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Norma Writes for Selvedge Latin Issue
Why We Left, Expat Anthology: Norma’s Personal Essay
Norma Contributes Two Chapters!
- Norma Schafer and Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC has offered programs in Mexico since 2006. We have over 30 years of university program development experience. See my resume.
Study Tours + Study Abroad are personally curated and introduce you to Mexico's greatest artisans. They are off-the-beaten path, internationally recognized. We give you access to where people live and work. Yes, it is safe and secure to travel. Groups are limited in size for the most personal experience.
Programs can be scheduled to meet your travel plans. Send us your available dates.
Designers, retailers, wholesalers, universities and other organizations come to us to develop customized itineraries, study abroad programs, meetings and conferences. It's our pleasure to make arrangements.
Our Clients Include *Penland School of Crafts *North Carolina State University *WARP Weave a Real Peace *Methodist University *MINNA-Goods *Selvedge Magazine
Tell us how we can put a program together for you! Send an email norma.schafer@icloud.com
PRESS
- WEAVE Podcast: Oaxaca Coast Textiles & Tour
- NY Times, Weavers Embrace Natural Dye Alternatives
- NY Times, Open Thread–Style News
- NY Times, 36-Hours: Oaxaca, Mexico
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12 Grapes and 12 Wishes–Doce Uvas y Doce Esperanzas
We are at La Terra Nova sitting at a cafe table. It is dark but the zocalo is alight with the stars of twinkling white electric Christmas candles. A bedecked tree rises three stories. A gold painted mime entertains locals and visitors in one corner. A Christmas posada of school children come by, the girls carrying decorated baskets on their heads, the boys wearing Joseph costumes, accompanied by parents. A teen band of trumpeters and saxophonists bring up the rear. After they pass, a group of excellent ranchero musicians assemble to play for pay right in front of us. The air is warm yet beginning to chill and I wrap my cochineal-dyed rebozo (shawl) around my shoulders. The zocolo gardens are stuffed with noche buena (poinsettias). Children twirl and dance. Tourists stroll arm in arm.
Eric, Elsa and I are sipping Micheladas. It is the Terra Nova version: maggi, salsa picante, lots of lime juice and beer. It doesn’t have tomato juice and I’m not as fond of it. I ask Elsa why Oaxaquenos eat 12 grapes at the new year. She says that each grape represents the month of the year, and as you eat each grape you make a wish for something important for that month. I ask her what she wishes for and she says she only wants good health and meaningful work. We say, a su salud, to your health. It is a good wish.
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