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Posts Tagged ‘Tlacolulokos’

Why???

Posted in Creativity, Culture, Politics, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on October 2, 2021| 13 Comments »

Sometime last night, the recently inaugurated mural by the Tlacolulokos was defaced. And we are left asking, why?

The message, purportedly by anarchists (given the presence of their symbol) is calling the artists “Oaxaca indigenous traitors.” Due to their collaboration on the mural with the Canadian government??? I don’t know. But what I do know is that I am sad and angry at this attack on the right of artists to create without censorship or intimidation.

Update: The mural has been repaired. However, click HERE for a communiqué regarding why it was defaced.

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Collaborative mural inaugurated

Posted in Celebrations, Creativity, Culture, Neighborhoods, People, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 21, 2021| 9 Comments »

Under the shade of the 361 year old Coquito de la Iglesia de Jalatlaco tree, onlookers (and bloggers like yours truly), dignitaries, media, and the artists of the Tlacolulokos collective gathered for the inauguration of the previously mentioned new mural in Jalatlaco.

“Nuestro sol se ha ido” mural in Barrio de Jalatlaco.

The mural, “Nuestro sol se ha ido” (Our sun has gone) is a collaboration between Rolande Souliere of the “Anishinaabe” people in Canada and the Zapotec Tlacolulokos urban art collective from Oaxaca’s central valley.

Indigenous Encounter Canada/Mexico, “Our sun has gone” by Tlacolulokos and Rolande Souliere.

The mural’s inauguration was live streamed on Facebook on the Secretaría de las Culturas y Artes de Oaxaca page.

Media and dignitaries gathered in the atrium of the Templo de San Matías Jalatlaco.

Unfortunately, Rolande Souliere could not travel to Oaxaca. However she described some of the symbolism of the mural: “We decided to portray the mythological beings of the Canadian thunderbird and the Zapotec deity of the Cosijo throne, these fantastic beings are responsible for the thunder and rain that the world experiences and that come together thanks to the clouds…. symbolic imageries such as Zapotec patterns, the route of thunder and the four directions of the first nations represented by the colors red, black, yellow and white… important signifiers in both communities since they represent the continuation of indigenous culture in contemporary society.”

Inaugural ribbon cutting (Canadian Ambassador wearing white shirt in center and artist Dario Canul on the far right) for the “Nuestro sol se ha ido” mural.

Dario Canul, representative of the Tlacolulokos colective further explained, “The mural, ‘Our sun has gone,’ is a representation of celebration, life, rain, thunder, and tears that all indigenous peoples have shed over time.”

Drone filming the inauguration of the “Nuestro sol se ha ido” mural.

The inauguration launched the 2-1/2 week long Encuentros indígenas: Canadá-Oaxaca 2021 (Indigenous encounters: Canada-Oaxaca 2021) — a series of activities in Oaxaca city and surrounding villages — that runs from September 20 to October 8, 2021.

Tlacolulokos artists in front of the mural, “Nuestro sol se ha ido” mural.. Dario Canul (center).

In remarks by Graeme C. Clark, the Canadian Ambassador, at the inaugural event and reports from this article, the collaboration seems to be an expression of the mea culpa by the Canadian government with regard to their historic treatment of the first peoples of the territory that is now called Canada. Better late than never. The indigenous peoples of the USA are still waiting.

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Tlacolulokos at work

Posted in Creativity, Culture, Neighborhoods, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 17, 2021| 5 Comments »

Today, I decided to change up what has become my Friday shopping routine. Instead of walking north to the fruit and veggie vendor, I headed south to explore the Friday tianguis — relocated from Llano Park a couple of years ago and now residing near the Polideportivo.

And, what an excellent decision it was! Only blocks from home, I came across a massive mural in progress on Calle de la Noche Triste at the corner of Calle Ignacio Aldama.

With scaffolding and tools of the trade in place, men were at work.

The style looked familiar, so I stopped to ask, and discovered they were the Tlacolulokos – my favorite artist collective from Tlacolula de Matamoros!

I think the guy I spoke to was a bit taken aback to find that this gringa was quite familiar with their work — including the murals for the Downtown Central Library in Los Angeles, California. Stay tuned…

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Hand washing stations

Posted in Creativity, Health, Markets, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 20, 2020| 6 Comments »

If you are out, about, and going to the mercados in Oaxaca in the last couple of months, you may have seen a clever contraption like the one below set up outside the Independencia entrance to Mercado IV Centenario. Where did they come from? Who made them? And, why? After a little research, I discovered this is a project of La Cosa Buena, “a social enterprise and nonprofit empowering Zapotec and Mixtec communities in Oaxaca to preserve their storied artistic traditions through social initiatives and equitable cultural exchange.”

Manos Buenas COVID-19 is a project that is supplying hand washing stations throughout the state of Oaxaca. Why? Because 30% of Mexico’s population lives without potable water — and that makes the frequent hand washing necessary to help prevent the spread of the virus extremely problematic. Not to mention, according to the project’s website…

“Indigenous communities are nearly three times as likely to be living in extreme poverty and are more likely to suffer negative outcomes from infectious diseases. Many Indigenous communities in Oaxaca are already impacted by malnutrition, pre-existing conditions, and lack access to quality healthcare.

We work with several Indigenous artisan communities in rural parts of Oaxaca. We are actively helping our community during this crisis by building and distributing Hand Washing Stations. 

Requiring only wood, rope, soap, and a container of water, they are inexpensive and easy to build. The icing on the cake is the involvement of local artists to bring an artistic aesthetic to these utilitarian and necessary structures. The one below is at La Cosecha and is decorated by one of my favorite arts collective, Tlacolulokos.

And there is more! In addition to the building and distribution of the hand washing stations, the Manos Buenas project is developing graphic and multilingual public health campaigns to insure information and resources re Covid-19 are available in the many languages of Oaxaca’s indigenous communities.

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Tip of the hat

Posted in Creativity, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 30, 2019| 2 Comments »

Yesterday’s excursion south of the city brought an unexpected surprise.

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In San Martín Tilcajete…

I spotted a mural by my favorite mural colective.

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A tip of the hat to the Tlacolulokos of Tlacolula de Matamoros.

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Black and white and blue in Tlacolula

Posted in Creativity, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 6, 2019| 8 Comments »

The artistry and message of my favorite mural painting collective, the Tlacolulokos, continues to be revealed on the walls of Tlacolula de Matamoros. Today, on a brief visit, blogger buddy Chris and I stumbled on three of their masterpieces. The first one I’d previously seen and blogged about in 2017 under the title, Who tells your story. However, the second mural was new to both of us.

A blouse divided.

A broken heart — not your usual randa de aguja (needlework technique) blouse detail.

Their message, not mine.

The third mural was a couple of houses down and presents a more historic and celebratory entrance.

Spanish swords and Mitla grecas provide driveway decoration.

A headless woman woman in traditional Tlacolula costume walks toward the entrance.

Thoughts of an upcoming festival castillo, agains the backdrop of the valley’s mountains, dance in her missing head.

Her carrizo shopping basket is filled with purchases for the festival.

From the first Tlacolulokos mural I saw in 2014 to their Tokiolula mural through today, their art continues to speak to me, teach me, and inspire me to really see the people and culture around me.

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Looking back at 2018

Posted in Casita Colibrí, Celebrations, Creativity, Culture, Holidays, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 30, 2018| 10 Comments »

Looking back and appreciating life in Oaxaca, 2018.

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January – View through the terrace pistachio tree of full Wolf Moon.

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February – Guest helping to harvest Waje dinner at Rancho 314 urban farm in Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán.

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March – Reyna Mendoza Ruiz demonstrating metate technique at El Sabor Zapoteco cooking class in Teotitlán del Valle.

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April – Pit for cooking agave piñas to make mezcal at the palenque of Faustino Garcia in San Baltazar Chichicapa(m).

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May – Tlacolulokos mural in Tlacolula de Matamoros.

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June – Summer afternoon on the Zócalo in Oaxaca city.

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July – Feria del Barro Rojo in San Marcos Tlapazola.

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August – Fundación En Via microfinance tour to San Miguel del Valle.

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September – Protest by students from the Escuela Normal Bilingüe e Intercultural de Oaxaca.

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October – Celebrating el Señor del Rayo at the Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción.

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November – At the home/workshop of filigree maestro, José Jorge García García.

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December – Pop-up sale in Oaxaca city by the Las Sanjuaneras weavers from San Juan Colorado.

Feliz año nuevo y muchisimas gracias to all my wonderful blog readers from near and far!  Thank you for reading, for commenting, for sharing, for the opportunity to meet some of you, and for inspiring me to continue.  Onward to 2019!!!

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Tlacolula, Tlacolulokos, Tokiolula

Posted in Creativity, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 5, 2018| 5 Comments »

If it’s Sunday, it must be market day in Tlacolula de Matamoros.  However, it’s not just the market (one of the oldest and biggest in Oaxaca) that keeps me returning, it’s also the prevalence of fabulous murals decorating walls and sides of buildings.  Unfortunately, here in Oaxaca city, there has been a growing intolerance by the powers-that-be to these cultural and often political expressions. However, in Tlacolula, they seem to be encouraged and celebrated — and the Tlacolulokos collective has elevated mural painting to a high art form.

We discovered their latest mural a few weeks ago as we were navigating out way through Tlacolula on our way back from the Feria del Barro Rojo in San Marcos Tlapazola.  As with their previous work, using iconic imagery they continue to explore and honor the strength of the beautiful and brave Zapotec women of Tlacolula — this time, in what seems to be a “blue period.”

I was more than a bit puzzled by the above and very prominent words featured on the mural and had to do a little research — after all, that’s what librarians do!  It turns out, “Tokiolula” refers to the 1960s and 1970s when the Tlacolula market was known for selling cheap and often counterfeit goods — mostly from Asia.  That ended in the 1980s, but, unfortunately, has been creeping back.

As for Guish-Bac… “in Zapotec dialect of Tlacolula, Guish Bac is said to mean ‘in the middle of the sky’ or ‘in the middle of the path'” (Revista Cultural Bení Guish Bac Gulal – my translation) and, according to the footnotes in this dissertation, it refers to “people from Tlacolula.”

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Who tells your story?

Posted in Creativity, Culture, Exhibitions, Libraries, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 30, 2017| 19 Comments »

Last week in Tlacolula, as friends and I were studying the “¡Solo Dios perdona!” mural by the Tlacolulokos collective, the storekeeper next door advised us that if we liked that one, we should check out another spectacular Tlacolulokos mural a few blocks away.  So we did.

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He was right — it was indeed stunning in SO many ways!  We came face-to-face with three strong, proud, and beautiful Zapotec women of Tlacolula wearing their stories.

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There was the traditional white blouse with its crocheted yolk, the black and white rebozo twisted into a head covering, and there were the prized gold and pearl earrings.

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But, so too were the tattoos of iconic Catholic imagery of Virgen María and Jésus wearing his crown of thorns juxtaposed with pre-Conquest grecas of Mitla, a Spanish galleon, and the heart-dagger of betrayal.  This is one powerful mural!  And, the story doesn’t end here in Oaxaca.

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It is estimated that 250,000 Zapotecs live in the greater Los Angeles area — “making it the largest concentration of Oaxacans outside of Oaxaca thus earning its unofficial title among Oaxacan in the United States as Oaxacalifornia.”  (The Voice of Indigenous Resistance in Oaxacalifornia)  Thus it was appropriate that Cosijoesa Cernas and Dario Canul of the Tlacolulokos collective were invited to create eight massive murals, “Visualizing Language: Oaxaca in L.A” for an exhibition at the Los Angeles Public Library.  They hang “below murals by Dean Cornwell, whose depictions of California’s history, completed in 1933, ignore Native Californian cultures and ‘fail to recognize the suffering of native peoples during the European conquest, as well as their exclusion from society…'” (New Murals Celebrate the Culture of Oaxaca in L.A.)

The murals at the Downtown Central Library in Los Angeles will be on exhibit in the library’s rotunda until January 31, 2018.

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With fire in the hands

Posted in Creativity, Culture, Exhibitions, Immigration, Museums, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 22, 2015| 4 Comments »

The previously mentioned Tlacolulokos collective has brought their artistry and social commentary to a wall on the upper floor of the Casa de la Ciudad.  The mural, “Con el fuego en las manos” shows two young women, almost mirror images of each other or, perhaps, two sides of the same woman.

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The young women/woman wear the traditional clothing of San Bartolome Quialana, a village near Tlacolula de Matamoros, home of the Tlacolulokos collective.  Like communities throughout Oaxaca, much of the male population has migrated to the United States, in search of work leaving the women to carry on alone.

As the introduction to the exhibit on the Casa de la Ciudad website explains, With a critical view towards the current cultural context, Tlacolulokos group, headed by Darío Canul and Cosijoesa Cernas, seeks to question the idealized images of the Oaxacan culture, tourism product discourse, and insights from the reality currently experienced by the people of Oaxaca.

There are elements in her clothing belonging to the Latina culture of the southern United States, as the cholo bandana that she wears on her head, or the tattoos on her arms that add a critical and provocative tinge to this cultural mix, a product of migration.  [ Google translation, with a little help from yours truly]

One of the trademarks of  the Tlacolulokos group is the power their images acquire and the emotion they elicit by limiting the palette to black, white, and grays.  For more background and a better understanding of the mural, a video (en español) of the artists discussing their work can be found here.

“Con el fuego en las manos”  is scheduled to run until December 2015 at the Casa de la Ciudad (Porfirio Diaz No. 115, at the corner of Morelos in Oaxaca’s Historic District).  Hours are 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM, Monday through Sunday.

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Message is in the mural

Posted in Creativity, Culture, Politics, Protests, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 10, 2015| 1 Comment »

More of the mural from yesterday’s post…

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“¡Solo Dios perdona!” (Only God forgives!)

Seen on the same wall in Tlacolula de Matamoros where we were stopped in our tracks by the Tlacolula never dies mural in August.  Both were conceived and created by the Tlacolulokos colective.

The artists are known for fusing iconic Mexican imagery with political and social commentary and can be found on Facebook.

These traditional religious standards voice today’s messages, “against all governments” and “alive we want them.”  The latter refers to the disappeared and murdered students from the Escuela Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos, teachers’ college in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, one of whom, Christian Tomás Colón Garnica, is from Tlacolula.

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A splash of red

Posted in Creativity, Culture, Travel & Tourism, Weather, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 9, 2015| 3 Comments »

Finally over the flu, I flew to the east coast, arriving along with an arctic cold front.  Brrr… it was -14ºF early yesterday morning!!!  However, here on a frigid New York Friday…

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And, there on a sunny Tlacolula Sunday…

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A splash of red to liven up the day.

* Mural by Tlacolulokos.

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Tlacolula never dies…

Posted in Creativity, Culture, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on August 11, 2014| 7 Comments »

After five days of being confined to Casita Colibrí — eating, inhaling, and choking on concrete and brick-dust and enduring the throbbing sounds of drills, hammers, and chisels — due to demolition of the old and construction of a new kitchen counter (still not finished), market day in Tlacolula de Matamoros was just what the doctor ordered.   Blogger buddy Chris offered and off we went.

The enticing aroma of tacos and gorditas at our favorite street stall beckoned and we quickened our step, until we came to this unexpected and powerful mural…

The mural is the work of Tlacolulokos, a collective that originated in Tlacolula.  According to this article, these self-taught artists explore the subjects of violence, the transformation of traditions, tourism, poverty, and social decay by referencing southern Mexican folk elements.  They use a variety of media and techniques, ranging from graffiti, easel painting, graphics and object, to video and sound.

And, Tlacolula worked her magic…  We ate, soaked in her color, stopped to listen to a youth band from Santa María Guelac (with a girl tuba player, no less!) play “New York, New York” and “Can-can,” and shopped a little (for me, a 5-liter plastic “gas” canister for our next mezcal run and red bananas).  Tlacolula never dies and never gets old.

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