Posted in Buildings, Churches, Religion, Travel & Tourism, tagged church bells, Iglesia de la Asunción de Nuestra Señora, Mexico, Oaxaca, Parroquia de San Juan de Dios, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, Templo de San Cosme y San Damian, Templo del Carmen Bajo, Tlacolula de Matamoros on June 28, 2014| 2 Comments »
Awaking to the sounds of church bells chiming. I must be back in Oaxaca.
Templo del Carmen Bajo, Oaxaca de Juárez
Iglesia de la Asunción de Nuestra Señora, Tlacolula de Matamoros
Parroquia de San Juan de Dios, Oaxaca de Juárez
Church somewhere between San Baltazar Chichicapam and Oaxaca de Juárez
Anyone know the name and location of this church? I think maybe I should turn on my camera’s GPS!
And, just one more…
Templo de San Cosme y San Damian, Oaxaca de Juárez
Posted in Creativity, Culture, Signs, Travel & Tourism, tagged California, Mexico, Mill Valley, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, sculptures, street art, street signs, urban art, wall art, Zio Ziegler on June 25, 2014| 9 Comments »
It’s been a great visit to Mill Valley, California, the town where I grew up and lived most of my life. But, I’m ready to return to Oaxaca. However, besides differences in latitude and attitude, there is much they have in common.
There are sculptures in public places (click on each to enlarge image)…
There are murals…
There are depictions of aquatic animals…
AND, there are signs reminding drivers to wait and take turns. Remember my What’s easy??? post from last week? Look what just went up in Mill Valley. Discourteous drivers know no boundaries!
Rather than dwelling on the differences — which I did when I first began living this dual-country life — I now choose to appreciate the similarities. Of course it doesn’t hurt that both places are situated in beautiful settings, fresh fruits and vegetables abound, have relatively mild climates, and an appreciation for the arts.
And so… I bid a fond “adiós” to Mill Valley and “hola” to Oaxaca.
Posted in Celebrations, Culture, Holidays, Travel & Tourism, tagged Baile de Los Viejitos, Between, Carnaval, Carnival, Dance of the Old Men, Holy Week, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, Semana Santa, Teotitlán del Valle on June 21, 2014| 4 Comments »
Tête-à-tête between Viejitos (I know, I’m mixing languages), seen between the shoulders of two municipal leaders, on the Municipal Plaza in Teotitlán del Valle during this year’s previously mentioned Carnaval.
Posted in Culture, Signs, Travel & Tourism, tagged Calle Berriozábal, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, street signs, uno x uno on June 19, 2014| 9 Comments »
One by one…
These signs cropped up last month on a number of streets in Oaxaca. I saw this one on Calle Berriozábal near the Alcalá. But, I’m confused… What’s easy??? Certainly not dealing with the health insurance industry in the US. I am SO ready to return to Oaxaca!
Posted in Culture, People, Sports & Recreation, tagged Copa Mundial 2014, El Tri, fútbol, Guillermo Ochoa, Memo Ochoa, Mexico, Mexico vs. Brazil, Mexico-Brazil, soccer, Sweetwater Music Hall, World Cup 2014 on June 17, 2014| 6 Comments »
This afternoon, the headline of Noticias announced, “Oaxaca paralyzed by Mexico-Brazil match.” It goes on to report that zócalo restaurants offered drink promotions and there were cries, sighs, applause, and prayers as people were glued to the TV monitors and their mobile devices.
I, too, have caught World Cup fever. I’m relatively new to fútbol/soccer (my sons played American football), but began learning during Mexico’s march to the Gold during the summer Olympics two years ago.
Still in California, today I was one of the Millions of U.S. Soccer Fans … Cheering for Mexico. Friday, I watched Mexico’s 1-0 (should have been, 3-0) defeat of Cameroon by myself, albeit from the comfort of my younger son’s living room (he was at work). However, for today’s match against Brazil, I headed to Sweetwater Music Hall and their ginormous screen.
It was a full house and cries, sighs, applause, and prayers were evident there, too. I’d say the crowd was 60-40 for Mexico, though some of the Brazilian contingent was particularly vocal. Our (El Tri’s fans) hopes rose when Chicharito FINALLY came into the game, but in the end, the score remained nil-nil. No scoring? No, but it was a great game and Mexico’s goalkeeper Memo Ochoa played the game of his life.
Immediately following the game, Memes Hail Guillermo ‘Memo’ Ochoa’s Remarkable Saves for Mexico vs. Brazil. I was going to try to add to it, by putting his face on an airborne Moctezuma during Danza de la Pluma, but I don’t have Photoshop on this computer. Anybody? Chris???
¡¡¡ #VamosMexico !!!
Posted in Celebrations, Holidays, Travel & Tourism, tagged Día del Padre, Father's Day, fathers and children, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations on June 15, 2014| 6 Comments »
Posted in Celebrations, Culture, Holidays, Travel & Tourism, tagged Baile de Los Viejitos, Carnaval, Carnival, Dance of the Old Men, Holy Week, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, Semana Santa, Teotitlán del Valle on June 12, 2014| 3 Comments »
True confession: I’m not in Oaxaca! I arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area a week ago for a 3-week visit. While I love seeing family, friends, “my” mountain (Mt. Tamalpais), and the Pacific Ocean, it also means bone-chilling summer fog, driving instead of walking most everywhere, and the absence of my regular blog fodder — no calendas, ferias, festivals, saints days, bandas, and urban art. (Though, I will probably head to San Francisco for the latter!)
However, this break-in-the-action gives me time to look back through thousands of photos and create posts that had been put on the back-burner when something bigger, better, or more timely cropped up.
So, here we go, back to Friday, April 24, 2014 — the last of five days of Carnaval in Teotitlán del Valle.
While there are masks, costumes, men dressed as women, and merriment, this is not your Christian pre-Lenten Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras Carnival.
This is a pre-Hispanic celebration that happens the Monday through Friday after Easter, not before Lent.
Via El Baile de Los Viejitos (the Dance of the Old Men), it brings the community and elected leadership together to remind each of their social contract — in an extremely humorous way.
A procession, gathering participants along the way, leads to the Municipal Plaza, where it seems as if the entire village assembles.
And, of course, the dance and ritual continue late into the night…
Posted in Buildings, Creativity, Culture, Signs, Travel & Tourism, tagged abandoned buildings, artists, buildings, dangerous, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, SCOM, street art, urban art graffiti, wall art on June 8, 2014| 6 Comments »
The “buildings in a bad state” in Oaxaca continue to multiply.
Where some see unsightly decay, others see opportunity…
including urban artist, SCOM.
Posted in Agriculture, Casita Colibrí, Gardens, Science & Nature, Travel & Tourism, tagged cactus, Dragon fruit, flowers, garden, Hylocereus undatus, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, Pitahaya, succulents on June 4, 2014| 16 Comments »
Several mornings ago, after a day and night of rain, I went out on the terrace to check on the garden and found…
Yikes, one of my Pitahaya (Hylocereus undatus – aka, Dragon fruit) had bloomed overnight! Must be a relative of my other Night Blooming Cereus.
Two years ago, the original cuttings had been laying in the campo of a friend in San Martín Tilcajete. When Chris (Oaxaca-The Year After) asked if we could have some, the answer was, “¡Por supuesto!” Loving the wall of Pitahaya at Centro Académico y Cultural San Pablo, six months later, with the original five cuttings becoming fifteen, I could use them to begin to screen the chain link fence at the new Casita Colibrí. I kept pruning and sticking them in the planter boxes.
June 2, 2014, 8:40 AM
And now, they have begun blooming. Having missed the “night-blooming” of my first flower, I was determined not to miss the unfolding of the second blossom, seen above near the top of the pole, providing the weather cooperated. It did!
June 2, 2014, 7:20 PM
June 2, 2014, 8:40 PM
June 2, 2014, 11:00 PM
By the next day, it had closed, never to reopen again.
June 2, 2014, 2:54 PM
However, there will be fruit…
Posted in Culture, Food, Travel & Tourism, Weather, tagged chicatanas, culinary traditions, food, insects, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, salsa, tzicatana, video on June 1, 2014| 12 Comments »
The rainy season has definitely arrived in the city, bringing several hours of lluvia every night for the past five nights. The first rains of the season also bring (drum roll, please) chicatanas! Early this morning, I went out onto the terrace with my coffee to be greeted with these not-so-little insects. Flying (into my hair, eeek!) and crawling all over the place!
Female chicatana on a very wet table.
What, you may ask are chicatanas? They are giant flying ants that emerge with the first rains of the season — and by giant, I mean about 4 cm from the head to the tip of the wings for the females. (As in much of the insect world, males are smaller and wingless.)
Male chicatana on the deck.
This occurs early one morning each year and lasts only a few hours. My first experience with them was a couple of years ago, when I arrived at Oaxaca’s airport for my 8:30 AM flight one May morning, to find, yikes(!) an infestation of insects. I had no idea what they were, but nobody seemed to mind, and kids were running around collecting them. The answer came after I boarded the plane and began talking with a Oaxaqueña across the aisle. She explained that the arrival of the chicatanas was a much-anticipated event because they are a delicacy. As the video below documents, they are soaked, cleaned, toasted on a comal, ground, seasoned, and made into a salsa.
According to this post in a Chicago based culinary chat site, it has been almost “500 years since Bernardino de Sahagun reported to Europe on the tzicatana [chicatana in Nahuatl] in his Nueva Historia, from its divine associations to its swarm ethology (mirroring the movements of the Aztecan armies) to its apparent deliciousness to the Nahuan-speaking people in the region.” And, long before that, tzicatanas were mentioned in the Florentine Codex.
Female chicatana doing the back stroke on the table.
By 9:30 this morning, they were gone. However, should you find yourself in Oaxaca during a brief visit by the chicatanas, here is a recipe for Chicatana Salsa.
Mexican Peso Converter
View From Casita Colibrí 
Heart and soul
Posted in Creativity, Culture, Economics, Politics, Protests, Sports & Recreation, tagged Copa Mundial 2014, El Tri, fútbol, Francisco Goldman, graffiti, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, political commentary, soccer, street art, urban art, World Cup 2014 on June 23, 2014| 4 Comments »
What a game; three goals in 10 minutes in the second half!!! Another thrilling win by El Tri advances Mexico to the next stage in World Cup 2014. They struggled and needed a little help from their “friends” in el norte to even play in Brazil. However, against all odds, this team exhibits a gutsy and tenacious heart and soul that can’t help but have people rooting for them — much like the country of Mexico, itself.
Mural under fútbol stadium in Oaxaca – Dec. 2012
Francisco Goldman wrote an op-ed in yesterday’s New York Times. His article, “Fooling Mexican Fans,” relates the current politics of Mexico, the “bread and circuses” diversion of the World Cup, and the notion that El Tri might exemplify all that is inspiring and hopeful in the Mexican national character.
Goldman’s op-ed begins…
The day before the Mexican soccer team’s thrilling underdog tie with the World Cup favorite, Brazil, last week, the lead editorial of the news site SinEmbargo was titled, “Ready for your Clamato and Gatorade?” — common hangover remedies. “In about three weeks, when you wake from your World Cup dreams,” the editors wrote, “remember that when the soccer fest began, the country was on the verge of monumental decisions. If upon waking, you realize that the country’s energy reserves have been cheaply sold off or whatever else, don’t bother protesting because this is a chronicle foretold.”
To debate and pass laws that could open Pemex, the nationalized oil company, to foreign investment, the Mexican Congress scheduled legislative sessions from June 10 to 23, dates precisely coinciding with you know what. Final passage might be pushed back, but it originally looked like it was supposed to happen on Monday, when Mexico plays Croatia to decide which country advances to the elimination rounds.
As I wrote previously, Mexicans have been Expressing the outrage since last year, when Mexico’s newly elected president Enrique Peña Nieto (initials EPN), from the PRI party, first made the Pemex energy “reform” proposal.
Graffiti seen on a wall south of Oaxaca’s zócalo, May 23, 2014.
Goldman goes on to discuss this and other “reforms,” the role of the PRI, and the current overall political climate in Mexico. However, as dismal as it all sounds, he ends on a hopeful note…
There has been much talk lately about the way the style of soccer teams manifests national characters. I don’t know if that’s true. But when I look at the Mexican team which, after barely even qualifying for the World Cup, has been playing so well, I see a team without stars — a gritty, hard-working, pretty humble, resourceful, creative, disciplined, joyous, friendly-seeming group of players who seem to be learning to play the game as it is meant to be played.
These are values that we see enacted and re-enacted all over Mexico, and in Mexican communities elsewhere, every day. Someday Mexico will get another chance to vote the PRI away and to restart the long process of building the country from the ground up. It could do worse than take some inspiration from its national team.
Absolutely, those are the values I, too, see exhibited in Mexican communities both in Mexico and the US. There is hope for the future — and not just on the pitch! I encourage you to read Goldman’s op-ed in full. In the meantime, Mexico vs. Netherlands on Sunday at Estadio Castelao Forteleza. ¡¡¡ VAMOS EL TRI !!!
h/t K Hackbarth for the article
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