Visiting

Visitors and members sharing a relaxing moment of community life. In the picture: Timo, José, Pablo, Hanna, Eli, Carolina and José Luis.

Thank for your interest in visiting

Los Horcones community

welcomes people from all over the world.

WE INVITE YOU TO ATTEND WALDEN 2 WEEK

April 11-20, 2003

Information

Los Horcones is a small culture because our cultural practices (family, education, economy, government, etc) are different from other cultures, e.g. Western culture.

To know a culture is not just a matter of visiting it for some days. It is also necessary to leave aside our etnocentric attitude while living and trying to understand the culture we are visiting. It is important not trying to judge the culture we visit from the standpoint of our culture of origin.

When visitors come to Los Horcones, we expect them to participate in our everyday communal life. It is very reinforcing (pleasant) to us most of the time interacting with community members because in this way she/she can know the community through its members. However sometimes visitors tend to isolate themselves from community members. This behavior is observed mostly in visitors who do not speak spanish, however language does not seem to be the problem since most members speak English and other visitors have been able to relate with the members.

Please do not consider that you understood what Los Horcones is merely for spending a few days visiting.

Some members of Los Horcones with Gunn and Geir a couple of visitors from Norway.

There are various visiting possibilities:

Short visits

• Individual or family visits. You can drop in without notice, alone or accompanied by family or friends for a brief visit. A member of the community will show you around Los Horcones and explain you briefly about our objectives and functioning. If you are interested in obtaining more detailed information you can make an appointment or ask to be included on a list to be invited to a conference or workshop about Los Horcones. We have a small store where we sell our natural food products, arts and crafts. We also sell commercial refreshments and snacks. Saturdays and Sundays are the days you can find a guide to tour the community.
• Group visits. Groups from schools, associations, etc. who want to visit for a few hours are welcome. We have various programs available, you can find information about them at Group Visits .

Weekend visits

• Individual or family visits. You can spend a weekend at Los Horcones and be able to get involved in some of the activities with the members. For example, helping in communal work, eating in the communal dinning room, participating in a recreational o cultural activity. The community provides room and three meals for a fee. You need to bring your clothes and personal items.
• Group visits. Groups from schools, associations, etc. who want to visit for the weekend are welcome. We have various programs available you can find information about them at Group Visits .

One or Two Week visits

People interested in knowing the community can stay here a week or two. Visitors pay a daily fee for food and room. They participate in the community's work and in our cultural and recreational activities.Visitors pay for their expenses other than the meals and room provided by the community. Since visitors do not take the responsibilities members have taken and thus are not entitled to share the same rights or benefits. Visitors need to bring their own clothes, personal items and sleeping bag. Visitors keep all their property private.

Omar y Edgardo, visiting from Oaxaca in Walden Two Week 2002.

Extended visits:

People who for some reason need to spend more than a couple of weeks living in the community without having an interest in joining, live here as extended visitors. Extended visitors also pay a daily fee* participate in community activities and are invited to some of the meetings where they can present proposals and make questions. They participate in most of the cultural and recreational activities of the community. Extended visitors have not acquire responsibilities and thus do not have the same rights. Extended visitors keep their own private property (clothing, books, etc). Although they could share or donate to the community what they want.

* Extended visitors can request a reduction or elimination of their fee for exchange of more labor hours. This is possible specially when the visitor already has skills the community could use.

Every visitor participates in community work.	A visitor helping to repair the roof.

REQUISITES FOR VISITORS

There are 4 requisites for visitors (except for brief visits).

1. Please make previous arrangements for your visit. Include the following information:

• Name and telephone or e-mail
• City, state, country
• Occupation
• Possible date of your visit
• Duration of your visit
• Total number of people coming
• Reasons for visiting

  Contact us by e-mail or telephone at:

or call (52) (662) (214-72-19) in Hermosillo

or (52) (662) (2638308) at Los Horcones

2. To contribute with a daily fee according to the category of your visit. Since this fee varies we will inform you about it when you request visiting.

3. Wait for our answer. We will gladly answer you and tell you if those dates are appropriate for us (if not, we will suggest others), the current fee for visitors, how many hours they will be expected to help in community work, and other pertinent information.

4. Contact us one or two weeks before you come to confirm the date please. In case your planns or date change please let us know as soon as you can since some of our planns also change according to the visitors we expect.

Note. See information on how to get to Los Horcones, see Directions

Please remember Los Horcones is not based on the novel Walden Two but rather it is based on the science of behavior. This was the science in which Skinner based his novel. We are not following Skinner's ideas expressed in his novel. We are not a community inspired in the novel, but on the Science of Behavior and its philosophy, Radical Behaviorism .

We suggest to see: Admission

Frequent questions asked about visiting

1. Are you open to visitors?

Of course. We want people to visit and learn about Los Horcones as an alternative society. We want to grow.

2. Can I take my children along when I visit?

Yes you can, just mention it.

3. Will the community take care of my children during my visit?

No, visiting parents are responsible for taking care of their children while they visit. Of course your children can play and participate in activities with the children who live in Los Horcones. Visiting children sleep with they parents.

4. Can I bring my pet along?

We love pets and have lots of them. However, sometimes when visitors bring uneducated pets, we have problems because they destroy plants, fight with our dogs, chase the chickens and pigeons, litter, etc.If your pet is educated and you can make sure it does not get into trouble and it sleeps with you, we can accept it. In such case, let us know in advance.

5. Are marijuana and other illegal drugs allowed?

No. Any visitor who use it or simply possess it while in the community,will be asked to leave.

6. Is it allowed to drink alcoholic beverages?

Sometimes we accompany a special meal or a celebration with beer or wine. Visitors can bring wine or beer to share it with the group on a special occasion to drink in moderation. However drinking on a daily basis, inviting other members to drink (specially those who are trying to eliminate drinking as a habit) or drinking in excess can be a reason for being asked to leave the community.

7. Is smoking allowed?

All visitors can smoke. W just ask them to smoke outside of the buildings. W also ask them not to invite others who are trying to quit smoking, preferably not to smoke in their presence or in meetings.

8. As a visitor am I allowed to give suggestions or make proposals?

Yes, we have a Personocratic Government open to the participation of all the people living in the community. Visitors are invited to some of our meetings.

9. Can I take pictures and record with a video camera?

You need to ask for permission in both cases.

10. While I am spending some time in the community can I travel around?

You can go to the city or nearby towns for a day but we prefer you focus here a period of time and afterwards travel around the country. In this way you get to know the community.

11. Can I make phone calls from the community?

Presently we have a cellular phone in Los Horcones which we use mainly for emergencies. For less urgent calls you can call from Hermosillo.

12. Can I pay my visitors fee with the work I do for the community?

In Los Horcones, this aspect is different from other intentional communities, since we do not have the work-exchange-for-fee as a continuous opportunity. However,the community can make some exceptions under particular circumstances and accept someone who has no possibility to pay and are skillfull enoush to work productively in the community and oay their daily fee with extra work. There are occassions when people we already know (who have been here before) come to volonteer in some project or to share their skills or knowledge.

Please before requesting a fee excemption or reduction, consider that every community visitor (who pay the daily fee) also participate in community work. as an opportunity to be exposed to this experience and relate with the members who spend a large part of the day working. Sometimes it happens that those persons who want to work extra time to pay for their fee do not have the skills the community needs at that moment. For example they know hoe to teach but do not speak Spanish or can direct and orchestra but there are no musicians here, etc. Also sometimes it take time for visitors to learn the ways in which a particular work is done here to be effective. In those cases the type of work a visitor do is barely enough to cover his/her expenses. As we said it before, when a visitor has skills, he/she soon can request a reduction or excemption of the fee.

Questions and comments to:

Last up-date: January, 2003

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