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Norma Writes for Selvedge Magazine Issues #89 + #109
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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 ie. hand weaving and natural dyeing. Create value and memories. Enjoy hands-on experiences. Make a difference.
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What is a Study Tour: Our programs are designed as learning experiences, and as such we talk with makers about how and why they create, what is meaningful to them in their designs, 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 and help artisans reach people who value them and their work.
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Why We Left, Expat Anthology: Norma’s Personal Essay
We Contribute Two Chapters!
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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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Designers, retailers, wholesalers, curators, universities and others come to us to develop artisan relationships, customized itineraries, study abroad programs, meetings and conferences. It's our pleasure to make arrangements.
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Select Clients *Abeja Boutique, Houston *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
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- WEAVE Podcast: Oaxaca Coast Textiles & Tour
- NY Times, Weavers Embrace Natural Dye Alternatives
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The Melting Pot: Miami to Mexico City
Airport Melting Pot
Yesterday was a LONG travel day, starting at 2:30 a.m. eastern time. As soon as I landed in Miami, I knew I was in the transition to Latin America. In the airport, Spanish is the dominant language both among travelers and service people. As an English speaker with a very rudimentary knowledge of Spanish, it is clear to me that it will be critical for future cross cultural communication in our world, we must become bilingual. I also began to notice in the airport melting pot that we are a country of beautiful, racially diverse peoples whose origins are from throughout the Caribbean. And, then, what do I find when I land in Mexico City? Krispy Kreme donuts and Starbucks coffee along the endless shopping mall promenade on the way to the connecting gate to Oaxaca. Now, why am I surprised that a Winston-Salem, North Carolina, company (almost in my back yard, so to speak) has implanted itself into Mexican food culture? In North Carolina we struggle with the integration of Latino immigrants, whether to accept academically talented yet undocumented students into our colleges and universities at resident tuition rates, and how far we will go legally (or not) to expel the “other” from our midst. On the other side of the border, Mexico struggles with the Americanization of its culture, the erosion of identity through the likes of Krispy Kreme and Starbucks, Dannon competing with Lala in the refrigerator case, ubiquitous television marketing a consumer lifestyle.
Going through “immigration” in Mexico City, I see the teenage brothers and sisters traveling in pairs, without their parents, entering the country of their cultural origin but not their birth, U.S. passport in hand. Intuitively I know what this is about: the parents, undocumented immigrants, sending their children who were born in the U.S. “home” to visit grandmother (abuela) and tio (uncle) and primos (cousins) to keep the family connection alive. I board the plane to Oaxaca and sit next to a beautiful 14 year old. She is traveling with her mother and sister. Her English is impeccable, yet she looks Zapotec. She says it is a language her grandfather speaks, but no one else in the family learned it. She was born in Fresno, California. They traveled by bus from Fresno to Tijuana, where they bought plane tickets to Oaxaca through Mexico City. This must be a path that many from Mexico who live on the west coast take and I realize that there are many layers to our culture in the U.S. – many ways of innovation and living that I am not aware of because I live in my own world.
Eric and my sister, Barbara, pick me up from the airport in Oaxaca, and I am now back in the land I call my other home. (I am almost 62 and wonder how long it will be that I can make this lengthy journey, and then I recall my aunt who has been traveling alone to India for over 30 years. She is now 90 and continues to make the trip–an admirable quality!)
Food Culture
We stop for dinner at El Porton before going on to Teotitlan. This is a new diner that looks a lot like Denny’s, but what a surprise! We had squash blossom soup and chicken flautas topped with mole, crema and avacado. It was as good as if we were in a 4-star restaurant and the bill was under $10 per person including drinks.
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Posted in Cultural Commentary, Mexican Immigration
Tagged culture, donuts, food, Mexican Immigration, North Carolina, Oaxaca food, travel