Arrive on Saturday, January 16 and depart on Monday, January 25, 2021 — 9 nights, 10 days in textile heaven!
Trip is limited to 12 participants–6 single rooms and 3 shared rooms.
To register, please complete the Registration Form and email it.
Cost is $2,795 per person shared room or $3,395 per person for private room. See details and itinerary below.
Please complete this Registration Form and return to Norma Schafer at norma.schafer@icloud.com to participate. Thank you.
This entire study tour is focused on exploring the textiles of Oaxaca’s Costa Chica. You arrive to and leave from Puerto Escondido, connecting through Mexico City or Oaxaca.
We go deep, and not wide. We give you an intimate, connecting experience. We spend time to know the culture. You will meet artisans in their homes and workshops, enjoy local cuisine, dip your hands in an indigo dye-bath, and travel to remote villages you may not go to on your own. This study tour focuses on revival of ancient textile techniques and Oaxaca’s vast weaving culture that encompasses the use of natural dyes, back-strap loom weaving, drop spindle hand spinning, and glorious, pre-Hispanic native cotton.
Villages along the coast and neighboring mountains were able to preserve their traditional weaving culture because of their isolation. Stunning cotton is spun and woven into lengths of cloth connected with intricate needlework to form amazing garments.
We have invited a noted cultural anthropologist to travel with us. She has worked in the region for the past fifteen years and knows the textile culture and people intimately. We learn about and discuss motifs, lifestyle, endangered species, quality and value of direct support.
What we do:
- We visit 7 weaving villages in Oaxaca and Guerrero
- We meet back-strap loom weavers, natural dyers, spinners
- We see, touch, smell native Oaxaca cotton — brown, green, natural
- We participate in a sea turtle release with sunset dinner on the beach
- We swim in a rare bioluminescence lagoon
- We visit three local markets to experience daily life
- We travel to remote regions to discover amazing cloth
- We support indigenous artisans directly
- We attend Dreamweavers annual sale at Hotel Santa Fe
- We escape WINTER in El Norte
Take this study tour to learn about:
- the culture, history and identity of cloth
- beating and spinning cotton, and weaving with natural dyes
- native seed preservation and cultivation
- clothing design and construction, fashion adaptations
- symbols and meaning of regional textile designs
- choice of colors and fibers that show each woman’s aesthetic while keeping with a particular village traje or costume
- the work of women in pre-Hispanic Mexico and today
2020 Itinerary — Oaxaca Coast Textile Study Tour
- Saturday, January 16: Fly to Puerto Escondido—overnight in Puerto Escondido, Group Welcome Dinner at 7 p.m. (D)
- Sunday, January 17: Puerto Escondido market meander, lunch and afternoon on your own. Late afternoon departure for turtle release and Manialtepec bioluminescence lagoon. (B)
- Monday, January 18: Depart after breakfast for Tututepec to visit a young weaver who is reviving his village’s textile traditions, visit local museum and murals — overnight in Pinotepa Nacional. (B, L)
- Tuesday, January 19: After breakfast, we go on to the weaving village of San Juan Colorado to visit two women’s cooperatives working in natural dyes, hand-spinning, and back strap loom weaving. Overnight in Pinotepa Nacional. (B, L)
- Wednesday, January 20: After breakfast, we return to the mountain with a first stop at the Pinotepa de Don Luis market. Then, we visit the Converse shoe project where talented artists hand-paint footwear, carve gourds and make amazing graphic art prints. We have lunch with Dreamweavers cooperative members and caracol purpura purple snail dyers in their home, complete with show and sale, and cultural talk. Overnight in Pinotepa Nacional. (B, L)
- Thursday, January 21: After breakfast, we travel up the coast highway into the state of Guerrero, where we visit two outstanding Amusgo weaving groups in Xochistlahuaca and Zacoalpan. They are working to revive ancient designs and incorporate locally grown native, wild cotton. Overnight in Ometepec. (B, L)
- Friday, January 22: After breakfast, we begin our journey back to Puerto Escondido, with a stop at the Afro-Mexican Museum to understand Mexico’s black history. We stop in Pinotepa Nacional for lunch and a market meander. Overnight in Puerto Escondido. (B, L)
- Saturday, January 23: This is a day on your own to explore the area, return to the Puerto Escondido market, take a rest from the road trip, enjoy the beach and pools, and begin packing for your trip home. Overnight in Puerto Escondido. (B)
- Sunday, January 24: Attend the annual Dreamweavers Expoventa featuring the Tixinda Weaving Cooperative from Pinotepa de Don Luis. Other regional artisans are also invited, making this a grand finale folk art extravaganza — a fitting ending to our time together on Oaxaca’s coast. Grand Finale Dinner. Overnight in Puerto Escondido. (B, D)
- Monday, January 25: Depart for home.
Note: You can add days on to the tour — arrive early or stay later — at your own expense.
Cost to Participate
- $2,795 double room with private bath (sleeps 2)
- $3,395 for a single supplement (private room and bath, sleeps 1)
Your Tour Leader: Norma Schafer, director of Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC, will again lead this popular tour. We sell out each year so don’t hesitate to register if you are interested in participating.
Some Vocabulary and Terms
Who Should Attend
- Explorers of indigenous cloth, native fibers
- Collectors, curators and cultural appreciators
- Textile and fashion designers
- Weavers, embroiderers, dyers and collectors
- Photographers and artists who want inspiration
- Anyone who loves cloth, culture and collaboration
Full Registration Policies, Procedures and Cancellations– Please READ
Reservations and Cancellations. A 40% deposit is required to guarantee your spot. The balance is due in two equal payments. The second payment of 30% of the total is due on or before September 15, 2020. The third 30% payment is due on or before November 15, 2020. We accept payment using online e-commerce only. We will send you an itemized invoice when you tell us you are ready to register. After November 15, 2020, there are no refunds. If you cancel on or before November 15, 2020, we will refund 50% of your deposit received to date. After that, there are no refunds.
We will send you an itemized invoice when you tell us you are ready to register. After November 15, 2020, there are no refunds.
Required–Travel Health/Accident Insurance: We require that you carry international accident/health insurance that includes $50,000+ of emergency medical evacuation insurance. Proof of insurance must be sent at least 45 days before departure.
Be certain your passport has at least six months on it before it expires from the date you enter Mexico!
Plane Tickets, Arrivals/Departures: Please send us your plane schedule at least 45 days before the trip. This includes name of carrier, flight numbers, arrival and departure time to our destination.
All documentation for plane reservations, required travel insurance, and personal health issues must be received 45 days before the program start or we reserve the right to cancel your registration without reimbursement.
Terrain, Walking and Group Courtesy: We will do some walking and getting in/out of vans. If you have mobility issues or health/breathing impediments, please let us know before you register. This may not be the study tour for you.
Well-Being: If you have mobility issues or health impediments, please let us know. Our travel to remote villages will be by van on secondary roads with curves, usually not for more than two hours. When you tell us you are ready to register, we will send you a health questionnaire to complete. If you have walking or car dizziness issues, this may not be the trip for you.
Traveling with a small group has its advantages and also means that independent travelers will need to make accommodations to group needs and schedule. We include free time to go off on your own if you wish.
Note: Itinerary subject to schedule change and modification.
Video: Danza de los Diablos, African Roots in Mexico, El Tule Guelaguetza 2018
Danza de los Diablos is connected with the Afro-Mestizo history of Oaxaca’s Costa Chica, the Pacific coast region between Puerto Escondido and Acapulco, Guerrero. Now referred to as Mexico’s Third Root, people of African descent are an integral part of what it means to be Mexican, more than only the mix of Europeans and AmerIndians. With the conquest of Mexico, Spanish brought African slaves here in the 16th century to work sugar cane fields, mines and agriculture. Most were men and married indigenous women. Race and class was far more permeable in Mexico than in the United States.
Only recently have academics and cultural anthropologists begun to uncover and investigate the importance of African roots in Mexican culture.
Dressed as the devil with mask, horns and horsehair, African roots
The dance and its music, with its stomping and whirling, are said to symbolize the breaking from the repression of slave owners and the church. The woman in the dance represents the mixing of races. She carries a white doll. Traditionally, the dance is performed on November 1 during Day of the Dead.
White mask, dark skin, white baby, symbol of Afro-Mestizo roots
Oaxaca Costa Chica Textile Study Tour, January 11-21, 2019–Spaces Open
Behind the mask, a beautiful countenance
Today, the dance is a testimony to Oaxaca’s rich diversity and deepening respect for her roots.
One of the pleasures I have from writing this blog is the research I do to investigate the culture and history of Oaxaca and Mexico. When I was at the Costa Chica in the last two years, I became more aware of African slave roots as as I talked with cultural anthropologists and locals.
A First Person Commentary
About Afro-Mexicans
Much more has been written about the African experience on the Caribbean coast of Mexico, at the port of Veracruz and south. The Son Jarocho music of Mexico, Cuba and the Caribbean are rooted in Africa, as is the donkey jawbone and drum percussion instruments. There is still a lot to learn.
Like this:
4 Comments
Posted in Cultural Commentary, Oaxaca Mexico art and culture, Travel & Tourism, Workshops and Retreats
Tagged Afro-Mestizo, Costa Chica, danza de diablos, devil dance, Mexico, Oaxaca, textile study tour