I relocated to Tucson last week.
The plan was to stay here for several months and hang around the reservation of the Tohono O'odham, an Indian tribe just southwest of here. I recently wrote an article to be published soon in The Nation magazine about an incredible organization on the reservation, TOCA (Tohono O'odham Community Action). Among many challenges that the tribe faces is the highest type 2 diabetic rate ever recorded in human history--greater than 50%. The reasons for this are many, including genes, the policy of the Bureau of Indian Affiairs, and grinding poverty. But mostly it is due to the fact that the tribe no longer eats their traditional desert staples, most importantly the tepary bean. The bean naturally regulated the body's blood sugar level and did a bunch of other great stuff. So TOCA has taken over a large farm and is growing traditional foods, and working to reintroduce them into the community. There's a lot more to the story, of course, and I'll post the article here as soon as it is published.
So my plan was to hang around the reservation and maybe try to eventually write a book about the tribe. My ideas were incredibly vague--as they usually are--but the murky plan has changed. I recently found out that a quickly-written book proposal had been accepted, and so now I'm basically just hanging around Tucson with my girlfriend for 6 weeks until I begin work on the book. Since I don't have any current writing assignments, and need a little extra motivation to actually put any words to paper, I decided to create this blog. I'm not a professional blogger, and don't expect to ever blog again (famous last words...). In fact, my grandpa Ralph once asked me if I would ever write a "blob," which is how I have thought about these weird little electronic creatures ever since. Now, of course, I must eat my words, and will be updating this weird little creature until sometime in December 2007, after which it will dissapear into what must be a massive graveyard of no-longer-updated blogs.
Here are my promises for the blog:
1. It will end soon.
2. It will contain a number of gramatically incorrect sentences, and a fair number of misspellings.
3. I will occassionaly use "then" when I mean "than". And vice versa.
4. I will post something new about once a week.
5. I will write about little things that I notice in Tucson.
6. I will never earn money from my blog. I have been advised that one can "Let your blogging pay off with relevant ads from Google AdSense." I have no idea what someone would advertise on a blog called "6 weeks in Tucson" and don't care to find out. My six loyal readers don't need anything new.
There, I've now finished my first blog posting. It took me about 18 minutes. My little observation about life in Tucson for this week is that it is pretty damn hot. Though not hotter then Yuma. Check back soon for another insight.
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12 comments:
That was a great blog posting! Keep it up!
Pictures?
What part of Tucson are you living in?
Hey, while you're out there there's some great camping near Paradise, AZ...the Chiracahua Mountains. And don't forget Jerome, an old mining town where they've got an anti-Wobbly museum! Also, if you get down to Douglas and Naco, visit Kioki Skinner, who runs a juice bar in Naco and is a lapsed, brilliant journalist. First guy to discover border vigilantes, back in the mid 1980s.
Can you bring me back a used baby diaper or plastic bag from the daily immigrant march thru the desert? See you in NYC next year...meanwhile, have fun!
I don't really know the name of the neighborhood, or if it has one. One block off of Speedway, near Country Club. Squeezed between a drive through espresso place and an oil change company called Grease Monkey.
Pictures when my camera is back from the shop--next week. Tucson is more photogenic than anyplace I've lived before except perhaps Jackson, Wyoming.
I'll definitely visit Naco and Skinner. As for the dirty diapers, maybe I'll just take a photo...
Ten cuidado con genetic determinism chavo. You know the folks at NWFCO (they will be in NY next week) have done lots of work on Indian Health and have that project in Montana you could talk to them for some background. Isn't weird how those drive through espresso places keep popping up everywhere? There has been a union rat at work for the past two weeks. The laborers are picketing us because we don't build union. It has given me a chance of saying really smart things. Most people think the rat is for the writers guild strike.
Hey Bro,
I am thinking of taking a road trip down your way. Are there any tennis balls or squirrels in your neighborhood?
Charlie
"Among many challenges that the tribe faces is the highest type 2 diabetic rate ever recorded in human history--greater than 50%. The reasons for this are many, including genes, the policy of the Bureau of Indian Affiairs, and grinding poverty."
Gabriel, this is a start. A slow start, but a interesting one. It rejects the idea that "race is a social construct". The introduction of agriculture created a selection gradient which resulted in different genes frequencies across populations. All peoples are ill adapted to the current Western, high sugar diet which causes diabetes. But some peoples are more ill-adapted than other peoples. In general, populatons which recently adopted a high carbohydrate diet have higher rates of diabetes. Which basically means all of the Native American populations. (and the same applies to alcohol tolerance, too.)
Unfortunately, I think you'll never make it to full blown genetic determinism because you aren't curious enough to read the scientific studies, don't have the math background, or are generally unwilling to consider alternative hypotheses on what makes humans what they are.
"Unfortunately, I think you'll never make it to full blown genetic determinism because you aren't curious enough to read the scientific studies, don't have the math background, or are generally unwilling to consider alternative hypotheses on what makes humans what they are."
I also don't think I'll make it there, either.
Hey Daniella and Gabe,
After my mom died suddenly, I went to a shrink in El Paso, where I was living. I was crying a lot. The shrink said, "You need to get out and walk every day. Why don't you take a walk through your neighborhood in the evening to relax." I told her that walking through my neighborhood often made me cry more, because it was a pretty neighborhood with nice, desert air and xeriscaped gardening, and also a neighborhood where border crossers were constantly passing, being chased by the migra down streets, into alleys, and sometimes even on nice porches like mine. "Well you need to do something," the shrink said. "Something for fun," and after awhile I started walking again through the hood like I always did anyhow, before my mom died. So when I wrote to your blog before and said, "Have fun," and you wrote your recent stuff, I realized you're having fun. Good, good testimonio! Please, put more pix!
Also -- find some social science database if you get a chance, and look up work by Sarah Hill, a geographer, who has written a lot about illegal "garbage dumps" at the border and how they also function as cemeteries for disposal of various types of people who didn't die natural deaths.
Thanks for this blog --
These blog and photos make me realize how much I miss the desert. Years ago, we lived in the high desert in western Wyoming. One night we camped out on the sand dunes near Rock Springs. I remember waking up in the middle of the night with a near full moon entranced with the dunes until I fell asleep.
Then there was the time when you, Gabriel, were a kid and we went back to visit and Jo Larson took us out to the Indian cliff drawings. I had never in my life found an arrowhead in the wild, but 8-year old you found them left and right. Only later did I find that Jo was "seeding" them so you could be successful on your first trip to the desert. Jo was so thoughtful.
It's too bad you guys won't be in Tucson long enough for us to come and visit. Oh, well. Life is trade-offs.
Hi Guys,
I enjoyed the last post very much. My two centavos to the experince you had is that you can never lure a dog with tortillas. And Gabe's brilliant idea of luring him with cinamon bread? Well we know that didn't work either. Next time drop the tortillas and go for the carne, tripas, or bofe. No stray dog would resist that.
A
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