Here we are again!

A sure sign that we are in Oaxaca: the old and the new, the sacred and the profane.

We arrived in Oaxaca December 15,  so we got to see many religious preparations for the holidays.  This young man is on his way to dance in a calenda at Santo Domingo.  He carries a basket of flowers that symbolizes the host and chalice, the body and blood of Christ.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These haunting ceramic figures are Los Migrantes, a work by Alejandro Santiago, a Oaxacan artist.  The work consists of 2500 statues symbolizing all the people who have had to leave his town in the mountains of Oaxaca to find work elsewhere.

The migrants are scattered throughout the upper part of the pedestrian walkway and the front of Santo Domingo church, which you can see in the background here.  They are traveling to different places and we think they have already been shown in a few cities in the US.

Market day in Tlacolula presented us with a surprise: a procession which brought the infant Jesus to the main church in that town. The woman in the blue dress is the madrina, the "godmother" who is financially responsible for the event.  She is  carrying the statue surrounded by children dressed as the three kings, angels, Mary and Joseph.  Yes, of course there was loud music and firecrakers and bottle rockets!  It was a religious event and everyone in Mexico knows that Jesus, Mary and the saints love to be honored like that.

Julie, Steve, Andres and I waiting patiently for our goat tacos at the market.  Hey, how come it is relatively quiet around here?

Not for long!  A little entertainment with your beer and tacos, anyone?  Like it or not we got it, and were asked for a few pesos for the pleasure.  It is Oaxaca after all, and everyone needs to make a living.

.

After mass, the procession leaves the church and goes through the market.

This is how we do it in Tlacolula!

As evidenced by this photo, obviously a "before" shot, we needed to make a few changes to our apartment so we could be more comfortable.

 We spent a few weeks getting some comfortable furniture, a few wooden pieces to store things in and also lots of little things that made the place look and feel homey.  It was great fun and forced us to interact in Spanish even more than usual.  Alan really got to be very comfortable with the whole process of buying things in the fabric store, how to order the goods, where to go to pay for the items, then where to pick them up, all different places in the same store.  Yes, for every item, even a spool of thread!

Noche de los Rabanos:  The Night of the Radishes, December 23.  We like to go in the afternoon as the people are setting up their displays to get ready for the big contest at night. We can get much closer to the displays and we don't have to wait on a long line to get on the ramps that surround the many displays in the main square.  Remember, everything in this sculpture is carved from the large red radishes.  The whole display has to be sprayed with water to keep it fresh all day. 

Christmas Eve on the zocalo.  One of the fun traditions is confetti filled eggs that can be cracked on someone's head.  Many women walk around selling them, and as you can see there was no shortage of participants.  This young girl was selling scarves, but she found time to be silly with us.  She managed to get us to buy huge sparklers which she shared with her friends.  Fun for all!

Alan and a friend sharing one of the giant sparklers. That is Julie in the red skirt holding another sparkler.

Fans of Cocina Isabel will recognize  Giovanni with his second daughter, Valeria, she is 2 months old in this photo.  Her big sister, Kenya, is now 4.  We remember when she was this tiny and her dad introduced her to us.

That is all for now kids, but we have lots more photos and fun events to tell you about.  Hope you are all well and that 2012 is off to a great start.  Que te vaya bien!

Farewell to Oaxaca

Alan enjoying another beautiful day on the Avenida Alcala

It is very hard to believe that the time has come to say goodbye to our winter home here in Oaxaca and get ready to return to our friends and family in New York.  In many ways it seems like such a short time, but in reality it has been almost three full months.

We decided to put together a final newsletter with some highlights that did not make it into the earlier editions.

Susan , Norman and I deciding what part of the market at Tlacolula we will explore next.  Alan took this shot, he likes it because it looks like a cultural face-off.

Women in Tlacolula cooking the meat they have just purchased from the stalls behind them.  For many rural people this weekly market is the only time they get to eat meat.

Susan and I sampling fruit while Andres and Norman look on

Stan and Alan making pozole at school in Luz's kitchen

Suzanne and I finish the pozole which all the students will enjoy

Stylish women in the US have designer handbags, Oaxaquenos like to carry roosters

Beatrice is not really Frida Kahlo, she is, however, an excellent cook.

Her food stand at the Ocotlan market. That is Bruce, Norman's brother, sitting across from him.

What a treat!  We visit the library we co-sponsor with Steve and Julie and Stan and Suzanne

The kids love to read to us when we visit.

Some students at the school where our library is housed. Here they are asking me if I know Justin Beiber, or have if I have seen him in New York where I live.

Alan having fun with the kids.  After they asked him to show them US money, which of course he was not carrying, they wanted to know how many pesos in a dollar. At that time it was 11, so Alan was asking them how many pesos in 3 dollars, 5 dollars, etc.  They liked that.

More math with the tall gringo

Another topic of much interest: What do kids in New York play with? Many of the kids here had tops with strings. They were able to do lots of tricks.

This entire class wanted us to sign our names in their notebooks.  As Steve said,"This is the closest we will ever come to being rock stars!"

This photo of Suzanne and Stan with a young reader was taken on our Libros Para Pueblos tour.  We visited two different towns with small libraries that are looking for sponsors.

Lucky Stan!  He was given a drawing by this lovely girl in the library at Huizol. The kids did a project in which they read a book then made a drawing about it.

Part of the beautiful old kitchen in Huizol's church.  It has been in use since the 1500s.

Oh happy day!  Cristian Flores Perez, a student we have sponsored for three years, with his parents.  They came down from their town in the mountains to see the first person in their family graduate from college. They both went to school until third grade, so you can imagine what Cristian's achievement means to them.

The biggest smile we have ever seen on his face- he told us he could not believe that he was really a college graduate.

We joined the family after graduation to celebrate.  This is the outside area of the place Cristian and his sisters have been renting so they can attend school in Oaxaca.  The chicken was absolutely delicious!

All the furniture was moved out of the room that is usually his bedroom and chairs and tables were set up.  More guests came after the evening mass, we only stayed for afternoon comida. 

His mom gave me this beautiful traditional blouse and lent me her skirt for the photo.
( By the way, I am 5'2''!)

The porch where the family usually eats. Recognize Cliff from the sponsoring organization Oaxaca Street Children?  Cristian told his dad that Cliff was his second father; he has seen him through high school and college.  Alan and I felt so honored and proud that we had anything to do with this wonderful success story.

Susan, Alan and I were very excited at this calenda.  The men's costumes were unlike any I have seen before. Their heads were covered with scarves and cowboy hats, they wore carved wooden masks with large black moustaches,  fringed jackets and fur pants, and big silver spurs that they clicked as they danced.

Later that same afternoon, we saw this reenactment of a marriage ceremony.  Sorry, I do not know the name of this particular group of people.  There are more than 25 different tribes and languages in the state of Oaxaca.

 The groom is at the front holding the poles but the women do the heavy lifting.    By the way, they keep backing up, turning around, go forward again, all the time dancing to music -  no easy feat!  Does the bride looks like this because she thinks she may fall off, or is she not sure she wants to get married?  As we leave this magical place, we know we don't look so happy either.  Thanks for sharing our journey - 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Que le vaya bien!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little money goes a long way

Our gracious tour guide Molly, with two potential borrowers. The woman in blue is the proud owner of this sewing stand at the marketplace.  She is looking for a loan to be able to buy thread in colors that her clients have been requesting.

A few weeks ago, Susan and Norman joined us on an En Via Micro-Finance Tour to Teotitlan del Valle.  En Via is a small non-profit lending organization that has a wonderful system in place to loan $100 each to three borrowers.  The women must apply as a group and vouch for each other as worthy and responsible borrowers.  Then they all make sure that each one pays their $100 loan in the time period agreed upon.

We visited six different workplaces on the tour, we saw two groups of three women.  The first three consisted of a shop keeper, a weaver and a baker/weaver. 
 

Walking to the second borrower's home workshop

This self supporting weaver needed wool so she could make more rugs, coasters and hand bags.

The third woman runs a small baking business to supplement the family's rug weaving income. She is seeking a loan to buy baking supplies.

En Via charges $50 for a one day tour to visit the potential borrowers, that money is then used to finance the loans.  We got to visit workshops, which are usually in their very humble homes, to meet the borrowers and their families, and to ask them about their businesses and their hopes for the future.  It is a very special and respectful way of learning first hand what the local people must do to provide for their families.

Home sweet humble home

The baking money supplements the family's rug weaving income.  You can see the loom in the background.  This warm, caring woman broke down in tears as she spoke to us about her family and her concerns.

The great majority of the people in Teotitlan are weavers and have been for generations. Most of them are of Zapotec descent and that is the language they speak at home.  Children learn Spanish when they go to school, but they learn about wool as soon as they can move about.  Someone in the house is always carding or spinning wool, and the children will learn those skills very young.  They will also be able to dye the wool and to weave it into beautiful rugs and other useful items well before they are twelve years old.
                     _____________________________________________________

This second group of three borrowers consists of a young weaver seeking to branch out by raising chickens, a family of weavers who need dyes and raw wool, and a widow with a three year old daughter who has lost everything and needs to buy wool for her rug making.

The granddaughter of the first family shows us a rug she is working on. She is seeking a loan to buy live chickens.

The matriarch of this first family

The grandfather of the second workshop we visited.

  He stands the entire time and works the loom with his feet on the pedals and his hands moving all the time.

Two more generations of his family.  The young son looks on as his father cards the wool, getting it ready to be spun into yarn.

The third borrower of the group, our last visit of the day.  We were all deeply touched as this woman told us of her life since her husband died last year. She is in desperate need of wool to continue her weaving.

This is her beautiful little girl

Everyone on the trip was touched by the dignity of the people and their incredibly tedious and beautiful work.  Our tour guide, Molly, really made the whole experience happen.  She was able to communicate beautifully and respectfully with everyone we visited. Her deep respect for the people as well as her knowledge of their customs and lives made for a comfortable and warm experience for both visitors and borrowers alike.  Because of Molly's wonderful presence, the people we visited spoke openly about their families and their hopes for the future. I think each of us was humbled by their ability to maintain hope in such difficult situations.   It was a very moving and special day.

After our visits were over we had tacos and tlayudas in a local shop to keep to the spirit of the day.  The restroom is the shed with the green curtain.

Hasta luego!  See you soon!