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Archive for the ‘Culture’ Category

I know it’s graffiti, but…

Posted in Creativity, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , on February 20, 2016| 10 Comments »

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

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Magic can happen.

 

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Love and language

Posted in Celebrations, Creativity, Culture, Holidays, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , 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.

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¡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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 12, 2016| 6 Comments »

A jester comes to San Martín Tilcajete…

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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 , , , , , , , , , , , , 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.

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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 , , , , , , , , , , , on February 9, 2016| Leave a Comment »

The day before Lent in San Martín Tilcajete, Oaxaca.

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Stay tuned… More masks and mayhem to come!

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Where am I???

Posted in Creativity, Culture, Transportation, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 7, 2016| Leave a Comment »

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

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

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

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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 , , , , , , , , , , , , 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.

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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.

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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.

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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 , , , , , , , , , 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?

Inside and outside, seen in black and white or color, wherever one looks, the attention to detail and design strikes, delights, and often surprises.

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Women of the street

Posted in Creativity, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 21, 2016| 8 Comments »

In Oaxaca city…

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In Tlacolula de Matamoros…

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They are seen and they are watching.

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Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes in Teoti

Posted in Creativity, Culture, Museums, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 18, 2016| 4 Comments »

As with all of life, there are changes going on in Teotitlán del Valle.  A large new Cultural Center is nearing completion.  It’s courtesy of the federal government and, according to the sign at the construction site, not a peso is coming from the state or village.  From what I’ve been told, it will house the museum, a library, and a performance space.

And, with their final Danza de la Pluma performance on Día de Guadalupe (Dec. 12), the three-year commitment of the last Danzantes de Promesa group was at close.  The new group has already begun the demanding work of learning the steps of the 40+ dances that make up the Danza de la Pluma.

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Under the watchful eye of El Picacho, Moctezuma, Malinche, Doña Marina, Teotitles, Capitánes, Reyes, and Vasallos practice from 7:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Saturday through Monday to be ready for their debut the first Wednesday in July 2016 during the festival of the Preciosa Sangre de Cristo.  A major and meaningful commitment, it is.

Strange fascination, fascinating me
Changes are taking the pace
I’m going through

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Changes by David Bowie (descansa en paz)

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Brooms in waiting

Posted in Culture, Markets, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , on January 14, 2016| 6 Comments »

Back in Oaxaca and it’s scenes like this that make me smile…

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At the Tinoco y Palacios entrance to the Mercado Sanchez Pascuas.  Otate waiting to be made into escobas (brooms)?

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Hoops with a view

Posted in Culture, Parks & Plazas, Sports & Recreation, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 11, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Basketball is big right now in the San Francisco Bay Area; as I write the Golden State Warriors are 35 and 2 and a new, albeit controversial, 18,000 seat arena is in the works.  But, I’ll bet it won’t have views like these…

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Unlike in wider mestizo Mexico, where soccer reigns supreme, in the Sierra basketball is king. The sport was introduced in the 1930s by president Lazaro Cardenas as a way to bring Oaxaca’s disparate and historically rebellious indigenous groups into the national fold.

Cardenas’ dream of a unified national identity didn’t take root in the Sierra, which has historically been isolated and impoverished, but basketball soon became tied to the region’s most significan traditions, and to indigenous identity itself.  — Jorge Santiago

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One of several canchas de baloncesto (basketball courts) in Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca.

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Masked and anonymous

Posted in Creativity, Culture, People, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 9, 2016| 3 Comments »

A friend (who shall remain anonymous) was persuaded to model the mask I gave one of my sons for Christmas.

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It is the work of Apolinar Sosa, the son of distinguished carver Jesus Sosa Calvo and Juana Vicente Ortega Fuentes of San Martín Tilcajete.

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This mask won a prize and had actually been worn during the unique Carnaval celebration in the village.

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Don’t you love the tongue of dried chiles?

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Gifts of nature & talent

Posted in Creativity, Culture, Holidays, Music, People, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 6, 2016| 7 Comments »

I’m still in el norte, now on the west coast in the San Francisco Bay Area and it’s grey, raining, and cold.  The rain is a much needed gift in drought stricken California, but the ground has rapidly become supersaturated and this morning’s news reported a giant ficus falling across Mission St. in San Francisco, taking down streetcar lines.  I immediately flashed on Oaxaca’s ubiquitous, often topiaried, ficus trees.

However, I headed out into the storm and tuned into a Spanish language music station (I must be missing the soundtrack of my Mexican life) and was reminded today, January 6, is El Día De Los Reyes Magos (aka, Epiphany), when the Three Kings bring gifts to the children of Mexico.

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My (grown) children received their gifts on December 25, not January 6, and last year each received a tapete woven by the talented Sergio Ruiz Gonzalez — brother of Antonio, who wove my new rug.  In the photo, that’s Sergio, his beautiful wife Virginia, and his lovely mother Emilia (of Lila Downs’ El Palomo del Comalito video fame).

However, I did receive an (unexpected) gift today — my former piano teacher (and forever friend) Greg Johnson stopped by to catch up.  And, besides his always upbeat and delightful company, he brought me his new CD, Crystalline Thrilled.  The guys of Glass Brick Boulevard are fabulous (as always) and guest artist Carlos Reyes shreds it on violin.  Check out Carlos playing  with Glass Brick Boulevard at the CD release party.  What a great regalo I received!

 

 

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Murals of Callejón Hidalgo

Posted in Creativity, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , on January 4, 2016| 12 Comments »

In the category of “your just never know,” the two-block long Callejón Hidalgo is a treasure-trove of murals.

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And, there are more!  Located between Tinoco y Palacios and Porfirio Diaz above Calle Jesus Carranza, it’s well worth the trek up the hill.

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