Opposite Santo Domingo, a bolero (shoeshiner) walks up Macedonio Alcalá to work…
As the faces on the wall cry out, “Because we people of Oaxaca have memory and dignity, we demand justice” for the missing Ayotzinapa 43 normalistas (student teachers).
Archive for the ‘Protests’ Category
Going to work
Posted in Creativity, Culture, Protests, Tragedy, Travel & Tourism, Violence, tagged Ayotzinapa, Black and white photography, bolero, disappeared, Mexico, normalistas, Oaxaca, photos, protest stencil art, shoeshiner, stencils, street art, student teachers, Subterráneos Art Collective, urban art, wall art on October 7, 2021| 4 Comments »
From here to there…
Posted in Creativity, Culture, Music, People, Protests, Travel & Tourism, tagged "I Can't Breathe" song, Alex Call, Efdot, In memory of George Floyd, Mexico, murals, music, Oaxaca, photos, street art, urban art, wall art on May 29, 2020| 4 Comments »
A walk to the mercado
Posted in Markets, Parks & Plazas, Protests, Travel & Tourism, tagged coronavirus fallout, COVID-19 fallout, empty streets, grocery shopping, markets, Mercado Benito Juárez, Mexico, Oaxaca, photos, plantón, traffic, zócalo on March 26, 2020| 6 Comments »
Yesterday, with a fair degree of trepidation, I ventured out onto the streets of Oaxaca. Even during these times of coronavirus, a gal has to eat, thus a trip to Mercado Benito Juárez could no longer be put off. Unfortunately, I got a late start and didn’t leave until almost 10:30 AM but, happily, my first observation was that traffic was much lighter.
Walking east on Av. Morelos
However, much to my dismay the zócalo was lined with food and vendor stalls and continues to be occupied with a plantón in front of the Government Palace. This, after a caravan of municipal police trucks mounted with loudspeakers plied the streets on Monday advising people not to gather in groups, to maintain “sana distancia” (healthy distancing), and to try to stay home.
Protest encampment in the zócalo
I walked through, trying to avoid coming within a meter of anyone and making a beeline toward the market. An aside: Afternoon temperatures continue to hover around 90º F and, yes, the sky is that blue!
Facing south on Calle Flores Magón
I turned right on Las Casas and discovered cleaners power washing the sidewalk in front of Mercado Benito Juárez.
Trying not to get wet, I ducked inside the unusually quiet market.
Main aisle just inside Mercado Benito Juárez
I quickly made my rounds: Almita’s for pecans, my favorite poultry stall for chicken thighs, and my fruit and vegetable stand for avocados and carrots. Though the market was less crowded than usual, the aisles are narrow making it nearly impossible to maintain “sana distancia” and so I cut my trip short.
Looking west on Calle Valerio Trujano
Avoiding the zócalo, I headed for home. I think I’m going to skip Mercado Benito Juárez (except for Mario, my coffee bean guy) for the duration and limit my shopping to the smaller Mercado Sánchez Pascuas up the hill and perhaps begin patronizing the people who sell produce from their truck on Monday and Thursday mornings just a block away. We are living in the days of making adjustments…
Crossroads
Posted in Animals, Culture, Protests, Religion, Travel & Tourism, tagged altars, Oaxaca Textile Museum, photos, popular travel destinations, street scenes, Teotitlán del Valle on August 19, 2019| 4 Comments »
Women in struggle
Posted in Creativity, Culture, Politics, Protests, Travel & Tourism, tagged Armarte, art, International Women's Day, marches, Mexico, Oaxaca, photos, political art, political commentary, protest, stencil art, street art, urban art, wall art, women's rights on March 11, 2019| 2 Comments »
Armed with their art, the women of Armarte OAX have taken to the streets to raise their voices in struggle.
And, they aren’t alone in Oaxaca…
In the early evening of International Women’s Day, thousands of women “reclaimed” some of the most dangerous streets of the city demanding an end to street harassment, punishment for rapists, the cessation of violence against women, and safe abortion.
Struggle, the other “women’s work.”
A sea of red
Posted in Culture, History, Politics, Protests, Travel & Tourism, tagged Can the Triquis Go Home? article, David Bacon, huipil, indigenous peoples, Mexico, Movimiento Unificador de Lucha Triqui (MULT), Oaxaca, photos, red, Triqui on February 2, 2019| Leave a Comment »
The zócalo is a sea of red today. It is the 38th anniversary of the founding of the Movimiento Unificador de Lucha Triqui (MULT) — one of the organizations of Triqui from the Mixteca Baja region of Oaxaca. They have come to (yet again) present their demands to the government.
For background (in English) on the plight of the Triqui in Oaxaca and the many who have been forced by violence in their communities to migrate to California, check out David Bacon’s article, Can the Triquis Go Home? Unfortunately, I don’t think much has changed since it was written in 2012.
Fifty years ago today…
Posted in Creativity, Culture, History, Politics, Protests, Violence, tagged Ayotzinapa, black power clenched fist, Colin Kaepernick, Escuela Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos, graffiti, John Carlos, Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico City Olympics, murals, Oaxaca, Okupa Visual Oaxaca, photos, street art, student teachers, students, Taller de Grafica Experimental de Oaxaca, Tlatelolco Massacre, Tommie Smith, wall art on October 16, 2018| 11 Comments »
It’s been fifty years since two African American US Olympic medalists, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, cast their eyes downward and raised clenched fists on the medals’ stand during the playing of the “Star Spangled Banner” (national anthem of the USA) at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Boos and racial epithets were hurled from the stands, both were kicked off the US team, ordered to leave the Olympic Village, and, upon returning to the USA, they received hate mail, death threats and experienced harassment. However, their gesture became iconic and their stance against racial injustice is celebrated the world over, including Oaxaca.
Taller de Gráfica Experimental de Oaxaca, Calle La Noria at Melchor Ocampo, Oaxaca de Juárez
“I don’t have any misgivings about it being frozen in time. It’s a beacon for a lot of people around the world. So many people find inspiration in that portrait. That’s what I was born for.” –John Carlos (The man who raised a black power salute at the 1968 Olympic Games)
What most of the world didn’t see or hear about — because it was conspicuously absent from the covers of the country’s major newspapers — was that two weeks before, in what came to be known as the Tlatelolco Massacre, somewhere between 300 and 2,000 peacefully protesting students in Mexico City were murdered by Mexican military and police forces.
The echos from 1968 continue today… Colin Kaepernick continues to be castigated and denied employment as an NFL football player for taking a knee during the playing of the “Star Spangled Banner” and 43 student teachers from Escuela Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos in Ayotzinapa, whose bus was ambushed in Iguala, Guerrero four years ago, continue to be missing.
Unsettled weather for unsettled times
Posted in Culture, Politics, Protests, Sports, Travel & Tourism, tagged ¡Engage Oaxaca!, ¡Familias Unidas!, El Tri, immigrants, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, presidential election, protests, refugees, World Cup 2018 on June 27, 2018| 6 Comments »
It began this morning, as la Selección mexicana took the field in Russia for game three of their Group F stage. Even with two victories under their belt and leading their group, the people of Mexico held their collective breath. During the game, you could hear a pin drop in Oaxaca. I swear, the buses that usually grind their gears and emit clouds of exhaust on Crespo, were few and far between. El Tri held off a tenacious Swedish team in the first half, but it all fell apart in the second and the green, white, and red lost. The Mexican World Cup team and the country had to rely on South Korea to knock Germany out of the Copa del Mundo and assure Mexico goes on to the next round. Every tenth person I passed this afternoon seemed to still be sporting the team jersey, but nobody was smiling.
Oaxaca de Juárez — June 27, 2018, 7:00 PM
Today is also the last day of electioneering in Mexico — no more campaign materials are to be distributed, no more surveys disseminated, and no more robo campaign calls (gracias a dios). Mexicans go to the polls on Sunday, July 1 for Mexico’s biggest election in memory. Not only is a new president to be elected, but also 500 members of the Chamber of Deputies, 128 members of the Senate, 8 governors, and the mayor of Mexico City. And, coming on top the deadliest year in Mexico’s history, 2018 has also been one of the most violent campaign seasons in recent history. Tonight, final campaign rallies are being held all over the country, including one next door in the Plaza de la Danza — filled with amplified speeches and heavy-on-the-bass pounding music. Let’s hope we awaken only to World Cup scores and not rising political violence tallies.
However, in the midst of all this, gringos gathered this afternoon to attempt to come up with a plan to show our opposition to the inhumane actions by the United States government and our support for all peoples escaping violence and in search of a better life for their families. If you are in Oaxaca, on July 5, at 3:00 PM, there will be a peaceful protest in front of the U.S. Consular Agency under the slogans, ¡Todos Somos Migrates! ¡Familias Unidas — No Divididas! For more details, see the ¡Engage Oaxaca! Facebook page. By the way, for a little background on the reasons men, women, and children are risking their lives to flee their home countries, I highly recommend, So we’re gonna pretend these refugees aren’t a result of our actions in Central America?
Ayotzinapa, 3 years, no answers
Posted in Creativity, Culture, Politics, Protests, Tragedy, Violence, tagged Ayotzinapa, disappeared, Escuela Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos, Espacio Zapata, graphic arts, Guerrero, Iguala, Mexico, murals, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, stencil art, street art, student teachers, wall art on September 26, 2017| 8 Comments »
I can’t believe it has been three years since 43 student teachers went missing one night in Iguala, Guerrero. And, I can’t believe the key questions remain.
Who is responsible? What happened that night? Where are they? Why are there still no answers? How can 43 human beings be disappeared so completely? When will the truth be revealed?
In the midst of our current tragedies, let us not forget the 43 normalistas from Escuela Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos, Ayotzinapa, Guerrero.
Three years without answers must seem like an eternity to their families….
Y’all feeling safer?
Posted in Immigration, People, Protests, tagged deportations, Guadalupe García de Rayos, Ice El Hielo, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Mexico, music, United States, video on February 9, 2017| 11 Comments »
The headline in the New York Times reads, She Showed Up Yearly to Meet Immigration Agents. Now They’ve Deported Her.
For eight years, Guadalupe García de Rayos had checked in at the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement office here, a requirement since she was caught using a fake Social Security number during a raid in 2008 at a water park where she worked.
Every year since then, she has walked in and out of the meetings after a brief review of her case and some questions.
But not this year.
Despite a night of protests and a legal appeal, this 35-year old mother of two, who has lived, worked, and played by the arbitrary U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rules — and who hasn’t lived in Mexico since she was 14 — was separated from her husband and children and dropped off in Nogales, Mexico early this morning.
I’m so sad and angry at the mean-spirited and grand-standing senselessness of it all. Right now, all I can do is cry and post this heartbreaking music video, Ice El Hielo by La Santa Cecilia.
Y’all feeling safer up there in el norte?
There’s no turning back
Posted in Culture, Music, Politics, Protests, Travel & Tourism, tagged #WMGlobal, #WomensMarchOaxaca, El Demagogo video, Lila Downs, lyrics El Demagogo, lyrics The Demagogue, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, Women's March Oaxaca, Women's March on Washington sister marches on January 27, 2017| 16 Comments »
It has been six days since the voices of women, and those who love and respect them, rose as one throughout the world. Email, Facebook postings, Instagram photos, YouTube videos, memes, and tweets have been circulating the globe, resistance is rising, and unity is being forged.
Here in Oaxaca, we have been overwhelmed by the messages of support for our Women’s March Oaxaca, tee shirt sales (175-200), inquiries of “what next?” and we have been blown away by the final police and media count, that puts the total between 2000 and 3000. Amazing!!! We have added press reports about our march to the website, along with photos and video of it.
And, it has been seven days since the toxic, twittering human smokestack of polluted right-wing demagoguery was sworn in as the 45th president of the USA. This single week has been marked by a flurry of executive actions — and lots of bombast and argument with the press and, among other things, the launching of a war against truth, facts, science and transparency, women’s rights, the environment, healthcare, Muslims, not to mention disrespecting Mexico and opening up the possibility of a trade war with the USA’s third-largest goods trading partner.
Mexicans are incensed and hoping their president Peña Nieto’s newly-found backbone continues to hold. And, a grassroots effort among Mexicanos has been launched calling for boycotts of U.S. companies in fury at Donald Trump. I think now is a good time for El Demagogo (The Demagogue) by Lila Downs (lyrics in English below).
The Demagogue
by Lila Downs
At the edge of the world
Where the factories are
There’s a burning of hatred
That’s crossing the lines
There’s a blue eyed devil man
Thinks he’s king of the world
He’s a bully, a salesman
Selling fear and hate
Who do you think you are?
He plays us with his hate
Turns man against man
But it’s really not a game
And I pray to the ancestors’ love
Do not be fooled by this man’s foolish talk
The serpent woke again
In different times and places
There’s a burning cross
Leading the mob
People in chains
He’s a Quak circus act creeping from the past
He’s the symbol of the monster we no longer want to be
(what we used to be…)
The earth trembles with these names
Mussolini, Adolph Hitler, Pinochet
No respect for woman, no respect for race
No respect for anything that lives, the human race
But he cannot buy our soul
(CORO:)
NO A ESE MURO
Voy cortando el odio
Voy sembrando amor
NO A ESE MURO
De la explotación
Pero es mi casa
NO A ESE MURO
La luz de la mañana
El lugar de mis ancestros
Las flores del desierto
NO A ESE MURO
Gonna show that my love
Is much stronger than hate
I’m gonna call to the four winds
I’m gonna change my fate
I’m gonna rise up singing
I’m gonna stand for this place
It’s a long time, Mi Gente
There’s no turning back
There’s no turning back
There’s no turning back
Women’s March Oaxaca ¡Presente!
Posted in Culture, Politics, Protests, Travel & Tourism, tagged #WhyIMarch, #WMGlobal, #WomensMarchOaxaca, Emma Lazarus poem, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, The New Colossus poem, Women's March Oaxaca, Women's March on Washington on January 21, 2017| 7 Comments »
The Women’s March Oaxaca was an overwhelming success! The sun was shining, the sky was blue, pussy hats were present, and estimates put the crowd at almost 2,000 people from the USA, Canada, Mexico, and a few other countries. We even made the front page of Noticias, one of Oaxaca’s major daily newspapers.
I was helping to hold the lead banner, so my photos only begin to tell the story of this amazing event. To tell you the truth, I got teary eyed at the feeling of solidarity from those who marched, those on the sidewalks, and those watching from windows and doorways.
Why did I march? I marched because I want a future for my grandchildren that is not based on hate, fear, and environmental catastrophe.
I marched because, in the 7+ years I have lived in Oaxaca, I have been treated with kindness, generosity, and respect and I want the same for Mexicans and all other immigrants (with and without papers) living in the USA.
I marched because I believed those words on the Statue of Liberty my 8th grade teacher, Mrs. Robinson, had us memorize:
The New Colossus
By Emma Lazarus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
See the Women’s March Oaxaca website for more photos, videos, and press reports.
Shades of grey
Posted in Education, Labor, Protests, tagged Black and white photography, education, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, Seccion 22, Teachers union on August 22, 2016| 2 Comments »
Today was supposed to be the first day of school in Mexico, but not for most in Oaxaca. According to Sección 22 of the CNTE (teachers’ union), 90% of public schools did not open today. The Instituto Estatal de Educación Pública de Oaxaca (the government’s Institute of Public Education) puts the number at 52% of public schools in the state that remained closed.
Classrooms may have remained empty, but from the Monumento a Juárez to the Plaza de la Danza, teachers and their allies filled several of the main streets of the state’s capital in a mass march that took over an hour and a half to pass –part of the ongoing protests against the federal government’s education/labor reform.
Today, there are no winners, only losers — the kids. The weather provided a metaphor for the day — grey and depressing.
While not specific to Oaxaca, a new documentary by Al Jazeera, Child labour in Mexico, adds some context to the issue of education in Mexico, especially in the poorer regions of Mexico. At 16:36, the focus of the conversation turns to relating child labor to the problems of education, corruption, and poverty.
Let’s dance
Posted in Creativity, Culture, Education, Music, Protests, Travel & Tourism, tagged CNTE, graffiti, Let's Dance lyrics, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, protests, street art, Teachers union, urban art, wall art on July 1, 2016| 9 Comments »
Oaxaca quote of the day, as posted on Facebook by my friend and neighbor, J: “Antes, no salía sin checar el clima. Ahora no salgo sin checar los bloqueos.” Translation: “Before, I didn’t go out without checking the weather. Now, I don’t leave without checking for blockades.”
Mexico’s Interior Secretary, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, is refusing further dialogue with the CNTE (teachers and education workers union) until the blockades are lifted, the CNTE is vowing to intensify its actions around the country, and rumor has it that masses of vacant hotel rooms in Oaxaca (thanks to large-scale cancellations) are being filled by federal police. There’s a dance going on in Oaxaca, I don’t know the steps, but in the meantime, let’s put on our red shoes and dance the blues.
Let’s Dance
by David Bowie
Let’s dance put on your red shoes and dance the blues
Let’s dance to the song
they’re playin’ on the radio
Let’s sway
while color lights up your face
Let’s sway
sway through the crowd to an empty space
If you say run, I’ll run with you
If you say hide, we’ll hide
Because my love for you
Would break my heart in two
If you should fall
Into my arms
And tremble like a flower
Let’s dance for fear
your grace should fall
Let’s dance for fear tonight is all
Let’s sway you could look into my eyes
Let’s sway under the moonlight,
this serious moonlight
If you say run, I’ll run with you
If you say hide, we’ll hide
Because my love for you
Would break my heart in two
If you should fall
Into my arms
And tremble like a flower
Let’s dance put on your red shoes
and dance the blues
Let’s dance to the song
they’re playin’ on the radio
Let’s sway you could look into my eyes
Let’s sway under the moonlight,
this serious moonlight
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A day without women
Posted in Creativity, Culture, Politics, Protests, Travel & Tourism, tagged #ParoNacionaldeMujeres, #UnDíaSinMujeres, #UnDíaSinNosotras, A Day Without Us, A Day Without Women, art, International Women's Day, Mexico, National Women's Strike, Oaxaca, photos, political art, political commentary, protest, stencil art, street art, urban art, wall art, women's rights on March 8, 2020| 4 Comments »
Today, March 8, women around the world are celebrating International Women’s Day with marches, forums, exhibitions, and more. The mass media is filled with stories about extraordinary women and companies catering to women are using references to International Women’s Day in their advertising, though, I might add, very few mention its revolutionary past.
However, it isn’t today’s demonstrations, expositions, and other special events that has women in Mexico talking. It is the call for women to disappear for a day to protest the staggering amount of violence perpetrated against them. Government statistics report that 3,825 women met violent deaths last year, 7% more than in 2018. That works out to about 10 women slain each day in Mexico, making it one of the most dangerous countries in the world for females. Thousands more have gone missing without a trace in recent years.
Using the hashtags #ParoNacionaldeMujeres (National Women’s Strike), #UnDíaSinNosotras (A Day Without Us), and #UnDíaSinMujeres (A Day Without Women), organizers have reached out to the women of Mexico that on Monday, March 9, nothing moves: Don’t go out, don’t shop, don’t go to school, and don’t consume — become invisible, simulating the thousands of women who have been murdered or disappeared.
As three female legislators wrote in an article expressing their support for the strike, Women are responsible for about half of the compensated economic activity in the country, and relied upon disproportionately for unpaid work in the home, which is roughly equivalent to 15% of Mexico’s GDP. In exchange, our rights are impaired or ignored. Women have become the protagonists of thousands upon thousands of stories of violence and impunity at the hands of men who, in public and in private, feel they have a right to decide over our lives and our bodies…. That and many, many reasons more are why Mexico’s women will march in protest on March 8, and stop everything – stop working, stop asking, stop accepting – on March 9.
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