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Small World, Indeed

When I got to Eugene, Oregon, I called Pat to say hello. We had never met face to face. Ours is an Internet friendship, started when she read one of my articles and sent me an e-mail. We still haven't met, mostly because she was minutes away from leaving on a trip of her own, but -- as is often the case these days -- she had a "lead" for me to follow. I followed it, and met Gerardo.

Gerardo is from Oaxaca. He is in Eugene doing an apprenticeship at Mobility International, U.S.A. MIUSA is a non-profit service organization that teaches leadership skills to people who are "disabled" (some of my friends prefer "differently abled", with good reason), so they can go back to their country of origin and teach others to recognize - and struggle for - their rights. When he gets through with the summer program here, he will head for Rochester, Michigan, where he will be trained in the use of a guide dog. Gerardo is blind. He will be in the U.S. for about six months, altogether. He misses his wife and his firstborn son, only a few weks old when he left.

When Gerardo returns to Oaxaca, he will be the first local person ever to have a seeing eye dog. It will be a challenge, he says. The bus drivers may not understand, and many Oaxacans are very uncomfortable being in close quarters with a canine. Fortunately, Gerardo doesn't mind a challenge.

Blinded by diabetes four years ago, Gerardo is determined to make his life, and the lives of his nonsighted paisanos, as full and as free as possible. To this end, he took a job with the federal government department responsible for providing assistance to the disadvantaged : El DIF. His job is to research the number and extent of the disabled in the State of Oaxaca, and to propose methods by which the government can help them to lead a more dignified, more useful life.

Not content with this, Gerardo is also appealing to the private sector. That is how he came to collaborate with Francisco Toledo. Toledo, as you may recall from the previous article, is a world-famous artist, who shares his good (and substantial) fortune with those less affluent than himself. With Toledo's money and influence and his own inner vision, Gerardo has created a new institution in Oaxaca: a library for the blind. Toledo bought an old and crumbling colonial mansion in the downtown area, and is paying for the refurbishing. Gerardo's salary as librarian is paid by Toledo, until the Library can generate salaries from its own funds. (DIF is continuing to pay Gerardo's salary while he is away, so his wife and child will not suffer.)

Toledo, meanwhile, put up a large oil painting worth around $13,000 usd, as prize in a raffle, and raised about $25,000 in the effort. Not content with that, he has arranged a giant art auction that will feature the works of dozens of recognized artists, with the proceeds going to support the work of the Library. They need everything, from Braille books to talking books to computers with Braille keyboards to copy machines that will spit out Braille copies, to... well, you get the idea. All during our conversation, Gerardo was patiently talking dollars and cents to me. He is a sophisticated master at Basic Begging.

Just in case I haven't satisfied the "small world" part, allow me to elaborate. One of my neighbors, a gringa who has lived in Oaxaca for about fifteen years, is an artist. She teaches (free) sculpture classes to blind people. She was an early ally of Gerardo's. A blind widow whose late husband's collection graces an internationally recognized anthropological research library in town is a patron of the artist, contributing for art supplies. I introduced them. Gerardo's aunt owns the apartment complex where I lived when I first came to Oaxaca. Small world, and growing smaller...

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