China mass produces most of the toys you’ll find in stores these days. If you’re looking for incricate handcrafted toys made in local workshops, you may have to go to Oaxaca, Mexico. That’s where Miguel Ramirez has been making toys for more than 40 years.

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[FIREWORKS]

Public celebrations like New Year’s Eve and Independence Day draw huge crowds to Oaxaca City’s central square. The celebrations include fireworks, live music, and…

[FOAM FIGHT]

…playful fights with spray foam. By the time the party is over, empty aerosol cans blanket the square. It’s an amazing amount of litter…but not all of it ends up in a landfill.

[COLLECTING CANS]

RAMIREZ (in Spanish, voiced over): “So we pick it up, as much as we can. We’re able to gather around 10, 15, even 20 sacks full and they last us all year.”

That’s local artist Miguel Ramirez. More than four decades ago, he started turning these cans into toy airplanes, helicopters, trains, antique cars…and even UFOs.

Mr. Ramirez has a toy workshop in his home, where he shows me how he turns the empty spray cans into raw material for his creations.

[Miguel Ramirez cutting cans – reporter describes process]

He takes one of the cans out of a sack, holds down the valve to release any remaining air, then knocks the valve off. Then, he hammers the tip of a knife into the upper side of the can and cuts off its top. Ramirez uses the tops to make the wheels for his trains and cars. Next, he cuts off the bottom of the can…. Bottoms make good reflectors. Then, he slices up the can’s metal seam with scissors.

RAMIREZ (in Spanish): “Then you open it up, then flatten the metal.”

Ramirez uses a thick piece of wood to do that.

RAMIREZ: “From there, you wash it with a good amount of water. Once it’s clean, you let it dry, shine it with newspaper and then fold over the edges.”

[SANDER STARTING UP]

He makes sure to leave no sharp edges. What he can’t fold into a side seam, he smooths over with a sanding wheel. Ramirez transforms the sheet metal into car chassis, steam engine chimneys, and decorative ladders for his UFOs. Solder holds everything together.

All of his creations… which can be up to 2 feet long…. have moving parts and some make sounds – like this airplane.

[PLANE CLICKING SOUND]
RAMIREZ: “That’s what gets the attention of young people, children and even adults (laughs).”

Ramirez and his wife take to the streets occasionally to sell their pieces…but it’s a bit  tricky. They don’t have an expensive street vendor’s license. So they have to do their selling while walking. They cradle a model or two in their arms while carrying others in tote bags slung over their shoulders.

Patricia Diaz has bought several pieces from Ramirez and recalls the 1st time she saw him and his wife.

PATRICIA DIAZ (in Spanish, voiced over): “I saw them walk by selling these toys, or these objects made from sheet metal. I went downstairs to inquire and they had already walked ahead. I had almost lost them, but I caught up and well, I really liked what they had. It’s really lovely and well done work.”

The work is also very labor-intensive. Miguel Ramirez says he can produce 6 trains or cars in one month. He repairs electronic appliances to supplement the family income, but says his heart is in his handcrafted artwork.

RAMIREZ: “The work is very labor-intensive, but it’s worthwhile. I feel good doing this work.

One of his handmade cars or trains costs about 50 dollars. That’s about  the same as a remote controlled vehicle or a brand name plastic toy truck of the same size. The big difference being the metal toy is more likely to survive an entire childhood.

ANCHOR: [STEAM WHISTLE] That’s the sound of a distinctly Mexican invention. As you can hear, it has fire in its belly and it whistles to blow off steam. It cooks, transports, and advertises its product…all at the same time. Reporter Shannon Young takes a closer look.

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El Llano park in Oaxaca City is just one of the places in Mexico where you’re likely to hear this…

[DISTANT WHISTLE IN PARK]

That’s the sound of steam-cooked plantains and yams…well, the sound of the cart they travel in. The cart itself is an icon of street vendor ingenuity.  Its owner, Cesar Perez, explains.

CESAR PEREZ (voiceover): “This cart works with steam. I’m gonna make the sound for you. This sound is to let people know that the yam and plantain vendor is on the way. (STEAM WHISTLE sound)

The whistle works in the same way as an ice cream truck’s jingle. The sound projects for a couple of blocks, giving customers time to collect spare change and head outside by the time the vendor passes by.

[PARK TONE]

Local people call this invention a “camotero cart,” after the Spanish word “camote,” or “yam”. The cart resembles a rustic locomotive. It has a metal barrel that lies on its side, with a hole cut on the outer end. That’s where Perez feeds the wood that fuels the fire. The plantains and yams rest in a drawer situated over the flames. The smoke escapes through a sheet metal stovepipe on top.

The fire just keeps the food warm. Perez says the actual cooking process occurs before he hits the street.

CESAR PEREZ (voiceover): “You have to let the food cook to a certain point. Because if it only cooks a little bit, it tastes nasty. So it needs 2 hours of cooking before I leave home in order for it to be done.”

The end result is yams and bananas with a soft texture and smoky baked flavor that’s not easy to duplicate at home.

Meanwhile, every so often, water from an upside-down soda bottle releases steam into the cart’s cooking chamber. That keeps the food from drying out. The steam also creates the distinctive whistle sound when it escapes from the metal barrel through a special tube.

CESAR PEREZ (voiceover): “When the water falls on the hot part of the tube, it’s expelled at fairly high pressure which is what produces the little noise.”

The whistle on Perez’s home made cart has a pitch that’s a bit lower than others – something he did on purpose.

CESAR PEREZ (voiceover): “It’s different because each person has their own sound. That way they know it’s Mr. Cesar’s cart, of Mr. Julio’s or Gilberto’s – they know how to distinguish the sounds sometimes.”

The sound of the steam whistle is something that’s ingrained in the memory of Bernardo Sanchez, a young man who walks up to purchase one of Perez’s plantains.

BERNARDO SANCHEZ (voiceover): “Ever since I was little, I remember buying plantains from the cart that passed by my house. Now it’s a matter of tradition. Every time we hear this type of whistle, we know that they’re the baked plantains.”

The carts are also powered by traditional methods: some are pushed by hand and some use front-loader cargo tricycles. Either way takes effort, since a cart can weigh well over 100 pounds. Perez prefers the tricycle model, saying it allows him to cover more ground with less exertion.

[PARK SOUND, KIDS PLAYING]

After a couple of sales, Perez makes a wide loop around the park then heads off on the city streets, whistling along the way.

[DISTANT WHISTLE, PARK SOUNDS]

For the World Vision Report, I’m Shannon Young in Oaxaca, Mexico.

(NOTE: This segment originally aired on the January 9, 2010 program of the World Vision Report.)

Visitors are flocking to the cathedral of San Cristobal de las Casas in the southernmost state of Chiapas to pay their respects to Samuel Ruiz, the man who presided over the local diocese for 40 years. The retired bishop died from heart complications yesterday in a Mexico City hospital at the age of 86.

Over the course of his career, Ruiz won international recognition and numerous awards for his work with the state’s indigenous poor, but he is best known for mediating peace talks between the Mexican government and the Zapatista rebels in the mid 1990s.

Ruiz was a practitioner of Liberation Theology, a school of religious thought that gained popularity among Latin America’s left-leaning clerics in the 1960s and ultimately caused friction with the largely conservative Vatican hierarchy. While his views received criticism from the Mestizo oligarchy in San Cristobal, the bishop earned the respect and admiration of the area’s indigenous majority. Ruiz is often referred to by the title “Tatik”, which means “father” in the local Tzotzil language.

Bishop Emeritus Samuel Ruiz will be buried tomorrow in the grounds of the San Cristobal de las Casas cathedral in accordance with his final wishes.

Zapotec class in San Pablo Macuiltianguis, Oaxaca

The Mexican state of Oaxaca is home to 16 different native languages, making it the most linguistically diverse state in Mexico. But many of these languages are fading out as new generations grow up learning and speaking only Spanish. Although attempts to reverse language loss can be an uphill battle, reporter Shannon Young visits one village tackling that challenge – attempting to re-learn their ancestors’ words.

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San Pablo Macuiltianguis is a small Zapotec town in the northern mountains of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Like in many towns in this region, the basketball court is the heart of the village.

[Zapotec language drills]

Overlooking the basketball court, on the second floor of the town hall building, around 20 boys and girls are reciting words in Zapotec – a language that most residents under the age of 35 do not speak.

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