Back on the Taos Mesa. Cooking extravaganza food fest for Thanksgiving Day. We are a family crowd of 13 people. Grateful. Thankful. Appreciate all friends and blog readers. Enjoy the day. We have much to appreciate. Wishing you a day filled with good food, good friends, good family and abundance. Sending abrazos fuertes.
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Posted in Oaxaca Mexico art and culture
Tagged Chiapas, discounts, Oaxaca, sale, Small Business Saturday, textiles, weaving
A group of us spent five days at Original this past week. This is a textile extravaganza in Mexico City that honors indigenous weavers and designers from throughout Mexico. With over 1,000 artisans showing and selling what they make, to say the event was mind-boggling is an understatement. The show also featured pottery, lacquerware, copper, basketry, jewelry, and so much more.
We needed five days to do justice to Original! The event was held at Los Pinos in Chapultepec Park. It is the former residence and grounds of Mexico’s past presidents. When Lopez Obrador took office five years ago, he converted the mansions and grounds into a cultural center accessible to all.
Prominently featured were the textile makers of Chiapas. They work on backstrap looms as wide as their hips. Each finished length of cloth is then meticulously sewn together using intricate needle stitching that when complete looks like embroidery — but it isn’t!
Chiapas Textile Study Tour 2024
A highlight was our meeting with Alberto Lopez Gomez, a weaver, designer, and one of the volunteer event organizers. We sat together under the shade of a large tree just beyond his exhibition booth while he showed us an extraordinary teal blue and black collector’s huipil and explained the meaning of each symbol in the cloth.
This particular huipil tells a story that is significant in his village, which is part of the municipality of Magdalena Aldama, one of the most accomplished weaving villages in the region.
Alberto talks about how important snakes are in Maya symbolism, and points to the first row of design in this huipil. Then he shows us Señor de la Tierra, Lord of the Earth holding up the universe. The next image is one of a bat, which is a messenger in his culture; after that is the corn god named Culiacán, then the sun, mother and father, representing the family.
There are images of clay pitchers used to water the field crops, and triangles denoting the four cardinal points.
Diamonds also represent flowers, corn, and large stars that depict the cycle of planting. Farmers arise in the pre-dawn and are guided by the stars. When stars smaller in the sky, ancient farmers knew the rainy season coming and it was time to plant.
Snakes, worms, and caterpillars are highly respected in Maya mythology and used for traditional medicine. Mayas also honor the underworld, and this is also reflected in the designs.
In this huipil, we also see white orchids, which are gathered in the mountains by the elderly. They are the only ones allowed to collect these. The orchids are the border design around the collar.
Chiapas Textile Study Tour 2024
If a garment has fringes or tassels, these represent the braided hair of the women. This particular textile is very special, Alberto says, because it represents the story of his pueblo.
He now works with over 200 weavers in various municipalities in Chiapas.
We visit Alberto in his private home studio in San Cristobal de las Casas during our Chiapas Textile Study Tour. We have spaces open and invite you to join us as we explore the Maya textile culture of southern Mexico this February 2024.
Posted in Oaxaca Mexico art and culture
Tagged Alberto Lopez Gomez, Chiapas, education, huipil, Magdalena Aldama, Maya textiles, Mexico, study tour, textiles, tour, travel, weaving
Looking for a spectacular brunch spot in Oaxaca with gourmet taste at a moderate price? Look no further. Criollo restaurant offers it all! Note: Be sure to make a reservation! Doors open at 10 a.m.
There is a reason that this Top Chef Enrique Olvera (of Pujol fame) dining spot is packed with locals and a few foreign visitors on Sunday morning! The outdoor dining alfresco under the shade trees and palapas is a real treat. It’s casual. It’s beautiful. It’s delicious. Okay. Now I’m repeating myself.
Set in proximity to a cocina de humo — an outdoor smoke and grill kitchen — the picnic tables are adorned with huge vases of fresh flowers on a patio of crushed gravel. Waiters offer a choice of barrista made coffees or café de olla— the sweet, cinnamon and vanilla infused coffee that native Oaxacans love to dunk their breakfast bread into.
Now for the bread! The choices are conchas—bigger and more delicious than you find anywhere, sweet bread stuffed with vanilla cream, and a nutty fruit bread flavored with ashes—my particular favorite. One little bite was not enough to satisfy. I had to eat the whole thing. Estoy gordita.
Dean, Kay and I shared a plate of grilled meats. It comes with grilled veggies and pineapple, guacamole, beef, pork ribs and chorizo. It isn’t on the menu — so be sure to ask for this. We also had a fresh fruit platter. They added granola and yogurt to the meal.
As founders of Oaxaca Eats, they know the best eating and grazing joints in town. I trust their taste explicitly. We’ve known each other since North Carolina days, before they moved to Oaxaca over six years ago.
After breakfast, Kay says, wanna go to the symphony? Sure, I say. So we hop in a taxi and get to Teatro Macedonio Alcalá JIT.
Seems the symphony is auditioning for a new conductor. Today was a special treat. Maestro William Harvey was on the podium and not only dazzled us with Bach and Beethoven, showing off his own violin virtuoso, but performed his own composition paying homage to indigenous peoples and featuring a vocalist from the Spokane tribe of Washington state, of whom only 25 native speakers remain.
It was an amazing day, a cultural treat all the way around.
Posted in Food & Recipes
Tagged cocina de humo, Criollo, dine, eat, Enrique Olvera, food, Mexico, Oaxaca, Oaxaca symphony, restaurant, SundAy brunch, William Harvey
Coming up in Mexico City from November 15-19, is ORIGINAL. This is a major textile and folk art event that will attract visitors from all over the world. We have organized a long weekend tour to Mexico City that will take us to ORIGINAL every day where we will meet and have private conversations with some of the leading fashion and textile artisans in the country. Want to come last minute? We have a space for you! Send an email.
Yesterday afternoon I went to visit my dear friend Arturo Hernandez in Mitla. We sat for a couple of hours in his studio, sipping tea, talking about design and making. He is one of the invited artisans participating in ORIGINAL. The Mexican Ministry of Culture has organized and promoted this event and in order to attract the best artisans from throughout the country, most of whom do not have the funds to travel to Mexico City and cover meals and lodging expenses, is underwriting costs to enable them to participate. Arturo will travel by bus with two huge packages of handwoven and naturally dyed rebozos, throws, bedspreads, and ponchos.
Arturo modeled the multi-colored poncho, all made with natural dyes, that he will wear for the Pasarela, a fashion parade, that we will see for the opening.
Appropriation of what Mexico calls its cultural patrimony — textile designs that are centuries old and part of a community’s identity — has pervaded the fashion industry. This expoventa, held at Los Pinos, the former home of Mexican presidents in Chapultepec Park, seeks to overcome this practice by bringing indigenous textile design to the forefront.
During our tour, we will discuss the history of Mexican fashion, indigenous design and creativity, what is and isn’t cultural appropriation, meet and talk with cultural anthropologist Marta Turok, designers and promoters Alberto Lopez Gomez, Remigio Mestas, 1/8 Takamura, and Ignacio Netzahualcoyotl. We will have plenty of time to walk the expo, take in the catwalks, and dine at some of the finest restaurants in the Centro Historico. As if that isn’t enough, our friend and art historian Valeria will guide us on a narrative tour of the Diego Rivera murals.
Here is an excellent article, Mexico fights plagiarism, that I recommend that you read. The article features Ignacio Nezahualcoyotl, who we will meet and talk with at ORIGINAL 2023.
Comments Off on ORIGINAL 2023 Textile Extravaganza: 400+ Mexican Artisans
Posted in Oaxaca Mexico art and culture
Tagged cultural appropriation, Ikat, Mexico, Mexico City, Ministry of Culture, natural dyes, ORIGINAL 2023, tour, travel, weaving
Norma contributes personal essay, How Oaxaca Became Home
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Posted in Cultural Commentary, Shop
Tagged artisan made, baskets, Black Friday, clothing, jewelry, Mexico, Oaxaca, rugs, sale, shop, Shop Oaxaca Culture, Small Business Saturday, sustainable, textiles