Clearing the Air: Building vented ovens in Guanajuato helps erase international stereotypes

Shown here is a typical oven in Guanajuato, before a lorena is put in.

Fort Worth, TX

12/3/2007

Walk inside Doña Aurelia Moran’s tiny home, and even when the fire’s out you feel like coughing. Like every woman in the mountains above Guanajuato, Mexico, Aurelia cooks for her family over an open wood stove. Watch Aurelia and Felicitas prepare one meal, and you’ll never joke again about slaving over a hot stove.

According to the World Health Organization, making meals in the Third World is a deadly occupation: Lung disease caused by cooking on indoor wood stoves kills 1.6 million people (mainly women) per year. TCU social work professor Tracy Dietz isn’t willing to let that statistic stand. This spring break, she and eight TCU students helped a Mexican conservation group, Cuerpos de Conservación, rebuild ovens in seven houses in Hacienda de Arriba, equipping them with chimneys to divert the smoke outdoors.

Now in its third year, the spring break program in Guanajuato has become synonymous with hard work: shoveling dirt, sand and cement and mixing and making adobe bricks, the kind of labor that results in structures you can sit inside of or cook a meal on when you’re done. But the more important labor, Dietz says, is the invisible work of hearts and minds.

“Students gain through immersion in another culture an opportunity to really appreciate diversity and difference. On their part, the students are faced with stereotypical views that others may have of them. They are ambassadors for TCU but more importantly for the U.S.A., and they change negative perceptions that Mexicans may have about Americans.”

At the same time, the students gain firsthand knowledge of the Mexican people, shattering stereotypes of their own. They see how close-knit families are, and how impoverished. They begin to understand why Mexicans might migrate for jobs so they can send money home.

“These people really don’t want to leave their loved ones or take something from us,” Dietz said. “However, they don’t want to see their families suffer, either.”

Seeing poverty up close is something the students brace themselves for, but it still affects them. Of even greater impact is the fact that people who have so little are so happy to give. Maggie Thiesen wrote from Guanajuato, on the second day of the trip:

Work began on the first stove. The people of the community were incredibly friendly and excited that we were there. It was amazing that with such little they had, they were still eager to share with us. They practically force-fed us before we left!

Dietz has taught a five-week TCU summer study abroad course in social work in Guanajuato for nearly 10 years. Students study the Spanish language and culture, live with host families and volunteer with social service agencies, all while learning to work together across borders, seeking collaborative solutions.

This summer, students spent five weeks in El Monte de San Nicolas, a rural community of 250 people. Mostly social work students attended, working with an elementary school and investigating interdisciplinary issues with the women in the village. The women expressed interest in self-development courses in nutrition and exercise. At present they help their children and husbands, but they wanted to learn how to help themselves.

Since the program’s inception, TCU has built meaningful relationships with nongovernmental organizations and local and state government officials. The projects have been so successful that Dietz has proposed the idea of a TCU interdisciplinary center in Guanajuato, where international service-learning programs and curricula, internships, research and faculty/student exchanges would take place.

She is convinced that TCU should become a leader in international service learning. She calls it a “logical fit” with TCU’s mission statement and dedication to international education. This fall, she is teaching a service-learning course on helping communities here at home. Issues surrounding the Mexican-American community in Fort Worth and connecting with the local Hispanic community is the focus.