And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1998 07:57:09 -0600 (CST) >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Chiapas95-english) >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: En;Mexico's Gift to World--Poinsettias,Dec.22 > >This message is forwarded to you as a service of Zapatistas Online. > > >Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 15:01:20 -0800 >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >From: Commandante Null <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: Multiple recipients of list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Mexico's Christmas Gift to the World > >Mexico's Christmas Gift to the World >Dazzling Poinsettias Have Colorful Role in Nation's Folklore > >By Molly Moore >Washington Post Foreign Service >Sunday, December 20, 1998; Page A53 > >XOCHIMILCO, Mexico�Poinsettias spill out of the flower stalls here by >the thousands in a vast thigh-high ocean of crimson as far as the shopper's >eye can see, a riotous red vision of Christmas gone out of control. > >By this weekend, Maria Luisa Becerril had sold 7,000 poinsettias, or flor >de nochebuena -- the Christmas Eve flower -- as they are so magically >named in Spanish. And she is just a small-time vendor. > >"If you don't have a nochebuena, there is no Christmas," said Becerril, 28, >whose family grows the seasonal bushes in a community dedicated almost >entirely to the propagation of poinsettias. > >Mexico is the birthplace of the flaming red Christmas plant. According to >popular lore, it was discovered centuries ago by Aztec Indians who found >the striking bushes sprouting from the rocky hillsides at the foot of the high >plateau that is now Mexico City. > >As dazzled by the foliage as modern decorators, the Aztecs cultivated the >plants for use in the wintertime ceremonies and celebrations of their kings. >Today, of all the traditional Christmas trimmings used the world over -- >trees, mistletoe and holly -- the poinsettia is the only native >contribution of >the Americas. > >It was introduced to the United States in 1825 by the young nation's first >ambassador to Mexico, Joel R. Poinsett, an accomplished botanist who >cultivated them in his South Carolina greenhouses and distributed them to >botanical gardens along the East Coast. Today the poinsettia is the >top-selling potted plant in the United States with an estimated 80 million >sold annually. > >As a result, here in the birthplace of the Christmas Eve flower -- where >poinsettias are propagated on the same land used by the Aztecs to >cultivate them hundreds of years ago -- many Mexican growers now are >turning to the United States to improve their stock. > >"The U.S. varieties are more resistant to disease and their foliage has >redder reds and greener greens," said Gaston Ortega, 34, a second >generation Xochimilco poinsettia grower who sees nothing nostalgic in >clinging to inferior indigenous varieties in his three cavernous greenhouses, >each an eye-squinting sea of red 480 yards long. Ortega orders his cuttings >from the Paul Ecke Ranch in Encinitas, Calif., which sells tens of millions of >cuttings worldwide each year, according to Paul Ecke III, who runs the >family operation. > >Ecke said hothouse growers in the United States and Mexico have >improved on the native Mexican poinsettia: The plant "was tough. It didn't >require much care. But you didn't get many flowers. You didn't get much >of a show." > >But U.S. horticulturists weren't the first to steal a piece of the ancient >Aztecs' prize. Catholic priests arriving in Mexico with the Spanish >conquistadors who decimated Aztec society created their own myth for the >origin of the plant cultivated centuries before they even landed in the New >World. > >Each Christmas, Mexican Catholics retell the tale of a poor Mexican girl, >distraught that she had no proper gift to set before the altar of the Virgin >and Child on Christmas Eve. An angel appeared at her side and told her to >gather a bunch of weeds from the roadside. When the child arrived at the >altar with her weeds, brilliant red foliage suddenly burst from the ends of >every stem, according to the story. > >Customers have packed the Xochimilco flower market -- one of the >biggest in Mexico -- for the past month, scooping up the Christmas Eve >flowers by the arm load and by the truckload. "We don't sell as many as >we did before the economic crisis," said Margarita Diaz, 46, who has been >selling poinsettias here for 15 years. "But if they have an extra cent, they >buy a plant." > >Poinsettias sell here for the equivalent of a dollar for a small potted plant >with two or three bursts, to $25 for a massive bush with as many as three >dozen blooms -- technically called bracts. And although most of the >growers here cultivate other types of flowers year-round, the native >Mexican plant that has become so integral to the Christmas celebration >here is closest to their hearts. > >"You have to take care of them like a baby," said Becerril. "They need a >lot of love." > > >CR Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company > > >NPC Information Associates >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >770-457-6758 >"Intelligence for the Underdog!" > >-- >To unsubscribe from this list send a message containing the words >unsubscribe chiapas95 to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Previous messages >are available from http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/chiapas95.html >or gopher://eco.utexas.edu. > <<<<=-=-=FREE LEONARD PELTIER=-=-=>>>> If you think you are too small to make a difference; try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito.... African Proverb <<<<=-=http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ =-=>>>> IF it says: "PASS THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW...." 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