Still life at Matria, Jardín Arterapéutico.
Posts Tagged ‘Mexico’
Anywhere you hang your hat
Posted in Buildings, Creativity, Culture, Exhibitions, Gardens, Travel & Tourism, tagged abandoned buildings, art, art installation, exhibition, hats, Matria Jardín Arterapéutico, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, still life, straw hats on June 2, 2013| Leave a Comment »
That open door
Posted in Creativity, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged automobiles, cars, I Believe I Can Fly, Lambo doors, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, San Pedro y San Pablo Teposcolula on May 30, 2013| 1 Comment »
Cars in Oaxaca? They range from decrepit VW Beetles held together with duct tape to the latest shiny black tinted windowed SUVs. Most lean toward the former — the cobblestones, potholes, and dirt roads can rapidly speed-up the aging process.
However, like young men worldwide are wont to do, no matter the make and model, Oaxaqueños love to customize their rides. This one caught my eye in San Pedro y San Pablo Teposcolula:
The doors are known as Lambo (after Lamborghini), scissor, butterfly, switchblade, jack-knife and beetle-wing doors. Take your pick! R Kelly song lyrics came to mind:
I believe I can fly
I believe I can touch the sky
I think about it every night and day
Spread my wings and fly away
I believe I can soar
I see me running through that open door
I believe I can fly
By the way, should you too want to install Lambo doors on your car, you can find instructions here. Who knew???
Memorial days
Posted in People, Tragedy, tagged memorials, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, sidewalk memorial on May 27, 2013| 4 Comments »
It’s been two years since he fell asleep at the wheel, slammed into a tree, and was killed instantly. A memorial plaque and flowers soon appeared. There were rumors of intoxication, but that doesn’t lessen a mother’s pain or love. And she continues to come weekly to place fresh flowers at the site where he died.
Though I didn’t know Víctor Damián Díaz González, I too continue to remember him every time I walk down the street.
Walking a mile
Posted in Education, Parks & Plazas, Signs, Travel & Tourism, tagged accessibility, accessible tourism, blind, Braille, Dirección de Turismo Municipal, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, police, popular travel destinations, street names, street signs, tourism, training, Turismo Accesible 2013, visually impaired on May 24, 2013| 1 Comment »
… in their shoes. A couple of weeks ago, as I crossed the Alameda, I came across the following scene.
According to this article in Noticias, this is part of the Blind Accessible Tourism 2013 project of the Municipal Tourism Office. “During the tour, the participants experience the uncertainty that visually impaired people feel when walk the streets, and reflect on the importance of signs with street names written in Braille and audio traffic lights,” said Vladimir Martinez Lopez, who has been blind since age 11 and is the instructor for the course.
I blogged about the Braille street signs and the library for the blind and visually impaired soon after the signs began appearing at the beginning of 2012. Since then, I’ve seen them used by the sightless and intrigue and stimulate conversation among the sighted.
Now if they could just do something about the hazards of crossing the street at the intersections. Be they cars, buses, trucks, or motorcycles, they do not stop before turning a corner. Visually impaired or sighted, it’s like playing Russian Roulette!
I read the news today oh boy…
Posted in Creativity, Culture, Violence, tagged graffiti, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, street art, urban art, wall art on May 21, 2013| 2 Comments »
A picture is worth 1000 words
Posted in Education, Environment, Signs, tagged environmentalism, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, recycling, street art, Teotitlán del Valle, wall art on May 18, 2013| 1 Comment »
Santa María Tlahuitoltepec in B&W
Posted in Celebrations, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged Fiesta de Mayo, fiestas, Mexico, Mixe, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, Santa María Tlahuitoltepec, sierra norte on May 15, 2013| Leave a Comment »
The Fiesta de Mayo in Santa María Tlahuitoltepec lasted three days, though we were only there for a few hours on day two. There was to be a rodeo that night — a corral had been set up and bulls were arriving as we were leaving.
A timeless quality… but, not to be mistaken for being frozen in time. We are already making plans to return.
Into the Mixe
Posted in Celebrations, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged Ceremonia del Tepache, Fiesta de Mayo, fiestas, Mexico, Mixe, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, Santa María Tlahuitoltepec, sierra norte on May 14, 2013| 11 Comments »
Saturday, we drove up into the Sierra Norte, to the Mixe region of the state of Oaxaca. Our destination was Santa María Tlahuitoltepec and its Fiesta de Mayo. We had been attracted to their unique women’s traje (costume) by the work of one of the vendors at an artesanía feria in the city a couple of months ago. She invited us to the fiesta and so we went.
After winding our way up mountain roads filled with switchbacks and potholes, we turned off on a dirt road for the final ten minutes of our seventy-six mile journey from the city. We had climbed from 5,100 feet to over 7,800 feet above sea level on our three-hour drive up into pines. The name Tlahuitoltepec is made up of two Nahuatl words — Tlahuitol translates as “arched” and Tepec as “hill.” I can attest, Santa María Tlahuitoltepec is definitely built on a (very steep) “arched hill.” This is the same village that, at the end of September 2010, was hit with a devastating landslide that killed 11 residents, following record rainfall. And, as we drove up to the village, engineering work to repair and reinforce the hillside and road was visible and ongoing.
We weren’t exactly sure where we were going, stopped to ask, and were told to follow the signs to “el centro.” Our first indication that we were headed in the right direction was the sound, quickly followed by the sight, of a band playing and walking in the same direction we were. It was one of three youth bands we saw and heard during our brief stay; music is obviously very important in this remote mountain village. The pueblo plays host to the Center for Musical Training and Development of Mixe Culture and according to this article, an estimated 70% of the population can read music and many who can’t, play by ear.
And, along with music comes dance. Santa María Tlahuitoltepec will be participating in this year’s Guelaguetza in July — and its Ceremonia del Tepache is featured in one of the promotional videos. While there, we watched as a youth exhibition group performed three traditional dances to the appreciative crowd that filled the stands of the municipal court.
The uniqueness of each village never ceases to delight and impress me. You know when you are there, because you couldn’t be anywhere else.
Check out Oaxaca-The Year After for more photos from Saturday’s excursion.
A Wicked War
Posted in History, Travel & Tourism, tagged A Wicked War: Polk, Amy S. Greenberg, Clay, history, Invasion of Mexico, Lincoln and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico, Mexican American War, Mexico, Niños Héroes de Chapultepec, Oaxaca, Pan-American Highway, politics, popular travel destinations on May 11, 2013| 16 Comments »
One of the main roads into and out of Oaxaca is Federal Highway 190. It is a section of the Pan American Highway (which runs from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, at the southernmost tip of Argentina). I cross the highway several times a month on my way to the Organic Market in Xochimilco or to a restaurant in Colonia Reforma — and the same thought always crosses my mind, “I can’t believe I’m walking across the Pan American Highway!”
However, the highway has another name, as runs through the city — Calzada Niños Héroes de Chapultepec. Child heroes of Chapultepec? Who were they? If you visit Mexico City, your guidebook or tour guide might direct you to Chapultepec Castle (Castillo de Chapultepec) set high on a hill in the middle of the beautiful 1694 acre Bosque de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Park). There you will discover that they were young martyrs from what is called the Mexican-American War in the USA and is known here as the Invasion of Mexico.
Monument to the Child Heroes in Chapultepec Park
Penn State historian Amy S. Greenberg calls it, A Wicked War, and her book, by the same name, chronicles a war waged on the basis of a Presidential lie, against a guiltless neighbor, for the express purpose of annexing half its territory. (Hola, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and California.) Then Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln opposed the war and it spawned the first U.S. anti-war movement.
To discover what your teachers may not have told you about the Invasion of Mexico and its Niños Heroes, take a look at last week’s CBS Sunday Morning segment by Mo Rocca and with Amy Greenberg.
h/t Tim Johnson
Never a dull wall in Oaxaca
Posted in Creativity, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged graffiti, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, street art, street signs, urban art, wall art on May 9, 2013| Leave a Comment »
And now a return to the amazing street art from the walls near Calle de Melchor Ocampo and Calle de La Noria…
Never a dull moment or wall in Oaxaca!
New day dawning
Posted in Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged Casa Elena, El Picacho, Las Granadas, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, Teotitlán del Valle on May 7, 2013| 7 Comments »
Saturday afternoon, I returned to Teotitlán del Valle with my neighbor Marga for that evening’s world premiere of “La Festividad de los Muertos,” a film documenting Day of the Dead in Teotitlán (more about that in an upcoming post). Transportation back to the city late at night would have been challenging, so it was an ideal excuse to finally spend the night in one of my favorite villages. Marga booked the last room at Casa Elena and I stayed across the street at Las Granadas (both recommended).
Sunday morning, I was awakened by roosters crowing, burros braying, cohetes (all bang, no bling fireworks) exploding, and the sound of a band playing. Breakfast wasn’t to be served until 8:30 am, so I went for an early morning walk.
An enchanting way to begin the day.
All in a day’s hike
Posted in Celebrations, Churches, Culture, Holidays, Religion, Travel & Tourism, tagged Día de la Santa Cruz, El Picacho, Mexico, Oaxaca, popular travel destinations, Templo de la Preciosa Sangre de Cristo, Teotitlán del Valle on May 4, 2013| 7 Comments »
Yesterday (May 3) was Día de la Santa Cruz and in Mexico it is the feast day of construction workers. Crosses are erected on building sites and decorated. The tradition has its origins with the guilds during the colonial era.
However, in Teotitlán del Valle, tradition calls for hiking up to the top of El Picacho. A tall aqua colored wooden cross stands at the top of the peak.
There were two crosses, but apparently one was hit by lightning a week or two ago. It lies in splintered pieces below where it stood.
Mountain and custom beckoned, and so we headed out to Teotitlán yesterday morning to climb the mountain. The trek began and our eyes were on the prize as we passed by irrigated fields…
Along the steep and winding trail, there were signs…
in Zapoteco.
Bromeliads and other epiphytes clung to branches.
All along the way, the views were spectacular.
As we climbed, Templo de la Preciosa Sangre de Cristo grew smaller and smaller.
And, our destination grew closer and closer.
Almost two hours later (we stopped a lot!), we encountered the tethered burros that brought the tamales, aguas, and cervesas that awaited us at the top.
Besides sustenance, there were fireworks…
and expansive and even more spectacular views.
There were parents, teens, toddlers, abuelos…
and abuelas.
Muchisimas gracias to the people of Teotitlán del Valle, who never fail to warmly welcome us and, again, generously offered us food and drink.
They are very special people who live in a very special place.
FYI: The trip down took less than an hour, I returned home exhausted, sore, sunburned (even though I’d slathered on sunscreen), and thoroughly exhilarated.
Celebrating children and culture
Posted in Celebrations, Culture, Holidays, Travel & Tourism, tagged basili, children, Children's Day, Children's Guelaguetza, costume, culture, Día de los Niños, Guelaguetza, Infantil Guelaguetza, Mexico, Mixteca, Oaxaca, parade, photographs, photos, traje on April 30, 2013| 8 Comments »
Today is Día de los Niños (Children’s Day) and it’s a big deal here. Oaxaca began her celebrations days ago. The 6th Festival of Children’s Story Telling opened on Saturday, yesterday an exibition of traditional toys (Colección Hanni Sager Juguete tradicional) had its inauguration at the Museo del Palacio, and Friday, the Guelaguetza Infantil calenda filled the streets from Santo Domingo to the Basilica de la Soledad.
As several bands played, the children from Oaxaca’s preschools wearing the traditional costumes from the 8 regions of the state of Oaxaca waited, posed, walked, danced, and threw candy to the appreciative crowds gathered on the sidewalks along the ten-block long route. (Note, some of the little girls already practicing holding canastas (baskets) on their heads!)
Parents and teachers, many also wearing traje from the Cañada, Costa, Istmo, Mixteca, Papaloapan, Sierra Norte, Sierra Sur, and the Valles Centrales regions, proudly walked alongside the children. Vive Oaxaca concluded their article,
With such events from the early years of life are taught to love our Oaxacan culture, traditions, music and preserve the best legacy we have: our roots. Congratulations to the teachers and parent to correctly perform with great momentum this holiday culture. [Google translation]
Where is everyone?
Posted in Creativity, Culture, Parks & Plazas, Travel & Tourism, tagged Mexico, microphone, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, Plaza de la Danza, speakers on April 28, 2013| 2 Comments »
Plaza de la Danza…
Microphone, speakers, and pigeon…
We are all here…
Where is everyone???
Hummingbird of the Mixteca
Posted in Creativity, Culture, Language, Music, Travel & Tourism, tagged Chikirriyó'i, colibrí, hummingbird, marble mason, Mexico, Mixteca, music, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations on April 26, 2013| 5 Comments »
Wednesday in the Mixteca…
How could I resist? Photo, yes. Dining, no. We had already eaten and so were not tempted to try Restaurant El Colibrí, across the street. However, still scratching my head about the relationship between marble (marmol) and hummingbird (colibrí).
This librarian couldn’t resist doing a little research. According to Wikipedia, the hummingbird in Aztec culture was, “emblematic for their vigor, energy, and propensity to do work along with their sharp beaks that mimic instruments of weaponry, bloodletting, penetration, and intimacy.” Hmmm… the tools and strength needed by a marble mason. Now, it’s beginning to make sense.
(Thanks Chris for stopping so I could take the above photos.)
And now a song from the Mixteca, “Chikirriyó’i” (“El Colibrí”) (The Hummingbird):
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