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.)

Brightly colored murals decorate the walls of Mexico City's Las Duelistas pulquería

Pulque is a Mexican drink made from the fermented sap of the agave plant. It’s a mildly alcoholic beverage that’s been consumed in Mexico for thousands of years. The drink has fallen out of fashion in modern Mexico, but as reporter Shannon Young tell us, some scientific research is backing up the traditional believe that pulque is good for you. She reports from Mexico City.

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At the dawn of the 20th century, pulque bars known as “pulquerías” were everywhere in Mexico City. Now, only a few dozen remain. Pulque has a fresh, slightly acidic flavor and a thick consistency. It’s either served plain or blended with fruits or vegetables – like a smoothie.

Pulque fell out of favor due to a combination of the rise in beer consumption, unfounded rumors about bad production hygiene, and its stigmatization as a drink for the poor.

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Protest Graffitti - Oaxaca City - Sept. 2010

Across Mexico today, celebrations to mark the 100 year anniversary of the start of the Mexican Revolution. Amongst other things, the revolution was considered a victory for the country’s rural poor, who won land rights away from the wealthy elite.

While Mexico today is preoccupied with with the bloody Drug War in the country’s north, small farmers are facing a new fight over land rights in the south.

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[Chants from Oaxaca City march for Copala]

Women march through the streets of Oaxaca City to call attention to the situation in the farming village of San Juan Copala.

Most of these women fled the town this summer during a violent paramilitary offensive that killed about 20 residents.

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(Report originally produced for The World and available for download here)

A gabion along a creek traps soil rushing downhill

Residents of the Mexican states of Chiapas and Oaxaca are still digging out from a rash of late summer landslides. The disasters killed dozens of people, destroyed homes and blocked rural highways. The landslides were blamed on unusually heavy rains and bad mountain roads… but deforestation and poor agricultural practices have made erosion a chronic problem in the region. Now some local residents are trying to address the problem by experimenting with low-tech traditional practices. Shannon Young reports.

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REPORTER: Back-to-back storms have drenched Oaxaca and three neighboring states in this busy hurricane season. Much of this rain has hit remote mountainous regions that are already prone to landslides . Storm-related damage to roads has left some towns unreachable by car for weeks.

Forest management consultant Jose Rodriguez says the Mexican government hasn’t provided much help in cleaning up, so the task has largely fallen to unpaid locals with their own shovels.

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Mujeres y niños desplazados del autonombrado municipio autónomo de San Juan Copala iniciaron una huelga de hambre en el Zócalo de Oaxaca para demandar garantías de seguridad para sus compañeros, a quienes reportan atrapados por un cerco paramilitar al pueblo. Esta violencia ha dejado una decena de personas en los últimos 5 meses.

Mientras tanto, a convocatoria de dos reconocidos sacerdotes, dos de los 3 grupos que se disputan el control político de la región triqui aceptan participar en mesa de diálogo: o MULT, acusado participar en el cerco paramilitar sobre Copala,  y  MULT-I, organización detras del municipio autónomo, finalmente no consiguen reunirse con los representantes de la iglesia porque MULT-I exige primero detener la violencia.

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