Bike Stencils, BiciMakinas (Pedal-Powered Tools) in Guadalajara

On the wall at the Second Annual Congress on Urban Cycling, Guadalajara, Mexico, Sept. 19, 2009.

I will put up a real report tomorrow or the day after. Had a great time at the 2nd annual Congress on Urban Cycling here in Guadalajara the past 3 days. Much to report on, including posting my talk that I managed to deliver in Spanish! All to come…. for now, I just wanted to put up these great stencils and save the rest for later… These images were painted by the great folks from CACITA (Centro Autonomo para la Creacion Intercultural de Tecnologias Apropriadas) who are from Oaxaca, where they’ve developed a whole range of amazing pedal-powered machines.

A bicycle-powered food processor!

Bici Licuadora (blender) for raffle at the Congress.

Bici Licuadora in Stencil...

Pedal-powered tortilla factory! (with Adriana!)

"Bici LavaRopa" or pedal-powered clothes washer!

The "desgranadora" which makes corn meal from corn.

Knife sharpener

Pedal-powered lathe, or tool maker.

“CACITA is a political project. We promote the use of appropriate technologies because we believe that it’s not enough to simply create alternatives to the regime of the technological imperative to achieve a transformation. We note that frequently the things called “alternative”  are just other ways of maintaining the state of things…. We believe it is important to learn, implement, reproduce and innovate the techniques that will be ecologically sensible, but also socially just,  culturally adaptable,  economically accessible, and to the extent possible, technically reproducible.”

More to come tomorrow!

Heleana (Quito, Ecuador), Jorge (Aguascalientes, Mexico), Mariana (Mexico City), me, Jesus (Mexico City) and Bob (Ensenada and Oakland).