "Salada" Kristen

One more field expedition under my belt! Claudia, Isra, Ana, and I headed back to Rayones for two days this week to do their (ESHAC’s) community development project with the women in the community and my bat/agave work and first focus group session with the folks who harvest/use agaves.

We got a slightly later start than anticipated since Josefo’s and Claudia’s Chihuahua, Maggie, had her puppies that morning (my first time seeing such tiny pups!). Once we left the office we headed to a garden supply place for the remaining materials for Claudia and Isra’s organic gardening workshop in Rayones. Unfortunately the rain also arrived at the place about the same time we did, and since we were using the truck with an open cab we had to scramble to cover everything with a tarp, and in the process got SOAKED. At least it was a warm day…We also had to make makeshift windows for both the driver and passenger windows, since neither one rolls up. With the truck loaded to the brim and contact paper windows, we headed out into more rain on our couple hour journey to Rayones in the mountains. Speaking of traveling, I have noticed on our trips so far that my travel companions very rarely drink water. I’m constantly guzzling water to stay hydrated (and feel crappy if I don’t) but they seem to not need to drink a lot. I just don’t understand how!

Our very classy makeshift "window", made from

contact paper... 

 Rainy, but still beautiful views

Once in Rayones (well, in Ejido Pedro Carrizales, just outside the town of Rayones) we spent the evening meeting with the group of women that ESHAC is working with for a community development project. I was planning to go out at night and do my bat/agave camera monitoring, but unfortunately the rain made an appearance yet again… This time it was a difficult decision since the rain cleared out around 9:00pm, and my monitoring wouldn’t start until midnight, so I could have done it. However, the flowering agaves that I needed were farther up the mountain and the comisariado told me it was best not to go for safety reasons (the wet roads, the chances of landslides, and the chances of flash floods (which Josefo and the team almost got washed away in a few years ago in this area)). So, once again, no bat monitoring. I’m REALLY starting to despise the rain. It never ceases to amaze me just how much it can rain when I need to get out and do my field work!

The next day we gathered for breakfast at Doña Julieta’s house, and I had my first yucca flowers! SO delicious!  

My first time trying yucca flowers. SO delicious!

After breakfast, Ana and I rode with the comisariado, Humberto, to visit Juan, the one man/family in the community that still harvests and uses agaves. On our last visit, Humberto had told me that only about four or five people still harvest and use agaves, and so I was planning to do a focus group discussion with all of them during this visit. However, it turns out that those four to five people are all in the same family/household, so in reality there was no focus group to conduct. I was initially disappointed, but I ended up doing a slightly revised/impromptu interview and observation with Juan for almost two hours and learning a lot. Juan took us around his entire property and showed us his magueyes (agaves), how he “works the magueyes” to get agua miel, the tools he uses to “break the maguey” (to open up a hole for the sap to collect), and the best part: I got to try agua miel for the first time! He invited us into his home where his wife and daughter were making tortillas, and offered Ana and me a glass of “hervido” (boiled) agua miel and “crudo” (raw) agua miel. They are both sweet like juice since technically agua miel is the sap of the agave, but the “hervido” is much sweeter since the boiling concentrates the sugar. The five of us had a good chat about their use of the land, the health benefits of agua miel (for example, some claim that it helps with diabetes), and the bats in the area. It was a lovely way to spend a morning, and I learned a lot from talking with Juan. I guess when one door closes another opens!

One of the interesting things that I am finding in the communities I’ve talked with is that agave harvest and use has mostly disappeared in many of them, for various reasons. Given just how few people currently use agaves in these communities, it’s appearing like my original “goal” of understanding how “bat-friendly” agave harvest could be encouraged less of a “necessity”, at least in these communities. For this reason, I’m finding it hard to tie my original idea of applying this work to bat conservation, as well as how my work fits into the “furthering” of anthropological theory. I have been getting the feeling recently that I’m just learning for learning’s sake. It’s like I’m in no man’s land in the grey world between “application” and “theory”. I have yet to fully come to terms with this floating around somewhere in between or to fully appreciate the benefits of tackling a PhD project in this grey zone.

However, one of the communities is starting to use agaves a lot more (they recently received a project from one of the federal government agencies for planting agaves for market products) and I’ve gotten a few more leads through talking with the comisariados and community members about other communities that use agaves much more, so for next year I’m planning to try to visit these communities and talk with them. And even if most of the communities I’m talking with this year don’t use agaves heavily, I’m learning a TON about the system, the local conditions, and some of the intricacies of life here, which will ultimately help me contextualize the issue of bat conservation in this region. 

 Some of the about 70 magueyes Juan has on his land.

Left photo: Juan showing how high the piña (the base of the plant) needs to be before it's ready to

be "worked" (i.e. a hole scraped in the the middle) for agua miel. He cuts some leaves from the piña 

to help it grow upwards. Right photo: The left maguey is still too small to harvest (i.e. the piña is too 

small, although the leaves are still huge!), while the right maguey has a larger piña that 

Juan has started "working" for agua miel. 
 

Agua miel ("honey water", the sap of the maguey) collecting in the hole

that Juan has scraped out of the plant's base. A maguey can produce a 

liter or two of agua miel every day for 2-3 months, depending on the 

amount of rainfall and the temperature.

 

Juan demonstrating (in his house) how he uses a gourd

to extract/siphon out the agua miel.

 

 Trying agua miel for the first time!

"Hervido" (L) and "crudo" (R) agua miel. "Hervido"

is boiled and is a lot sweeter. Raw agua miel only lasts

a few days, while the boiled variety lasts a bit longer.

A "mother" maguey and one "baby". During asexual

reproduction, these magueyes grow ground-level offshoots that 

produce genetically-identical rosettes/offspring (aka clones). 

Flowering and sexual reproduction via pollination and seed 

production is also possible in magueyes.

Some of the many smaller Agave lechuguilla that some

communities in the area harvest for fibers for clothing.

Me with a HUGE maguey! It never ceases to

amaze me how big some species can get!
 

Juan explaining how others in the community do

not know the uses of magueyes or how to harvest them for

agua miel and therefore let any magueyes on their land flower.

Now, before ending this post, I’d like to share a little story about my little coffee snafu. At breakfast in the community, Doña Julieta offered us all coffee, and I gladly accepted a cup (I needed some after a night of little sleep). I then added milk from the milk container sitting on the table, and it curdled in my cup and didn’t mix. So I had to get a new cup with a new batch of milk. This time the new milk mixed perfectly well. Then I went up to the counter and put 1 ½ teaspoons of sugar in from a little bowl sitting on the counter, and sat back down at the table. I lifted the cup to my lips and took a sip, and to my (horrified) surprise was greeted with the saltiest liquid I had EVER tasted in my entire life. It took me a split second to realize that it wasn’t a cultural thing to have salty coffee, and that I had accidentally put 1 ½ teaspoons of SALT in my coffee instead of sugar…I had already “wasted” a cup with the whole milk situation and I was embarrassed at my snafu, so I didn’t say anything. I managed to gulp down one or two small mouthfuls, but couldn’t stand the thought of drinking more and didn’t want to offend Doña Julieta by leaving it half-drank, so I discreetly went to the sink for something and dumped it, and went to get more from the pot. Thinking that I had managed to avoid my public embarrassment, I looked quietly for the real sugar, but couldn’t find it. I then had to ask Doña Julieta where the sugar was, at which point everyone looked super surprised. I didn’t know why and could already feel myself turning red from embarrassment when she asked if I had tasted the other cup. Not wanting to admit that I hadn’t really tasted it (since it was so salty) I said yes, and she looked even more surprised. Finally, someone said something to the effect that I must really love sugar, at which point I realized that the coffee already had sugar in it. But I couldn’t back out now, so I said I just wanted a tiny bit more. I finally got it and sat back down and drank my cup, with bright red cheeks that I hoped nobody would notice. I later confessed to Ana what had happened, and during our next break when Doña Julieta asked if I wanted coffee Ana and I both started laughing, and I had to explain the whole snafu to everyone in my broken Spanish. Of course they all got a good laugh. And later that day when we were leaving the community, Doña Julieta hugged me and asked if I’d like to take some coffee with salt with me. So I’m sure I’ll forever be remembered as the gringa who put salt in her coffee. This snafu definitely gave a whole new meaning to “Salada” Kristen!