Waiting for the convite… Fiesta a la Natividad de la Virgen María.
September 8 was a rainy day in Teotitlán del Valle.
Posts Tagged ‘photos’
A rainy day
Posted in Celebrations, Culture, Religion, Travel & Tourism, Weather, tagged convite, El Picacho, Fiesta a la Natividad de la Virgen María, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, Teotitlán del Valle, Virgen de la Natividad on September 9, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Size matters!!!
Posted in Animals, Gardens, Science & Nature, tagged Araneidae, Argiope, Casita Colibrí, dragonfly, garden, Mexico, nature, Oaxaca, orb weaver, orb weaver spiders, photographs, photos, spider on September 6, 2012| 5 Comments »
Monday morning, I went out onto the terrace to hang the wind chimes back up (too loud for sleeping), pick up spent African tulip tree blossoms (20 to 30), and say buenos días to Argiope (previously mentioned spider).
Hmmm… all was definitely not “as usual” in the spider’s web. Argiope, what in the world is going on?
Good grief, she had caught a dragonfly! It must have been quite a battle, as her web was a mess and now she was trying to wrap it up.
This was serious business for her and she worked at it most of the day. However I had to chuckle, as sayings from childhood rose up from the cobwebs in my brain — Your eyes bigger than your stomach. Have you bitten off more than you can chew? Pick on someone your own size!
Monday evening, she finally gave up and let it loose from her clutches. When I retired for the night, the dragonfly was hanging by a thread.
By the next morning, the remains of the dragonfly had fallen onto the patio and Argiope was sitting happily in her newly repaired web with a more appropriately sized breakfast.
Mother Nature is amazing!
Have you got your colors on?
Posted in Celebrations, Culture, History, Holidays, Travel & Tourism, tagged celebrations, clothing, costumes, El Grito, Grito de Dolores, holidays, Mexican Independence Day, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, store displays, traje on September 5, 2012| Leave a Comment »
El Grito is coming, El Grito is coming!!! Green, white and red is on display all over the city, including clothing stores, as tradition calls for wearing the colors.
Are you in the market for a traditional look?
A huipil and rebozo?
Or, are you leaning toward an updated mix and match style?
Do you need a sweater for going down to the zócalo on the evening of September 15?
By all means, don’t forget to accessorize!
On a more serious note: Despite its current challenges (which are many and serious), Mexicans are extremely proud of being Mexicanos. And, in my humble opinion, they have every right be! They can trace their history back to ancient and highly developed civilizations, their national cuisine has been placed on the World Heritage List by UNESCO, and Mexico is considered one of the most geographically and biologically diverse countries in the world. Plus, when was the last time you heard Mexico had invaded another country?
Raining cats and dogs
Posted in Animals, Celebrations, Churches, Culture, Religion, Travel & Tourism, tagged animals, Bendición de los Animales, Benito Juárez, Blessing of Animals, Mexico, Oaxaca, pets, photographs, photos, San Ramón de Nonato, Temple of Our Lady of Mercy, Templo de Nuestra Señora de la Merced on September 2, 2012| 5 Comments »
… and fish and turtles and ducks. On August 31, as the rain fell, all of the above and more, assembled at Templo de Nuestra Señora de la Merced for the annual Bendición de los Animales. Animals and their human keepers were there to celebrate the feast day of San Ramón de Nonato, patron saint of women in labor, persons falsely accused, and keeper of animals.
There were some familiar faces, both human and animal, from last year’s blessing. However, this year the dogs were extremely vocal and, on occasion, tested the strength of the human at the other end of their leash — perhaps it was in anticipation of the evening’s “blue moon” or maybe being restrained and made to just sit or stand in the rain made them grouchy.
This morning’s article in Noticias covering the blessing, led off with this quote from Benito Juárez García:
La protección de los animales forma parte esencial de la moral y de la cultura de los pueblos civilizados. (The protection of animals is an essential part of morality and culture of civilized people.)
For more on this year’s Blessing of the Animals, head over to Oaxaca-The Year After.
Food glorious food!
Posted in Celebrations, Culture, Food, Parks & Plazas, Travel & Tourism, tagged Alejandro Ruiz Olmedo, bamboo skewers, chefs, cuisine, culinary traditions, dining, El Jolgorio mezcal, El Saber del Sabor, food, Mexico, mezcal, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, Plaza de la Danza, popular travel destinations, restaurants, travel on September 1, 2012| 8 Comments »
Thursday night was the kickoff event for the 5th annual El Saber Del Sabor (literally, the knowledge of flavor) Festival Gastronómico Oaxaca 2012. Early in the day, the Plaza de la Danza had been tented and turned into a colorful banquet hall.
A couple of the evening’s chefs arrived early and were cooling their heels, waiting to begin doing what they do best. Hmmm… what’s with the bricks on top of the cantera? (Stay tuned!)
By 9:30 PM the tables had filled and cooking was well underway.
Casa Oaxaca chef and event host, Alejandro Ruiz Olmedo circulated, greeted old friends and fans, and was interviewed by a crush of press. Cameras and microphones were omnipresent — good for publicity, bad for navigating the aisles en route to food!
To begin the evening and ready the palate, wines, beers, aguas, and (of course!) mezcals were offered. We sampled a couple of mezcals from El Jolgorio and all I can say is, Wow! (BTW, that’s a good, “Wow!”)
The festival seeks to promote and protect Oaxaca’s traditional cuisine and to inspire innovation. For this evening’s event, we were invited to sample an incredible range of appetizers, side dishes, main courses, and desserts from 23 cooks, representing the 8 regions of Oaxaca.
I think I must have tasted at least 30 dishes — and this was late at night. Needless to say, no breakfast for me the next morning.
And, remember the bricks? My favorite sight of the evening were the little piggies roasting on bamboo skewers over red and white-hot coals. The tag line for the festival is, “tierra, fuego y cocina” (earth, fire, and kitchen). Yes!!!
From the Plaza de la Danza, the festival moves to restaurants throughout the city, where 36 renowned chefs from all over Mexico have come to prepare innovative cuisine that pays homage to Oaxaqueño foodstuffs and traditions.
A big “thank you” to Henry and Rosa (Amate Books) for inviting me to share such a delightful and delicious evening!
Argiope’s daughter
Posted in Animals, Gardens, Nature & Science, tagged Araneidae, Argiope, argiopes, Casita Colibrí, egg sack, garden, Mexico, nature, Oaxaca, orb weaver, orb weaver spiders, photographs, photos, spider on August 30, 2012| 5 Comments »
Warning: If you are an arachnophobe, read no further!
Remember Argiope, one of the orb weaver spiders who hung around Casita Colibrí’s garden from September of last year through January of this year? When last seen, she was laying eggs on my screen door. Alas (or perhaps, thank goodness), a workman who was coming in and out of my apartment must have brushed her and her eggs away, thus relieving me of answering the question, “Do I really want thousands of little spiders beginning to explore the world from my screen door?”
However, I suspect that wasn’t her first attempt at motherhood. One day this past June, I was surprised to find…
Argiope’s daughter? That is what I would like to think! And she is just as beautiful as her mother…
… both back (above) and front (below).
And, she is just as good as catching her lunch! I watched as she finished wrapping up the unfortunate fly above. I guess she needs all that nourishment…
Another generation of Argiopes in waiting! And, as I write, the hunting continues…
More to come? La vida may be loca, but on it goes!
Facelift in progress
Posted in Buildings, Labor, Restaurants, tagged building renovation, Casa Oaxaca, cement mixing, construction workers, Galeria Quetzalli, labor, laborers, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, workers on August 28, 2012| 4 Comments »
Need a facelift?
Apparently, Casa Oaxaca and neighbor, Galeria Quetzalli, both do.
You might want to consider these guys.
They work hard.
And, all work is done with care and by hand!
Sucked in…
Posted in Buildings, Creativity, Culture, Politics, tagged Lapiztola, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, street art, urban art, wall art on August 27, 2012| 1 Comment »
The difference between morning & night
Posted in Buildings, Churches, Travel & Tourism, Weather, tagged African Tulip trees, Basilica de la Soledad, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, rainy season, Templo de San José, travel, tropical storm, weather on August 25, 2012| 2 Comments »
Oh, what a beautiful morning it was!
What a difference 10 hours makes.
Moisture from Tropical Storm Isaac being drawn across Oaxaca. That’s the way the rainy season goes!
Friday funnies
Posted in Creativity, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged clown, Mexico, Oaxaca, payaso, photographs, photos, piñata on August 24, 2012| 2 Comments »
Walking down the street… an open door… can’t help but look in…
¡Feliz fin de semana!
Yesterday and today
Posted in Buildings, Geography, History, Markets, tagged Calle Flores Magón, Calle Las Casas, historical photographs, La Lagunilla, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, street scene on August 21, 2012| 6 Comments »
Several days ago, Susan McGlynn of the Insider’s Guide to Oaxaca posted this photo on the Insider’s Facebook page, with the question, “Oaxaca in the 1940s or maybe 50s?. DO YOU KNOW WHICH CORNER OF OAXACA THIS IS???”
The architecture looked very familiar and then there were those trees in the distance… I was pretty sure I knew which corner this was, so off the camera and I went.
It’s looking north on Flores Magón at the intersection of Las Casas. That’s the Government Palace in front of the trees of the zócalo at the end of the street. Outside the shot and to the left of the cars in the foreground is Mercado Benito Juárez. Perhaps all is a little clearer in color…
That cinnamon colored building in the foreground is the Trebol Hotel and the single-story white building next to the Government Palace is La Lagunilla, which must have been in business when the original photograph was taken, as the sign says it was founded in 1921.
This was fun!
It was 72 years ago today…
Posted in History, Museums, People, Politics, Travel & Tourism, tagged Coyoacán, Esteban Volkov, Institute for the Right of Asylum and Public Liberties, Instituto del Derecho de Asilo y las Libertades Públicas, Leon Trotsky, Mexico, Mexico City, Museo Casa de Trotsky, museum, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, travel, Trotsky Museum on August 20, 2012| 2 Comments »
I’ve been intending to post these photos for six months, but there has been so much going on in Oaxaca, I haven’t gotten around to it — until now. This morning’s Guardian article, Trotsky’s murder remembered by grandson, 72 years on, caught my eye and I thought, if not today, when? So, here goes…
When I was in Mexico City in January, I made somewhat of a pilgrimage out to the borough of Coyoacán. Besides a lovely stroll through the Viveros de Coyoacán, being dazzled by the light and color of the Museo Frida Kahlo, and enjoying a delicious comida on the Plaza Hidalgo, I spent an incredibly moving three hours at the Museo Casa de Trotsky, the home, and now museum, of Russian revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky and his wife Natalia Sedova. However, before getting to the photos, a very brief bit of context is necessary.
Hounded all over the world by Joseph Stalin and his agents, in 1937 Trotsky and Natalia Sedova were offered asylum by Mexican president Lázaro Cárdenas. Trotsky’s orphaned grandson, Esteban Volkov (Seva), joined them not long after. Seva narrowly escaped being murdered in his bed during the first attempt on Trotsky’s life in the Coyoacán house by Mexican muralist, David Alfaro Siqueiros. It was during this attack that Trotsky guard, Robert Sheldon Harte was killed.
The house at Avenida Viena 19 was further fortified, but Stalinist agent, Ramón Mercader, under an assumed name was able to infiltrate Trotsky’s inner circle and, on August 20, 1940, under the ruse of asking Trotsky to look at something he had written, attacked him with an ice axe. Trotsky died in hospital a little more than 24 hours later. His ashes and those of Natalia’s reside in the peaceful garden of the Coyoacán house in a monument, designed by Irish-Mexican painter and architect Juan O’Gorman, that proudly flies a red flag and features the overlapping hammer of the worker and the sickle of the peasant. The house and furnishings remain much as they were 72 years ago, bullet holes from the first attack and all.
The humanity expressed in the words below were felt as I wandered through the house and museum and I must admit, tears welled up as I stood before O’Gorman’s monument.
Trotsky’s Testament, dated 27 February 1940
My high (and still rising) blood pressure is deceiving those near me about my actual condition. I am active and able to work but the outcome is evidently near. These lines will be made public after my death.
I have no need to refute here once again the stupid and vile slanders of Stalin and his agents: there is not a single spot on my revolutionary honour. I have never entered, either directly or indirectly, into any behind-the-scenes agreements or even negotiations with the enemies of the working class. Thousands of Stalin’s opponents have fallen victims of similar false accusations. The new revolutionary generations will rehabilitate their political honour and deal with the Kremlin executioners according to their desserts.
I thank warmly the friends who remained loyal to me through the most difficult hours of my life. I do not name anyone in particular because I cannot name them all.
However, I consider myself justified in making an exception in the case of my companion, Natalia Ivanovna Sedova. In addition to the happiness of being a fighter for the cause of socialism, fate gave me the happiness of being her husband. During the almost forty years of our life together she remained an inexhaustible source of love, magnanimity, and tenderness. She underwent great sufferings, especially in the last period of our lives. But I find some comfort in the fact that she also knew days of happiness.
For forty-three years of my conscious life I have remained a revolutionist: for forty-two of them I have fought under the banner of Marxism. If I had to begin all over again I would of course try to avoid this or that mistake, but the main course of my life would remain unchanged. I shall die a proletarian revolutionary, a Marxist, a dialectical materialist, and, consequently, an irreconcilable atheist. My faith in the communist future of mankind is not less ardent, indeed it is firmer today, than it was in the days of my youth.
Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.
For archives and bibliographies of Trotsky, the following two sites are about as comprehensive as one will find online:
- Lubitz’ TrotskyanaNet – compiled by bibliographers, Wolfgang and Petra Lubitz
- Trotsky Internet Archive – a full-text digital library in more than 30 languages
Even if you are not interested in the politics, and especially if you are considering a visit to the museum, I highly recommend reading Barbara Kingsolver’s historical novel, The Lacuna, part of which takes place in Trotsky’s Mexican household and gives a flavor of life there.
By the way, the museum site (appropriately) houses the Instituto del Derecho de Asilo y las Libertades Públicas (Institute for the Right of Asylum and Public Liberties). I wonder, are they working overtime these days?
Busking on the Alcalá
Posted in Culture, Parks & Plazas, People, Protests, tagged Bernardo Vásquez Sánchez, buskers, graffiti, Macedonio Alcalá, Mexico, Motley Crue, musicians, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, street musicians, U2 on August 20, 2012| 2 Comments »
A motley crew…
Are you, too?
They were playing Pink Floyd — “Another Brick in the Wall.”
The “writing on the wall” refers to the assassination in March 2012 of Bernardo Vásquez Sánchez, a Zapotec community activist who had spoken out against a Canadian owned gold mine in San José del Progreso, Oaxaca.
Music is wherever you find it…
Posted in Celebrations, Creativity, Culture, Music, Travel & Tourism, tagged desfile, Guelaguetza, Mexico, music, Oaxaca, parade, photographs, photos, popular travel destinations, sheet music on August 17, 2012| Leave a Comment »
On chairs in Reyes Etla.
On people’s backs in the city.
Wherever… especially during Guelaguetza!
Sitting pretty in Oaxaca
Posted in Creativity, Environment, Exhibitions, Parks & Plazas, tagged bench, design, I Feel Good in Oaxaca, International Youth Day, Me Siento en Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca, photographs, photos, students on August 14, 2012| 2 Comments »
From Sangre de Cristo to Santo Domingo, along the Alcalá, one is now able to “have a seat.”
As part of the inauguration of the Me Siento Bien en Oaxaca (I Feel Good in Oaxaca) and to celebrate, International Youth Day, 13 pieces were created by students of the Faculty of Architecture Cinco de Mayo, the Free School of Art and Design, and the Urban Contingency B_root studio.
The theme was Evolution and the young people were charged with using recycled materials and innovative design.
I think they succeeded!
Alas, it is only temporary; August 18 is the last day.
However, according to a newspaper report, as a more permanent part of Me Siento Bien en Oaxaca program, benches “rescued by the City” will be put in public spaces.
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