Frank Sinatra, Witchcraft

Mexican magic realism is beyond anyone's imagination, or at least mine. Last semester we won a design and strategy contest against two other Mexican colleges in a radio-reality show. One of the "representatives" of the women in the community we worked with, was obsessed with fame and political power. While some video shots were taken in situ for the show, showing the artisans work with the students, she kept asking if the crew were not going to make an interview to (her majesty).

Crew members replied "No, we don't need to". 

Well, apparently two things have happened ever since, well three. First we have the money of the contest. It was deposited to one of the students due to uncertain situations last year and mainly because we need to create a secure infrastructure for these women: a cooperative organism that will aid many of the possible dreaded scenarios that can happen in these sort of projects.

Number two. We were told by some external source, that someone working at the show, went to a shaman to cleanse his/her energy. While that someone was there, the shaman without knowing who he or she was, asked if he or she had been working with a certain community. That person answered yes and the shaman told him/her, someone had made some "witchcraft" to him/her. He also told him/her that it was due to his/her presence in the community that had made this woman loose either money or power towards the people. The shaman cleansed his/her aura or energy but warned him/her to wear his/her knickers inside-out, an opal and carry two lemons on his/her pockets in case he/she needed to see this woman again.

Third fact. We got an anonymous call from one of the women of the community to the cell phone of one of our students. The frightened voice asked to remain that way because she didn't want to cause any trouble but she needed to denounce certain events where the "witch" woman in question had not payed some of the women with the students resources while we were prototyping the projects there last year. That this [insert an unknown adjective to fit the douchiness of this] woman told them to keep quiet or else be removed from the program.

[student explains the process]

Today we finally had a meeting with this woman and some of the artisans of the community. Every step that ensures their complete independence has been stated out clearly on the board. As we spoke to the artisans, the smug woman was texting on her cell phone. She has been so accustomed to the politics game that she didn't show an ounce of emotion in her actions. All smiles and prudence, wearing pink and high heel shoes, played the "uninterested" part of a role that just didn't fit her usual rudeness and fiery nature.

The other teacher I'm working with, brought a white box with her and she asked to guess what was inside. It was lunch time and as some of the teachers have cookies or candy stashed in their offices, everyone aimed for both of those choices. Since we both knew about the so-called-witchcraft, I yelled: "Lemons!" While the artisans laughed at the highly unlikely idea, I don't know if the other teacher got the joke. I laughed on my own as the meeting came to an end.

After everyone left, one of the students received a text message on her cell phone: "We forgot to mention at the meeting that we fully trust this woman to be our representative, we know her really well so all the communication you need from us, can be handled by her."