Jose Gonzalez Valenzuela doesn’t remember a time when he was not running on rough mountain trails.
While today his life is focused on his position as assistant chef at La Nueva Posada Hotel and Restaurant and getting his younger brother educated, this young man was born and lived his first 11 years in the mountains of Jalisco and Zacatecas that are the homeland of one of Mexico’s remaining indigenous groups, the Huichol.
“I ran everywhere when I lived in the mountain. Everyone runs or walks in la sierra.” The serious man paused and a rare little smile flitted across his face. “We have to, there are no buses and no cars. Now I run for fun with a local group of mountain runners, the Club Salvaje Ajijic.”
Both experiences gave Gonzalez Valenzuela an edge during Colima’s May 4 First Annual Half Marathon Mountain Run. Thousands of men and women from around the world divided into 20 categories to attempt to complete the 10km and 21km events on rugged courses through the Nevado de Colima National Park.
While the Ajijic team found the course up the craggy rock outcroppings, across mountain pastures, and down extremely steep slopes covered with a foot of loose volcanic sand, difficult, several members of the team placed well in their categories. For example, Aurora Renteria placed first in the women’s 10 km and Andrea Mora took top billing in the women’s 21 km.
Gonzalez Valenzuela was 11 when he met an Ajijic man who changed the course of his life and took him away from running as a mode of transportation to this area where running is a sport. Dr. German Ramos, owner of the pharmacy at the corner of Juarez and Zaragoza in Ajijic, met the boy while he was in la sierra helping to provide medical care for the Huichol. Ramos recognized innate intelligence and ability of his and saw that Gonzalez Valenzuela wanted to experience the world beyond his mountain home. Ramos obtained permission from the elder Gonzalez to bring the youngster to Ajijic.
Suddenly this indigenous child whose world was enclosed with a grandfather who grew corn and beans and a grandmother who embroidered and crafted morales (traditional shoulder bags) to sell found himself transported into the 21st century filled with televisions, cell phones, good schools and buses.
“On la sierra there was no work, no transportation, no doctors and very poor schools. We didn’t have much more than our traditions, but there, our traditions and our beliefs are everything.”
With the guidance of Ramos, Gonzalez Valenzuela was enrolled in school, as he quickly adjusted to his new life. By the time he was 13 or 14, he found work as a dishwasher at La Nueva Posada. He continued to work, and advance at the restaurant while he attended secundaria and prepa (middle and high school).
Nine years ago, just as he was finishing school, beginning to work full time, and thinking about his own future, he made the nine-hour bus trip back to la sierra to visit his younger brother and sister. Unhappy with their situation, especially when he compared it to his own new life, he decided to take on the responsibility of raising them. He brought Raul, then 8, and Juanita, then 12, back to Ajijic where he put aside his own teen activities as he tried to create a home for them all.
Juanita went to school for a short time, and then worked as a hotel maid for a while, but she never really settled into life here. She returned to la sierra several years ago and is now raising a family of her own.
Raul has thrived on modern life. He’s 17 now, and finishing the last year of prepa. He works weekends at La Posada and while he worked instead of traveling to Colima to compete, he is also a member of the Ajijic running club.
“Next year Raul wants to go to university in Guadalajara. If we can’t make that happen, then he wants to go to the tech school here.” Gonzalez Valenzuela looked like a proud parent of a graduating student. “He’s doing well here. We both are. We like our lives, we’ve adjusted and changed. In my head, I guess now I feel more like I’m from here than from la sierra.”
Perhaps he feels as if he’s completely modern. Still, as he explained some of the beliefs of the Huichol and the more ecological life they lead, it’s obvious that the lessons of his early years are still part of the man he has become.
“We value the earth and sky, the corn and the animals, and above all the great spirit. You know, Lake Chapala is sacred to the Huichol and every year in September or October the shaman and some of the people come from la sierra to make ceremonies on Scorpion Island. When I can I go with them. It is good for me to remember that part of my life.”