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A member of the microcredit co-operative in Queretaro, and village children. Photos: Ca te Ken nedy
world and the characters she breathes so
much life into. But in the first chapter of
Sing, and Don't Cry the author writes:
'It's h ard not to feel a bit like an amateur
anthropologist, observing these vast cultural
eccentricities.'
Yet it is her observations, h er reflections
on Mexican culture and her com ­
parisons with Australian culture, her dry
humour, her poetic and at times earthy
Australian expression that m ake Sing,
and Don't Cry such a refreshing read.
At one point she refers to an Oxfam
study in which people from URAC microcredit
project were asked to rate them ­
selves in a wealth-ranking exercise.
The context is rural Mexico, only a
few years after the introduction of the
North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA), and in spite of all the promises,
poverty for the majority of campesinos has
increased. On the questionnaire URAC
respondents invented three categories
in which they identified their financial
insecurity, and placed themselves in one
of them: those who've got it, the grounddown
and the buggered.
Kennedy writes:
There's a few families around who've 'got
it'-usually those who have relatives in the
States sending them money. If you've 'got it'
you're not exactl y sipping cocktails by the
pool, of course. It mea ns you have a stove
you run on gas, a house with a few rooms,
and indoor plumbing. There's an OK ratio
in your family of workers to dependents.
Most people, to use the blunt but unsentimental
terms of the respondents, are
ground down and buggered.
You get the picture-vividly. But this
is only part of the story. It is the resilience
of the people that inspires Kennedy, and
the way they continue to celebrate life.
At a community fiesta, Kennedy asks
a woman why they 'squander' money on
fireworks, 'instead of putting it aside for
next year's crop, or saving it for em ergencies'
'Well, just for the beauty of it.'
'But it's all over in five minutes,'
Kennedy says, 'all gone.'
'Yes,' the woman replies, 'but you're
here, aren't you'
'These people survive on so little, and
yet they create a whole life, a whole world,
with it.' And this is what causes Kennedy
to refl ect on the currency of her culture,
one in which economics and profit have a
higher priority than community, participation
and relationships.
The scenes and the whole way of life
described in Sing, and Don't Cry-the
town square, tortillas, conflict, community
meetings, dancing, cactus, celebrations
and fiestas, stray dogs, the children,
as well as the complexity of social and
economic woes- bring Mexico richly to
life on the page, particularly as the author
moves from outsider to participant.
Perhaps it is because Kennedy so
admires this vibrant 'developing world'
culture, one that reminds her 'of what our
culture had but has forgotten', that returning
home to Australia has, at times, been
such hard work.
Kennedy has so m any stories to tell,
and such a hearty laugh to accompany the
telling, that you suspect the book could
have been twice the size.
Here's a story that isn't in the book.
It's December. Kennedy has been working
six months in Mexico. She's told, in such
rapid-fire language that she grasps only a
couple of key words, to make an anuncio
de nacimiento. She figures that's a birth
announcement to be hung in the office. 'But
who's had the baby' she asks a co-worker.
'Jose, Maria y Jesus,' she's told. 'Which
community are they from' Her colleague
stares at her as if she's crazy. 'From Bethlehem,
of course!'
While Kennedy admits how difficult
returning to Australia has been, she also
stresses that the whole Mexican sojourn
and the time after it back in Australia
opened up a precious space-for reflection,
for imagining, for writing.
It certainly has provided fertile ground
for her literary creativity, and when I ask
why, Kennedy responds: 'I think to be a
writer or any kind of artist, you need to be
outside your comfort zone, to see things
with fresh eyes. And most of us are much
too comfortable to do this voluntarily.
People often tell m e they started to write
after a crisis in their life ... They had to
write to make sense of it. I'd never felt this
before. But after Mexico ... I had so much I
wanted to say, so much I wanted to share,
no audience with whom to share it.'
When Barry Scott-of Transit Lounge
Publishing, a small independent publisher
specialising in 'creative works that give
voice to Australian connections to the
wider world'-asked if Kennedy h ad anything
to suit, she responded positively.
Scott said that what drew him to
Kennedy's work was the way she writes
so beautifully with respect, honesty, and
humour; that this book engages with the
wider world, and challenges our priorities.
Sing, and Don't Cry is a book with
spine, a delightful read that will leave you
with something to think about. •
Sing, and Don't Cry: A Mexican Journal,
Cate Kennedy. Transit Lounge, 2005.
ISBN Q 975 02281 4, RRP $29.95.
Michele M. Gierck is a freelance writer.
NOVEMBER- DECEMBER 2005 EUREKA STREET 25