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Have a seat!

Posted in Creativity, Culture, tagged art, benches, Mexico, Mexico City, Paseo de la Reforma, public art on January 28, 2012| 4 Comments »

As you may have gathered, one of the things I love about living down here is the pervasiveness of public art. So, on a recent trip up to Mexico City, it should have come as no surprise to see the city is filled with heroic sculptures and abstract modern pieces, both serious and whimsical, for all to see, contemplate, and enjoy.

Even benches are an excuse to let the creativity flow. (S)he is ready and willing to talk or just listen…

He will provide shelter from the storm OR scorching sun, as the case may be!

When it’s been an upside down kind of day, have a seat here.

Or, on a Sunday, when the Paseo de la Reforma is closed to traffic, you can park your bike and put a song in your heart!

¡Buen día!

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The ladybug and the…

Posted in Creativity, tagged graffiti, Mexico, Oaxaca, wall art on January 26, 2012| 2 Comments »

The wall art in Oaxaca never ceases to surprise and delight.

Pretty buff, no?

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Dog days

Posted in Animals, tagged dogs, Mexico, Mexico City, Oaxaca on January 23, 2012| 3 Comments »

In Mexico City…

In Oaxaca…

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Visual rehabilitation…

Posted in Buildings, Labor, Renovation, tagged buildings, Mexico, Oaxaca, painters, renovation, SINFRA, workers on January 20, 2012| 2 Comments »

A clean-looking Oaxaca, brought to you by Oaxaca’s Secretary of Infrastructure.

According to the state government’s website, a 45 million peso project was launched to “visually rehabilitate” 94,000 buildings in 25 urban communities. Begun in July in San Bartolo Coyotepec (14 miles south of Oaxaca City), it has now reached my ‘hood.

Ladders, paint buckets, and painters up and down the block.

By the way, because this is the Centro Histórico, the colors are selected from a previously approved palette. Baby blue? I wonder if the owners of the buildings have any say…

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Oaxacan migrants… a different road?

Posted in Economics, Immigration, Labor, tagged braceros, David Bacon, farmworkers, Human Rights, immigrant rights, labor, Mexico, migrants, Oaxaca, Rufino Dominguez, workers on January 19, 2012| Leave a Comment »

David Bacon, one of the most perceptive labor and immigrant rights writer/photographers, interviews Rufino Dominguez, director of the Oaxacan Institute for Attention to Migrants (in English). Let’s hope this isn’t another program that is all talk, no action.

Oaxaca’s New Government Calls for Migrant Rights

OAXACA, MEXICO — The Oaxacan Institute for Attention to Migrants, and its director Rufino Dominguez, called for a new era of respect for the rights of migrants, in commorating [sic] the International Day of the Migrant in the Palacio del Gobierno, Oaxaca’s state capitol building. Representing the newly-elected state government, Dominguez paid tribute to the contributions of the braceros, the first of Oaxaca’s migrant workers to travel to the United States. from 1942 to 1964, and to the women who cared for the families they left behind.

Around the balconies of the palacio’s courtyard hung photographs showing the lives of current migrants from Oaxaca, working as farm laborers in California. Migrant rights activists, artisans and public officials spoke about the important role migration continues to play in Oaxaca’s economic, social, political and family life. The state, in southern Mexico, is the source of one of the largest waves of migration from Mexico to the U.S.

Dominguez, the former coordinator of the Binational Front of Indigenous Organizations, which organizes indigenous migrants in both Mexico and the U.S., was appointed director of the IOAM by Oaxaca’s new governor, Gabino Cue Monteagudo. Cue defeated the PRI, the party that governed Oaxaca for the previous 80 years. In an interview with David Bacon, Dominguez described the different road the new government is taking to ensure social justice for Oaxacan migrants today:

We can’t tell the U.S. government, or the governments of California and other states, to respect the rights of our people who are living there, if we ourselves are not respecting the rights of migrants here in Oaxaca. Many migrants passing through Oaxaca from Central America and other places suffer systematic violations of their human rights.

Have we just paid attention to migrants in the U.S. because they send dollars home? Sometimes the problems of migrants within Mexico are even greater than those we have in the U.S. [Read full article]

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Protecting migrant workers

Posted in Economics, Immigration, Labor, tagged 2501 Migrants, Agriculture Workers Alliance, AWA, Canada, immigration, Instituto Oaxaqueno de Atencion a Migrantes, IOAM, La Ruta del Migrante, labor rights, Mexico, migrants, Oaxaca, UFCW, United Food and Commercial Workers, workers rights on January 17, 2012| 5 Comments »

I don’t know the details or even if it is all that it is cracked up to be. However, I can’t help but wonder… Where is the USA?

“La Ruta del Migrante” exhibit by Alejandro Santiago, in front of Santo Domingo in Oaxaca de Juárez (more on this exhibit to come)

Oaxaca’s Government and UFCW Canada Sign Agreement to Protect Mexican Migrant Workers in Canada

OAXACA, MEXICO–(Marketwire -01/17/12)- Migrant workers from the Mexican state of Oaxaca traveling to Canada will receive better protection this 2012 season after the signing of an agreement between the Instituto Oaxaqueno de Atencion a Migrantes (IOAM) and UFCW Canada.

On Monday, Wayne Hanley, National President of UFCW Canada, and Rufino Dominguez, Director of the IOAM signed a co-operation agreement to protect and assist Oaxacan migrants working temporarily in Canada. The agreement addresses issues of human rights, labor rights and social security, proposing a framework for transnational cooperation.

“Mexican migrant workers make an enormous contribution to the Canadian society and economy,” says National President Hanley. “This must be acknowledged and we look forward to working with Mexican institutions to improve the living and working conditions of Mexican migrant workers in Canada.”

UFCW Canada and the IOAM will collaborate to increase the level of protection of Oaxacan migrants before, during and after their stay in Canada. From now on, Oaxacan workers will be assisted in Canada through the network of 10 agriculture worker support centers operated by UFCW Canada in association with the Agriculture Workers Alliance (AWA).

The centres offer Spanish-speaking staff who deal with legal support services and training in human rights, labor rights, housing, and health and safety problems. Services also include a toll-free telephone assistance number from anywhere in Canada and Mexico, both for workers and their families.

Meanwhile, the IOAM will benefit from workshops offered by UFCW Canada to insure workers receive proper information about their rights. The plan of action will therefore focus not only on legal assistance, but also on prevention, information, and training of migrant workers. The program will also will help the migrant workers access Canadian legal benefits to which they are entitled.

The IOAM consolidates its commitment to the people of Oaxaca, actively developing policies to protect its citizens abroad. Other actors who have joined this international cooperation strategy with UFCW Canada include the governments of Michoacan, Tlaxcala and Distrito Federal, as well as two of the biggest agricultural workers labour federations. In this spirit of cooperation, the federal temporary worker programs will continue to be an important link for labour between Mexico and Canada, and these cooperation partnerships will strengthen the programs by involving all the strategic partners to ensure the workers’ experience is fair, safe and productive.

Contact:

UFCW Mexico
Andrea Galvez Gonzalez
3300 6144
Cell: 55 31 26 24 21
andrea.galvez@ufcw.mx
www.ufcw.ca

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Going forth and multiplying

Posted in Animals, Gardens, Nature & Science, tagged Araneidae, Argiope, Casita Colibrí, Mexico, Oaxaca, orb weaver, photographs, photos on January 13, 2012| 4 Comments »

Remember Argiope, from my September 20 and October 8 posts? She has continued to hang around, catch flies, and do all manner of spidery things. However, four days ago, her web was abandoned…

Apparently, my screen door is the perfect place, in her mind, to lay her eggs!

A friend asked, how do I feel about having hundreds of little Argiopes hatch practically INSIDE my apartment?

I’m trying not to think about it, says I.

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Salud, here’s to your health!

Posted in Education, Health, tagged Día de la Enfermera, health, massage, Mexico, Nurses Day, Oaxaca on January 9, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Día de Reyes wasn’t the only thing happening on Friday; January 6 was also Nurses Day (aka: Día de la Enfermera) and it warms this former RN’s heart.

Personal hygiene is important; don’t forget the toothpaste and soap!

Now this had me scratching my head… we never did this in nursing school!

However, when you are stressed, you are not relaxed.

Banner: Cuando estas estresado no eres tu relajate y consientete

You need to pamper yourself. Hmmm… wonder if my health insurance covers this?

And, for goodness sake, don’t forget to hydrate!

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Of kings and babies…

Posted in Celebrations, Food, Holidays, tagged Día de Reyes, Epiphany, Kings Day, Laura Olachea, Mexico, Oaxaca, Rosca de Reyes on January 7, 2012| 1 Comment »

Yesterday, El Día de Reyes (aka, Three Kings Day and Epiphany) was celebrated all over Oaxaca (and the rest of the Hispanic world). Letters having been written, children went to bed on January 5th in anticipation…

of a visit by los Reyes Magos; though, something tells me they didn’t ask for gold, frankincense, and myrrh. If these Three Kings are truly wise, they visited the toy department of a local store.

Yesterday morning, children awoke to find their very own gifts from the Magi. However, the day’s excitement didn’t end there. Rosca de Reyes, a wreath of sweet bread had been made or purchased.

This innocent looking dessert has a secret; a tiny plastic “bebé Jesús.” Family and friends take turns with a knife, each slicing their own piece, and the one who finds the figurine must host a tamale party on February 2, Día de la Candelaria (Candlemas), for all those gathered.

However, Laura (my Spanish teacher) and her friend Manuel, just couldn’t leave it at that. Last night, one by one, guests cut into the above cake and, lo and behold, we all bit into a baby Jesus. Needless to say, there was much joking about fertility drugs! It should be some tamale fiesta on February 2nd.

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Here and there

Posted in Buildings, Creativity, Culture, tagged 142 Throckmorton, El Picacho, Mexico, Mill Valley, Mt. Tamalpais, Oaxaca, Teotitlán del Valle, wall art, Zio Ziegler on January 4, 2012| 1 Comment »

Wall art from here…

Wall of 142 Throckmorton theatre on Madrona, Mill Valley, CA by Zio Ziegler

to there.

Wall of Espacio Zapata on Porfirio Díaz, Oaxaca de Juárez, OAX

And, sacred mountains from here…

to there.

Transition time… Mill Valley back to Oaxaca.

Save

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¡Prospero año a todos!

Posted in Celebrations, Culture, Holidays, tagged comparsa, Day of the Dead, Días de Muerto, Etla, Mexico, Oaxaca, parade, video, Vista Hermosa on December 31, 2011| 2 Comments »

A little craziness from the November 2, 2011 comparsa in Vista Hermosa…

Muchisimas gracias to all my readers. Thank you for stopping by, your perceptive comments, and your encouragement. Peace and joy in 2012, if not in the world, at least in your heart!

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It’s in the hands of the campesinos

Posted in Agriculture, Challenges, Economics, Immigration, tagged agribusiness, immigration, Mexico, NAFTA, Nochixtlán, Oaxaca on December 30, 2011| 1 Comment »

When “progress” isn’t progress; another thought provoking article that discusses what NAFTA hath wrought…

After NAFTA, Mexican farmers sow uncertainty
by: Mike Wold

Agribusiness and US policy clash with Campesino culture

The donkeys began to sing to each other as it got dark — starting with a honking bray from one far down in the bottom of the valley, then another answering from up on the hillside, then a third from a little way down the dirt road running by Eleazar García’s house. The road itself was empty by now; even earlier it couldn’t have been called busy — a group of schoolgirls in their white uniforms; a pickup truck with empty burlap sacks in the back; a battered van bringing farmers back from Nochixtlán, the market town two hours away. I’d been in rural Mexico before but never had a chance to watch the light change as the sun sank below the western hills.

<snip>

Supporting small farming in Mexico is a win-win scenario for both the U.S. and Mexico. But instead, the U.S. has successfully pushed Mexico into an export-oriented agricultural model that assumes depopulation in the rural areas, as large agribusiness replaces small-scale farmers in places like Oaxaca. Many of the displaced farmers will, as a matter of course, migrate north to work in maquiladoras (manufacturing operations) on the border or they will cross to the United States. In other words, the development model the two governments have adopted makes migration inevitable.

There’s no profit for corporations in helping people stay on the land, where they’re insulated from the ups and downs of the world economy. But, as García put it: “If you really want to combat hunger in the world, it’s in the hands of campesinos. They live on what they grow. It’s important that people begin to understand that.” [Full article]

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Defying the myth…

Posted in Challenges, Culture, History, Language, tagged bienes comunales, cargo, communal land, Guelaguetza, indigenous peoples, Kathleen Melville, Mexico, Oaxaca, racism, Upside Down World on December 28, 2011| 2 Comments »

Fascinating and revealing… from Upside Down World. I encourage you to read the full article.

Defying the Myth of Native Desolation: Cultural Continuity in Oaxaca
Written by Kathleen Melville
Friday, 09 December 2011 15:56

“There is no remedy, and the Indians are coming to an end.” – Don Felipe Huamán Poma de Ayala, 1615 (quoted in Restall, 100)

Despite the passage of nearly four hundred years, Huamán Poma’s dismal pronouncement remains the sad ending to many popular narratives of the conquest. In classrooms throughout the United States, students learn that the arrival of Columbus spelled the end of Native American civilization and that the Spanish conquest obliterated indigenous culture and society in the Americas. As Matthew Restall notes in “The Seven Myths of the Conquest”, this pervasive “myth of native desolation” (102) obscures the strength and vitality of indigenous people throughout history and into the present.

In Oaxaca, Mexico, the lives and work of indigenous people belie the myth of native desolation and attest to thousands of years of continuous, evolving culture. In July, over 30 educators from the United States convened in Oaxaca for a summer institute funded by the National Endowment of the Humanities. Our goal was to better understand the histories and cultures of indigenous people in the region so that we might help illuminate and preserve them through our teaching. With unit plans that we designed and shared, we hope to disturb and diminish the myth of native desolation and to enrich our students’ perspectives on native culture.

<snip>

Globalization and transnational corporations also pose a significant threat to indigenous cultural continuity. Artisans in Oaxaca complained that Asian companies have been mass-producing textiles and wood carvings abroad and then undercutting the tourist market locally. As documented in several articles on this site, the agricultural corporation Monsanto aims to expand its reign into Oaxaca and eliminate small maize farms like the Vicente family’s. Drug cartels, their own breed of transnational organization, also jeopardize indigenous culture by increasingly luring young people into lives of violence far from home. These giants make for formidable foes in the fight for cultural survival, but the indigenous communities of Oaxaca have faced formidable foes in the past. From the Aztec conquest to the Spanish conquest to the present day, indigenous communities in Oaxaca have endured and evolved, defying the myth of native desolation and defining a culturally sustainable future for themselves. [Full article]

(FYI: I just had first-hand experience with the threat cheap imports pose to the livelihoods of Oaxaca’s artisans. I do all my Christmas shopping in Oaxaca (so much more enjoyable than hitting the malls in the USA) and purchased backscratchers for stocking-stuffers that “looked” like they were made from the ubiquitous carrizo found anywhere a trickle of water is found in Oaxaca. However, there they were in a bin at one of the chain drug stores here in el norte! I’m thinking they were made in China. Wood carvers, potters, and weavers, the conversation is the same; business is down and these creative and talented folks are being forced to return to work in the fields.) — casitacolibrí

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Subject matter

Posted in Creativity, Culture, People, tagged Benito Juárez, Bolinas, California, graffiti, Mexico, Oaxaca, wall art on December 26, 2011| 3 Comments »

Apparently, I’m not the only one who has made the journey from Oaxaca to California. The San Francisco Bay Area has been basking in sun and Oaxacan-blue-skies. Even though the temps don’t match-up, the coast beckoned…

And, wall art greeted us in Bolinas.

Gosh, except for the subject matter, I felt like I was in Oaxaca!

Wait! Who is that I see?

None other than Oaxaca’s favorite son, Benito Juárez. The subject matter IS the same!!!

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Christmas on the Zócalo

Posted in Celebrations, Culture, Holidays, tagged banners, Christmas, Mexico, Navidad, Oaxaca, occupation, protest, San Juan Copala, Seccíon xxII, zócalo on December 23, 2011| Leave a Comment »

And the juxtapositions continue; the annual nativity scene set up on the zócalo in Oaxaca across from the Government Palace and the ongoing occupation by the women of San Juan Copala, not to mention the ubiquitous banners of Section 22 of the Teachers’ Union.

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Then there were the impossibly cute kids and a rapid request from them. “Mas despacio, por favor,” sez I. A slow motion reply followed, “To-ma nu-es-tra fo-to,” sez the older girl. And, so I did!

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