The First Trip to Cherán

Some say things happen for a reason, some say we create our own destiny. Maybe it’s both…

People from several parts of the world gathered for one purpose, help those in their suffering, releasing them from the illusion imposed with the only purpose of control, everything through peace and love. This time, the mission was to go into the mountains and forests of the state of Michoacán, among the clouds and blue skies, to the little town of Cherán, a small community that kicked out government and cartel or, in other words, organized crime.

By doing so, the people of Cherán provided one of the most important tools needed to achieve liberty, courage, courage necessary to stand against oppressors, courage that dilutes fear and leads to the freedom to live life in any way. The ones who gathered wanted one thing, provide the path for this courage to be shared with the world so everyone could know that liberty can be achieved if they rely on this same courage.

The mission began in an afternoon in the pink stone city of Morelia, Jeff Berwick arrived accompanied by his wife Kena and his good friend Luke Rudkowski. Along with them was Chris Harrigan with his big camera, and there, they met Roy Duarte.

After meeting and enjoying a nice dinner and drinks in Morelia, on Monday, the whole crew headed to Cheran for a meeting with a local town elder and academic. On the way we found ourselves with stunning forests, lakes and mountains, the view was filled with a mixture of green, deep blue and white from puffy clouds. On the way from Morelia to Cheran there are a few other autonomous towns that followed Cherans lead to independence, there was something that could be felt, peace and tranquility, despite all danger warnings from government and media. Then, we arrived to Cheran, we knew so in the very moment in which we spotted an entrance checkpoint in which voluntary soldiers from the town where checking no politicians, government officials or cartel people tried to sneak inside. Once they saw two cars filled with gringos with cameras, they knew we were not the enemy, they even let us take some footage and do an interview next to them, very polite and very nice people.

Once we finished with the footage, we proceeded to head into the town, as we went closer into the center, we could see walls filled with colorful and complex murals sharing the story and culture of Cheran, next to these pieces of art, there was people passing by, greeting by waving the hand, kids smiling and playing, everything while Luke and Chris were filming it out.

Once we parked there was something we all had to do, EAT! So we tried out some "carnitas" tacos in one of the little stands that were next to a plaza in the town center. Everyone agreed on something when it came to the tacos, they were delicious!

In the middle of our enjoyment, a smiling man approaches looking for the ones who wanted to interview him, he knew the crew filled with gringos would be the one. This smiling man was the respected town elder known as “Tatá Meche”, after greeting and introducing each one of us, he kindly invited us to his house to proceed with the interviews. Politely, Tata invited us to come into a library he created, filled with books telling the story of the purhépecha people, then we continued the meeting asking some questions and him replying each one of them with high enthusiasm and pride, since most of the answers were about his people and their strength, for us, he was the voice of the past events his people went through, and for us, this people is the beginning of a movement that could take place worldwide, a movement of independence, freedom and anarchy.