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Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

Walls of Oaxaca

Posted in Creativity, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged art, graffiti, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, stickers, street art, urban art, wall art on April 24, 2016| Leave a Comment »

The murals may be disappearing, but the walls of Oaxaca continue to radiate with messages.

Oaxaca, never a dull moment and never a dull wall.

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Women of red clay

Posted in Creativity, Culture, Markets, Travel & Tourism, tagged barro, Festival de la Nieve Mezcal Gastronomía, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, pottery, San Marcos Tlapazola, Tlacolula de Matamoros on April 22, 2016| 3 Comments »

A few weeks ago, blogger buddy Chris and I returned to Tlacolula de Matamoros for the 5th annual Festival de la Nieve, Mezcal, Gastronomía. Besides yummy food, ice creams, and drink there were vendors of textiles, baskets, and barro.

These are the women of San Marcos Tlapazola and their elegant and functional pottery. I already have several oft used pieces, including a comal. However, the girl in the red dress and blue apron above, talked me into a little salsa dish. How could I resist?

You can always find these women of red clay selling their wares on Sunday market day in Tlacolula and, if you are in the market for a comal, they stroll the aisles of the Mercado Benito Juárez in Oaxaca city almost everyday. That’s where I got mine!

And, if you want to see these gals in action, check out the video Mujeresdelbarrorojo.

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Those ubiquitous tinacos

Posted in Buildings, Creativity, Environment, Gardens, Travel & Tourism, tagged art, Mexico, Oaxaca, painted tanks, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, tinaco, water delivery system on April 11, 2016| 8 Comments »

Old school…

New school…

Art school…

For those dying to know what the heck a tinaco is and how the water system in Mexico works:

At my apartment complex, municipal water is regularly (or, not so regularly — as the case may be) delivered though a pipe under the street into a cistern (storage tank) located under our driveway); a bomba (pump) is run daily for an hour (más o menos) to bring water from the cistern up into tinacos sitting on the various rooftops of the complex. In case you are worried, float valves keep them from overflowing (most of the time). When we turn on the tap, courtesy of gravity, water flows (or dribbles) from the tinaco into and through our faucets. ¡Ojala!

By the way, drinking water is a completely different story…

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All against Dengue

Posted in Creativity, Culture, Health, Signs, Travel & Tourism, tagged Chikungunya, community education, Dengue, Dengue vaccine, education, health, Mexico, mosquitoes, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, wall art, Zika on April 4, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Mosquito borne diseases like Dengue, Chikungunya, and Zika continue to plague the planet. Today’s good news is a Dengue vaccine proves 100% effective in human trials. Let’s hope so!

In the meantime, understand the life cycle of mosquitoes and follow the instructions on a wall in Tlacolula de Matamoros…

Wash, cover, turn over, and eliminate!

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Semana Santa begins

Posted in Celebrations, Creativity, Culture, Holidays, Religion, Travel & Tourism, tagged animal figurines, Chia Pets, Día de la virgen de Dolores, Holy Week, Mexico, Oaxaca, papel picado, photographs, photos, Semana Santa, virgen de dolores, Virgin of Sorrows on March 19, 2016| Leave a Comment »

While technically Semana Santa (Holy Week) doesn’t begin until Sunday, the six weeks of Lent has gently ushered us toward it. Tourists, a majority from other parts of Mexico, have begun filling the streets, purple and white papel picado flutters from on high, and an artisan market has been set up on the Alcala, above Santo Domingo.

Salvia Hispanica (aka, chia) sprouting from terracotta clay animals decorates altars — seeds which were blessed on February 2 (Feast of Candelaria). According to an article in MexConnect, “Growing greens remind the viewer of the resurrection and renewal of life.” By the way, this is where the US entrepreneur who borrowed (stole) the idea and, in the late 1970s, gave the world “chia pets.”

And yesterday, the 6th Friday of Lent, El Día de la Virgen de Dolores (the Virgin of the Sorrows) was celebrated. Her tearful eyes looking to the heavens in anguished sorrow.

Tomorrow is Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday) and El Señor del Burrito in San Antonino Castillo Velasco beckons.

FYI: Vive Oaxaca is posting Semana Santa events on their website.

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B is for Bug

Posted in Creativity, Culture, Transportation, Travel & Tourism, tagged automobiles, cars, graffiti, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, PINK, popular travel destinations, Vocho, Volkswagen Beetle, VW, VW bug on February 22, 2016| 4 Comments »

And a slightly squashed Beetle, at that!

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I know it’s graffiti, but…

Posted in Creativity, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged graffiti, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, shadows on February 20, 2016| 10 Comments »

When you’ve got late afternoon light and shadows AND someone loves Janéz…

Magic can happen.

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Love and language

Posted in Celebrations, Creativity, Culture, Holidays, Travel & Tourism, tagged Día del Amor y la Amistad, graffiti, hearts, indigenous languages, International Mother Language Day, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, street art, urban art, Valentine's Day, wall art on February 14, 2016| 2 Comments »

Because today is Valentine’s Day and International Mother Language Day is coming up on February 21, learn to say “I love you” in 7 of the 69 indigenous languages spoken in Mexico — including Zapoteco, Mixteco, and a couple of other languages of Oaxaca.

¡Feliz Día del Amor y Amistad! Happy Day of Love and Friendship!

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Carnaval jester

Posted in Celebrations, Creativity, Culture, Holidays, Religion, Travel & Tourism, tagged bufón, Carnaval, Carnival, Fat Tuesday, jester, Mardi Gras, mascaras, masks, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, San Martín Tilcajete, Shrove Tuesday on February 12, 2016| 6 Comments »

A jester comes to San Martín Tilcajete…

The Maladjusted Jester
by Danny Kaye

Your majesty, I have a confession
My secret I must now betray
I was not a born fool
It took work to get this way

When I was a lad I was gloomy and sad
And I was from the day I was born
When other lads giggled and gurgled and wiggled
I proudly was loudly forlorn
My friends and my family looked at me clammily
Thought there was something amiss
When others found various antics hilarious
All I could manage was this? ho ho
Or this? ho waahhh

My father he shouted he needs to be clouted
His teeth on a wreath I’ll hand him
My mother she cried as she rushed to my side
You’re a brute and you don’t understand him
So they send for a witch with a terrible twitch
To ask how my future impressed her
She took one look at me and cried hehehehehe, he?
What else could he be but a jester?
A jester a jester, a funny idea a jester
No butcher no baker no candlestick maker
And me with the look of a fine undertaker
Impressed her as a jester?

Now where could I learn any comical turn
That was not in a book on the shelf
No teacher to take me and mold me and make me
A merryman fool or an elf
But I’m proud to recall that in no time at all
With no other recourses but my own resources
With firm application and determination
I made a fool of myself!

I bought a little gun and I learned to shoot
I bought a little a horn and I learned to toot
Now I can shoot and toot ain’t that cute? Plbbt!

I started to travel to try to unravel
My mind and to find a new chance

When I got to Spain it was suddenly plain
That the field that appealed was the dance
The Spanish were clannish but I wouldn’t vanish
I learned every step they had planned
The first step of all isn’t hard to recall
Cause the first step of all is to stand
And stand
And stand, and stand, and stand, and stand, and
They sometimes stand this way for days

Then they get very mad at the floor and start to stomp on it

[Smash! Ow!]

After all of my practice the terrible fact is
I made a fool of myself

I sadly decided that dancing as I did
To sing was a thing that was sure
I found me a teacher a crotchety creature
Who used to sing coloratura
She twisted my chin pushed my diaphragm in
With a poker she vocalized me
When she said it was best that I threw out my chest
You may gather that rather surprised me

I was on solid ground till I suddenly found
That in Venice I was to appear
The gala locale was a choppy canal
And me, a high sea gondolier
I nervously perched as the gondola lurched
Before the King’s palazzo
As I started my song my voice it was strong
But my stomach I fear was not so

Oh solo mio, oh
Oh solo ooh Help!

When I fell overboard how his majesty roared
And before a siesta he made me his jester
And I found out soon that to be a buffoon
Was a serious thing as a rule
For a jester’s chief employment
Is to kill himself for your enjoyment
And a jester unemployed is nobody’s fool

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It’s all about the masks, ’bout the masks…

Posted in Celebrations, Creativity, Culture, Holidays, Religion, Travel & Tourism, tagged Carnaval, Carnival, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, mascaras, masks, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, San Martín Tilcajete, Shrove Tuesday on February 10, 2016| 4 Comments »

Fat Tuesday (aka, Shrove Tuesday and Mardi Gras), the day before the 6+ weeks of Lent begins, means Carnaval in scattered parts of Mexico. I was supposed to be spending it on the Costa Chica — where Spanish Catholicism meets Mixtec meets Amuzgo meets Chatino meets Chontal meets Zapotec meets Afro-Mexicano — a region with some pretty unique ways of celebrating Carnaval. Alas, illness (not me) has postponed that trip until next year.

In the meantime, the show must go on! Thus, we returned to San Martín Tilcajete, one of the villages in the valley of Oaxaca, known for fantastical wood carving and surreal decorative painting, that result in alebrije and masks.

And, it’s the masks that take center stage during Carnaval.

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Face in the crowd

Posted in Celebrations, Creativity, Culture, Holidays, Religion, Travel & Tourism, tagged Carnaval, Carnival, faces, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, mascaras, masks, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, San Martín Tilcajete on February 9, 2016| Leave a Comment »

The day before Lent in San Martín Tilcajete, Oaxaca.

Stay tuned… More masks and mayhem to come!

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Where am I???

Posted in Creativity, Culture, Transportation, Travel & Tourism, tagged automobiles, cars, graffiti, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, street art, turquoise, urban art, Vocho, Volkswagen Beetle, VW, VW bug on February 7, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Unfortunately, not Cuba. (One of these days…)

Saw it yesterday walking down Tinoco y Palacios, on my way home from Mercado Sanchez Pascuas.

Leather upholstery, wood steering wheel, and paneled dashboard — it’s one very cool vocho.

However, when it comes to telling a color story, wish it had been parked a couple of blocks down the hill, in front of this wall. 😉

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Feria del Carrizo 2016

Posted in Children, Creativity, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged baskets, canastas, Carrizo, Fairs, Feria del Carrizo, folkloric dance, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, portraits, San Juan Guelavia on February 1, 2016| 6 Comments »

Because last year’s fair was so much fun and I’m still loving my lampshades, blogger buddy Chris and I returned to San Juan Guelavia yesterday for the 5th Feria del Carrizo. Upon arriving, our first surprise was being directed to a dirt estacionamiento (one of my favorite words, means parking lot) next to, what looked to be, a rodeo arena. It was quickly followed by surprise number two: The plaza crowded with people — at least ten times the number as last year! Aside from two friends who were leaving (arms filled with purchases), we didn’t see many extranjeros. However, we ran into several friends from Teotitlán del Valle and Tlacolula and at lunch sat across from some visitors from Mexico City.

We arrived just in time for the official ribbon cutting that signaled the opening of the fair. We didn’t recognize any of the dignitaries, though most everyone else did and masses of cell phones rose high in the air to record the event. Once the ceremonial duties were done, chairs were pushed back and a children’s folkloric dance group marched in to the familiar music of the China Oaxaqueña delegation heard during La Guelaguetza. There was even a mini-torito (toritito?) wired with fireworks that was lit, though one of the little girls didn’t appear too thrilled. And, as we wandered around, we could hear music that we recognized from some of the other regions of Oaxaca and we caught glimpses of more of the kids dancing.

Unfortunately, woven plastic baskets have become a more common sight at the markets in the valley of Oaxaca. So, the growing popularity of the fair is good news for a community that has seen a decline in the demand for their beautiful handcrafted baskets made from carrizo (aka, Arundo donax, Spanish cane, Giant cane, Wild Cane, and Colorado River weed) — a tall perennial cane that grows along river banks in Oaxaca. Besides traditional baskets and bird cages, the artisans have branched out to making lamps and shades, weaving decorative bottle covers for your mezcal, fashioning toys, and much more. Naturally, I again couldn’t resist and happily came away with a new hamper.

The Feria del Carrizo is also happening next Sunday, February 7. SO, if you are in the neighborhood (San Juan Guelavia is only about 40 minutes east of the city), I highly recommend a visit and be sure to also stop at the tiendas on road into town — that’s actually where I bought my new hamper (above).

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Details that surprise at CASA

Posted in Buildings, Creativity, Culture, Museums, Travel & Tourism, tagged art, CASA, Centro de las Artes de San Agustín, design, Francisco Toledo, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, San Agustín Etla on January 27, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Ahhh… a return visit to Centro de las Artes de San Agustín in early December still resonates. The CASA, a former spinning and weaving factory, was re-imagined by artist Francisco Toledo and architect Claudina Morales Lopez. Now it is one of the most aesthetically pleasing spaces I’ve ever experienced. But, why have I never before noticied this?