Coixtlahuaca & Tequixtepec

WHERE I ATE TODAY: 100% Natural (I’m eating again!)
MOST UNEXPECTED CULINARY FIND: peanut butter
MOST UNEXPECTED INSECT CAMEO APPEARANCE: two dung beetles
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Today was really four days rolled into one: we saw two churches, explored an old archaeological site, sat around a random town square waiting for keys to a museum that never came.

So since today was so packed, I’m narrowing all of the experiences into my top three most interesting discoveries of the day (in no particular order):

#3: The black priest

Both churches we visited had one lone black priest icon hidden away in dozens of pale-faced saints, Jesuses, and Marys. I asked Luis at the church in Coixtlahuaca if he could tell us a little more about that, and he said that the Spanish monks thought the indigenous people here would identify more with a black priest than a white priest. I’ll leave you to your own conclusions.

#2: 500+ year old piece of pottery

I found both of these pieces today while walking around Coixtlahuaca, but my favorite piece was the jaguar. It probably came from a tripod dish common to this part of Mexico.

#1: two dung beetles

Viva la Guelaguetza

WHERE I ATE TODAY: Nostrana (great pizza!)
NEW BEST MEXICAN FRIEND: Eloy, my octogenarian neighbor
NEW WORST MEXICAN ENEMY: this mosquito
OAXAC-AHA! Squash blossoms go on everything.
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Parades in Oaxaca often come with free mezcal. If you hear the cohetes (rockets) going off near you, you’d better get yourself out in the street for the parade, and if you stand there for a minute, sure enough someone will offer you a carrizo and pour you a shot of mezcal. Just another reason why one can quickly feel at home in Oaxaca.

This evening I heard the cohetes going off, so for lack of other plans, I stepped down the alley and into the street, where I ran into my neighbor, Eloy.

For the past week, we’ve been exchanging pleasantries (well, saying “buenas tardes” to one another) but this parade gave us the chance to bond. He explained that it was part of the Guelaguetza, which is a huge dance celebration that happens this time of year which features several local and indigenous dances from about this part of Mexico. But the most interesting part is that he said that the people that were marching by our house were marching in support of the original Guelaguetza, the one that happened before the Gobierno (government) took over. Apparently this festival was free before about six years ago, and everyone just met up on the hill, in the rain, having a communally grand ol’ time. Sounds like Woodstock. But then about six years ago, the Gobierno steps in, offers to build a ceiling over a stadium so they could stay dry while the watch the show*, but of course that came with strings. Now all the sudden one has to pay to watch the Guelaguetza. So in the middle of his explanation, one of the paraders shoved a carrizo in my hand and poured me a shot of mezcal; I think this informally obligated me to show up at the zócalo, where the parade was culminating. I hope it’s okay that I don’t show up. Anyway, below is a picture of what Eloy and I stood watching pass by our house.

*This ceiling was never completed. Eloy never heard why not, but didn’t seem surprised.

Staying low and local

WHERE I ATE TODAY: Are you kidding me? I didn’t.
ITEM I FINALLY FOUND AT A PHARMACY: shaving cream
STICKY SOCIAL SITUATION: how to turn down a marriage proposal from a teenaged girl without breaking her heart
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Last night, I got sick for the first time in all my trips to Mexico. I think it was a combination of something I ate and being a little dehydrated from walking around Yucundaa all day. It’s left me a little feeble, so I’ve been resting and keeping close to home today.

I did make it out to the zócalo to people-watch (got proposed to by a girl who couldn’t have been older than 17), went to the Instituto de Arte Gráfico with Pearl and Christy, and then wandered through a women’s artesanías collective before coming back home. Since I didn’t make it out to anywhere exotic today, I decided to post a pic of my little corner of Oaxaca. Here I am sitting in my hammock outside of my rented room on Calle Santos Degollado.

Yucundaa

WHERE I ATE: some place that gave me diarrhea
NEW SPANISH PHRASE: al vapor (as in verduras al vapor) “steamed”
NEWLY ACQUIRED SKILL: how to flush a toilet by pouring in water from a giant barrel
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Today we went to Yucundaa, the old city outside of the town of Teposcolula, which was about a two-hour bus ride outside of Oaxaca. What I appreciated most about this trip was that it helped me to interpret the countryside that we were driving through. At first glance, it’s gorgeous: the red earth reminds me of North Carolina, the blues and greens are rich and intense. But then we start talking about how the Mixtecs using terraced farming to make arable land in the mountains; a genius system that works great, until you stop using it. Then the mountainside falls apart.

The Mixtecs stopped farming on the terraces because they were decimated by European diseases. Within about twenty years of the Spanish arriving to this part of Mexico, two-thirds of the Mixtec population of Yucundaa died. They were buried in mass graves so quickly that rigor mortis hadn’t even set in.

So today much of the landscape of this part of Mexico still carries the scars of the European invasion 500 years ago.

Yucundaa today has been excavated by Dr. Ronald Spores (who led our tour) and his team, where they unearthed the largest palace known in Mesoamerica. After excavating and cataloging what they’d found, they were required by the government to cover it all back up in dirt to protect it until they had a plan to make it public permanently. It was interesting to see a site before it’s ready for public access however. To me, it just looked like piles of rubble, but turns out this was one of the most substantial finds in recent research.

As we were trekking around Yucundaa, you saw signs of life everywhere: obsidian slivers that were used as arrowheads and blades, pottery shards. I even stumbled on an old pottery handle!

Faces of Indigenous Mexico

WHERE I ATE: Tayu
BEST PURCHASE: it’s a tie between socks with sailboats and a bottle of Zignum mezcal reposado
THINGS I NEED TO DO MORE OF: swim at night
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It’s late, so tonight I would like to treat you all to a gallery of my top nine favorite sculptures I saw today at the Rufino Tamayo Museum. They may be 1,000-2,000 years old, but their expressions are expertly captured.

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Monte Alban and Mitla

WHERE I ATE TODAY: Rancho Zapata
NEW SPANISH WORD: brocheta (kebab)
MOVIE TODAY MOST RESEMBLED: Avatar
OAXAC-AHA! FACT: Sometime political protests shut down entire highways.
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What struck me most about our three tours today (two archaeological tours: Monte Alban and Mitla, and one side trip: the Tule Tree) was how much things change. Monte Alban was one of the longest enduring Mesoamerican cities, inhabited from 500 BCE to about 600 CE, and today all that’s left are piles of pyramids and a few carvings that told us who they conquered in war. Other than that, we know very little about what the buildings were used for, how they got water, or how they played the infamous ball game.

Same thing at Mitla; we saw residences that date from 900 CE, yet we don’t know what the rooms were used for, how they got light inside, or what kind of people lived there. Things changed; we have very little information about these people, and now these things are lost in the past. Even the descendants of the people that used to live in Mitla no longer sell their art and crafts in the old market space; they’ve moved to a more central location. It’s all abandoned, and now what do you do with it?

Thinking about how much of our human experience has already passed and been forgotten, it got a little depressing. I saw an excavated skeleton in the museum at Monte Alban today, and thought “Hey, this person’s got it pretty good. Everyone else has long been forgotten, but at least this guy’s bones get looked at.” That’s something, right?

Thankfully we ended the day with a spontaneous side-trip to el Arbol de Tule, one of the oldest trees in the world. It’s a type of cypress and it’s over 2000 years old. Now that kind of longevity is inspiring. Not that I want to be around all that long, but it was good to know that there’s some living thing that’s endured through all these changes.

First day of classes

WHERE I ATE: La Olla
OAXAC-AHA! There’s a Mesoamerican indigenous language that uses whistles along with words.
WHAT I NEED TO DO TOMORROW: Find out where to buy shaving lotion.
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So the place where we meet for class is incredible. The Centro Cultural de Santo Domingo was built in 1551 by Dominican monks, but later turned into  military barracks, storage, and stables in 1859. Forty years later, Porfirio Diaz, the president at the time, mandated that it be turned back into a church. Currently, it’s both a church and a cultural center where we’re lucky enough to hold class four times a week.

This is the old kitchen. We pass through here to get to our classroom, which is through the doorway in the back of the room.

Reception

OAXAC-AHA! The hummingbird is a symbol of masculinity in some Mesoamerican cultures.
THING I’LL NEVER DO AGAIN: Wear too-tight shoes.
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For my first full day in Oaxaca, I celebrated by sleeping in until 11:00, lounging in bed updating my blog, and then meeting folks at La Cantinita to watch the last game of the World Cup. It was a great (albeit long) game. Most of the bar was rooting for Spain it seemed, though somewhat coolly. The crowd got rowdier when Holland messed up than when Spain did well. I attribute it to colonialism. Who knows.

After that, another colleague and I went to a coffee shop that boasted “orgánico” and “shade-grown” coffee. Is there no word in Spanish for “shade-grown”? I’ll look into that. The coffee was delicious though- rich, but not at all bitter. Tomorrow I’m planning on swinging by before class; I might even try it black it was so good. We’ll see.

Then tonight we had our first official function in Oaxaca. All thirty of us teachers plus families, friends, and visiting professors joined in. It’s a really diverse group of teachers; there are people on this project that teach Spanish, social studies, art, and language arts. We had high school teachers, middle school teachers, and elementary school teachers. Collaboration should be interesting!

At the reception, they gave us each a carrizo, a small tube you wear around your neck so you’re always prepared in case someone comes by offering shots of mezcal. They said it’s our ticket into the centro cultural where our classes will be held. Maybe that’s a joke?

Arriving in Oaxaca

My summer of adventure in Oaxaca actually began last night at JFK airport. I’m waiting in line at AeroMexico and this lady behind me asks me a question. I turn around and it’s Pearl, another colleague that I recognized from the NEH bios website. We spent the next three hours waiting for our departure and swapping travel stories at the airport bar.

The flight itself was smooth enough: a little too hot to be comfortable, but only one screaming child (who happened to be sitting right beside me; imagine my joy) and peanuts… they still serve peanuts on AeroMexico. I felt like I was back in the early glory days of air travel.

We landed in Mexico City and took a small plane out to Oaxaca, which was about a one hour flight. Oaxaca is a small city of about 4 million inhabitants in the south of Mexico.

It’s tucked away in the Sierra Madre mountains, so at least in July, the weather is cool (about 80 degrees max) with pleasantly cool nights and scattered showers in the afternoon.

My first goal upon arriving in Oaxaca was to find an apartment. I’d been emailing with a lady named Guadalupe who said she had a space available, but based on both past and recent experience, I wasn’t inclined to believe it until I actually dropped off my bags in the place. Thankfully, things worked out just fine; I’ve got a bed (or three) to sleep in. I’ll post pictures and a video tour soon.

The rest of the day was spent meeting other colleagues and getting oriented in Oaxaca. There were rockets going off all day long for whichever Catholic saint is celebrated on July 10; there was a World Cup game; and in the zocalo there was even Oaxaca’s second-ever gay pride parade. Needless to say, I wasn’t bored. But I am ready for bed, so stay tuned for more pictures and stories!