Our two-day event to showcase the beautiful hand-woven textiles from San Felipe Usila, in the Tuxtepec region of Oaxaca, Mexico ends today, Friday, October 30, 2015 at 5 p.m.
Where: Casa Las Bugambilias B&B, Calle Reforma #402, Oaxaca Centro Historico, between Constitucion and Abasolo
When: 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
What: hand-woven textiles made on a back strap loom, embroidered with fine detail in traditional patterns from this unique region of Mexico. These are the knock-out textiles you see in the Danza de la Piña during the Guelaguetza each year.
Here is a sampling of what Sra. Hermalinda brought with her:
Who wants to go to Tenancingo for the Feb. 3-11, 2016 Rebozo Study Tour? We have three spaces left.
Posted onThursday, October 29, 2015|Comments Off on Reminder: San Felipe Usila ExpoVENTA Today! in Oaxaca
Today, Thursday,October 29 until 5 p.m. at El Diablo y La Sandia Boca del Monte 121. This is a little street located between Tinaco y Palacios and Crespo, between Allende and Quetzalcoatl. Come up the hill from Santo Domingo to Tinaco y Palacios. Turn right. Turn left onto Boca del Monte and we are there on the right! Gorgeous dresses and blouses. Reasonable prices. $$ direct to weavers. Please spread the word.
Posted onWednesday, October 28, 2015|Comments Off on Marigolds and Altars: Day of the Dead in Oaxaca, Mexico
The campo (countryside) is a blanket of tiny yellow flowers called cempasuchitl or wild marigolds that come up in southern Mexico this time of year. It’s less than a week before Day of the Dead here in Oaxaca. Preparations have begun.
My friend Guadalupe was at the casita yesterday and she explained that the intense yellow color of the wild marigold signals the dead to return to earth for Dia de los Muertos. That’s why they are a prominent part of altars.
The dead like color, she says, and the strong scent of the marigolds. Lupe also said that the bees make a deep yellow honey from the wild marigolds this time of year and this can be special addition to the altar.
I started to gather and build my altar yesterday. It is not yet complete. Front and center is a photo of our dad who passed in 1997. As I duplicated the photo, cut foam board and secured it to the photo, I had a sense of well-being, connection and loving memory. It is a meaningful experience to make a memory altar to honor a loved one who is no longer here.
Our dad was a teacher in the Los Angeles City School District for over thirty years. He went out on strike once to protest a wage cut. I remember our mom was scared because there would be no income until he went back to work. Our family was still young and with three children. Even so, he chose to stick to his principles. He was the son of immigrants and knew the importance of a fair wage and decent working conditions. This is our favorite photo of him.
This altar is a tribute to him.
It is somewhat typical of Teotitlan del Valle altars. It has the favorite food and beverages that the deceased liked. Bread. Chocolate. Fruit. Nuts. A soft drink and/or a bottle of beer. Perhaps a bowl of atole. Our parents weren’t drinkers, but on occasion our dad would enjoy a beer. I’m sure in his lifetime he had a Victoria when we went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant. So here it is along with my artisanal mezcal collection in garafones (hand-blown bottles).
There is more to add. The palm fronds used for arches that allow the dead to enter earth from the underworld won’t be available until later this week. I will wait to get fresh marigolds for November 1. I’ve already prepared the copal incense burner. The aroma also helps guide the spirits home. Lupe says I need to add peanuts even though I have pecans. Maybe I’ll put a marigold arch over the front doorway.
Day of the Dead is a pre-Hispanic tradition that blends into All Saints and All Souls Days which some also mistakenly refer to in the U.S.A. as Halloween. It isn’t Halloween here, said my friend Danny Hernandez. Some of the locals are not happy that the occasion is moving away from the traditional celebration toward the commercial with spiders, bats and Jack O’Lanterns.
My experience in building this altar is to reaffirm that Day of the Dead is for anyone who wants to create something very tangible and joyful to remember a loved one. This is a personal and community tribute to the continuity of life each step of the way. In my world, I see it as ecumenical and non-denominational.
Here in Teotitlan del Valle people will welcome their deceased into their homes on November 1 with a meal of chicken tamales with yellow mole. On November 2 they will return to the cemetery to help guide the spirits’ return to the underworld after the 3 p.m. lunch. During this 24-hour period, they will receive visitors and make visits to family and friends with altar gifts of chocolate, Pan de Muertos, beer and mezcal to honor family and loved ones.
P.S. Weavers in Teotitlan del Valle who work with natural dyes collect cempasuchitl this time of year and hang it to dry. It makes a beautiful yellow dye on wool and silk. When over-dyed with indigo, it is the color of the corn leaves in the photo above.
From October 27 to November 3, you want to be on the streets of Oaxaca and out in the surrounding villages to take in all that this Day of the Dead — Dia de los Muertos — celebration offers. Don’t forget to wander into patio courtyards off the four major city avenues: the Andador Alcala, Cinco de Mayo, Garcia Virgil and Reforma between Constitucion and Hidalgo (and adjoining cross streets) to get the full experience. Poke your nose into churches, too. Drink hot chocolate or mezcal.
Explore the vast Abastos Market for altar decorations, pan de muertos (Day of the Dead bread), sugar skulls and lots of marigold flowers. Leave your bling behind and keep your money close to your chest.
Book Premiere Party Milpa: From Seed to Salsa, 6 p.m. at Instituto de Artes y Graficas (IAGO), bilingual, amazing story of indigenous corn in Oaxaca by Chef Susana Trilling, photographer Judith Cooper Haden, and writers Phil and Kathy Dahl-Bredine. Recipes, photos, commentary.
Saturday, October 31
Metropolitan Opera at Teatro Macedonio Alcala, 12 p.m., Wagner’s Tannhauser (Is it a stretch to make the link to Muertos?)
Santa Cruz Xoxocotlan Panteon (Cemetery). I always go early with a first stop to the old cemetery to catch magic hour photos before going into the bigger, crazier, newer cemetery.
San Pablo Villa de Mitla Panteon, way out at the end of the Tlacolula valley, where meaning and memory are part of the tradition and the Zapotec definition of Mitla is “place of the dead.”
San Antonino Velasco Castillo. This village in the Ocotlan valley, most famous for its embroidered wedding dresses, is the premier flower-growing center of the region. They supply most of the marigolds for altars throughout Oaxaca. Muertos is celebrated here as the grand finale to the week of remembrance.
Traffic Alert: The Mercado 20 de Noviembre is under construction with many stalls displaced to surrounding streets, clogging the major arteries and making it difficult to gather altar necessities near the zocalo for Muertos, like bread, fruit, candles, sugar skulls and flowers. FYI. Best bet? Head to Abastos.
Photography in village cemeteries — a word of caution and advice: Oaxacaqueños love tourists. We are their lifeline to economic well-being. And, it is really disconcerting and disrespectful to point a camera lens in someone’s face who is sitting vigil by a gravesite without asking permission to take a photo. It’s a simple question: Podria tomarle su foto? or Puedo a tomar su foto? This simple question will take you far and usually get a nod of consent.
Any events or activities to add? Please post them in comments! Mil gracias.
Norma Schafer writes and photographs from Oaxaca, Mexico. Her work has been featured in the New York Times 36-Hours in Oaxaca, included in the Levine Museum of the New South exhibition NUEVOlution! Latinos and the New South, and published in Minerva Rising Women’s Literary Magazine.
On Thursday this week, Lupita came to visit. She is age 10, soon to be eleven next month. We were looking through photographs on my computer and found one when she was a toddler playing in a pile of wool.
She might want this photo for her quinceañera. That got us to talking about being young and Zapotec. As we scrolled through photos, I stopped on a photo of the San Pablo Villa de Mitla archeological site. What’s that? Lupita said. You haven’t been to Mitla? I asked. Do you want to go tomorrow?
I was actually struck by the fact that here we are just 10 miles and 20 minutes from one of the most amazing archeological sites in Mesoamerica and Lupita hasn’t been there. She hasn’t been to Monte Alban either. We have a lot of traveling to do. Next week, I’ll take her to Yagul. Maybe another young friend, Cristobal, will come, too
When we got to Mitla early Friday morning, the place was empty. I explained how important this post-classical site is and how special it is to be Zapotec with a proud and ancient history. Here and at Monte Alban, the Zapotecs commanded a great nation. There are so many more ancient rocks yet to uncover.
Lupita climbed up the temple steps and then down into the tombs. We talked about how the ancient burial ritual was to move the bones of the those buried before aside to make way for those who had just died. They would be buried in the same tomb. We compared how this ancient Zapotec practice is exactly the way it is today in her village of Teotitlan del Valle.
Next week we will go to the cemeteries to celebrate the dead and their return to visit loved ones. Dia de los Muertos is about the continuity of life and it occurs to me that there is no greater tribute than burial in the same resting place as a beloved ancestor.
We talked about the history of the Spanish conquest, conversion, how the conquerors took the ancient rocks from the temples and used them to build church walls to attract the people to the new religion.
Codices etched in plaster, painted with cochineal
I showed Lupita the example of the wall integrated into the Mitla church structure and pointed to the carved patterns that most Teotitlan del Valle weavers have incorporated into their rug designs.
Biznaga cactus in bloom, an endangered species
There’s a lot of activity in Mitla now, fresh paint, new hotels and restaurants, since the town just became a Pueblo Magico.
We finished up our day together with lunch in Tlacolula at Comedor Mary. Then, I got Lupita to school in time for the start of her 1:30 p.m. classes.
With the day only half-finished, I got into my creative side, making flower pins from wool I had felted last year. After “cooking” the finished flowers in hot water with a bit of vinegar, I took them up to the terrace to hang on the line to dry. Oops, why not take a photo? It was such a gorgeous day. When, I returned to the terrace with my camera, this is what I saw.
Why We Left, Expat Anthology: Norma’s Personal Essay
Norma contributes personal essay, How Oaxaca Became Home
Norma Contributes Two Chapters!
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1-Day OaxacaCity Collectors Textile Tour.Exclusive Access! We take you into the homes and workshops of Oaxaca State's prize-winning weavers. They come from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the Mixteca, Mixe, Amuzgos and Triqui areas and represent their weaving families and cooperatives here. For collectors, retailers, buyers, wholesalers, fashionistas.
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2022 Going Deep, Not Wide--Extended Tours
July 25-31, 2022. Oaxaca Textile Adventure Tour: Sierra Norte Mountains. Visit two remote mountain villages where silk and cotton are woven into glorious cloth and dyed with natural plant materials. Come early or stay later for Guelaguetza! Not too late to join!
October 28-November 4, 2022: Women’s Creative Writing Retreat in Teotitlan del Valle — Memory and Tradition. Click this link to read about it. ONE SPACE OPEN FOR SHARED ROOM.
October 29-November 4, 2022:Day of the Dead Culture Tour. We meet locals and visit 4 villages to experience this mystical pre-Hispanic observance, awesome and reverent. Still space for a few more!
February 5-13, 2023: Bucket List Tour: Monarch Butterflies + Michoacan. Spiritual, mystical connection to nature. Go deep into weaving, pottery, mask-making and more! We haven't offered this tour since 2019 and we anticipate it will sell out quickly. TWO SPACES OPEN
February 21-March 1, 2023: Chiapas Textile Study Tour--Deep Into the Maya World Based in San Cristobal de las Casas, we travel to distant pueblos to meet extraordinary weavers --Best of the Best! Just a handful of spaces open.
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We require 48-hour advance notice for map orders to be processed. We send a printable map via email PDF after order received. Please be sure to send your email address. Where to see natural dyed rugs in Teotitlan del Valle and layout of the Sunday Tlacolula Market, with favorite eating, shopping, ATMs. Click Here to Buy Map After you click, be sure to check PayPal to ensure your email address isn't hidden from us. We fulfill each map order personally. It is not automatic.
Dye Master Dolores Santiago Arrellanas with son Omar Chavez Santiago, weaver and dyer, Fey y Lola Rugs, Teotitlan del Valle
Reminder: San Felipe Usila ExpoVENTA Today! in Oaxaca
Today, Thursday,October 29 until 5 p.m. at El Diablo y La Sandia Boca del Monte 121. This is a little street located between Tinaco y Palacios and Crespo, between Allende and Quetzalcoatl. Come up the hill from Santo Domingo to Tinaco y Palacios. Turn right. Turn left onto Boca del Monte and we are there on the right! Gorgeous dresses and blouses. Reasonable prices. $$ direct to weavers. Please spread the word.
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Posted in Clothing Design, Cultural Commentary, Oaxaca Mexico art and culture, Textiles, Tapestries & Weaving
Tagged 2015, El Diablo y la Sandia Boca del Monte, expoventa, Mexico, Oaxaca, San Felipe Usila