Mexico sojourn a learning experience

Andrew Higgins ’07 focused his fieldwork on the impact of illegal immigration to the U.S.

Four Connecticut College students took their individual academic interests to Mexico, where they collaborated this summer to conduct interviews and field research in a small farming village.

Brad Heacock ’06, Sara Skinner ’07, Mercy Warren ’06, and Andrew Higgins ’07 all joined Professor of Anthropology Harold Juli in La Soledad Morelos.

Although the purpose of their trip was academic, it gave the students personal glimpses into the lives and culture of the local people, descendants of the Nahuatl who make a living primarily by farming. They worked with Mexican students from La Universidad de las Américas in Cholula, where they stayed during their six weeks, and also spent time getting to know individuals and families.

Skinner, a Latin American studies major who hails from Victoria, British Columbia, interviewed a 78-year-old woman named Sofía Agustina Pastrana. Every day with a large bottle of soda in tow, Skinner ate lunch with Pastrana, a former peon of the hacienda Acocotla, to learn about her daily life on the hacienda, marriage and Evangelical Christianity.

Warren, an anthropology and Latin American studies double major from Cape Cod, Mass., learned about the role of local women through cooking, trips to the market and conversation.

As an American studies major with an interest in multiculturalism and immigration, Higgins focused his fieldwork on the impact of illegal immigration to the United States on the village. Back in the States, working alongside Latino immigrants, he continued to try to understand this phenomenon at his summer landscaping job.

Heacock took more of an archeological role in the effort; Juli asked him to take complete measurements and photo and map documentation of the abandoned hacienda on the edge of La Soledad Morelos. Now, he is back at CC using a 3-D modeling program to create a virtual walkthrough of the site, which will be a useful teaching tool in the future.

Skinner and Higgins decided to turn their research experience into an educational exchange when they volunteered to teach English to a group of fifth-graders at the local primary school.

Despite differences in interests, each of the four students on the trip agreed that time spent in the field, particularly immersed in another culture, is valuable and helps them to understand their own culture, al otro lado, from the other side.

- Jillian May ’05