Yesterday, we began the marathon than is Guelaguetza in Oaxaca. First on the day’s agenda was a morning trip to Reyes Etla.
The Señor de las Peñas church sits atop at hill and views of the lush green fields (gracias, rainy season) and the mountains were breathtaking.
Impossibly adorable children danced and shared, in the spirit of Guelaguetza.
We were in the heartland of Oaxaca cheese country for the crowning of Jimena Santiago Vasquez, as queen of the third Expo Feria de Queso y Quesillo.
Did I say cheese? Oh, yes — stalls and stalls of yummy cheese. The fair runs through Monday and we will be back!
Next on our itinerary was a return to the city for a little (?) gluttony — the Festival de los 7 Moles opening banquet on the grounds of the Jardín Etnobotánico de Oaxaca. Botanas Oaxaqueña (cheese, chicharrón, chiles rellenos), followed by Sopa de Fandango, 15 (not 7) Moles, 4 Tipos de Arroz, followed by a platter of pastries and scoops of Leche Quemada and Tuna nieves (sorbets). Oh, and did I mention, cervesas and mezcal?
We even got a little culture, as author, Laura Esquivel (Like Water for Chocolate) spoke, though it was a little hard to hear her, with all the eating, drinking, and related conversations!
Moving rather slowly, we pushed back from the table and headed down to the Alameda (oh, it felt good to walk!) to take in the last stage of the Diosa Centéotl competition — the chosen “Goddess” presides over Guelaguetza. However, the area surrounding the tented stage was a mass of people by the time we arrived and the best I could do was see the backs of the magnificent traje. (See Chris’s blog for close-ups from the stage one competition.) And, the winner is… Dulce Yanet Grijalba Martínez, from the Zapotec community of San Pablo Villa de Mitla.
After a brief siesta, I rendezvoused with some young friends and we walked over to the Plaza de la Danza for a free performance by Alejandra Robles, one of my favorite Oaxaqueña singers. (For video from the last time I saw her, click HERE.)
The night was still young for my young friends and they were off to get a nieve at Jardín Socrates. I was off to bed, because I’d already had my day’s allowance of nieve AND we’ve only just begun!
Posted in Celebrations, Culture, Food, People, Travel & Tourism | Tagged Alejandra Robles, Diosa Centéotl, Expo Feria de Queso y Quesillo, Festival de los 7 Moles, food, Guelaguetza, Jimena Santiago Vasquez, Laura Esquivel, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, Reyes Etla | 10 Comments »
Oaxaca is alive with street art these days — even more than usual and that’s saying a lot! As part of their Hecho en Oaxaca (Made in Oaxaca) exhibition, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca (Museum of Contemporary Art of Oaxaca) invited a dozen well-known and accomplished urban artists to transform the walls of the museum and the Historic District of the city.
A lifetime ago, prior to becoming a librarian, I was a registered nurse, first working in a hospital and then as a visiting nurse. The current MACO exhibit reminded me of one of the primary reasons why I much preferred the latter — it was the creativity needed in creating treatment plans to provide care in a patient’s often-times challenging home environment.
The imagination and inventiveness required to create art on crumbling walls with windows, doors, meters, and electrical boxes, never ceases to amaze me. As you can see below, even in MACO, that same vision is evident in the use of the museum’s many rooms and courtyards — including incorporating doorways, window sills, and colonial era frescos.
Yescka…
Wall in Oaxaca’s Historic District
MACO
Retna…
Pan Am restaurant on Matamoros
MACO
Dr Lakra…
Porfirio Díaz at corner of Jesús Carranza
MACO
Swoon…
Calle Tinoco y Palacios
MACO
Saner…
Mercado IV Centenario
MACO
If you love Oaxaca’s street art, get yourself to MACO. The exhibition runs through the first week of October 2013.
Posted in Buildings, Creativity, Culture, Exhibitions, Travel & Tourism | Tagged art, Dr Lakra, exhibitions, Hecho en Oaxaca, MACO, Mexico, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca, Museum of Contemporary of Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Retna, Saner, street art, Swoon, urban art, wall art, Yescka | 4 Comments »
Some rare good news from Florida…
Two young Triqui basketball teams qualified to participate in the International Tournament YBOA (Youth Basketball of America) in Orlando, Florida this month. They are from the Academia de Baloncesto Indígena México (ABIM), an athletic project founded by professor Sergio Zúñiga, with the mission of “rescuing the youth of the Triqui communities of Oaxaca from the extreme poverty and violence that they live in… to better the lives of these kids through sports and education.” Read their story, including why they play barefoot, HERE.
The tournament has ended and, though they did not win the tournament championship, they won hearts and (one can only hope) minds. To me, these young ambassadors were winners in the important ways that matter. ¡Felicitaciones!
For video of the team playing and information about the documentary that is being made about these kids, take a look at the blog, Mexico’s Barefoot Champions.
October 2013 update: They came and saw and conquered: Triqui sweep in World Basketball
Posted in Sports & Recreation | Tagged Academia de Baloncesto Indígena México (ABIM), Barefoot Champions of the Mountains, basketball, Mexico, Niños indígnas de Oaxaca, Oaxaca, sports, Triqui, youth basketball, Youth Basketball of America (YBOA), youth sports | 1 Comment »
Colibríes? I can’t resist!
Hummingbird from a wall in San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas…
Hummingbird from a NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope photo…
Separated at birth? Cool article from Slate about this photo…
I was pondering writing a longish post about the picture above, talking about what galaxies are, how they can physically collide, how their gravity can twist and distort their shapes into all sorts of weird things …
But seriously. That galaxy looks like a hummingbird.* What more do you need?
OK, you need a little more. For one, I’ve written quite a bit about how galaxy collisions happen, so you can read about how these work here and here. The two galaxies in this collision are called NGC 2936 (the blue birdie one) and NGC 2937 (the smaller cottonball one). Together they are known as Arp 142, named for an astronomer who observed weird, distorted galaxy pairs.They’re located about 300 million light-years from Earth.
Two things really stand out to me in this picture (besides a galaxy that looks like a flippin’ hummingbird). One is the long, delicate tendril of dark reddish dust exhumed from the previously spiral-shaped galaxy NGC 2936, flung into a long arc across tens of thousands of light-years of space. I wish we had more three-dimensional data here; I’d love to know what this structure really looks like from different angles. Since dust is very dark, it blocks light coming from behind it, so this tendril is in front of the hummingbird galaxy, or perhaps embedded in it.
The other thing is that the smaller galaxy seems to have survived this collision pretty well. The shape is only mildly distorted; you can see a bit of off-centered nature to the glow of stars around the core. I suspect its more compact nature has a lot to do with that; the stars are closer together, perhaps, and the overall gravity of all those stars helped it retain its shape.
And there is one other thing. These are two very different galaxies colliding! The ex-spiral galaxy is very blue, indicating lots of star formation happened recently. Young, massive stars are blue, and when galaxies collide, the gravitational interaction can cause huge clouds of gas to collapse and furiously form stars.
The other galaxy is yellower, indicating an older, more stable population—blue stars don’t live long, so a galaxy this color must not have formed stars in a long, long time. Billions of years, for sure. You can tell by looking that it doesn’t have much gas and dust in it, which fits; if it had, the collision would have stirred them up, and we’d see more blue stars there as well.
Note too that you can see a handful of far more distant galaxies in the picture. The ones to the lower right are red, which is most likely due to having their light absorbed and reddened by the dust in the hummingbird galaxy; that’s another thing interstellar dust does, much like dust and haze in the air can make a sunset look red.
All in all, there’s a lot going on in this image! The hummingbird shape makes me smile, and don’t get me wrong, it’s cool. But what you’re seeing here is far more than just a shape in the clouds; you are seeing a massive collision on a cosmic scale, the collective might of 100 billion suns, their gravity reaching out and twisting the shapes of these galaxies, stretching them like taffy, molding them like clay.
The Universe operates on the grandest of all scales, manipulating forces and energies far too large for us to grasp in our puny brains. Yet when it does so, it generates beauty and perhaps even amusement in those same brains. It helps us appreciate it and gives us another reason to want to. And, after a while, we really can begin to grasp what the Universe is telling us.
Maybe our brains aren’t so puny after all.
*Some folks say it looks like a penguin. I can see that, but it’s silly. I mean, c’mon, a galaxy shaped like a penguin? Ridiculous.
h/t Chris
Posted in Animals, Creativity, Culture, Science & Nature | Tagged Chiapas, Colibríes, hummingbird, Mexico, NASA photo, photo, photographs, popular travel destinations, San Cristóbal de las Casas, street art, The Hummingbird Galaxy, urban art, wall art | Leave a Comment »
We returned to Teotitlán del Valle on Tuesday and Wednesday for performances of the Danza de la Pluma, a ritual re-enactment of the battles between the Aztec and Spanish. According to OaxacaWiki:
The origin of this dance goes back to the spiritual and physical conquest of Mexico by the Spanish – La Guerra de Conquista. The dance originated in the town of Cuilpam de Guerrero where Martin Cortes (son of Cortes) celebrated the first baptism of his child. Martin played the role of his father and the locals played the roles of the conquered indigenous peoples.
The story is told in 41 bailes (dances) and lasts from early afternoon into the night. Selected years in advance, it is an honor to be a dancer and they perform their roles for 3 years. This week, during the multi-day fiesta honoring Preciosa Sangre de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo, we saw the first performances by the new cast and they looked great!
Presenting the Cast of Characters
Montezuma
Doña Marina (hat) and Malinche (headdress)
2 Subalternos
16 Danzantes: Teotiles (2), Capitánes (2), Reyes (4), and Vasallos (8)
They are going to be fun to watch during the next 3 years. (By the way, the costumes may change from day-to-day, but the cast remains the same.)
Posted in Celebrations, Culture, History, Holidays, Travel & Tourism | Tagged Danza de la Pluma, Doña Marina, Feather dance, festivals, fiesta, Fiesta de la Preciosa Sangre de Cristo, Malinche, Mexico, Moctezuma, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, Subalternos, Teotitlán del Valle | Leave a Comment »
Monday, we returned to Teotitlán del Valle for the Fiesta titular a la Preciosa Sangre de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo — the pueblo’s most important festival of the year. While special masses have been celebrated at the Templo de la Preciosa Sangre de Cristo (the village church) since June 30, Monday’s convite (procession) by the unmarried women in the village, kicked off the more public events.
Lovingly decorated canastas (baskets) waited in the church to be reclaimed by their owners, placed on their heads, and carried through the streets.
Crowds gathered in the plaza in front of the church and sidewalks and streets along the route.
And then it began — with solemn drum beats, fireworks, church bells, marmotas (cloth balloons on a pole), and a band.
Little boys (and a few girls) carrying model airplanes (don’t ask me why), paper mache lambs, and turkeys followed.
And then came the neatly organized rows of girls and young women.
For over an hour they wound their way up and down and around the streets of Teotitlán del Valle. The weather was perfect, no late afternoon thunder showers this year, and it was glorious.
Stay tuned, the festivities continue all week. And, check out Oaxaca-The Year After this week for blogger buddy Chris’s photos and commentary.
Posted in Celebrations, Churches, Creativity, Culture, Holidays, Religion, Travel & Tourism | Tagged convite, El Picacho, festivals, fiesta, Fiesta de la Preciosa Sangre de Cristo, Mexico, Oaxaca, parades, photographs, photos, ritual procession, sacred mountain, Teotitlán del Valle | 9 Comments »
Sunday is market day in Tlacolula. The sounds and sights…
The smells and tastes…
And, most of all, the people…
Much needed chicken soup for my soul.
Posted in Culture, Food, Markets, Travel & Tourism | Tagged market day, markets, mercados, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, Tlacolula de Matamoros | 13 Comments »
Ahhh… I’m back in my new and improved Casita Colibrí. Friday night, with lightning flashing all around the Embraer, my fellow passengers and I bounced our way across Mexico and back to Oaxaca. Gracias, Hurricane Erick for Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride! With appreciation and relief, spontaneous applause erupted when the little plane landed.
There have been many changes in the 7 weeks I’d been gone… Juan finished the screens on my doors and windows; they are beautifully made and not a single mosquito has been seen or heard! I left at the end of the dry season; golden-brown hills and fields and a constant coating of dust dulled nature’s and human-applied colors. I returned to the lush green hills and fields of the rainy season and the lustrous green leaves and red-orange blossoms of my African tulip trees.
And, new street art gleamed…
New art in courtyard of MACO.
New mural on Tinoco y Palacios.
New restaurant at 400 Matamoros.
Oaxaca in technicolor!
Posted in Buildings, Creativity, Culture, Transportation, Travel & Tourism, Weather | Tagged graffiti, Mexico, murals, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, rainy season, street art, urban art | 3 Comments »
Winging my way south!
A wall on Antonio de León in Xoxocotlán, Oaxaca. Ahhh…
Posted in Creativity, Travel & Tourism | Tagged Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, street art, urban art, Xoxocotlán | 1 Comment »
Basketball is big in Oaxaca and was big news to me!
In Teotitlán del Valle, located in the valley Oaxaca, there is a tradition of climbing El Picacho on Día de la Santa Cruz (May 3). I’d also heard celebrations also included an annual basketball tournament. Sure enough, the sound of a play-by-play announcer, ref’s whistle, and buzzer occasionally floated up to our perch on the top of the mountain. When we descended El Picacho via a different route, we came to a basketball court a few blocks from the village center, and an intense game in progress, with other teams waiting in the wings — in this case, the road!
Eight days later, we drove up into the Mixe in Oaxaca’s Sierre Norte for the Fiesta de Mayo in Santa María Tlahuitoltepec. Once there, we were directed to a basketball court (did we hear correctly?) at the center of town — the mercado off to one side; church on another side; municipal buildings off to another. We had expected folkloric dancers or ceremonial presentations, but were surprised to find a basketball tournament in progress. It eventually ended and the expected dancing began.
According to Hoop Dreams in Oaxaca:
Any proper town in Latin America has a church facing a plaza — except the towns of the Sierra Norte region of Mexico, where Jorge Santiago is from.
“In my part of the Sierra, the basketball courts are like the zócalo in the colonial city,” Mr. Santiago said, using a Mexican word for “plaza.” “It’s really the most important part of the town. A respectable town has a church, and a basketball court in front of the church.”
Read full article HERE.
Posted in Celebrations, Culture, Holidays, Sports & Recreation, Travel & Tourism | Tagged basketball, basketball court, Día de la Santa Cruz, El Picacho, Fiesta de Mayo, Hoop Dreams in Oaxaca, Mexico, Mixe, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, Santa María Tlahuitoltepec, sierra norte, sports, Teotitlán del Valle | Leave a Comment »
On another glorious day in Mill Valley…
There’s a high flyin’ [blimp], flying way up in the sky,
I wonder if she looks down as she goes on by?
Apparently, her name is Despicable Me 2. It’s all about the advertising and, grrr, I’ve fallen into their trap.
Only four more days, and I’ll be leaving on a jet plane, on my way back to Oaxaca!
(Apologies to Billy Edd Wheeler for borrowing a few lines from “High Flyin’ Bird” and to Richie Havens and his sublime version of it.)
Posted in Places, Transportation, Travel & Tourism | Tagged Billy Edd Wheeler, blimp, California, Despicable Me 2, High Flyin' Bird, Mill Valley, photographs, photos, Richie Havens | 2 Comments »
I adored my maternal grandmother. She was short and plump with a crown of white hair framing a broad round face. Her life wasn’t easy and years of hard work lined her face, but it was a face dominated by wise and remarkably kind eyes. I see the same strength and wisdom and loving presence in the abuelas of Oaxaca. Across years and miles, they bring a little of my grandma back and it makes me smile.
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And, speaking of Oaxaca’s awesome abuelas…
Mexican grandmother graduates from primary school at age 100
By Luc Cohen
MEXICO CITY | Wed Jun 26, 2013 11:30pm IST
(Reuters) – You’re never too old to learn: Mexican grandmother Manuela Hernandez has finally graduated from primary school – at the age of 100.
Born in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca in June 1913, the year before World War One began, she left primary school after just a year to help her poor family with household chores.
Hernandez only resumed her studies in October at age 99 at the recommendation of a grandchild, and she was handed her diploma at a celebration on Saturday.
“I liked school very much, but I could not continue studying,” she told Uno TV. “By the next year I could already wash and iron.”
Hernandez will continue her studies in secondary school.
More than half of Oaxaca state residents older than 15 have not completed primary education, the second-highest rate in the country behind neighboring Chiapas, a state education official said. (Reporting by Luc Cohen; Editing by Simon Gardner and Cynthia Osterman)
You might want to also take a look at this brief video of Manuela Hernandez explaining why she had to leave school as a child.
Posted in Education, People, Travel & Tourism | Tagged abuelas, education, grandmothers, Manuela Hernandez, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations | Leave a Comment »
Oaxaca’s annual Guelaguetza festival honoring the traditions of costume, dance, and sharing of the eight regions of the state of Oaxaca is less than a month away. There will be competitions leading up to the choosing of Goddess Centeotl to preside over the festival and parades by the delegations through the city on the two Saturdays that precede the July 22 and 29 programs at the Guelaguetza Auditorium on Cerro Fortín.
There will official and alternative celebrations in the city and surrounding villages. According to yesterday’s press conference, more than 70 events are scheduled and Lila Downs will be the official Guelaguetza 2013 ambassador. Hmmm… I wonder what that means? Surprise Lila Downs performances? It’s Oaxaca, so you just never know!
To get everyone in the spirit, here’s a few photos from another of Oaxaca’s wonderful urban art covered walls. It celebrates the heritage of Oaxaca and can be found at José López Alavez 1406, in the Xochimilco neighborhood of the city.
By the way, this past Sunday, San Francisco’s North Bay residents got an early and small flavor of Guelaguetza. Oaxacan dances, dishes and costumes in Santa Rosa entertained over 1,000 spectators and, no doubt, the hearts of the Oaxaqueños participating and in the audience swelled with pride. If I’d only known about it in advance, I would have gladly extricated myself from the complexities and minutiae of getting my grandparents’ house ready to sell and driven up there for a taste of Oaxaca. They were even serving tlayudas!
Oh well, this time next month I will be happily back in Oaxaca and, no doubt, be exhausted, exhilarated, and pouring through hundreds of photos from the first week of Guelaguetza activities.
Posted in Celebrations, Creativity, Culture, Travel & Tourism | Tagged California, celebrations, graffiti, Guelaguetza, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, Santa Rosa, urban art, wall art | 8 Comments »
In Oaxaca, a molino is an indispensable business in every village. Dried corn, cacao beans, chiles, herbs, spices, nuts, and seeds are brought to the molino to be ground so they can be turned into the staples found on Oaxaca’s tables — tamales, tortillas, tlayudas, tejate, mole, Oaxacan chocolate, and much mouth-watering more! Below is a miller of corn in Tamazulápam del Espíritu Santo, in the Mixe region of Oaxaca.
In Mill Valley, Molino is a colorful place-name, a street and a park, that recalls California’s Spanish and Mexican past.
“Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them. ” —Bill Vaughan
Posted in Buildings, Food, Language, Parks & Plazas, Signs, Travel & Tourism | Tagged Bill Vaughan quote, California, language, Mexico, Mill Valley, Mixe, molino, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, Tamazulápam del Espíritu Santo | Leave a Comment »
One of the things I always notice when in El Norte this time of year is the longer length of the day — and today it’s at its longest. Light came through the curtains to wake me at 5:45 AM and the sun won’t dip behind Mt. Tamalpais and into the Pacific until 8:30 PM. The further north one goes, the longer this day lasts. Of course, the reverse is true in the winter. No wonder the Summer Solstice is such a big deal in the northern latitudes!
As much as I miss Oaxaca, this really has been a spectacular spring in the Bay Area — perfect for strolling along the San Francisco Embarcadero with a Oaxaca buddy.
The City By the Bay at her best!
Posted in Celebrations, Science & Nature, Travel & Tourism | Tagged California, city by the bay, photographs, photos, San Francisco, San Francisco Bay, San Francisco Embarcadero, Summer Solstice | 1 Comment »
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Mexican Peso Converter
View From Casita Colibrí 