A Pedagogy of Striving

My parents grew up in the northern-central region of Mexico in a rural area covered with mountains and rough, thorny, dry terrain, in the state of Zacatecas. This area was once known for its mineral mines and the extraction of silver. There are no major rivers and most of the water for farming is found deep beneath the surface, accessed through a network of wells. The northern part of the state is an extension of the Chihuahua des-sert, one of the most ecologically diverse deserts on earth. The arid and semi-arid cli-mate of Zacatecas makes it ideal for a variety of cacti species to flourish. Nopal , as my parents and I know the prickly pear cactus, is a staple of our diet as well as the fruit that it produces in all its diverse beautiful colors. I grew up learning about the healing properties, nutritional value, and spiritual power of cacti from my parents, grandpar-ents, and ancestors. My great-grandmother, as my mother tells me, was a teenager during the Mexican Revolution. She had to flee with her siblings to the desert mountains after her mother and father were killed and one of her sisters kidnapped. They survived for three months eating mostly cacti and prickly pears. The desert is a harsh place, but if you know its ways it can provide abundant life. As the little boy in the story of the Little Prince asserts, “ What makes the desert beautiful … is that somewhere it hides a well ” (Saint-Exup (cid:1) ery, Ch. 24). The hidden well in the desert areas of northern and northern-central Mexico is the ancestral knowledge passed down from generations, teaching through stories and practices how to cultivate the power of the local flora, especially desert plants like cacti, not just for survival but for the flourishing of all crea-tures and creation in the area.