On November 28, 2007, I started a free WordPress.com blog and posted my first essay there about visiting, traveling and intending to live in Oaxaca, Mexico. Two years earlier, using iWeb on my Apple computer and the clunky URL web.mac.com/normahawthorne/iWeb/ [defunct, not searchable, remember those days], I started my original blog. However no one could find me! So, technically, I’ve been writing this blog for seven years!
Writing regularly is an act of commitment, love of place, and desire to share the experience. I want to mark this anniversary and share with you now what I published on November 28, 2007. I didn’t take as many photos then and most weren’t of publishable quality. Then, I was more interested in the narrative. The times they are a-changin’ — let’s celebrate!
5- Year Celebration Sale with Discount — Good Until December 25, 2012.
Take 15% off any workshop offered through August 1, 2013 (except Felted Fashion Workshop).
Take 15% off any Shop Mexico-Artisan Sisters Items still available.
Tell me you want the Celebration Discount!
Reposted from November 28, 2007: Navigating with Norma
An explanation: Navigating Oaxaca (pronounced Wah-Hah-Kah), Mexico, is a cultural arts and history experience that requires a certain sense of exploration, discovery and adventure. For me, it is going without a roadmap down the back alleys of a small village to see what I will discover next: a master weaver, an exceptional wood-carver, an accomplished potter or expressive painter. I am open to the experience of creating relationship by appreciating artistic creativity, cultural history, shared values and vision, and the possibility for multicultural exchange. After four visits of several weeks each over the past two years, and an invitation from Federico Chavez Sosa and his family to live with them in Teotitlan del Valle, I begin to call myself “cultural navigator.”
This blog is a way for me to share my experiences with you with the hope that it will excite your interest to visit this extraordinary place and appreciate the rich artistic and cultural traditions of Mexican immigrants. There are great artisans who live on the back alleyways, don’t show up in the tourist guide books, and aren’t willing to pay hefty commissions to have tour guides and tour buses pulling up to their front door. I am motivated to support fair trade so that 100% of tourist dollars go directly to the families who actually create the art.
In the next weeks, we will be preparing to return to Oaxaca through the winter holidays. There will be Posadas and fireworks. The ancient fife player will lead the village band in a Sousa march. Farmers will herd cattle and sheep through the streets. The guacalotes will chortle and the donkey next door will bray at sunrise. We will hike to the reservoir along the river through the bamboo and cactus forest, beyond us Picacho rises above the 6,000 foot plateau with a promise of a new archeological discovery. We will eat handmade tamales con pollo y salsa Coloradito with fresh nopales, and the adventure will begin anew.
Then and Now
- Then, blog posts were mostly prose and a few poorly executed photographs
- There was no Wikipedia and little reference content to link to — I couldn’t make links happen with iWeb
- I was really happy to get 30 or 40 page views a day and an occasional comment
- Now, we get 500-600+ page views a day; our top day this year was over 1,800 page views. That’s great for us!
- Organizing workshops based in Oaxaca was the flicker of a dream
- There was no financial way to support the blog writing
- In 2010, I migrated over to a self-hosted WordPress.org website and finally figured out how to use Google ads [last year I netted a whopping $100USD using Google Adsense]
- And, then, when we launched a diversified workshop schedule in 2010, I figured out how to use PayPal
- Now as then, I’m still a one-person Oaxaca Cultural Navigator band, performing all instruments solo [oh, I should say, sola]
- And, I speak much better Spanish, though it could be a whole lot better 🙂
Out-Takes Part I: Day of the Dead Photography Workshop
First the disclosure: Everyone whose likeness appears here has agreed to have these sometimes embarrassing, revealing and funny photos published on OCN. We think a good laugh at ourselves is healthy. These are personal photos we took of each other during the Day of the Dead Photography Expedition in October-November 2012 that didn’t make it (not even close) into the Best of Week category.
First up is Helene Haviland who was caught tasting her first chapulines.
Followed by (above right) “Who is behind that screen door?” It must be Connie Jo! We are going to tattle on Erin Loughran. She arrived without her tripod. Had it all ready and forgot to pack it. While we were on the streets photographing, Erin was searching for a tripod in Oaxaca to fit her camera (below, left).
We caught Debbie Mayfield (above right) hunkered down on the floor with the wool at the studio of the Chavez Santiago Family Weavers. She was wrapped up in the blue wool for at least an hour. 
Liz Thomas had a thing for wool, too. Hiding under the skeins seemed to be her preference. Or perhaps the desire for a new hair-do.
And our instructor, photographer Bill Bamberger had a little wool on his face after three days of being free of the razor. 
Okay, enough of that theme. On to the mezcal. Here we have Bella Jacque and Deby Thompson at a mezcal tasting, with Helene there, too, but behind the camera. They had a great time. 
Liz (left), it turns out, bought a $6 bottle of mezcal to share at the Xoxo cemetery. It was cold and rainy. Great excuse, huh? You might guess what happened next.
On our second night in Oaxaca, Debbie and Doug Mayfield high-tailed it to the Zocalo to learn how to use their cameras at night and practice with the tripod. This was in preparation for our Xoxocotlan cemetery photography shoot. 
No sooner had we arrived at the cemetery than it started to rain. Umbrellas sold out in a matter of rain drops. My only option was an XL garbage bag that cost 5 pesos. Snapped it right up and joined the Mayfields at the corner comedor. Stylish, wouldn’t you say? Our neighbor at the next table invited us all to join in with a sip of mezcal. They loved the outfit. Thanks to Helene for getting this shot!
Helene hunkered under a shawl (she later found one of the last umbrellas) and bought an offering of marigolds to give as a gift to a family cleaning and decorating a grave.
Later in the week, a few of us went to Yagul for archeological exploration, a favorite pastime of Connie (below) who was trained in the field.
More to come with Second Set Out-Takes. Stay tuned.
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Posted in Cultural Commentary, Oaxaca Mexico art and culture, Photography
Tagged blogsherpa, day of the dead, Mexico, Oaxaca, photography