As my regular readers may have noticed, the blog posts of late have been few and far between. I must admit, I’ve found it really difficult to motivate writing about Oaxaca while I’m having to spend so much time in El Norte — though, goodness knows, photos and topics are definitely not in short supply. However, I guess anticipating my upcoming return to Oaxaca has prompted me to appreciate both here and there and provided the spark I needed to sit down and create this blog post.
Baskets for sale…
Feria del Carrizo – San Juan Guelavia, OaxacaJuneteenth Freedom Festival – Mill Valley, California
Food trucks…
Downtown Plaza – Mill Valley, CaliforniaParque Juárez “El Llano” – Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca
Aprons for sale…
Mercado – Tlacolula de Matamoros, OaxacaJuneteenth mercado – Mill Valley, California
Goats with their humans…
Mill Valley 125th anniversary parade – CaliforniaFestival del Mole de Caderas – Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca
Fire trucks on parade…
Mill Valley 125th anniversary celebration – CaliforniaMéxico Día de la Independencia – Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca
Horses on parade…
Mill Valley 125th anniversary celebration – CaliforniaMéxico Día de la Independencia – Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca
In the words of Maya Angelou, “We are more alike than unalike.”
I’m currently on the East Coast of the USA and, contrary to those who try to divide us, as always, I love and appreciate the similarity of scenes.
3 Garnachas at Sabina Sabe in Oaxaca.3 Steam chive dumplings at China Pearl in Boston, MA.Skeleton from a sidewalk in Oaxaca.Skeleton from a sidewalk in Newton, MAGazebo in the Zócalo of Oaxaca.Gazebo on the Boston Common.Virgen de Guadalupe (Mary) outside church in Oaxaca.Virgin Mary outside church in Newton, MA.Statue of President Benito Juárez in Llano Park in Oaxaca.Statue of President George Washington on the Boston Common.
“Love is the power to see similarity in the dissimilar.” –Theodor Adorno
My trip to el norte is drawing to a close and tomorrow morning, before the sun rises, my day-long journey back to Oaxaca begins. After being away for 5-1/2 weeks, I wonder what changes I will see. In the meantime, a couple of cute animal photos from here and there…
Chipmunk that perches on this rock every morning at my son’s house in upstate New York.
Squirrel feeding station set up by neighbors in Barrio de Xochimilco, Oaxaca.
Now that I am fully vaccinated, I’m looking forward to venturing out and about a lot more and hopefully having more fodder for the blog!
In Oaxaca, murals, stencils, and other forms of street art are ubiquitous — and often with cultural and political themes.
The same is true for San Francisco and her neighboring cities of Oakland and San Jose — primarily thanks to significant populations of color and the cultural expressions they bring.
However, in my white-bread hometown of Mill Valley, it’s only in the past several years that murals have begun popping up and they have seldom addressed social and political issues — until now.
In response to the killing of George Floyd and a controversy in the town regarding the tone-deaf attitude toward the Black Lives Matter movement and its own issues of racial discrimination and profiling, artist Wesley Cabral painted these two murals which now adorn a prominent wall in downtown Mill Valley.
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View From Casita Colibrí 