2008 Woodie Awards
Esteva Will Speak At Commencement
Emma Templeton
Issue date: 2/28/06 Section: News
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He currently lives in Oaxaca, Mexico on a beautiful farm deep in the valley outside of Oaxaca City. He grows all sorts of food, has his own water system, and even has a composting toilet.
Gustavo has come a long way from his early days. His Grandmother was indigenous to Mexico, however his mother felt that the best thing she could do for her family was to eradicate them from their indigenous roots.
In 1949, during Truman's inaugural speech Mexico was dubbed an underdeveloped nation.
Gustavo learned then that in politics, one cannot trust their own analysis, only that of those in charge. In the 1940's, Americas quality of life was one of the highest in the world, and Truman stated 'we will share what we have with you Mexico, and make you like the U.S..
Truman's words made Gustavo want to help develop Mexico and so he became a manager at IBM and Procter and Gamble. But then had a change of heart.
Gustavo became an underground guerilla during the time of Che Guevara. This movement in Mexico was soaked in codes, darkness and secrets, all of which seemed very romantic to Gustavo, until March 5, 1965 when one of the leaders killed another leader over a woman, at which point Gustavo decided to continue his involvement with the revolution but only by non-violent means.
In 1965 he entered the Government of Mexico, he was in charged of organizing development programs all over the country; his stance once in this position was extremely progressive for the time.
When there was the change in Presidency Gustavo was offered the position of Minister, but instead of taking the position, Gustavo quit. He realized that throughout his involvement with the government the logic of government never coincides with the logic of the people.
Gustavo knew that the development programs had become damaging for the people and decided that he wanted to accomplish something but be autonomous and decentralized. The government only saw development as a way to become more like the U.S..
In the 1980's Gustavo started to recall memories of his grandmother and therefore began connecting with the indigenous people of Mexico. This was the time when Ivan Illich came into Gustavo's life.