MAJAHUAL

“This classic fishing village is one of the last frontiers of the Mexican Caribbean. If you had visited Cancun 35 years ago or Playa del Carmen 20 years ago, you would have seen something like what Mahahual looks like today. If you are the type of person that enjoys a laid-back fishing village with sandy streets, solar powered and wind generated electricity, great diving, tranquil beaches, and no specific dress code, then Mahahual is for you! But it is growing quickly because it has been discovered, so if you want the experience, be sure to visit sooner rather than later. These days you will find small eco-friendly hotels, dive shops, cafes, quaint restaurants, and mom and pop handcraft industries. The fishermen of the past are now dive boat captains who know the area like the back of their hands. And if sitting by the beach in a hammock gets tiresome, there are of course other things to do in the Mahahual area!” -Yucatan Today

Majahual used to be a sleepy fishing village, similar to what Xcalac looked like. Now, Majahual receives, during high season, about 15,000 tourists a week (6,000 to 8,000 during low season). The 5 days before and after Christmas will see up to 30,000! And despite Majahual’s little to no infrastructure, the federal government is developing (as an important stakeholder) full service accommodation to be sold to non-residents as holiday homes. A new six-vessel cruise ship port and proposed international airport are in development and the population is estimated to grow from less than 1000 to 100,000 in the next 15 to 20 years. The resorts are comprised of individual units, all completely wired with electricity, internet, and other services and currently employs 16% of households in Majahual. As one might assume, most tourism operations are owned and operated by people outside of the community. The amenities available, such as doctors, electricity, etc. are reserved for the high paying tourists, and kids are opting out of school in order to snag jobs in the tourism industry, whether in resorts or helping out in their parent’s establishments. After seeing the drastic way mass tourism has negatively affected Cancun, Playa del Carmen, and now Progresso too, it is a wonder that the government continues to carry on, full strength, their development and expansion plans in Majahual without reassessing or making changes to the Cancun model being used.

Tourism websites advise that if traveler’s want a more laid back visit to Majahual to avoid days when cruises are there. “When the cruise ships are not in Mahahual, you can sit quietly at the beach side bars and enjoy a quite (their typo, not mine) drink.” Our visit to Majahual was sans cruise ship, but tranquil and quiet are probably the last words I’d use to describe the place. Vendors pushed their wares not only on the street but at your blanket and your table on the beach, shouting their prices over the loud mariachi music blasting nearby. A few conversations with vendors revealed that the month, the peak of the high season, was proving to be awful for business and all around slow. They bemoaned the loss of profits and disappointment in the season.

However, I wonder if this want for increase and continuation of tourism in Mahahual is shared by everyone. I had a very interesting conversation with a woman who owned what Yucatan Today described as a mom and pop store, but would I would describe as a stand selling the same kitschy touristy relics that can be found anywhere in Mexico. The “store” was simply the first 2 or so rooms of her house that opened up to the street. I asked if I could try on a dress and was shown to the probadores: her daughters’ room (barely a room, more like a closet. The room lacked a mirror, and when I asked for one, I was taken into the family’s bathroom, with a mirror cabinet above the sink. The entire family worked in the store and lived out of it too- the woman’s two young daughter’s braided hair while the older daughter acted as a streetside caller to grab tourist’ attention. However on this particular day, with no business, her daughters sat on the floor playingwith Barbie-like dolls. She told me her sons, who usually help out in the store as well, were off watching the football game with some buddies, as she didn’t need their help without customers and seeing as how it was their Easter vacation anyway, it would be good for them to get out of the store and have a little fun. She also spoke of the poor business brought on by the unusually slow season, but, wanting to make a sale, kept turning the conversation back to what could be a potential purchase. When I walked in, the dress I had spied was a whopping 500 pesos. By the time I left, she was offering to sell it for 220. She insisted her prices were the absolute lowest in Majahual and that everything was handmade “here in Mexico.” Recognizing the same items from Merida, from Cancun, from Progresso, from Bacalar, I asked her where in Mexico they were “hand-made.” “Aqui, aqui en Mexico,” she stubbornly repeated, avoiding the question. I realized that I had lost control of the conversation; that her attention was fully on the dress and whether or not I’d buy it.I didn’t. But, walking out, I had plenty to reflect upon. The girls playing on the floor, the boys at the football game- I was reminded of a conversation I had with a little girl in Xcalac who said that when she grew up, she dreamed of working in the Villa Cocos, the local resort. There is more money in tourism than in any other profession. Even the kids who are dreaming of being doctors know that they will make the most money as doctors for the tourists, providing boob jobs and facelifts for a fraction of the cost in the West. The major money to be made goes to the government and foreign investors and stockholders- the locals get what “trickles down” in the form of tips and resort jobs, and yet this trickle is still enough to make it more lucrative than university. If I were a child in Majahual, I would be secretly delighted when a season was slow, it’d mean I’d get to be a kid for once, to play Barbies and watch football with my siblings. But, I of course am looking at it through the lens of my own North American childhood; perhaps these kids are more than happy to work in the store when not in school, to braid the tourists hair and shout their deals on the street. This could be just a part of growing up here. However, I was reminded of the situation in Cuba, where taxi drivers have doctorates in medicine or philosophy, but drive tourists around because it’s a better living.

What does the future hold for Majahual? Development, obviously. But there are a number of websites that call for more of an eco-tourism approach in Majahual (to ensure the preservation of the barrier reefs of course; very little is said about preserving local culture and the socio-economic effects of tourism). However, nature friendly eco-tourism is the same monster with a different face. The locals would still be locked out of the profit by foreign investors, and the socio-economic results are more or less the same. The difference is mainly in the type of tourist coming. Instead of the middle class, middle aged Playa del Carmen type tourist or the young spring breakers of Cancun, the tourists are hippie, eco friendly, green types. They feel cultured precisely for not buying into mass tourism, into the Cancun model, yet they are in fact doing just that. It only goes by a different name: Eco-tourism.

The appropriate google image search result for "eco-tourism". From A Belizean website too!

Instead of a fancy resort, you stay in a well kept “natural” palapa with running hot water and electricity (solar powered!), surrounded by the “natural” protected wilderness. It’s a different Caribbean fantasy for sale, the fantasy of NOT being the consumptive tourist, while in fact one is still consuming and affecting the local population just as much, just in a different way. In fact, despite being “new and hip”, eco-tourism actually reminds me much more of the early original models and ways in which tourists consumed the Caribbean: A la the 18^th and 19^th century. Tourists flocked to the Caribbean from rainy England and Europe and wrote home about the vibrant and lush jungles and Eden-like landscapes and the wonderful effects of pure nature on their health, mind, and bodies. And while many propose eco-tourism in Mexican cities like Majahual (it’s already catching on in Bacalar and Xcalac), it can be better seen in action in Belize, in places like Hopkins and Placencia.

PLACENCIA

Placencia is a world of its own. On the southernmost tip of the Placencia peninsula, it has been a tourist destination for decades. With its charms, abundance of local and cultural shops, and easy access by air, land, and sea, it continues to grow in size, population, and popularity. It’s a popular vacation destination for Belizeans, Mexicans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, and North Americans (particularly Texans). Europeans do come too, but mostly in pre-organized groups. For example, a shop owner told me that “last month, we had a bunch of French people here, and next month I hear there’ll be a tour group of Italians.”

The inhabitants forcefully oppose every attempt to bring cruise tourism to Placencia, “We see what happened in Belize City, in places like Cancun, and we don’t want that here,” said Lisa, a Belizean shop owner in Placencia. “In other ports, I know they gather up a collection of local souvenirs and artesania to sell at ship, so that the tourists don’t even have to venture out into local establishments. They come, do some excursion that they already signed up for before they even left the port of call, and then they’re gone, leaving all their trash on the beach for us to pick up. The local people don’t see any of the money.” In a formal meeting, the town stated other concerns against tourism, such as the carrying capacity of the local ecosystems and resources. “Efforts are underway to improve the management and control of cruise tourism in Belize City. However, unless both the Government of Belize and the private sector can demonstrate improved management effectiveness, it remains highly problematic and risky to expand cruise tourism to the south,” read the report.

It’s also known that mass tourism and cruise tourism also brings a hike in drug crime. A friend of mine who went to Belize City said that the same vendors who sell kitschy tourist stuff also offered him coke and weed after dark. Lisa also mentioned that while weed is common, the government comes down hard on the tourists that get caught with it. She said that a man from a cruise ship was caught with a few ounces and got slapped with a $500 US fine. Our talk with King in Hopkins at the Bread and Butter Island revealed that the authorities are just as hard on the local populations as well as the tourists. The difference between the two? The white tourist caught in Belize City was hassled, but paid the $500 fine and was back on his cruise ship in time to leave. The local man couldn’t afford the fines, and did jail time instead. For the tourist, it’s like a speeding ticket. For the local man, it’s a jail sentence.

But, as I mentioned, Placencia has avoided the cruise ships, and will continue to oppose them. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t major development; the peninsula boasts boatloads of properties and new shops are opening all the time. The peninsula itself is very interesting; there are 3 major settlements on the peninsula: Maya Beach, Seine Bight, and Placencia itself. Maya Beach is a highly developed area inhabited by ex-Pats from the States and Canada. Placencia has a mixed population; the people are mostly Creole and descendents of the original fisherman who founded the town, though there are a few ex-Pats in Placencia as well. Seine Bight, squeezed between the two, is extremely underdeveloped in comparison and is home to the Garifuna community, with a population almost equal to that of Placencia and Maya Beach combined. Real estate on the Placencia peninsula is booming, with over 3 realty offices in Plancencia alone, and more listings to be found online and in Maya Beach. However, interestingly enough, the realtors and land developers avoid Seine Bight like the plague (so to speak)- located almost smack dab in the middle of the peninsula, all the land for sale is to either the north (in Maya Beach) or the south (near Placencia). As a peninsula, there are beach front views and properties to be had in Seine Bight, and such apartments or houses can be rented for about $200 Belizean a month, while a single room in Placencia costs around 600 or 700 Belizean. So why is Seine Bight ignored by developers, realtors, and travelers alike? Lisa, a white 40 something year old Belizean bakery owner in Placencia says it’s because of the crime. “I think when the peninsula was originally developed, the fisherman lived and worked on Placencia, and Seine Bight was like the servant’s quarters where the hired helped lived,” she related. “Now, the crime there is awful- and I’m not saying it’s because they are Black or anything- it’s because they are poor.” Her Creole boyfriend agreed. Lisa continued, “I am from Belize City where the crime is nuts. I remember where I grew up- once it was a neighborhood. Now? You can’t even go near it. About 10 years ago, the US rounded up a bunch of Belizean thugs in L.A. and deported them back to Belize City. So we get three plane loads of Crips and Bloods and thugs who just set up the same shop in Belize and introduced these gangs here. And with the tourism and cruise ships, well there’s money and a little empire to control now. That’s why I brought my kids here to Placencia; you can grow up on the street and it’s safe.” (I myself was curious what she would have had the US do. They don’t want the thugs in their hair either; the real issue is gang life and its attraction in the first place, which is its own can of worms).

You can make out Seine Bight in the middle of the Peninsula, with property for sale up north, and "YOU ARE HERE" marking the realty office in Placencia.

I thought it interesting that Lisa’s Creole boyfriend agreed that the crime rate isn’t high because of their color, but their poverty. The Creoles and Garifuna are both black, but come from different pasts. There are major tensions and animosities between the two on both ends of the spectrum; the Creoles see the Garifuna as poor, lax in their work ethic, and as an invading threat to their own culture and livelihood, whereas the Garifuna see the Creoles as sell outs (as the Creoles descended from slaves, while the Garifuna people “avoided” slavery, often choosing death over physical bondage). These relations are better seen in my interviews at Hopkins.

HOPKINS

View from the street in Hopkins

In Hopkins, one of six major Garifuna settlements in Belize, I spoke with the bartender at Chef Rob’s Restaurant. He asked how I was liking Belize, and what sort of things I was doing. I told him I was studying culture in Belize, and thus doing things like eating Hudut, listening to drum circles, and that I would be going to the Garifuna heritage museum and Pen Cayetano Art Gallery. He shrugged and said, “Oh, well that’s nice, but that’s Garifuna culture, that’s not MY culture, that’s not Creole culture.” He mentioned that sometimes, tourists assume that if someone is Black in Belize, they are probably descended from the Garifuna. “The Garifuna people and the Creole people are very different and have different cultures.” As I mentioned before, the tensions run deep. The Garifuna came to Belize from Honduras, and originally from St. Vincent, never really assimilated into their neighboring cultures, and still remain in close knit communities of their own. Now the country nationally recognizes Garifuna Heritage Month, and Garifuna Settlement Day is a national bank holiday observed in November. The Institute for Social & Cultural Research in Belize lists on its website the “various cultural and social groups that are actively involved in promoting and preserving Belize’s diverse cultures” as the National Garifuna Council, with headquarters in Dangriga, and the National Kriol Council, with headquarters in Belize City (There is also the Maya Leader Alliance with its headquarters in Punta Gorda, and the East Indian Council of Belize, with no address or phone number listed). Interestingly, the list seems to be ordered in degree of prominence; the first group giving contact person information, address of headquarters, website, and email information. The Maya Leader Alliance has no contact information listed and no website. The East Indian Council of Belize lists only “Gabriel Pate, President” and an email address as its info. The first group on the list, with the most information available? The National Garifuna Council. I am inclined to wonder if Creole sentiments towards Garifuna people mirror some US sentiments towards Mexican workers: the feeling that they are poor and bring violence with them to communities (think Arizona and Seine Bight) and that they are “taking over” (The popular American sentiment: “Why can’t they just learn English!?”). This is of course is just a reflection, and I don’t have an answer.

But Creole-Garifuna relations are not the only relations at play in Belize. An interview with Frederico, a Guatemalan vendor in Hopkins, yielded very interesting results. The interview was conducted in Spanish, and I think that changed the dimension of the interview in the sense that as fellow Spanish speakers in Belize, we had more “in common” with Frederico than with the Belizeans, and I wonder if Frederico would have said the same things in an English conducted interview. What sticks out in my mind the most is Frederico’s comment that “Los Negos no trabajan.” He talked of how lazy the local people are, and how as a Guatemalan, he was disgusted with their work ethic, suggesting that they let foreigners, like Chef Rob and Ingrid (and in actuality, Frederico too), come in and make all the money by offering tourist services. “They could work, but they don’t, they just sit on the beach all day,” was the sentiment Frederico conveyed. However I think this a result of stark differences in cultural values of importance; the Hispanic Guatemalan sees “los Negros” as lazy, whereas the Garifuna man sees himself as free, as not bound by mundane work. I noted that the Guatemalan said “los Negros” and not the Garifuna specifically, of whom he had been referring. I wonder if this kind of lumping together of “Blacks” further causes tensions with Creoles towards the Garifuna, as many of the Creoles I met worked in resorts and restaurants in Hopkins, and as store and bar owners in Placencia, and would have taken offense to being told that they are lazy and don’t work. They see themselves as middle and upper class, and the Garifuna as a poorer people.

Despite Frederico’s comments being racist and generalized, an interesting observation concerning the lifestyle of Garifuna men lies inherent. The gender roles are very structured and separated in Garifuna communities; the women make the cassava bread (a long arduous task that requires multiple steps), cook family meals, farm in some instances, raise children (with the help of older children, mostly girls, as well), and teach children the Garifuna language (although language skills have been declining among the youth as of late- the youth seem to find it impractical). The men? Well, I noticed a lot of men hanging around on the beach, and near the Chinese supermarkets, loitering. A lot of men fish as well, but, based on observation alone, it seemed there was a wealth of downtime in a Garifuna man’s day in Hopkins.

Garifuna Men, hanging out, jamming at the local bar.

King, who despite having done amazing and what I assume to be exhausting work building the Bread and Butter Caye, drank and napped the entire day we were there, and talked of his day before, spent drinking with his brother, and the day after, in which they did a little fishing, and drank more. He warned us of “José Molina,” who, while you’re out and away, creeps around your household, working his way into your home and your woman’s heart, and next thing you know, “You’re OUT!” and José Molina is in. Obviously I did not point out that if the man wasn’t away, leaving his woman at home to shoulder all the household work on her own, feeling unappreciated, José Molina wouldn’t stand a chance.

There are inherent gender roles in the José Molina story: wives at home, men out and about, doing whatever, including wandering into the homes of other men who are out. What happens when these lines are crossed? I had an interesting conversation with a Lesbian in Hopkins. She was Garifuna and from Hopkins originally, but had moved to Belize City, where she was quite successful. She even had her own vacation house in Hopkins, where she stayed and invited siblings and cousins from Hopkins and all over (and tourists apparently as well, as she invited me to stop by any time I liked) to kick back for weekends and catch up. Interestingly, she related to me that she, at 32, wanted to have baby. She had been feeling out the local men that she found attractive, hinting that she wanted a baby but wasn’t looking for a father for it, and that the men in Hopkins had not been at ease with this (I imagine it hurts the alpha male mentality). She still hadn’t found any “takers” when I had met her, and confided that Garifuna men were not accepting of homosexuals, and that as a woman, it was easier for her than say a homosexual man, but that she still had to be guarded with how far she crossed over gender lines. “I’m a rooster,” she told me. “They’re roosters, and I’m a rooster, and they don’t like it. They want me to be a hen.”

Reflecting upon José Molina, gender roles, and survival, I was reminded of a theory in biology based on the work of one the world’s greatest evolutionary biologists, Professor John Maynard Smith. His theory, widely referred to (I kid you not, please forgive me for the profanity) as the “Sneaky F*cker Theory.” John Maynard Smith studied mountain goat populations and noticed that while there were huge populations of alpha males, there were equally as large populations of runts, and very low population of beta males (average joes, so to speak). He wondered how, as runts, the small goats continued to procreate and preserve their numbers. After studying the communities and social habits, Maynard Smith noticed that, needing to prove and maintain their positions as alpha males, the alpha goats would challenge the beta males and each other. While the alphas and betas are off crossing antlers, the runts are the only men daily in the goat community, having sex with the bored females, passing their genes on. The conclusion of Maynard Smith’s studies: evolution does not inevitably favor organisms that act aggressively (there goes survival of the fittest) and that the success of an individual’s behavior often depends on what other individuals do. José Molina exists in every culture, even in goats, but I wonder if he can be applied as metaphor not only for man, but for entire cultures as well. While the US spreads itself out amongst too many wars, the Chinese are slowly “taking over the world,” growing in number with higher levels of education and resources. Unlike European and US colonialism, there is no attempt to convert natives to the obviously better and more advanced culture/religion/technology/belief systems of the colonizer in Chinese colonies, and the colony is used for its resources, not as a mini cosmos for molding and “bettering.” While the alpha males are out proving themselves to themselves and the other alphas, the Sneaky F*ckers take over your women, your house, the world.

I think José Molina, and in turn, the Sneaky F*ckers, is a good note to end this reflection on a Caribbean culture. The Caribbean is probably one of the best examples of survival, of letting alphas duke it out. It’s survival of the most resourceful, not of the most aggressive, of the literal fittest. Here’s to our trip on the “José Molina Xpress,” I think we learned a good deal about human nature, culture, gender, tensions, the Caribbean, and survival. Cheers, and have a good summer!