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Why Travel With Us: Help sustain regenerative traditions.
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- We know the culture! This is our land! We are locally owned and operated.
- Eric Chavez Santiago is tri-lingual --Spanish, English, Zapotec.
- Eric was founding director of education, Museo Textil de Oaxaca + folk art expert
- Norma Schafer has lived in Oaxaca since 2005.
- Norma is a seasoned university educator.
- We have deep connections with artists and artisans.
- 63% of our travelers repeat -- high ratings, high satisfaction.
- Wide ranging expertise: textiles, folk art, pottery, cultural wisdom.
- We give you a deep immersion to best know Oaxaca and Mexico.
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We organize private travel + tours for museums, arts, organizations, collectors + appreciators.
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Creating Connection and Meaning between travelers and with indigenous artisans. Meet makers where they live and work. Join small groups of like-minded explorers. Go deep into remote villages. Gain insights. Support cultural heritage and sustainable traditions. Create value and memories. Enjoy hands-on experiences. Make a difference.
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What is a Study Tour: Our programs are learning experiences, and as such we talk with makers about how and why they create, what is meaningful to them, the ancient history of patterning and design, use of color, tradition and innovation, values and cultural continuity, and the social context within which they work. First and foremost, we are educators. Norma worked in top US universities for over 35 years and Eric founded the education department at Oaxaca’s textile museum. We create connection.
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OCN Creates Student Scholarship at Oaxaca Learning Center Giving back is a core value. Read about it here
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Meet Makers. Make a Difference
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Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC has offered programs in Mexico since 2006. We have over 30 years of university, textile and artisan development experience. See About Us.
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Programs can be scheduled to meet your independent travel plans. Send us your available dates.
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Arts organizations, museums, designers, retailers, wholesalers, curators, universities and others come to us to develop artisan relationships, customized itineraries, meetings and conferences. It's our pleasure to make arrangements.
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Select Clients *Abeja Boutique, Houston *North Carolina Museum of Art *Selvedge Magazine-London, UK *Esprit Travel and Tours *Penland School of Crafts *North Carolina State University *WARP Weave a Real Peace *Methodist University *MINNA-Goods *Smockingbird Kids *University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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Tell us how we can put a program together for you! Send an email norma.schafer@icloud.com
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Vocal Yoga: Medicine Melodies, Ah Ohm Hoong Rahm Zah
A moment remembered from the Women’s Creative Writing and Yoga Retreat:
Our yoga guide Beth Miller gathers us around her in a circle. We sit on chairs, backs tall. At the head of the room is the traditional Zapotec altar complete with candlesticks and an incense burner ready for the next celebration. Forefinger touches thumb to form a circle. We rest arms on knees, close our eyes, take a deep breath and then another. Inhaling yet again, deeper, each of us releases sound from within, from the center of our being. From the third eye, to the throat, to the heart, to the belly, to the secret chakra of the woman’s womb, the place where we release the child from our bodies, whether real or imaginary.
Beth will be teaching this summer, July 5-11, in Teotitlan del Valle.
We sing clear, mouths open, full. It does not matter if one or the other of us cannot carry a tune. There is no shame in our voices as we expel the breath and accompanying sound. It fills the room and the walls reverberate. The sound is another sister and it envelops us. Elena Gutierrez, in whose home we practice this vocal yoga, tells us we sound like a sacred ashram. The melodies we chant become integral to the creative energy we develop as each day passes. The sound gives us connection, power, peace, and allows us to lift our creative voices high.
With hands put together in the prayer of honoring each other, we bow and leave the room in silence.
This silence is sparkling clean. Bird sounds are amplified. The cup placed onto the tablecloth is an act of intention. The table vibrates slightly to receive it.
Next is the taste of crunchy fresh tortillas soaking up spicy black bean paste topped with slivers of sweet white onion, translucent. A sprinkle of chopped fresh cilantro and queso fresco like white paint splattered on a black canvas adorns the morsel.
My spoon cuts and I lift spoon to mouth, taste the crunch again, the corn ground by Magda’s able hands, formed in her palms, toasted on the comal in the courtyard, turned four times by fingers old enough to tell the story of eternal woman.
The black heat of bean paste smeared on tiny tortilla, the crunch of corn with cilantro punctuation are full in my mouth. My tongue receives them like a host, hot flame of spice engulfs my mouth, a vessel holding the flavors of earth.
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