Posted in Creativity, Culture, Protests, Tragedy, Violence, tagged angular, Ayotzinapa, Escuela Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos, Global Day of Action for Ayotzinapa, graffiti, Mexico, Normal Rural Ayotzinapa, normalistas, Oaxaca, Photo Challenge, photographs, photos, protests, street art, wall art on November 24, 2014| 2 Comments »
The 43 students from the Normal Rural Ayotzinapa teachers’ college in Guerrero are still missing. Following Thursday’s Global Day of Action for Ayotzinapa mass demonstrations, “analysts and commentators across the Mexican news media spectrum began speaking of a modern day revolution now brewing in the country.”
A tipping point? I don’t know…
Angular (Street art, Nov. 22, 2014 on a wall in Oaxaca.)
Posted in Celebrations, Education, Holidays, Politics, Protests, Tragedy, Violence, tagged #AccionGlobalporAyotzinapa, #TodosVestidosDeNegro, Ayotzinapa, Día de la Revolución, demonstrations, Global Day of Action for Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, Iguala, Mexico, Normal Rural Ayotzinapa, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, protests, Revolution Day, students on November 20, 2014| 2 Comments »
Today is the 104th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution. However, there is no joy; most of Mexico is in mourning for the missing 43 students and the anger is building. In Mexico City the military parade and celebrations will be moved from the Zócalo to a military installation in the Polanco neighborhood. A mass protest march will replace it.
Zócalo, Oaxaca de Juárez – Nov. 17, 2014
The country’s attention is focused on today’s Global Day of Action for Ayotzinapa. Many will wear black today to mourn the loss of students, journalists, and others to violence in Mexico. It is indeed a global event; Greek students have posted a video in support of the missing students and their families. They will be Standing in Solidarity in Salinas (California) and in at least 115 other cities around the world. And, in Oaxaca, among many other events, at 4 PM there will be a Festival Por la Vida at Santo Domingo, one of 231 actions listed on a Facebook page.
Posted in Creativity, Culture, Education, Politics, Protests, Tragedy, Violence, tagged Ayotzinapa, Caravana de Ayotzinapa, Democracy Now, demonstrations, graffiti, Guerrero, Iguala, Mexico, Mexico Burns as Outrage over Student Disappearances Sparks Protests Against State-Backed Violence, Normal Rural Ayotzinapa, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, protests, Santo Domingo de Guzmán, sidewalk memorial, signs, students, Teachers on November 16, 2014| 2 Comments »
The headline, Mexico Burns as Outrage over Student Disappearances Sparks Protests Against State-Backed Violence, from the Nov. 13 “Democracy Now” show, is not an overstatement. Yesterday, in front of Santo Domingo…
The Caravana de Ayotzinapa, one of three caravans by the parents and supporters of the missing 43 students from the Escuela Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos teachers’ college in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, is scheduled to arrive in Oaxaca tomorrow morning (Nov. 17). A procession from the crucero at Trinidad de Viguera to the zócalo in Oaxaca is scheduled to begin at 9 AM. Given the prohibition against foreigners participating in political activity, as much as I would like to be there, I’ll be sticking close to home.
However, for my friends in the USA, check out photographer and writer Tim Porter’s article, #43; there are demonstrations coming to a city near you. Tim is a frequent visitor to Oaxaca and, for my Marin peeps, his articles and photographs regularly appear in Marin Magazine.
Posted in Creativity, Culture, Education, Exhibitions, Music, People, Politics, Tragedy, Violence, tagged art, Arturo Leyva, Ayotzinapa, Donde está mi hermano?, Escuela Normal Rural, graphic arts, Guerrero, Iguala, illustrations, Mexico, Normal Rural Ayotzinapa, paintings, photo montage, photos, portraits, profiles, songs, students, teachers’ college, video on November 8, 2014| 9 Comments »
A beautiful photo montage and song by Arturo Leyva honoring the 43 students of the Escuela Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos, teachers’ college in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero.
The video uses some of the #IlustradoresConAyotzinapa illustrations, paintings, and embroidery by Mexican designers, artists, and artisans of the faces of the 43 student teachers of Ayotzinapa.
In addition, journalist París Martínez has developed profiles of the 43 disappeared students by talking with their families and friends.
Posted in Creativity, Culture, Education, People, Politics, Protests, Tragedy, Violence, tagged Ayotzinapa, David Huerta, Emiliano Navarrete, exhibitions, graffiti, Guerrero, Iguala, Mexico, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca, Normal Rural Ayotzinapa, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, signs, students on November 7, 2014| 10 Comments »
Tomorrow, it will be 43 days since the 43 students at the Escuela Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos, teachers’ college in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero went missing. Images of the missing are being posted online and on walls.
Oaxaca, along with the rest of Mexico, is heartbroken and outraged that her sons have not been found. “We are not sheep to be killed whenever they feel like it” Emiliano Navarrete, father of one of the missing students, declared following a meeting with Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto.
As the brilliant Día de los Muertos colors of cempasúchil (marigolds), cresta de gallo (celosia or cockscomb), and roses began to fade, a massive march, led by the parents of the missing, filled the streets of Mexico City on November 5.
And, Oaxaca continues to add her voice on walls, in the streets, and at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca (MACO).
… where a beautiful poem, simply entitled “Ayotzinapa,” fills one of the walls of the courtyard.
Mordemos la sombra
Y en la sombra
Aparecen los muertos
Como luces y frutos
Como vasos de sangre
Como piedras de abismo
Como ramas y frondas
De dulces vísceras
Los muertos tienen manos
Empapadas de angustia
Y gestos inclinados
En el sudario del viento
Los muertos llevan consigo
Un dolor insaciable
Esto es el país de las fosas
Señoras y señores
Este es el país de los aullidos
Este es el país de los niños en llamas
Este es el país de las mujeres martirizadas
Este es el país que ayer apenas existía
Y ahora no se sabe dónde quedó
Estamos perdidos entre bocanadas
De azufre maldito
Y fogatas arrasadoras
Estamos con los ojos abiertos
Y los ojos los tenemos llenos
De cristales punzantes
Estamos tratando de dar
Nuestras manos de vivos
A los muertos y a los desaparecidos
Pero se alejan y nos abandonan
Con un gesto de infinita lejanía
El pan se quema
Los rostros se queman arrancados
De la vida y no hay manos
Ni hay rostros
Ni hay país
Solamente hay una vibración
Tupida de lágrimas
Un largo grito
Donde nos hemos confundido
Los vivos y los muertos
Quien esto lea debe saber
Que fue lanzado al mar de humo
De las ciudades
Como una señal del espíritu roto
Quien esto lea debe saber también
Que a pesar de todo
Los muertos no se han ido
Ni los han hecho desaparecer
Que la magia de los muertos
Está en el amanecer y en la cuchara
En el pie y en los maizales
En los dibujos y en el río
Demos a esta magia
La plata templada
De la brisa
Entreguemos a los muertos
A nuestros muertos jóvenes
El pan del cielo
La espiga de las aguas
El esplendor de toda tristeza
La blancura de nuestra condena
El olvido del mundo
Y la memoria quebrantada
De todos los vivos
Ahora mejor callarse
Hermanos
Y abrir las manos y la mente
Para poder recoger del suelo maldito
Los corazones despedazados
De todos los que son
Y de todos
Los que han sido
David Huerta
2 de noviembre de 2014. Oaxaca
Update: Just hours after posting this, the worst has been announced. According to Mexico’s attorney general, “The 43 Mexican students who disappeared near Iguala, in southern Mexico in September, were kidnapped by police on order of the mayor, and turned over to a gang that killed them and burned their bodies before throwing the remains in a river….” — CNN
I can’t even begin to imagine the pain the parents must be feeling with the knowledge of the suffering and brutality their sons endured. I am so sad and tears are welling up. I think I will just let them fall…
Posted in Education, Parks & Plazas, Politics, Protests, Tragedy, Violence, tagged Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, Iguala, Normal Rural Ayotzinapa, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, signs, students, zócalo on October 24, 2014| 2 Comments »
As an extranjera (foreigner), I can do nothing more than observe…
report…
and feel.
Signs on the Alameda and zócalo this week.
Posted in Creativity, Culture, Violence, tagged graffiti, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, street art, urban art, wall art on May 21, 2013| 2 Comments »
Posted in Churches, Creativity, Culture, Tragedy, Violence, tagged candles, Connecticut, Mexico, Newtown, Oaxaca, tragedy, violence on December 14, 2012| 3 Comments »
I’m looking at the beautiful faces of the children from Wednesday’s The kids are all right post and my heart is breaking for the children of Connecticut and the world — that they are the innocent victims of a planet consumed with violence.
A candle in the Templo de la Preciosa Sangre de Cristo, Teotitlán del Valle.
Posted in Culture, History, Parks & Plazas, Politics, Protests, Violence, tagged APPO, federal preventive police, historical photos, history, Mexico, Oaxaca, photo exhibition, photographs, photos, politics, protests, SEPODDH, social activists on November 25, 2012| Leave a Comment »
November 25, 2012 marks the sixth anniversary of the bloody attack by the Federal Preventive Police on the teachers and members of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) in the zócalo of the city of Oaxaca. I wasn’t here during the 5-month long struggle, but its repercussions continue to reverberate.
Last year a plaque was unveiled by organizations representing victims, survivors, human rights, and social activists. Located where the Alameda de León meets the zócalo, it symbolically renames the zócalo, “Plaza of the peoples in struggle; for truth and justice.”
Truth and justice have not been attained, assassins go unpunished, many of the same issues remain, and Oaxaca’s economy still hasn’t rebounded. Today, the Survivors and Former Political Prisoners of Oaxaca in Defense of Human Rights (SEPODDH) mounted a photo exhibition across from the Government Palace.
Adults, children, and even vendors stopped to look and, for many, remember those days and nights six years ago.
Somber and unsmiling, they stood silently, gazed at the photos, and read the captions. The only hint of levity was SEPODDH’s mascota, who sat beside a collection bucket.
Section 22 of the teachers’ union held another march and rallied in the zócalo, but today these photos spoke much louder than the words coming from the loud-speakers.
Posted in Protests, Violence, tagged Mexico, Oaxaca, Santa Cruz Tepenixtlahuaca on August 7, 2011| 2 Comments »
It’s a quiet Sunday in the city. Traffic on the busy street beyond Casita Colibrí’s gates is light; church bells, for reasons mysterious to me, seem more restrained on Sundays; and even the usually chattering birds sound like they are taking a rest from their noisy territorial battles.
However, yesterday, all was not tranquil in the village of Santa Cruz Tepenixtlahuaca, 165 miles southwest of the city, where villagers, fed up with alleged cattle rustling, rapes, and murders, took matters into their own hands…
Mexican villagers attack alleged crooks, killing 6
OAXACA, Mexico (AP) — Dozens of armed villagers surrounded the home of a suspected crime gang in southern Mexico, setting off a gunbattle that killed a child, a woman and four men, authorities said Saturday.
The confrontation took place after a town assembly decided to arm 90 villagers and send them to threaten the group allegedly behind cattle thefts, rapes and murders, Oaxaca state’s public security chief said in a statement. [Read full article]
From tiny mountain villages in Southern Mexico to the streets of Tel Aviv, ¡Basta ya! was a cry echoing around the world on Saturday.
Posted in Violence, tagged butterflies, mariposas on January 10, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Ahhh… back in the warm embrace of Casita Colibrí.
A few days before leaving the Bay Area to return to Oaxaca, I spent a chilly, but crystal clear day in San Francisco with two old friends attending the wonderful, but crowded, Japanesque: The Japanese Print in the Era of Impressionism exhibit at the Palace of the Legion of Honor and having a delicious lunch at the Mandalay, a Burmese restaurant. A picture perfect day, I took the scenic route, through the Presidio, back to Mill Valley
… and was overwhelmed with appreciation for the perfection of the scene before me; a much needed tonic to the relentless wet, gray days and multiple circumstantial challenges I’d been experiencing. And so, I boarded the plane on Saturday feeling refreshed, with a sense of renewal in the opening days of 2011.
Once in Houston for a five hour (ugh!) layover, I settled into a comfy seat in a quiet corner of an airport restaurant for a long lunch. And then, I glanced up at the TV and was confronted with breaking news of the Tucson shootings. I wish I could say I was surprised, but I wasn’t… just sickened and incredibly saddened.
Most reasonable, thinking people teach their children that words have consequences; that it is irresponsible to cry “fire” when there is no fire in a crowded auditorium. And Buddhism teaches that “right speech” is the first principle of ethical conduct. Venomous rhetoric, from people like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, incites irrational fear and inflames unwarranted passions, especially amongst those who feel disaffected. Thus, I say I wasn’t surprised.
At last, I boarded the little Embraer… even more eager for my return to southern Mexico. However, the news there wasn’t good, either. The friend who picked me up at the airport relayed the news of more political killings in Oaxaca. No escape.
However, geckos are chirping, the pinks and oranges of the setting and rising sun against the mountains paint a magnificent mural, hummingbirds are flitting from one succulent flower spike to another, and I’ve got a mariposa beginning the arduous task of emerging from its pupa.
The words from a 1960s era poster come to mind, “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”
Renewal…
Mexican Peso Converter
View From Casita Colibrí 