Running El Orito (and driving there and back)

Not that I was always out and about before, but since we're in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, I've been spending a lot more time at home. But I'm still running. I've been trying for once every 5 days, and I've settled on a natural area in Guanajuato called "El Orito" as my "go-to" spot.

It's on the other side of town, so I have to get there by car. I drive towards the city center along Pastita Creek, under an old aqueduct, and by the local baseball stadium. The aqueducts - in pieces in a few spots around town - were used to bring water to the city, but in particular to bring them to the haciendas working on the materials brought from the many mines in the area. Pastita Creek flows through an urban canyon, as you drive along it you can look left and right and see the narrow roads and alleys stretching away and up the hillsides. I continue and get a glimpse of the Las Embajadoras plaza to my left - the park normally full of families is still busier than it probably should be during a pandemic, but still noticeably sparse. I pass the small hole-in-the-wall peluquería (barber shop) I used to visit every three weeks for a trim - now opting to make a horrible mess in my bathroom by cutting my own hair. The little shop opens to the street and I can see that it is surprisingly busy. I notice the barbers are not wearing masks.

Just beyond I turn right into a tunnel. Guanajuato is known for its tunnels. As I understand it, they were originally built to move water under and around the City, which was previously prone to flooding. Then some greater engineering feats directed the water away from the City and the tunnels were opened up for vehicles. Anyway, this part of the drive goes through a series of tunnels. In the brief openings to sunlight, you can look to your left and see the dome tops of churches and the main basilica in the Centro. When you finally emerge entirely from the tunnels, you're hit with one of the many traffic circles in town. Figuring out who has the right of way in the circles, or glorietas, is often an art form.

There is a second, larger, glorieta before you turn off the main road, and wind your way up through a residential area, and eventually along a driveway like path to what appears to be the entryway of an abandoned, planned community. It could have been called Valenciana Heights, or something, but the developers ran out of money before a single home was built. The entryway, with what might have been intended as a guard booth is a decent place to park and stretch, though I rarely see other runners parked there.

One of the first things you notice when you park here and prepare to enter the natural area is cow turds. You get the feeling you are entering a ranch, rather than a park; and you eventually realize that the area is, indeed, used for cattle grazing.

The main trail through the park is more of a dirt road, and there is often a car or two, maybe a motorcycle or two, using the road to get to a picnic area, or possibly one of a few private properties adjoining the distant parts of the park. My usual starting place has a barrier preventing cars, but not motorcycles, from entering. The road is rocky, and I've ordered a pair of trail running shoes in hopes they will shield the bottoms of my feet better from sharp, protruding rocks. There are views of the City or of Templo la Valenciana in one or two spots, but mostly the view is of hillsides up, canyons down, and along the way, cacti, mesquite trees, and thorny bushes. The main trail is also fairly level, following, roughly, the same elevation, but curving along hillsides.

My run includes a much rougher trail that goes out and back from the main road, towards the nearby community that is possibly called Santa Ana, sitting adjacent to the Presa de la Soledad. I have run all the way up this rough trail to the paved road going into this community, but that was a bit much for me to repeat; at least regularly. The part I do run, quickly climbs up, and twists and turns along a creek where my god-son and I found a huge field of rock crystals - maybe quartz? - while exploring one afternoon. This trail catches a lot of rain water, and so it is also full of one and two foot deep chasms that would twist your foot off your ankle if you weren't careful. For quite a stretch, the brush is short and the trail moves away from the shadows of the surrounding hills, meaning that it is a brutal, upward, slog through the hot sun, dodging various hazards before you get to turn back.

I turn back at a small, flat area that appears to be used for the occasional hiking break area, and watering hole for wild animals, cattle, and horses; it is flanked by that creek and covered with a decent amount of shade. All the way back down, my knees take a beating, but the rest of the run is just about endurance. On one run, at this point, I came across a rancher moving his cattle along the narrowest part of this path. No big deal, except, I did not know how tame those cows were, some had horns and maybe they were bulls, and I had my dog with me. I stopped my run, held my dog close to me, and carefully walked down the trail. Main thing - I didn't want to freak out any horned animals; and I succeeded. Plenty of people walk through the park with their dogs, and the cows appear used to them.

Back on the main road/trail, I continue on.

At one turn, several big, beautiful, agave plants mark the area. Further along, you start to see some infrastructure: old picnic tables and park equipment; some still usable. You may start to see some families enjoying the shade of a mesquite, if not picking some of the mesquite beans to eat. I often pass the same man and boy, probably his son. The man is on horseback and the boy on a donkey. Depending on the time of day, they are either riding towards nature or towards town. A lot of people use this trail to commute - it is a kind of shortcut between two parts of town if you're on foot or on a bicycle, and many people also walk up to or down from the Presa de la Soledad area.

At the other end of the main trail is a more built up area, with a church and various businesses nearby. It is here where I see more locals walking into the park to exercise, and parking their cars to stretch and go for a jog. And sometimes I start from here as well, but I find the other end of the park a better place to rest and look over the town.

From there, I reverse course back to where I began, passing some of the same people and cows I passed before. Perhaps I'll see a roadrunner or two, or some Inca doves - definitely plenty of lizards and red wasps.

The drive home is different, since there are many one-way streets and tunnels, you can't go back the way you came. Ever. It was trying to get back home that forced me to learn some shortcuts through the tunnels. The tunnels aren't just short spans that connect one side of a hill to the other; they have intersections (no stop signs) and branch off in various directions. One way to get home from El Orito, is to drive through one of the subterranean roads that cuts through the heart of Guanajuato. In some areas, it is open to the air above, and the backs of buildings have been suspended over the roadway, possibly held up only with some, hopefully, sturdy wood planks. Eventually you turn into a fully-enclosed route, then turn left at a 4-way intersection, then right, then stay right at the Y, then right again, and finally out to the fresh air of a glorieta, simply to go almost completely around it, turned in the opposite direction, and back into a long tunnel, emerging not far from the baseball stadium mentioned before.

Guanajuato is not a big city; some might even call it a town. But it is dense, and can be hectic. The drive to and from El Orito can be smoggy, full of traffic - buses, police roadblocks, stray dogs, and pedestrians - and also confusing. My run is a welcome escape from the city, without driving miles away from the city in search of nature.

With Sanders Out, Is There A Good Reason to Vote for the Democrat in November?

The Sanders campaign finally came to an end, so there was no longer any argument to make about waiting to see what happens, or that there were still a lot of delegates to go; the only argument that remains in presidential politics, left of Fox News, is: "We Must Beat Trump," and "What About the Supreme Court?" I can't say my advice would be to vote 3rd party or just not vote, but I find it really difficult to publicly support, or even cast a ballot for the Establishment - and that is what Joe Biden represents.

I know, there is no Establishment. But, maybe we have different definitions. I don't believe the Establishment is the center of a grand conspiracy, and I don't believe its members meet in one secret location. It is simply the reflection of concentrated power in American politics. Bernie Sanders, although a U.S. senator, nevertheless built a campaign of diffuse power - lots of small donations from nurses, teachers, Uber drivers, grocery store employees ... you know ... "essential employees." The Establishment is made up of the people and institutions who have the most political power because they have access to material wealth in enormously disproportionate terms. The Establishment is mostly the largest, wealthiest industries that influence policy in Washington, and the politicians and organizations who listen to them and help them execute their agenda. The Sanders campaign railed against many of them - and you knew he meant it. This is incredibly rare for a Senator, or even a Senator's intern's cat's vet.

In the end, you can write all kinds of think pieces about why Sanders failed to win big enough early on to justify staying in this race, but if one steps back, it is kind of amazing he made it as far as he did. His campaign harshly criticized - and in some cases made it clear that President Sanders would implement policies that would do great harm to - insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, healthcare companies, defense companies, petro-chemical companies, Wal-Mart, Amazon, billionaires in general. In short, Sanders and his campaign made pretty much every powerful enemy one could make in this country.

If you think those powerful enemies were just sitting on the periphery twiddling their thumbs, and that the DNC and corporate media were just playing a fair game in the middle of all of this, then you are the dumbest person who ever lived. Are you a baby?

Then there is Joe Biden. As I say, the Establishment isn't as coordinated as it would like, and I suspect many of those within that world did not have him as their main choice for beating back Sanders and taking the nomination. But he seems particularly ill-suited for this moment.

Even before we were all locked in our homes, and morgues were above capacity, there was a crisis brewing. The economy was not, and is not, working for most people, especially younger people who have plenty of debt but don't own homes or have pensions. Australia was on fire, and much of the rest of the world was alternating between devastating fires and receding coastlines. Migration was increasingly criminalized, and ...

Oh yeah, what about the kids in cages? I'm glad liberals and centrists pay attention to such things when someone they don't like is in power, but there were children in cages when Obama was president, and if Biden, or some corporate Dem who takes his place before November, becomes president, there will be children in cages still. The argument here comes down to minimizing harm. If we elect the Democrat, there will be less suffering. And, who can argue with less suffering?

But, honestly, the water is pretty muddy here. Most notably, what about the long-term damage caused by letting the Democratic Party reset to its moderate position? The Republican Party is a lost cause, so for those of us who care about human rights and the planet, all we have as far as official, US politics is concerned, is the Democratic Party. Say what you will about Joe Biden, his party remains the political party of AOC and Ilhan Omar, and I can't imagine them existing in the Republican Party. But, if the Democratic Party is moving rightward with a Biden nomination, why give them a vote of confidence. If we overwhelmingly go out and vote for Biden, why would the never-Sanders Establishment feel the need to lift a finger for the things we care about ("we" meaning the people who want universal healthcare and a green new deal, but aren't into imperialism). Even if Biden were marginally better than Trump in the short-term, is a victory for him essentially like taking one step forward and two steps back?

Well maybe if we're talking about the meta-struggle between the left and right wings of the Democratic Party and the effect that a victory for one would have on politics long-term, but the Supreme Court throws a wrench in everything. Supreme Court justices serve for life, and that is pretty long-term. That is decades in which quite a bit could change, but the same, crusty, Trump-appointed majority could be derailing any positive change enacted by President Ocasio-Cortez's successor.

Sadly, this is a tough one. It is, probably the most compelling reason for me to vote Democrat (if I lived in a swing state). But, there are two major problems with it.

First, it is not new, and it is always, conveniently, an urgent matter. Perhaps if, some day, progressives have a solid 6 or 7 justices on the Court, all in their 30's, we won't hear this argument anymore; but there is always a chance that one or more progressive justices are going to die or retire, and there is always a reason to ensure that the Court doesn't move in the conservative direction, even by a single justice. So there will always be a reason for centrists and the Democratic Establishment to shame the left as they put forward another third-way, conservative by global standards, careerist, as our only hope to stop fascism. It is an argument I've heard all my life, especially when Ralph Nader was running promising campaigns with the Green Party. If you have any hope of political change by electoral means, this argument will always be the cudgel for the status quo - so either stop caring about that kind of change or ignore this argument.

The second problem with the Supreme Court argument, is that it is uninspiring. It's the old, "Vote Your Hopes, Not Your Fears," in reverse. And yes, I'm familiar with the retort: "the Supreme Court makes life or death decisions for millions of people, so fuck you if you need to be inspired." But the inspiration I'm talking about is not the tingly feeling you get when you see a good movie, or the awe you feel when you see someone on the street you've only seen before on TV. I mean the inspiration you feel when you see a path to a better world.

It is a feeling I had for a couple of weeks when Sanders was doing well; it's also a feeling I've had whenever I witness, or am part of, a powerful movement for social change - the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, for example. I've never met Bernie Sanders. He seems like a genuinely decent person, which was a big part of his appeal. But I could care less if he became president, or a half-eaten bag of potato chips became president, if it meant that someone (or something) was going to fight for policies (and their corresponding values) I care about from a position of political power. I could care less about the person running, if I thought their victory might bring incredible, positive political change. That's the inspiration I'm talking about - the feeling one gets when they feel that something could improve in a big, sweeping way, not just for them but for millions if not billions of people. That inspiration is so rare; and it doesn't come in the form of "vote against someone who will appoint bad justices to the Supreme Court (and will likely succeed in doing so even if the Democratic Party wins back the Senate)."

So, yes, if you live in a swing state, you should probably vote for the Democrat in November. But here's the inspiring message for a possible Biden (or Cuomo?) win: He will be terrible, as expected, but they generally all are. I have thoughts about why meaningful protests have not been very successful with Trump in power. One of those thoughts is that a lot of us feel somewhat powerless as it seems unlikely such protests would have much effect on his administration. Like an undisciplined child, he seems to not distinguish between good attention and bad attention. With a Democrat in the White House, especially the typical kind who care about their legacy, or something, activists have no excuse. The two biggest American social movements post-Iraq war - Occupy Wall Street and Black Live Matter - happened when Obama was in office.

Ultimately, that is probably the best argument for voting Democrat 98% of the time - they suck and they don't really care about you, but they care about looking like they care about you, and Republicans do not. Centrist Democrats can be more easily shamed into doing what is right, in spite of their membership in the Establishment club.

But damn, we could have had one who really cared.