Profiling Tepehua

By Moonyeen King

President of the Board for Tepehua moonie1935@yahoo.com

In the first month of this year Tepehua lost another child, we heard about it because of media, they gave young Jose

his moment of fame. The home he shared with his parents burnt and he was trapped and died from his burns after reaching the hospital. His parents could not be found when the story went to press. Unfortunately little Jose began to die before that by abuse and neglect reported the neighbors. Sadly there are many Jose’s who raise themselves, not because both parents are working but because both parents lack the tools that education brings. Education opens the mind and helps parents make better choices. How many more Jose’s do we have to bury before the world wakes up to the fact Education is as essential to survive as water is to life? THIS IS A NATIONS RESPONSIBILITY and should be free to everyone. Or how as a society can we grow? We don’t need a Nation of Professors / Lawyers and such, we need a fully educated middle class, The rich and those under the poverty line rely on the middle class, they are the hub that keeps the wheel together. Is Jose in a better place? Of course not...he had a right to life.

The joy this author feels when 15 years down the line a young person in a position of pride asks “ Do you remember me?” and you find you are looking at a child from a shelter or scooped up from the arms of poverty now enjoying the fruits of life that only education can bring. Why not be part of that and help a child?... just one child and you have made a difference. It is a fallacy the schools are free, after the cost of registration, books, shoes, bus fares for some, it is staggering for parents under the poverty line and impossible to send all their children to school, if they do send one it is the boy and the girls are left to early Motherhood because lack of education makes bad choices or no choice at all. Having a child is one of the miracles of living, but not when it is children having children.

You can change that by sponsoring a child. Contact Moonie and one of the Education Directors for Tepehua will contact you. We reach out to all children not just to our neighborhood.

This is a year of recovery and promise, you can see it in the growth of the New Downtown Riberas. Since Ajijic has become almost impassable, from Chapala to Walmart has come alive with new buildings and establishments, mid-Riberas has become secondhand Alley with fascinating little stores, plus those like the Tepehua Treasures Thrift store, that offer you interesting art or clothing at a reasonable price in return for helping the poor by your purchase, plenty of room to stroll and park and move at a slower pace. Another benefit is the regular bus runs that stop at the wave of a hand, leave your car at home for the day. There are new furniture stores, restaurants and nurseries preparing for Spring. Spring is at the door and the birds are coming back with the warm winds. So let’s embrace it and start to live again. Try the Chapala Malacon at Sunset...mariachi bands and families strolling, children playing...so much to do and so little time...leave fear of COVID behind and with precaution enjoy what our paradise can give you.

Looking on the bright side of 2022 this author believes the sap is draining from the beast we know as COVID. A quote from Kathleen O’Meara’s poem written in the 1800’s that this column printed in full in May 2020.

‘.....and when the danger ended and people found each other grieved for the dead people and they made new choices and dreamed new visions and created new ways of life and healed the earth completely just as they were healed themselves.’