Queen of Mexico Goddess of Earth

BOOOM!! December 13 cannon fire woke me from a sound sleep at 4am. Assuming hell had broken loose I cautiously went to the window to find it was quite the contrary, the feast of Guadalupe had begun. December 12, 1531 marked the date of her second appearance to a humble indian farmer Juan Diego in Tepeyac where as the story goes he gathered roses where they had never grown and upon delivering them to the Bishop he empties his tilma to reveal the image of the Virgin Mary. Many believe the authenticity of this image and this story established the turning point of what had been a violent, stalemated power struggle between the Spanish and Aztec cultures contributing to an amalgamation of beliefs, tolerance and an acceptance of  the Spanish culture, eventually propelling the shrine of Guadalupe to what it is today.

Ronald Barnet suggested there is another side to the story. He pointed out that before the fall of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in 1521, the hill where Juan Diego had his vision had also been the site of an ancient temple to the Aztec goddess Tonantzin (Our Revered Mother, Goddess of the Earth), later leveled to the ground by the Spaniards. It seems curious that Mary would choose to appear at the former temple of Tonantzin, I mean... of all the places? Was she using political strategy to further Christianity? Do gods do that? Barnet also pointed out that depending on the source, Juan Diego was either a humble farmer of Tepeyac or one of the most influential and powerful men in the Aztec Empire at the time of the Conquest. When the Vatican decided to canonize him, their investigation reportedly revealed that the humble Indian had actually been a prince, the son of a king of Texcoco, who helped Cortes defeat the Aztecs with his command of 8000 warriors. Could he have accounted for the large numbers of Indians who were baptized after the apparition of the Virgin in 1531?

Remarkably, the ancient Aztec belief in Tonantzin and the Christian faith in the Virgin Mary do not seem to be at odds. In the case of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Indians in Mexico simply transferred their beliefs and practices from Tonantzin, the Goddess of the Earth, to Mary, the Mother of God. Further more from what I have seen Christianity in Mexico is a unique tolerant blend of Mesoamerican Catholicism. There are symbols and held over customs of Pre-Hispanic religion that continue to be celebrated within the church.

In the interest of discovery I visited Basilica of Our Lady Guadalupe. As the moving sidewalk slowly ushered me past the image I gazed into its eyes in hopes of finding some truth or perhaps some faith that had been previously leveled. What I found was that the truth is not in images, temples, or basilicas, it cannot be invented, replaced, leveled or destroyed. It is within

Dia de Muertos en Mexico

Training in Mexico is off to great start. The students are respectful, warm, and eager to learn. Upon introduction many of them express a general state of happiness associated with this celebratory time of year. Walking the streets and squares i notice a sense of calm and peace that is strangely paired with skulls and gory symbols of death. Mexico's day of the dead is a deeply rooted tradition traced back to the Aztecs and other cultures of the Mexican highlands who believe that the spirits of the dead live in Mictlan. (a place of peace built by the gods). Once a year however they peacefully return to earth to visit loved ones. The traditional calender marks two dates for the souls to visit earth. Nov 1, is dedicated to the dead children and Nov 2 is reserved for the return of the departed adults. This celebration is one of great joy as it is an opportunity to experience a celebration with loved ones who have passed. The festival peaks with preparations of offerings and alters dedicated to the deceased of each family. The offerings can include intricately cut paper, drawings, photographs, items belonging to the deceased, favorite meals prepared, lights, candles, incense, flowers etc. Families take great pride in their offerings and many become beautiful works of art. These celebrations generally take place in public squares and cemeteries but many families open their homes to showcase their alters to the public. I'll definitely be a part of this humble celebration and I'm hoping to reconnect with some old friends along the way.

Mexico Monday!

Next stop Mexico City. Although it has taken some turns for the worse in recent years most indicators suggest that much of the violent crime is drug related  and concentrated in the boarder towns. That said M City is one of the safer places to visit in Mexico which makes it a prime location for call centers. This travel if nothing else will provide me with some great opportunities to fine tune this curriculum, and hopefully change a few lives. I'd  like to gather a few big picture nuggets on the state of  Social Media as well. I'm curious to see how well my social learning approaches will translate and I wonder how large of a stake social media plays in a city as large as Mexico. 

Thoughts from Kentucky

As we push full steam ahead towards 2012 I find myself in small town Kentucky. Even here it is becoming increasingly important to consider the significant impact Social Media & Social Learning may have on relationships, jobs, and perhaps the evolution of man (yes I said it). One can easily recognize that as we Twitter about and become more connected, plugged in, updated, poked and tweeted with increased technological synergies the pace at which we operate is only increasing. So what does all this mean?  It means that we are finally on the brink of a great shift.

It has been said that Social Learning is how the majority of actual learning takes place. The suggestion here is that our structured classes are successful because in one way or another they provide an atmosphere or increase the opportunities for collaboration. Following this logic then, we must develop most of our own skills on the job similarly through collaboration and Social Learning. (I didn’t think I was getting anything out of all that reading)

Jobs:  We can see that the questions we will be asking ourselves are, if our classrooms and work places become more social to foster greater learning what then will be the metrics to measure real time success? Can we wait for after the fact on job performance to address gaps in new training models?  I think so, but corporate America doesn’t seem to be down with this new approach.

Workers:  The trend we are observing is that mechanized work continues to be replaced by automation and skilled labor continues to be outsourced. The work that is of most value in this new age is that of a creative nature. Employees that can conceptualize and communicate outside the box concepts and ideas will be valued for their skills. Leadership success is quickly becoming a measure of how well or how often a leader can identify valuable innovation and creativity and develop it by connecting technical task gurus with the innovator resulting in a profit form.

Relationships:  With this technological Tsunami comes an ever increasing transparency. It is this transparency that will allow us to engage our world as one cohesive unit. Without transparency companies are finding it increasingly difficult to control large organizations in a timely manner.  Large ships cannot handle quick, sharp turns and are unable to move at the speed the new market demands.

Evolution: The next evolutionary step of man is one that will begin with simultaneous conscious decisions made by all. It is social media & social learning that will allow us to anticipate and experience this shift as one cohesive unit much in the same way as a school of fish responds to their environment by moving in the same direction at precisely the same moment. It is not e.s.p. the fish respond to.  It is the level of open transparency in which they live that allows them to engage simultaneously and respond to their environmental conditions in unison, and in a way that benefits the entire school as opposed to the individual. This type of shared response is what will deliver man into the new age.

I’m hoping we can achieve this level of transparency, are there signs that this shift has begun? If so what are they?