Chiapas is not only home to some of the best organic coffee but also to cocoa trees. While the coffee arrived from Africa (with the Germans) and helped destroy traditional livelihoods, cocoa is native to Chiapas and has been known since Pre-Columbian times. In those times cocoa prepared with water and chili was known as a drink of gods which was a privilege of the high priests and kings. Cocoa beans were also used as money - to exchange goods for other goods. This was long before capitalism arrived in this part of the woods.

I visited one of the ruin villages close to Tapachula. In this place several cultures lived before the Spanish arrived. They had lots of fruit and used mais for food, next to meat that they hunted. Well, meat and tortillas are still the typical food here, now "enriched" with rice, which obviously is not originally from here. On the other hand, tomatoes, potatoes and pumpkins and everything that is related to it, is originally from the Americas and has since enriched European food quite a lot. Not for nothing Europeans travelled the seas, as food that is native to Europe is quite boring really. Well, and of course the most important food of all - chocolate - originates from here, which is already reason enough to love Chiapas.

The truth is, that business and trade has been known in Mexico long before the Europeans arrived. This is also why they needed cocoa beans to use as money. They also used feathers of the Quetzal and certain stones that were very valuable. And slaves. Not all was good and peaceful of course and the impressive pyramids that they built are actually built by slave labor and it is also true that the sacrificed animals and humans in religious ceremonies. Life was hard and unfair even then. The problem is that we are very aware of this now but we do not realize how life is still just as bad as it used to be - only now we do not have any excuses like "we didn't know better". Now the only excuse is, that some people want to be rich and don't care that the rest is poor.

Most of the rich culture that is left from the Mayans, the Olmecs and the Mexica in this region is actually related to religion: the pyramids are the bases of the temples they had, most figures that they made are either to be sacrificed or to be buried with the dead. Or they are used in everyday prayers. Religion was the main reason why people did things and the gods were the ones who made sure that people would abide by basic ethical rules. Religion still had a meaning then, but even then the priests and the kings used religion to justify privileges they had and to make sure that the common people would not start revolutions. This was probably not very successful, as many wars are known and many times pyramids were destroyed supposedly by revolutionaries.

Since it is very mountainous and the forests are very dense here, Europeans arrived in this part of Mexico much later than in the East and in the lowlands. Noone wanted to take the effort to construct infrastructure in this region. This is also the reason why finally the Germans were let in so cheap. So already some 150 years ago, the traditional ways of life were destroyed by the coffee fincas. But it was only recently (in 2000) that everything went worse with one move. In 2000 the NAFTA started - linking Mexico to the North American Free Trade Zone. The problem of this is obviously that the US and Canada make the rules and Mexico has to follow. Besides, the US and Canada don't allow Mexico to play by the same rules. In order to make sure Mexican politicians would vote in favor of the NAFTA, the US paid the politicians large sums of money to make sure they ignored the good of their people for their own wealth. Of course it is rather easy to then complain about the corrupt politicians but the US know very well that actually it is all their fault. The result of this is, that Mexican enterprises are slowly perishing and being taken over by American businesses. This is more true in Chiapas, which is the poorest state of Mexico, than in other parts. This was also why the Zapatistas planned a revolution for the day that the NAFTA came into force. The traditional way of life in Chiapas includes a basic democracy that makes sure that land cannot be sold and decisions cannot be made without the consent of the people of the village. This is obviously quite to the contrary to what capitalism and NAFTA demand. The NAFTA is basically there so American and Canadian businesses can become richer and Mexicans will become poorer (apart from the ones that are rich already and can play part in the game that the US plays).

The problem is that the traditional way of life and the traditional way of doing business in Mexico is not based on the same ideology. In Mexico the goal is and always was, that everybody has enough to live and so that everyone can participate. Sharing is such a big part of the society here that even I have problems to fit in. When you have very little food and you don't know when you will get more, sharing is certainly not the first thing that comes to my mind. But it is what people here do as if it was the most normal thing on Earth. They really think that sharing makes more of everything and that if they share while they have, they can rely on the fact that they will be helped when they don't have anything.

On the other hand, in the US the system exists to exclude as many people as possible so that the few who can participate can have more than their share. Mexico is not ready to participate in this game because this ideology is completely strange to Mexicans. This means that most Mexicans have no chance in this game, and it means that traditional life in Mexico cannot continue to exist because the US takes it over. This is sad as it is and it is even worse to see that the US is currently doing the same with Europe and we stupid Europeans just accept it. Supposedly the US even pays European politicians to betray their people and we don't do anything to stop this. Even though we've already seen plenty of times how it all goes wrong!

The question then is, if tourism can help change the situation. From what I can see, it probably does not - or only some kinds of tourism do. Mass tourism like it is happening in the Yucatán area certainly does not help - it rather destroys the traditional ways of life more and more. Here in Chiapas there is not a lot of mass tourism - it is mainly cruise ship tourism that we get. Which is even worse: cruise ships come, money almost entirely stays with big companies, that are mainly foreign owned, people visit the region and then think that they have come to get to know Chiapas, while they really only got to know the play that they put on for the cruise ship tourists. Children beg for money in the harbor where the cruise ship lands, people are shown the beautiful landscape and then they leave again, not knowing how much they contribute to the inequality that has been superimposed on the region.

How to solve the problem then? Well, I would know a very easy solution, but so long as we continue with American style business I do not see how this will ever come to a positive end. Currently I can only see how it all goes wrong and it gets worse. Every year I come back, things are worse. And the worst part is: Mexicans do not understand what's going on, and think that the American way of life is actually what they want. This means that it is almost impossible to stop this process. Better education could certainly help to slow down the process but it doesn't seem to happen. It is still not very common for people to receive higher education in Mexico and for the most part it is the poorest who cannot afford any education as they have to work from a young age. Low wages do not help of course. So meanwhile I can only recommend you visit Mexico as soon as you can because it is being eaten up by America and will change very quickly. And the only way to visit the country without making things worse is to stay in small hostels or bed and breakfasts in small villages, talking to locals or even get a job and work here to get to know the real Mexico. Do not come like all the other tourists do because they do not get to know Mexico and they only help to make things worse!