Tag Archives: Francisco Toledo

Oaxaca’s Ethnobotanical Garden: Rooted in Cultural History

Posted on Thursday, February 16, 2012 | 3 Comments

Rather than give you another review of Oaxaca’s Ethnobotanical Garden, I thought I would share this excellent article recently published in Garden Design Magazine. It has lots of photos of this remarkable space. Thanks to Mary Ann Walsh who follows this blog and shared the link with me.

Check the Garden for availability of guided tours in English, usually available Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 11 a.m. You can only enter the garden as part of a guided visit which lasts two hours.

You can see some of the same design elements in this garden that recur in some of the more recent renovations — the Museo Textil de Oaxaca and the Centro Academico y Cultural San Pablo funded by the Alfredo Harp Helu Foundation.

When Alejandro de Avila B. returned to Oaxaca after completing his PhD at University of California at Berkeley, he became the director of the Ethnobotanical Garden and then later, curator at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca. He continues to have an important impact on the development of arts and culture in the city and is an extraordinarily knowledgeable resource.

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Posted in Cultural Commentary, Oaxaca Mexico art and culture, Oaxaca travel, Travel & Tourism

Tagged Alejandro de Avila, blogsherpa, cactus, ethnobotanical, Francisco Toledo, garden, Mexico, Oaxaca

Oaxaca and Family Travel

Posted on Tuesday, January 11, 2011 | 2 Comments

A reader just wrote to me with the following questions: Is Oaxaca safe for families? and What do we do once we get there?

I think you will find Oaxaca a very welcoming place for families. A friend, her husband and two pre-teens lived in Oaxaca for a year “on sabbatical” to have a different cultural experience and learn the language. A colleague of mine at UNC Chapel Hill who is a cancer researcher returned from Oaxaca over the winter holidays where she went for two weeks with her husband and high school-aged daughter. Another reader just spent several weeks in Mexico with his family, starting in Mexico City, visiting Puebla and Oaxaca, and staying in Teotitlan del Valle. We see families in Oaxaca all the time. Of course, the caveat is that it is important to be mindful of your surroundings where ever one travels; the same precautions you take for Europe apply to Oaxaca.

Off the top of my head, there are many things for children to do and enjoy in Oaxaca:

The Ethnobotanical Gardens
The archeological sites of Monte Alban and Mitla — climbing the pyramids
The Museo Textil de Oaxaca (the textile museum)
A stay in the family-friendly village of Teotitlan del Valle to hike, learn about weaving and take a cooking class with Reyna Mendoza Ruiz
The hubbub of market days; nothing beats popping a crispy chapuline in your mouth! Fried, spicy grasshoppers never tasted so good.
Cooking classes for kids with Pilar Cabrera at Casa de los Sabores Cooking School and Bed & Breakfast
Francisco Toledo kites at IAGO and a visit to the paper-making studio in San Augustin Etla
The sights and sounds of street vendors and musicians
A steaming, frothy cup of Oaxacan hot chocolate at a sidewalk cafe on the Zocalo

Plus lots more. A feature was written in the last year or two about the most family-friend places to visit and Oaxaca came to the top of the list. I don’t have the link but you could research that. I wrote about it on my website.

The textile museum offers regular workshops for children and for parents and children together. You could take a weaving workshop together in Teotitlan del Valle and learn about natural dyes. There is also an English speaking Spanish tutor in Teotitlan that I can refer you to, if you wanted to spent a few days out there at Las Granadas in the tranquility of the Oaxaca countryside. Las Granadas is a family owned and operated bed and breakfast, with two pre-teen boys!

All in all, I think you and your family would love it.

Saludos,
Norma

Readers: Do you have any other suggestions for family travel and fun in Oaxaca?

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Posted in Oaxaca Mexico art and culture, Oaxaca travel, Teotitlan del Valle, Travel & Tourism

Tagged culture, Francisco Toledo, Mexico, Mitla, Monte Alban, Museo Textil de Oaxaca, Oaxaca, postaweek2011, Travel and Tourism, travel safety, travel with children

Francisco Toledo’s Kites

Posted on Friday, November 28, 2008 | 2 Comments

Kites, left to right: Francisco Toledo’s handmade paper kite; kite back; Eric Chavez Santiago’s Zapotec greca kite; kite back; Norma with kites.

Up in the hills in San Augustin Etla, about 30 minutes north of Oaxaca city, is the paper making workshop of Francisco Toledo. Artists and apprentices first make the handmade paper, decorate the paper with Toledo designs using airbrush painting techniques, the fashion the art into fanciful kites that are sold there in the studio gallery or at IAGO on Macedonio Alcala in the historic center of Oaxaca near the Santo Domingo church.

The kites are decorated with figures that Toledo is famous for: monkeys, fish, lizards, scorpions, devils, rabbits, dia de los muertos skeletal figures, bulls, cats, demons and denizens. Art historian Teresa del Conde writes that Juchitan born artist Toledo dazzles us with his inventiveness and interpretation of divine creation, the primigenital force described in Genesis, the magical qualities of composition, the sagas of old Prehispanic codices and the iconographical aspects of his work. Toledo is an artistic, social and political force in Oaxaca and works to create collaborations and brings people together to solve often difficult issues.

When Eric Chavez was in North Carolina in October he taught a workshop for teachers and one project was to make kites in the Toledo style and tradition. Yesterday, on Thanksgiving morning, I held a workshop for the children who were coming to dinner. I want to share this adventure with you.

Left to right: Norma’s painted brown paper bag before it is made into a kite; Kristin, Sierra, Soren and Cassidy making kites on Thanksgiving day.

Left to right: Norma’s kite series, Thanksgiving Day Kite, Swirl Kite, Zapotec Greca Kite

How to make a kite:

Materials:

1. Brown paper grocery bag opened along the seams and laid flat (you can also use wrapping paper, old newspaper, plastic trash bags, Tyvek)

2. Flying line: cotton twine for flying

3. Bamboo for the frames and structure. You can cut apart bamboo window blinds or use bamboo stakes from a garden center. Or, use think dowel. You will need 1 piece 24″ long for the vertical bar and one piece 18″ long for the horizontal bar.

4. Kite decoration: acrylic paints, brushes, stenciles, sponges.

It takes us about an hour to paint and decorate the brown side of the grocery shopping bag. Let the paint dry (about 30 minutes). Turn the paper over and lay the sticks in a cross over the area you want for your kite (you need to check the opposite painted side to be sure the design shows where you want it to and you choose the top and the bottom).

With masking tape pieces, tape the shorter 18″ stick a distance of 10″ down from the top of the 24″ stick. Tape the intersection where they meet liberally! Tape down the 4 ends of the 2 pieces.

Fold the diagonal sections one at a time, making a sharp crease, so that the paper meets the cross bars. Cut 1/2″ to 1″ away from the crease, leaving an edge to overlap on the back of the kite. Do this for all four sides. Use Elmer’s glue to paste the edges of the kite. This will take about an hour to dry. You can then tie your cotton line. A long tail is needed to fly this kite. You can make the tail out of the bag handles!