Category Archives: La Yacata Revolution

May 9, 2014 · 7:17 pm

Questionaire for La Yacata revolution

Mountains of paperwork and no appreciation makes being a member of the mesa directiva in La Yacata, pesada (cumbersome).

Mountains of paperwork and no appreciation makes being a member of the mesa directiva in La Yacata, pesada (cumbersome).

As I wrote in the last Revolution update, I was fed up with the general attitude expressed by the Yacata colonos (community members) and had decided to work on my serenity and my plans for a solar powered system instead of all this horse poop. So I wrote my letter of resignation and sent it to Super Prez. However, before I could comfortably throw in the towel, there were a few things that I wanted to finish up.

With the light at the end of the tunnel in mind, I organized the padron (property owner list) into colonias (neighborhoods) and sent out avisos (announcements) to every single one with the date and time of their appointment in SuperPrez’s office to fill out their encuesta (survey). With approximately 450 property owners, scheduling appointments every 15 minutes from 10 am to 2 pm Monday thru Saturday, it took 3 weeks. Each Saturday, my husband delivered the avisos for the upcoming week and SuperPrez had his secretary come into the office instead of where he had her working on a job site, to receive the people. Quite a bit of effort to say the least.

However, after 3 weeks, there was a grand total of 60 surveys completed. Those 60 surveys actually totaled 93 lots, with the addition of SuperPrez’s lots, made a grand total of 33% of all property owners. Disgruntled but determined to finish up, I then compiled the results and sent them on to SuperPrez for consideration.

The survey had 6 questions. Each question had a yes or no box to check and a space for open comments. Here is an English version of the questions and the overall response of the 60 community members who took the time to complete the survey.

Are you aware that since the formation of the current mesa directiva (which is SuperPrez, me, the secretary G. and the 3 vocales (underlings)) the main objective has been to regularize our community and complete the urbanization projects that are necessary? Yes 56 No 4  Why? I go to the meetings.

Are you aware that the only way to get escrituras (property titles) for the lots in La Yacata is by completion of all the urbanization projects in the community? (i.e. water, electric, sewer, pavement, sidewalks)?Yes 55 No 5 Why? It’s the law.

Are you aware that the costs of all of the urbanization projects in the community are the responsibility of each of the property owners in the community? Yes 55 No 5 Why? It’s a private community.

Are you aware that the urbanization already in place in La Yacata must be done again because they do not meet current code requirements and must be done as defined by law in order to get property certificates?Yes 48 No 12 Why? They were done wrong.

Are you in an economic position to begin making monthly installments in order to begin the urbanization of the community? Yes 19 No 41 Why? No work.

Do you have any suggestions about the monthly installments needed in order to complete the urbanization of the community?Yes 24 No 36 Why? Longer period to pay.

Two of the 60 survey participants marched into SuperPrez’s office and carried on a bit saying that SuperPrez is making illicit deals with the Presidencia (town hall) and this is all just a ploy to take their money. Whatever.

It seemed with these results, there would be no advancement with our plans for development. SuperPrez came to chat the evening before the junta (community meeting) and basically said the same. He was also annoyed that after all the time, money and effort we had put into this during the last 2 years, we had such little support from the community members. (Rateros–Really?) We speculated that perhaps the majority of those who had bought lots in La Yacata never had the intention of habitation. (See Good Fences Make Good Neighbors, No Honor among thieves) Perhaps they thought of it as a get rich quick scheme, buy low, sell high. We decided to give them the option of electing other representatives in our place. Seems like what the majority wanted after all.  Until tomorrow morning then…

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February 21, 2014 · 3:29 pm

You can lead a horse to water (electric and sewage) but you can’t make it drink

leading a horse to water

After the junta (community meeting) in November, interest in the advancement of La Yacata into the 19th century died a swift and lonely death.   There was a mad rush of lots sold at rock bottom prices as colonos (community members) divested themselves of what they now considered dead weight.

Unfortunately, these new owners have not bothered to register their lots in order to get a change of ownership certificate, probably because we charge $100 pesos to print a new certificate, all of which goes towards sending volantes (flyers) and radio announcements for the next junta (meeting).  So since there is currently no money in La Yacata treasury, and I should know because I’m the tesorera (treasurer), there are no funds to convoke the next community meeting.  And this is a problem.

Of the encuestas (surveys) we sent out to assess interest in having the water, sewer, electric and road paving done, there have been only 10 returned.  The majority of these are from those of us that actually live in La Yacata and really have a vested interest in getting things done.

Super Prez has also taken a giant step backward in his involvement and has been concentrating on more lucrative projects.  And really, who can blame him?  La Yacata has cost him time and money that he could have put to good use elsewhere and given him nothing in return.  And furthermore,  he doesn’t live in La Yacata.  He has running water, sewer, and electric where he lives, so it’s not a daily issue for him.

So basically, we were at the point of actually moving forward and it all fell apart. So what happened?  We were honest with the estimate of $50,000 per lot and it seemed too much for property owners.  Would a lie have served us better?  Perhaps initially, but down the line we would have found ourselves in the same category of Chuchi and that wasn’t an option, for me anyway.

I learned an important lesson in all this.  There is no community if its members refuse to participate.  My desire for organization and advancement is not enough to unite more than 400 individuals, no matter how much I want it.  And that’s a shame really.

So what happens next?  Well, I can’t speak for the rest of the community, but it is our goal to start saving for a solar power system.  I very much doubt that we will be able to save enough this year, or even next year since installation depends on our first finishing the roof on the second floor, but there it is.  After all, as Bloody Mary says in South Pacific

“Happy talk, keep talkin’ happy talk,
Talk about things you’d like to do.
You got to have a dream,
If you don’t have a dream
How you gonna have a dream come true?”

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January 22, 2014 · 3:33 pm

No honor among thieves

thief

Things are becoming interesting in La Yacata lately on account of the morals of our neighbors. I’ve already talked about the pig guys, bull terrier and the horse guy (See good fences make good neighbors–unless your neighbor steals it) but there is a new family that moved in what used to be the profe’s house. They have two children and we have had people stopping at our house and asking where the family with the niña enferma or niña mala (sick girl child) live. As we haven’t been invited to be friends, we haven’t been able to ascertain what exactly is wrong with the girl, who seems to be about 2 years old, but she apparently has an illness or health-problem and thus, the family receives some assistance from both DIF and the church.

water pump

However, they have been finding it rough going in regards to water. The profe’s house only had a tinaco (water storage tank) which holds 15000 liters of water. The family doesn’t have any vehicles that they can bring water to the house and apparently haven’t any money to ask for water delivery from la presidencia (town hall) (See Water Woes). So the husband has been making free with the water from my husband’s brother’s ajibe (dry well). But that doesn’t give him a place to store the water that he steals, so two days ago, a barrica (barrel) that had been on top of the house on the corner for 5 years, went missing. The owner was livid and marched down to see if we knew anything about it. We could only speculate since the barrica (barrel) wasn’t visible from outside the profe’s house.

This same owner, who is renting to the pig guys, started complaining about the stench of these chicken-intestine eating animals (See Miss Piggy didn’t bring home the Bacon) and my husband suggested he not rent to the pig guys anymore. Apparently seeing the sense in that, he went and waited until the pig guys came to feed their animals, and throw out the daily supply of chicken feathers, and let them have it. We could hear the shouts from our house more than a block away.

pig farner

The end result was that the pig guys moved their animals to their half-constructed compound up the hill. It doesn’t have any sort of door, so I am not sure how they expect to keep their little piggys from running wild in La Yacata. Then there is the fact that they are right next door to the horse guy, who is known to have sticky fingers. So the pig guys have been camping out in their truck to protect their porcine investment, but I’m sure they will get tired of that soon enough and the horse guy will be frying up bacon before you can say Jack Robinson.

horse

The horse guy also has his own mini-telenovela (soap opera) going on and I wouldn’t be surprised if someone, namely him, gets shot over it. He had been caring for 3 thoroughbred breeding horses while the owner was out of the country for a month and, not to look a gift horse in the mouth, had made free with the maquila (stud service) of said horses during the weeks they were stabled with him. He charged $1,500 pesos for each coupling and hauled them hither and yon raking in the dough. He did this without the knowledge of the owner and naturally kept all the profit himself. The owner, who paid good money for his horses to be fed and watered, also didn’t know that the horse guy fed and watered his own scrawny yegua (mare) first from the feed and left the others to eat the leftovers.

Well, all good things must come to an end. The owner returned from his trip and came and collected the horses. Less than a week after he picked up the horses, one of them up and died. The horse’s estimated value was over $5000 usd or about $50,000 pesos. Angry doesn’t even begin to describe his reaction. He also found out about the illicit breeding activity. The owner came and threatened the bejeezes out of the horse guy, who now comes and goes at odd hours, sometimes walking and leaving his vehicle to throw the hounds off his scent I suppose.

But all in all, I have hope of it working out for La Yacata. Even though we have been accused of being rateros (thieves) (See Rateros–really?) we aren’t and have made no headway of ridding the land of these vermin. After all, it takes a thief to catch a thief and the way things are looking, los ladrones (thieves) will end by eliminating themselves without any help from me.

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