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Connect: email, text or WhatsApp +1-919-274-6194, FB Messenger, IG
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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
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
Our Favorites
- Cooking Classes–El Sabor Zapoteco
- Currency Converter
- Fe y Lola Rugs by Chavez Santiago Family
- Friends of Oaxaca Folk Art
- Hoofing It In Oaxaca Hikes
- Living Textiles of Mexico
- Mexican Indigenous Textiles Project
- Museo Textil de Oaxaca
- Oaxaca Lending Library
- Oaxaca Weather
- Taller Teñido a Mano Natural Dyes
Earth Day: Homage in Photos
Here on the Rio Grande Gorge Mesa the wind is scouring the earth. Spring cleaning, I think. Perhaps nature’s attempt at renewal. The cycle of life.
In Oaxaca, torrential rain, hail, remind us that the seasons are now topsy-turvy and we can no longer predict the patterns of nature.
Many of us know we are in peril and it is an underlying tug, push, fight, an imperative to make it right, make it whole again so our future as humans will avoid the dystopian image I have of glass cities where only purified air can sustain us. And, who will live there? I ask. Will the price of admission be so high, that only the wealthy and well-connected will find dwelling? And what happens to the rest of us? One can only imagine the unimaginable.
Heather Cox Richardson says it best today. I encourage you to read.
Here is a brief homage to our nurturing, stunningly magnificent Mexico in photos. Hope and action are our only defenses.
At Oaxaca Cultural Navigator, Eric and I put immense value on sustainability of the environment and indigenous culture. We work with weavers who grow their own cotton, use natural plants cultivated with organic materials and no chemicals to make native dyes, and commit to supporting women and families. We work with organizations like Weaving for Justice and Weave a Real Peace to help raise awareness and bring people up from poverty to be able to feed their families, provide health care and education, without worry. Thank you, as always, for your support for what we do.
And, here, in New Mexico, all appears as it should be, and we know it is not.
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