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Posts Tagged ‘popular travel destinations’

Oaxaca quote of the day, as posted on Facebook by my friend and neighbor, J:  “Antes, no salía sin checar el clima.  Ahora no salgo sin checar los bloqueos.”  Translation:  “Before, I didn’t go out without checking the weather.  Now, I don’t leave without checking for blockades.”

Mexico’s Interior Secretary, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, is refusing further dialogue with the CNTE (teachers and education workers union) until the blockades are lifted, the CNTE is vowing to intensify its actions around the country, and rumor has it that masses of vacant hotel rooms in Oaxaca (thanks to large-scale cancellations) are being filled by federal police.  There’s a dance going on in Oaxaca, I don’t know the steps, but in the meantime, let’s put on our red shoes and dance the blues.

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Let’s Dance
by David Bowie

Let’s dance put on your red shoes and dance the blues

Let’s dance to the song
they’re playin’ on the radio

Let’s sway
while color lights up your face
Let’s sway
sway through the crowd to an empty space

If you say run, I’ll run with you
If you say hide, we’ll hide
Because my love for you
Would break my heart in two
If you should fall
Into my arms
And tremble like a flower

Let’s dance for fear
your grace should fall
Let’s dance for fear tonight is all

Let’s sway you could look into my eyes
Let’s sway under the moonlight,
this serious moonlight

If you say run, I’ll run with you
If you say hide, we’ll hide
Because my love for you
Would break my heart in two
If you should fall
Into my arms
And tremble like a flower

Let’s dance put on your red shoes
and dance the blues

Let’s dance to the song
they’re playin’ on the radio

Let’s sway you could look into my eyes
Let’s sway under the moonlight,
this serious moonlight

 

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I usually don’t spend much time walking along Crespo — the bus fumes and traffic noise are enough to have one holding one’s nose, covering one’s ears, and detouring to another street, as soon as possible!  However, a (not-so-little) birdie told me to check out the stairs up to the Guelaguetza Auditorium.

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Yikes!!!   An improvement project has been underway from Crespo all the way up to the Auditorium since the end of April.  Runners, walkers, and residents need to use an alternative route.  As the sign says, “Sorry for the inconvenience.”

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I spoke to one of the workmen and asked, if the project is going to be finished in time for the Guelaguetza.  After all, the first performance of Donají la Leyenda is scheduled for the night of July 24 and la Guelaguetza begins the following morning — that’s less than a month away.  He assured me the work would be completed.

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Speaking of the Guelaguetza…  Vive Oaxaca has a notice (in red, no less!) essentially saying, that because of the number of messages they have received regarding information about the current conflicts in Oaxaca, they feel compelled to announce that they have no information about the cancellation of Guelaguetza.  As far as they know, everything is continuing as planned, but advise visitors to monitor official information from the Ministry of Tourism and Economic Development of the State of Oaxaca.

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Sunday is market day in Tlacolula de Matamoros and I was so ready to escape the city.  No bloqueos blocked our way and Sunday traffic was even lighter than usual, thus the drive was uneventful.  In addition, though rumors of gasoline shortages have been rampant, we had no trouble filling up at one of the numerous Pemex stations along our eastbound route.  Once we arrived, we found the market was a beehive of activity, aisles had us crowded shoulder to shoulder with shoppers from Tlacolula and the surrounding villages.

The color… the energy… the bounty… the people… the smells… the street food…the life.  It was all just what the doctor ordered!  And, when I got home and turned on my computer, a documentary on market day in Tlacolula popped up on my Facebook news feed.  (h/t Zeferino Mendoza)

It may be from 2012, but not much has changed.  This Sunday open air market (tianguis) is one of the oldest continuously operating in Mesoamerica.

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It’s halftime in Oaxaca and all is quiet.

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Local vendors are selling food, drink and paraphernalia. Though El Financiero is reporting that grocery chain Soriana is temporarily closing some of their stores in Oaxaca and Chiapas, blaming blockades and security concerns.

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The teams have retired to their respective locker rooms to tend to the wounded and bury the dead (literally).

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Mascots continue to fire up their supporters in a war of Tweets, Facebook posts, and media talking heads…

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As fans (fanáticos en español) await the resumption of play.

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But, all most Oaxaqueños want is a peaceful and fair end to this infernal battle.  Let’s hope something can be worked out when negotiations resume on Monday.

During this lull, English speaking readers might want to check out Dave Miller’s blog and/or listen to an interview with Laura Carlsen (Center for International Policy) for background on the issues involved between the education workers and the government.

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Happy Father’s Day (Día del Padre) to the loving fathers (biological, adoptive, and step), grandfathers, and father figures everywhere.

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Color Him Father
(click on link for Keb Mo performing The Winstons old song)

There’s a man at my house he’s so big and strong

He goes to work each day, stays all day long

He comes home each night looking tired and beat

He sits down at the dinner table and has a bite to eat

Never a frown always a smile

When he says to me how’s my child

I’ve been studying hard all day in school

Tryin’ to understand the golden rule

Think I’ll color this man father

I think I’ll color him love

Said I’m gonna color him father

I think I’ll color the man love, yes I will

He says education is the thing if you wanna compete

Because without it son, life ain’t very sweet

I love this man I don’t know why

Except I’ll need his strength till the day that I die

My mother loves him and I can tell

By the way she looks at him when he holds my little sister Nell

I heard her say just the other day

That if it hadn’t been for him she wouldn’t have found her way

My real old man he got killed in the war

And she knows she and seven kids couldn’t of got very far

She said she thought that she could never love again

And then there he stood with that big wide grin

He married my mother and he took us in

And now we belong to the man with that big wide grin

Think I’ll color this man father

I think I’ll color him love

Said I’m gonna color him father

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This morning, up Tinoco y Palacios…

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Inside an open door.

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At the tire repair shop, “My house is your house.”

Down Callejon de Hidalgo…

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Behind the iron gate.

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A June bug in June.

Walking anywhere in Oaxaca, there is always something to see.

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It’s a grey day and I think a little conducting Oaxaca in black and white is in order.

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Now the rain has begun to fall, which is a good thing.

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Even in Oaxaca, when it comes to peluquerias, old is new again…

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If you want to see an old, old-school Oaxaca barber shop, check out Chris’s barber.

 

 

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Today is Sunday, no alcohol can be purchased in Oaxaca, and a federal helicopter has made a pass or two over the city.   It’s election day in Oaxaca and 12 other states, plus the Mexico City.  Polls don’t close until 6:00 PM, but rumor has it, a PRI victory party is already being set up in the Plaza de la Danza.  Hmmm…

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Yesterday, on the way to dinner, we stopped to watch the take down of the newly installed sculpture of Jesús in front of Santo Domingo.  This shot seems to be a metaphor for today’s election.

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Returning home from a reconnaissance mission at Llano Park’s Friday tianguis:  Hot and humid, helicopter circling overhead, another maestros march along Juárez, I cut over to Garcia Vigil — needing to pay my Telmex bill, anyway.  I flashed on (yes, I’m a child of the sixties) this week’s WordPress photo challenge and began noticing Numbers

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And, just one more for mi amiga, Lanita…

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Can’t you just hear Moby Grape singing, 8:05 ?  Ahhh, those harmonies…  I told you I’m a child of the sixties!

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I can’t resist.  It’s another day and another night blooming cereus flower greeted the dawn.  Ready for her close-up, she insisted on a profile…

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¡Muy buenos días a todos!

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Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty
Been down, isn’t it a pity
Doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city
All around, people looking half dead
Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head…

Weather

Two and a half months of 10º F above average temperatures.  This is getting ridiculous!!!

 

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Day after day, alone on the [wall]
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still…

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The Fool On The Hill
by Paul McCartney and John Lennon

Day after day, alone on the hill
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still
But nobody wants to know him
They can see that he’s just a fool
And he never gives an answer

But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning around

Well on the way, head in a cloud
The man of a thousand voices talking perfectly loud
But nobody ever hears him
Or the sound he appears to make
And he never seems to notice

But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning around

And nobody seems to like him
They can tell what he wants to do
And he never shows his feelings

But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning around

He never listens to them
He knows that they’re the fools
They don’t like him

The fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning around

 

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Today, Santo Domingo de Guzman served as a backdrop to the red/orange of the Flamboyán trees (aka, Delionux regia, Tabachín, Poinciana, Árbol de fuego) that line her front entrance.

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Their fiery brilliance provided a much-need antidote to the malaise brought about by two months of temperatures in the nineties (Fahrenheit) almost every single day.  I can assure you, this is NOT the norm.  However, today it’s only 86º F — as the Weather Underground forecast announced, “much cooler” than yesterday!

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Back to Havana… and the colorful and captivating Callejón de Hamel, in Barrio Cayo Hueso.  (For a more in depth and fascinating history of this neighborhood, see Neighborhood as Refuge: Community Reconstruction, Place Remaking, and Environmental Justice in the City  by Isabelle Anguelovski.)

It was our first full day and serendipity and synchronicity brought us Dayan, an enthusiastic guide with boundless energy and pride.

Without hesitation, Dayan immediately made a beeline to this alley  — the creation of self-taught artist, Salvador González Escalona.  It is a living, breathing gallery and studio, where artists were welding and painting as we stopped to watch and wonder at their creations.

The cultural character of this community cannot be separated from its religious traditions and practices — a syncretism of African religions brought by slaves and Catholicism brought by the Spanish conquerors.  Salvador Gonzáles Escalona explains, “I am talking about the religion known as Santería, which comes from the Yorubas; Palo Monte, which comes from the Congo; Abakuá, which has to do with Calabar [the Cross River Delta in Nigeria]; and maybe some manifestations of spiritism, a cultural expression of working class people, the ordinary folks in our country.”

Callejón de Hamel is also home to a vibrant musical scene.  “In this alley many years ago, in the 40’s, a cuban musical movement was born, known as ‘filin,’ songs of feeling, with our friend Angelito Díaz and his now deceased father, Tirso Díaz. There were figures such as Elena Burque, the late Moraima Secada, aunt of Jon Secada, Omara Portuondo [featured in Buena Vista Social Club], César Portillo de la Luz, and many others.” — Salvador Gonzáles

On Sundays, around noon, the street comes alive with musicians, dancers, and the sights and sounds of Cuban rumba.  Alas, around that time, we were in the midst of changing hotels.  Next time, for sure!

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