Alebrijes en Arrazola

WHERE I ATE: in the plaza by the dead puppies (sad)
COOLEST PERSON I MET TODAY: Mario Castellanos, alebrijes artist
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Continuing our artesanías theme for week three, we ventured to Arrazola today, another small town outside of Oaxaca. This town was interesting, because like several other Mexican towns, it was originally a large hacienda covering immense amounts of land until the Revolution of 1910 and later federal legislation busted up the haciendas and gave the land back to the people.

We went to Arrazola because they’re known for their alebrijes, which are wild, colorful creatures carved out of copal wood. It’s one of Mexico’s youngest artesanías, having been developed in the last hundred years. Story goes that the first alebrijes were fever-induced figments of Pedro Linares, who, in his illness, saw crowds of wild creatures shouting nonsensical things, and the only word that he could remember was alebrije.

We met with a collective called Eco-Alebrijes. Their mission is two-fold: 1) to create jobs in Arrazola to prevent people from having to immigrate north to find work, and 2) to work in sustainable ways since past practices have deforested several areas around Arrazola.

San Marcos Tlapazola

WHERE I ATE TODAY: on the bus (but I did have an excellent bean sandwich thanks to Brady)
KEYCHAIN THAT BROKE MY HEART: said “Te esperaré” (“I will wait for you”) Made in a town where most young men have migrated north.
OAXAC-AHA! So one curious thing about this part of Mexico is that many places got partially renamed when the Spanish took over. So you’ll notice that a lot of towns have a saint’s name stuck in front of their original name. (San Marcos Tlapazola, for example.)
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In week three, we are studying the various artesanías of Oaxaca, and today we went to San Marcos Tlapazola, a small town outside of Oaxaca that has a long history of working with clay. We were invited to visit Marta Antonio Martinez at her home where she showed us the entire process of making a comal (a large, flat earthenware dish used for cooking). She told us how she and her family goes to the nearby hills to get clay (one particular hill for red clay, another for black, and another for yellow). They carry it back in car or on burro, and sculpt it into dishes still used on a daily basis.

One of the things I find so fascinating about listening to these different artisans talk is that many of them– whether they are weavers from Teotitlan or potters from San Marcos Tlapazola– create a product that is entirely native to their area. From start to finish, all the materials you need you get from your community or nearby communities, and you make a product that used and sold in your community. Coming from a place like New York City where it seems that everything is out-sourced and imported, there’s something really beautiful about an object that has only traveled a kilometer or two to get to where it is today.

In the video below, Marta explains part of the process. Watch for various chicken cameos.

My new tattoo

Hah, made you look. I haven’t gotten this image of corn tattoed on my body… yet. But who knows? We’ve got two more weeks in Oaxaca, and the more I learn about corn, the more I see why it’s important to shed light on what’s going on with corn in Mexico today. Corn, part of the trinity of Mexican food staples– along with beans and squash– is quickly becoming too expensive to produce in Mexico. They’re importing corn from the U.S. (and beans from China). Many people are growing concerned that this represents an alienation of which Mexicans themselves may not even be aware.

Marietta Bernstorff from MAMAZ (Mujeres Artistas y el Maíz) has developed a critical group of artists who focused on employing the image and concept of corn in producing art as a means of bringing the community’s attention to what’s going on. MAMAZ started with a show here in Oaxaca with 28 artists, and was so well received that they have since taken their show to Mexico City, inviting other artists to join. I encourage you to check out the link above to see some of the impressive work these artists are doing.

Textiles in Teotitlan

WHERE I ATE TODAY: Petrona’s house
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Today we took a trip to Teotitlan, just a few minutes outside of Oaxaca. We had the pleasure of having Lynn Stephen from the University of Oregon to introduce us to indigenous Oaxacan weaving. She spent a few years living in this small rural community, during which she learned Zapotec, an indigenous language in this part of Mexico. She’s kept in touch with people in the community of Teotitlan since the 80s, so she led us to two different weavers.

The first visit was to a women’s weaving collective called Mujeres que Tejen (Women that Weave) led by a woman named Josefina. It was the first of its kind in Teotitlan. The formation of this collective spurred the development of eighteen other collectives and led to women getting a much more public voice in civic affairs.

After visiting Josefina’s collective, we trekked through a milpa, the Zapotec word for cornfield, and went to visit her former host family, headed up by the matriarch Petrona. Here we had lunch prepared for us by Petrona and four other women from the town, and Petrona’s son, Paco, also led us through a natural-dyes demo. It was one of the most informative and interesting excursions yet. Below are a few snapshots of the day. (All the really good photos I stole from a friend. Gracias, Brady!)

Josefina, the head of the first women’s collective in Teotitlan

A lady at the women’s collective showing how pigments are ground

Me watching a woman weave at the women’s collective

Blue corn jello with red bug icing

Milpa (cornfield) in Teotitlan. They plant corn, squash, and beans on top of each other.

Paco, who taught us about natural dyes

Paco and Lynn discussing natural dyes

Turkeys, one of two natively domesticated animals in Mexico

Petrona and the other ladies who helped prepare our lunch

Petrona and me

Sign at Petrona and Paco’s house

Naturally dyed skeins of wool yarn

Obligatory Photo with Street Art

My Oaxacan Fixer-Upper

I don’t ask for much, just the top floor… look at all those windows.

Doña Macabra

WHERE I ATE: Café Bar del Jardín
FIRST-TIME PURCHASE: azucena flowers from the main square
REASON I CRIED (TWICE) TODAY: sweet old men
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Taking a break from my project for NEH, I went to go check out a Doña Macabra, a crazy Mexican horror flick from the 70s, about an old, Addamsesque spinster who lives in a giant mansion with just her maid and a bronze bust of her deceased husband. There have long been dark rumors about Doña Macabra around town, but little did the town know her brother was constructing his life’s opus underneath her house. His grand design was to build an underground wax museum, and in order to get his statues more realistic, he picked up unclaimed corpses from the morgue (hence the random bodies that occasionally needing disposal… the source of all the rumors). It was a wild movie, but so enjoyably campy.

Below is a pic of the movie house that was showing it: el Pochote.