The Ten 2007 - 2008 Fulbright Teachers in Mexico

Many of you have heard of Fulbright, the program begun by Sen. Fulbright to promote mutual understanding between the US and other countries by exchange of scholars and teachers. In Mexico the exchange is under the auspices of Fulbright/Garcia Robles and is administered by COMEXUS, the Commission Mexico / US for Educational and Cultural Exchange. Last week COMEXUS organized a meeting of all ten 2007-2008 Fulbright teachers in Mexico. We spent Monday through Wednesday together, comparing experiences, enjoying the camaraderie of peers, and experiencing the hospitality and support of COMEXUS. Each of us is experiencing a different Mexico.
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Margaret (from Maine) lives in 110 degree Ciudad Obregón with her five-year-old daughter Lucy. She teaches five classes of around 45 students each in a preparatoria (high school). Jan (Montana) teaches similar numbers in a middle school in Cuernavaca, where he lives with his wife and two children. David (Minnesota), in Ensenada, Baja California Norte also has very large classes. He teaches science and English, and lives there with his wife and two children. Anna (Virginia)is on the other side of the Baja in Mexicali. Elizabeth (New York) has embraced the indigenous people and culture of Huehuetla in the Sierra de Puebla, living in one room (with a bath but no kitchen) with her daughter Rachel, who is spending her high school senior year abroad with her mom, volunteering to teach English. Nancy (New Mexico) teaches two college classes in Jalapa. Billy (with Minnesota/NY/Vermont roots), Cecilia (Colorado), Melissa (Minnesota) and I all teach at the Instituto Politécnico in Mexico City. Billy lives in the Condesa with his wife and three children; he teaches English to students in the tourism program at a different campus from the rest of us, who are teaching three classes each of business English at the Santo Tomas campus. Melissa has her daughter Graciela with her. The families with children enrolled in different schools are seeing an even broader spectrum of Mexican life, and even those of us in the DF have widely varied experiences since we live in different colonias (neighborhoods). All ten report great satisfaction with life in Mexico; each of us seems to have a genuine love of the people and country, combined with an attitude of optimism and flexibility and the support of adventurous families.



We stayed at the Hotel Geneve in the Zona Rosa; the hotel earned our high recommendation (but eat somewhere else). COMEXUS treated us to a lovely reception where we met former Fulbrighters and US embassy staff, lunch at La Casa de la Sirena in the centro historico, a tour of Teotihuacan with lunch at La Gruta, a farewell breakfast at Kondotori. Great food at all three restaurants! La Gruta is especially fine because of its unusual location: it's actually in a cave and has been in operation for over 100 years, proudly boasting that General Porfirio Díaz once dined there. Since we were there on Oct. 31, we also saw the ofrenda (altar to the deceased)placed in honor of its founder for Día de Muertos.