A Tale of 2 Houses

On Friday I visited another post classic ruin "Zaachila". It has 2 tombs you can walk into. One with some great carvings on the walls. Lord 9 Flowers was buried here around 1200 with an assistant and several servants to make him comfy in the afterlife. All kinds of jade and turquoise masks were unearthed and sent to the INAH Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. While I was in one of the tombs, remember I was all alone, my cell phone said "LOSS OF SERVICE".

Almost a heart attack sums it up.

One of the tomb's entry door.
Here he is all dressed up on the back wall.
This is before my cell phone talked to me and scared me.
She's making my quesadilla with cheese and cilantro for 25 pesos. About $2. There is charcoal under the flat surface.
On Saturday we piled into cabs to visit the art school and paper factory of St. Augustin Etla.
Dinner on the roof with fellow teachers.
The Art School had a huge textile exhibit-a hand woven piece would cost about $4-5,000 if you paid for it by the hour.
This was an old fabric factory-redesigned and paid for by an artist who is from Oaxaca. It is a tradition of Oaxacanenos to give back after they make it good. We're seen this happen several times. The design and layout are magnificent-even the bathroom is fabulous-this wall has no glass in it and water is trickling down.
The ceramic artist Gustavo Perez is incredibly prolific and changes his "voice" constantly...here are some samples of his work.
After the tours of the paper factory and the art school we were invited back for lunch at Marietta's house. One whole wall is open-no glass, no screens, just a heavy duty shade to lower in case it rains too hard. Our fearless leader Stephanie in the white shirt enjoys dining on the terrace.

Pottery and Alebrijés

Today we are with the Aguilar family to see how they make pottery in their home. Her only tools are; the clay she dug up out the ground this morning, some sand, water, an old corn cob and broken piece of dried gourd to help shape it, an old piece of leather to help smooth it, and a big fire as a kiln.
The guys in our group are such charmers with the ladies. Michael is speaking Spanish to the daughters of the Aguilar family who a first peered at us from behind railings, then after a few cookies from Celeste, they were coaxed down. They followed us to the bus to say good-bye.

One of our professors, an anthropologist from University of Oregon took us to a town she knew. The families make COMALES. A flat open plate that you cook on. When they have more time they make other fanciful creatures, bowls plates, vases etc. As we drove by all the people in the fields were elderly. There are no men in the town in their 20's to 60's. One of the sadder things about Mexico is the men have all left to go look for work in America. In Mexico there are whole towns without men, or towns without anyone at all. While we were at the market of Tlacolula, we saw all the women waiting on line at the bank window to pick up money sent from America. So back home here, they do what they can to help make ends meet.

Well by now you know we don't drive on paved roads. We are going to a little village outside of Tlacolula, which is a small town outside of Oaxaca.
Here's the shed for cooking and storing the clay, it's in the main courtyard of the property. Angie has to duck to get out, the mule is to the eft, chickens and dogs are running around. A lovely domestic chaotic scene.
Dr. Stephanie Wood, our fearless leader tries to communicate with the woman under the bundle of we-don't-know-what. Every shot in this town makes you feel like a photographer for National Geographic.
A sample of the Aguilar family pottery.
Always a tough decision to get home again, Shall I take the bull...
or shall I take the bus? Notice the paving on the road, it's only in front of the church. If you scroll back to where the lady is walking with the big green bundle and whee the bulls are, that is the end of the paved road, a few feet away.

Pottery has been around for millenia, but alebrijés has been around only since the 1950's. There have been arguments on both sides, "is it art?". My stand is if someone made it and they call it art, then it's art. However, if 150 families in Arrazola make it and they all make the same turtle with a day-glow daisy on its back then it's not art, it's a souvenir. Today we did see one family who in my opinion were beating their own drum. The colors were earthy and muted, the designs were of pictographs and glyphs. The animals were more indigenous. I have to say penguins and giraffes in the Oaxaca Valley...I don't think so! I asked where they get their inspiration and he answered from tv and books. If it is not coming from themselves and their own experience they are missing the point of being an artist.

Of course you start with a macheté on a green piece of Copal wood. The people in this valley have over farmed the wood and had to go to a neighboring area. Those people were not happy about this. A botanist came recently and taught them how to reforest. If the wood is green it's soft to carve, the older the wood (once it's cut down) the harder it gets.
Bandolin is now whittling. He uses a regular mat knife to work on the wings for his "Day of the Dead" flying angel.
I'm holding his flying angel. There are 15 families involved in this non-profit co-op to make and sell alebrijés. 5% of what they earn goes back to planting more Copal trees. It's a total family affair. Men carve, women paint the designs and children help out where they can also.

Here's a collection from one family.

Eating in Teotitlan del Valle

Weaving and Eating in Teotitlan del Valle

The Zapotecs were already weaving cotton and when the Spanish got here wool was introduced. Just like in China, taxes were paid with bundles of loomed cloth. Every 3 months a family gave 400 bundles of embroidered cotton and 800 loads of loomed cotton. We set off today to see a town that has existed as a sacred place for over 2,000 years. The town has poverty but also some millionaires because decorators and even "Pier 1" has commissioned rugs from the weavers. Women here set up a co-op to keep the commissions made to themselves. They learned how to apply for permits, run a business and be in charge.
Designs are traditional and modern, as any good artist knows you have to get the right images for the right market. To get to this point, you need...
to wash and card the wool well.
This dye is made from fermented walnut bark. It ferments for a week, then boiled to just the right temperature. After that, the liquid from the fermented bark is added to the spun wool.
This ladies' co-op had a traditional pedal loom and back strap loom (I couldn't get a pic).
NOW LUNCH! We came to the home of a family that was known to this week's professor, Dr. Lynn Stephen an anthropologist. She lived with these people years ago and has had some of the town's children–she has 10 god-children here–come to school in Oregon (she works at the Univ. of Oregon). This abuela is making sauce for our lunch...
her daughter is making tortillas (two at a time on the press) for our quesadillas which were filled with queso (cheese) and squash blossom flowers...
here is the kitchen. No sub-zero fridge, fancy granite counters...everyone lives outdoors all year long. There is nothing but a corrugated tin roof overhead and no walls. Sopa (soup) is in the big pot in front, it's made from green vegetables with some kind of root vegetable in it. Delicioso!
Here's part of our group, about 8 people had to sit at another table behind me. The rugs made in this family are hanging on the walls behind. They cost $750 to $1,500 pesos ($50 to $120US) THINK, hand-carded, hand-spun, hand-dyed, hand-woven for what only $120 US?
OK Now we get to eat---mole (chocolate, spices etc.) on your chicken and rice. I ate everything.
When we got on the bus and it was time to wave good-bye to our gracious hosts, this young man was coaxing a reluctant donkey loaded with sugar cane down the road.

Ocatlan market and artist visit

Today's lunch was in a little place upstairs from a street in Ocatlan. We walked in and the two ladies who worked there looked a bit surprised to us. We asked for a table and Zak asked about the food. I can actually ask...Quisiera uno coca light por favor. What I love about foreign languages is you can actually learn these things, and when you get it down, you say things and what you asked for actually appears!!! AND YOU HAVE FUN. There were 3 men in the place who couldn't stop looking at us. But they were friendly, it was not threatening, they were just curious.
Bringing home turkey in Ocatlan is a little different than Brooklyn's Trader Joe's.
OK-I wanted to buy the cilantro, she asked for 3 pesos, I gave her 10 because I have a very soft spot for grandmas. Then Angela asked to take her picture and she said OK. After the pic, she asked for 30 pesos more. I admired her chutzpa.
After lunch we walked a quarter mile to the home of one of Mexico's famous clay artists. The master artist is sitting on a cushion making the clay figures, her son is painting them (note he's watching "House" in Spanish). The grand daughter takes the money. In one corner of this courtyard someone is washing clothes in a huge tub, someone else is making chicken on the grill. A Chihuahua is walking around and a couple of kids are playing. This was their business.

Zak is giving directions to the driver-thank goodness to have a wonderful Spanish teacher in the cab with us...we had to slow down because...can you see oxen are on the side?
This is another master carver forming the Alebrijes (fanciful wooden carved figures, from an Arabic word meaning freeform or misshapen). All these places have the whole family working. The master carver is older, the teenagers are sanding, and a little 7 year old had a small piece to work on with sand paper. When I was watching he sanded, when I walked away he ran off to play. Good for him!
Here's what I bought from the Aguilera abuela (grandma). $220 pesos. (about $16.50US). Can you imagine? Hours to form the clay, hours to paint it. Thank you to Zack (Bklyn teacher), Jake (San Fran. teacher) and Angela (Houston teacher) for a great day!

art and music

Look I made a Codex! Stephanie our fearless leader asked me to come up with a model for teachers to see. Yasmin and I researched for a few hours (over tacos, sodas, chips, guacomole and a pkg of gum for $4US). Next night I painted for a few hours. Bars mean "5" a dot is "1". Starting from the right the pic is "rulers", then "dog" I made up "bus", then "eagles", "monkeys" (couldn't find men or women pics). Then sneaker (made that one up) person with a curl, which means speech, last is the place pictograph for the town of Coixtlahuaca. So this is what it says;

"4 professors took one bus and saw 8 dogs with 7 eagles and 27 monkeys. Two people had to run (they missed the bus) they are saying #*! we missed the bus to Coixtlahuaca!
Using a computer to get Zapotec pictographs to make the codex. How's that for culture contrast.
In the Burgoa Library Restoration lab of Santo Domingo Museum. He is using a template to create new paper so he can patch up old manuscripts.
I found a youth orchestra! No black outfits in Mexico! They are all in pink. Beautiful, strong sound, and the percussionist is a little girl.
Just in case you want to try putting your hair up Oaxacan style. This is how they do it.
The stage behind Santo Domingo, a free performance every night. So far I've seen a Salsa group, a youth marimba group, this group and an "Aztec Warrior" group.
Street art in front of Santo Domingo. Those are not real feet. Love the idea of the "house" especially beacause there is not one house here in Oaxaca designed like that. It is the generic "house" you see drawn by children all over the world.

1,000 year old shards

By now the local bus company must dread our requests, it seems we never drive on paved roads. We drove for several hours out to a town that was thriving up to the 1500's. It had been a community of 25,000 people since 500 BCE. The Aztecs used these Mixtecs for their tribute (giving gold etc.)

We hiked the hills and I created a mosaic from found shards. (That's my prof. Dr. Spores who is in charge of the dig) Probably 1100-1500 because the red on cream was how they designed in that era.

We stopped at a few churches from the 16th c. In one a wedding was about to take place. The people were arriving, with church music that has a definite Mexican beat to it. We sat and listened. We were hoping for someone to show up with the key to the museum...no luck. But it was delightful sitting there watching real life happen.

Yagul and Lambityeco

Yasmin-- a very good sport, came with me to the two lesser known ruins, Yagul and Lambityeco. After the fall of Monte Alban, the Zapotecs moved here. (Post-classic, 900-1519). Lucky for me, she speaks Spanish, unlucky for us, the cab we hired had NO IDEA where these places were, even though they were about 10 minutes from town. The town of Tlacalula. We drove out and back. He asked for directions several times, we had to stop and get more gas. I was determined and so was he. For 300 pesos ($24US) plus a tip, we asked him to drive us, stay with us and bring us back to get the "collectivo" so we could return to Oaxaca.

He told Yasmin he had never been there so he was curious. On the way we stopped at (what we'd call a hot-dog stand) to ask for more directions. They were friends of his so we all bought water and continued.

All of a sudden there was the sign for the ruins. I never doubted him for a second, and we loved the tour of the entire town to get there. Finding things is so much fun!!!

The Sunday Market at Tlalacula

I had a lot of fun organizing a group to the BIGGEST Sunday market, Tlalacula. Like "Alice's Restaurant" you can get anything you want. We took the "Collectivo" for less than a buck each for the half hour ride, some of us had to stand but the scenery was wonderful. Tubs, shoes, machetes...I wanted to look at the food. The lady with the stone griddle is making my lunch. A tortilla filled with squash flowers, queso (cheese) and pollo (chicken). After a cab ( a lot like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride) to the two local ruins Yasmin and I came back for chips. They were made just for me! The lady with the beautiful braids is Zapotec. They are direct descendants from Monte Alban.