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Oaxaca updates starting from October, 2008

A radiant Oaxacan welcome

July 30, 2009--Oaxaca celebrates a great Gueleguetza and thousands of visitors

The 2009 Gueleguetza was a great success, with large crowds getting to watch the vivid dances and enjoy some of Oaxaca's multi-ethnic, multi-cultural wealth. There was also an alternative, people's gueleguetza held at the Technological Institute, which also drew large numbers of people who wanted to enjoy themselves and show support for the ongoing resistance to political "business as usual."

July 15, 2009--the teacher's strike is over.

As the thousands of visitors arriving for the Gueleguetza festival can attest, the yearly teacher's strike is over. Their tents and banners have disappeared from the zocalo, as have the many vendors who are affiliated with them in one way or another. Oaxaca and the zocalo are back to normal, which is to say lively, lovely, and inviting.

June 3, 2009--The annual teachers' strike

Visitors to Oaxaca will find that the zocalo, the city's usually charming and inviting central square, has once again been occupied by striking teachers, their APPO (Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca) allies, and affiliated vendors. Here's how the zocalo looks today:

It's not yet clear how long the strike will last.

April 2, 2009--check out Semana Santa events and the upcoming international documentary film festival at Margie Barclay's Oaxaca Calendar.

March 26, 2009--more on travel advisories and frightening news stories about Mexico

News outlets in the U.S. and Canada have recently run a large number of negative stories about Mexico. Some months ago the U.S. State Department released a study suggesting that Mexico, along with Pakistan, was one of the nations most likely to fail. Since then there have been a stream of stories about drug smuggling, drug gangs, the Mexican government's war on drugs, and the violence stemming from all of these factors.

If these news stories are your only source of information about Mexico, you could easily come to think that it is a country coming apart at the seams, and a dangerous place to visit.

Living in Oaxaca and traveling around Mexico we have a very different sense of what's actually going on.

It's true that, in several cities along the U.S.-Mexico border, there is a great deal of violence related to the drug trade. There's no doubt that this is a very serious problem. It's certainly challenging the Mexican government and law enforcement agencies, and is also being cited as a reason for the U.S. to militarize the border, or even to hint at U.S. intervention in Mexico.

However, potential visitors to Mexico need to realize that this drug-related violence is largely limited to specific border towns, and is not directed at visitors from abroad.

In terms of actual statistics about violent crime, Mexico and the U.S. don't differ very much. As one example, although Mexico's overall homicide rate is higher than that in the U.S., the homicide rates involving firearms are equal, and the overall risk of being a victim of an assault, a sexual assault, or of a crime in general is actually lower in Mexico than in the U.S.! (If you want to look into this for yourself, you can start here).

In terms of our personal experience here in Oaxaca, and traveling around Mexico, we continue to feel safe and comfortable. In Oaxaca, the only sign of all of this drama is more police on the streets. Funded in part from the U.S., the federal and state governments appear to be pouring money into law enforcement, with the result that there are more police walking beats or cruising around in new ATVs, trucks and motorcycles than in past years.

In short, don't let the news stories be your only source of information about what's really going on in Mexico. If you are considering a visit to Oaxaca or any of the other tourist destinations in Mexico, we continue to feel that you can spend time here as we and many other part- or full-time residents do, comfortably, enjoyably, and safely.

March 6, 2009--Spring break travel advisories

Earlier this week both the U.S. and Canadian governments issued travel advisories concerning Mexico, largely aimed at students heading to Mexico for spring break. The advisories mentioned the city of Oaxaca as the site of frequent demonstrations, and advised visitors to stay away from same. We agree with this, not because street demonstrations are likely to become violent--they have been strictly non-violent since the demise of APPO late in 2006--but because the Mexican constitution forbids foreigners from mixing into Mexican politics.

The advisories also mention the beach areas of the the state of Oaxaca--Huatulco, Puerto Escondido, etc. Specifically they caution that the water conditions can be dangerous, and that posted warnings should always be followed. We agree.

February 2, 2009--Fiesta de la Candelaria--Candlemas

A Oaxacan carefully dresses the Baby Jesus

Tonight we'll feast on tamales, ponche (punch), and other traditional treats, with our Oaxacan friends. The occasion is Candelaria, which celebrates the day on which Maria presented the baby Jesus at the Temple in Jerusalem, 40 days after his birth. Oaxacans celebrate the event by lovingly dressing up dolls representing the baby Jesus, bringing them to churches or other places to be blessed, and then feasting with friends in the evening. As our Oaxacan landlady likes to say, February 2 represents the end of the celebrations of December!

At our neighborhood market today, hundreds of people brought their beautifully dressed dolls to a celebration. A priest conducted the service, musicians played joyful music, and Oaxaca provided us with yet another unique and beautiful experience.

December 19, 2008

     Annual celebration for Soledad, the Virgin of Solitude. Click here to read about yesterday's celebration and see some photos.

December 16, 2008

Oaxacans love a celebration, and never more than during the Christmas season. The culmination of this festive time will be on December 23, with the Night of the Radishes, and on Christmas Eve, when beautifully decorated floats will parade around the zocalo accompanied by throngs of celebrants. We've just passed the celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe, when parents dress their daughters in regional costumes and their sons as the peasant Juan Diego (complete with moustache), to whom the Virgin appeared on the hill of Tepeyac, near Mexico City, between the 9th and 12th of December, 1531. People flock to the Sanctuary of Guadalupe, near Llano Park, to present their children to a statue of the Virgin.

A young Juan Diego waits his turn to be presented to the Virgin of Guadalupe

A shy Oaxacan girl in a traditional costume

A father lifts his daughter up to touch the statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe

December 16th marks the beginning of a week of posadas, which re-enact Mary and Joseph's search for shelter. Throngs of Oaxacans (along with many visitors), carrying candles in colorful paper or plastic holders, go from house to house singing a traditional song asking for shelter. They are turned away, in song, time and again until they arrive at the home of the posada's sponsor, where at last they are welcomed in.

Two days later, Oaxacan's celebrate the feast of Oaxaca's patron, the Virgin of Solitude. Soledad Basilica becomes the focus of devotion for thousands of people, who come to observe or participate in the masses, striking processions, and other ceremonies to honor the Virgin.

Needless to say, this is a great time to be in Oaxaca.

November 17, 2008

I'm going to put up a few photos from the past ten days, just to give you the flavor of what it's like here in Oaxaca this lovely fall.

Santo Domingo by moonlight, 11/13/08

A moment at the zocalo, Sunday 11/9/08

Los muertos--the dead-- and all that jazz, 11/12/08

What an incredibly rich environment. Come on down and see for yourself!

November 7, 2008

We've been back in Oaxaca for several weeks, enough time to have settled in, but not so much time that everything seems normal, or at least as normal as Oaxaca can be for someone from another country and culture.

The first thing that struck me when we got back was how polite most people are. During six months in the U.S. and traveling to other parts of the world, I'd had many exchanges with lots of different people. However, only here in Oaxaca was it mandatory to stop to chat at length with friends and acquaintances in order to exchange notes about other friends, family members, adventures, and misadventures. And Oaxaca is the only place where most conversations end with "Que le vaya bien,"--may it go well with you, or even (OK, mostly from older people) with "Dios le bendiga,"--God bless you!

What a contrast with our usual rushed and impersonal lives.

The next set of impressions center around Oaxaca's striking contrasts. In many ways it's truly beautiful. There are moments that take my breath away, for example catching a view at dusk down a street lined with colonial buildings made of glowing cantera stone. But turn a corner or look more closely, and you find that the taggers have had a field day, and that many of those beautiful buildings are covered with grafitti.

Oaxaca is a city full of music. We love to listen to the State Band's free Sunday noon concerts at the zocalo, or sit in one of the zocalo's sidewalk cafes and listen to the tunes tapped out on the marimbas. But it's also a place where the State Band may have to compete with a passing calenda, with its own blaring drums and trumpets, or the marimba players have to compete with an amplified band of Andean pan pipes.

In short, this isn't Minneapolis or New York or California. it's Oaxaca, with its rich mix of sights, sounds and smells, a beautiful but slightly tattered fabric woven from many contrasting colors.

Day of the Dead revisited

This year's Day of the Dead celebration was magical. The weather was great, Oaxaca is well past the political problems of 2006, and Oaxacans were able to concentrate on this traditional celebration.

Every family built its traditional altar, or ofrenda, laden with fruits, favorite foods and drinks, favorite toys, and photos of family members who have died. Hotels, restaurants and shops also put up ofrendas, all of them colorful, many, beautiful.

The Day of the Dead celebration is a mix of prehispanic modes of ancestor worship, and the Catholic traditions brought to the New Wordl by los conquistadores and the Church. Needless to say, every aspect of the altars people construct, their various levels plus the flowers, fruits, vegetables and other objects on them, has its specific symbolic meaning.

From our point of view, it's nice to know something of the symbolism, but we're happy just to get see these beautiful expressions of love and connection across time and generations.

Here are a few photos of this years Day of the Dead preparations, the cemeteries, and the altars:

A woman carries a huge bouquet of cempasuchitl, marigolds, whose color attracts dead souls.  

Stacks of sugar cane that will be used to form the arches that are part of every altar

A plump pan de muertos--bread for the dead--that will also go on someone's altar

A mound of candy calaveras--skulls--also for people's altars

A partularly impressive altar. Note the path of flower petals to guide the dead to the ofrendas, offerings, that have been put out for them

Waiting, remembering--the old cemetery of Xoxocotlan

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