I’m again in the San Francisco Bay Area, visiting family and friends and taking care of the odds and ends of still maintaining a presence here, while living in Oaxaca. We’ve had clear blue skies and sun and, except for the high-speed pace and exorbitant price of food, it “almost” feels like home. Hey, I even bought some resin chairs for my son’s backyard and ate some of the best Mexican food ever (in the USA) at Doña Tomás in Oakland. (FYI: The Callos con Sopa de Elote — puréed corn soup with seared day boat scallops and fingerling potatoes, roasted poblano chiles and cilantro, served with arroz achiote — was divine.)
To also keep from getting too homesick for Oaxaca, there are a currently a couple of exhibits in San Francisco I plan to see while here. I found out about The Magic Surrealists of Oaxaca, Mexico from the Oaxacan surrealism hits the SF Mexican consulate article in the SFBG, which explains…
The Zapotec identity … is one of the unifiers of the exhibit, which contains the works of not only [Rufino] Tamayo and [Francisco] Toledo but also artists who were inspired by their work like Justina Fuentes Zárate, she of the reclining mermaid and arresting red dress. Perhaps the works don’t look similar, but they represent the diversity and breadth of the work to come out of the surrealist Zapotec tradition in Oaxaca.
And, then I read the NPR story, In Mexico, Mixed Genders And ‘Muxes’, about a Galería de la Raza exhibit.
Searching for Queertopia revisits the experiences of Alexander Hernandez’s participation and Neil Rivas’ visual documentation of what is called, the Vela de ‘Las Intrépidas.’ This event, a 3-day celebration, is held annually in the town of Juchitán de Zaragoza, Oaxaca, México, in honor of its Muxe community.
Hmmm… maybe I’ll take the ferry over to “The City” tomorrow.
Sounds great. the Bay Area has so much culture to offer. I will pass on the restaurant rec to Hank and Ellen. If the 1968 exhibit is still at the Oakland Museum I highly recommend it. It was curated in Minnesota.
Thanks for the tip about Dona Tomas restaurant. I’ll be in the BayArea – also my previous home – in July. So I hope some of these exhibits are still around. Funny – to have to come all the way to CA to get a hit of Oaxaca – Must be the huge Oaxacan immigrant community that helps drive these exhibits. There was a truly a full on Guelaquetza in Santa Cruz last month. VIVA Oaxaca!
i just stumbled across your blog, it’s great! i too am in CA, just much further south (SD)… and will be returning to Oaxaca for a few months. I am doing some research (which I’m more then willing to discuss further), but would be interested in interviewing you. Email me if you’re interested. Thank you tons! Kat
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