Tag Archives: Las Granadas Bed and Breakfast

First Communion in Teotitlan del Valle

Yesterday, brothers Willibaldo and Eligio Bazan Ruiz celebrated their First Communion in the village of Teotitlan del Valle.  They are the sons of weaver Eligio Bazan Ruiz and Josefina Ruiz Vazquez who I wrote about earlier this week.  It is Josefina and her mother-in-law Magdalena who started Las Granadas Bed and Breakfast after we were the “first experiment.”

Here are the photos that my friend Roberta Christie took of the event. You will see the girl celebrants dressed in white, representing their purity.  The priest is based in the neighboring village of Tlacochahuaya and serves many of the surrounding community parishes.  The mass began at 8 a.m. barely after the sun began to warm the winter air.  This year there were over 100 celebrants.

As with all Teotitlan celebrations/fiestas, everything starts and ends with family and food.   The day before, Josefina and her sisters, cousins and mother began to prepare for two big meals (breakfast and comida) that would be shared after the communion with family, friends and godparents and B&B guests.  I can just imagine Magda at the comal making her delicious homemade tortillas.

In the photos and the video to follow, you will see the mounds of cooked goat meat that will be served as caldo (soup) and later in large 12-14″ tortillas.

Roberta captured the scenes of the ceremony in the square of the village church and the family greeting Willibaldo’s padrinos (sponsors) in their home altar room where all family milestones take place.  You’ll see the ritual of offering gifts first to God and then to the family.  Traditional gifts include a case of beer or a bottle of mescal, loaves of bread to be served with delicious hot chocolate or mole negro.  This tradition likely carries over from the time when tribute was paid to the Aztecs and local chieftains with atole, chocolate and maize.

Here is the video shot by Art Mayers that captures the preparations and the communion ceremony.  The languages you hear spoken are Zapotec and Spanish.

More about First Communion in Teotitlan del Valle:  Roberta observes that this celebration signifies confirming one’s faith and acceptance of the church doctrine.  She reports that Willi and Eligio both made their first confessions a week or so before the First Communion ceremony, and were pretty nervous in the days approaching the big event.  Typically, children age 12 or 13 participate in First Communion but it can happen any time.  Roberta noted that there was one adult participant at the ceremony.  One must reach the age of reason, whenever one becomes accountable for one’s sins, according to some.  One takes First Communion when one is ready to accept being part of a Christian faith community as an adult capable of reason and able to distinguish between “good and and bad” behavior.

Roberta adds that the padrinos or godparents, who are good friends or relatives and “sponsors” of the celebration, are present in the altar room with the family. They will be the ones “responsible” for the boys continuing practice as Catholics.  First everyone offers a toast and blessings to God at the family altar, with the male head of household presiding.  Because the boys’ father Eligio is deceased, their Grandfather Nesefaro stepped in to do the honors, along with mom, two grandmothers, aunts and uncles.  Then, everyone will gather around the large family dining room table that can seat twelve to sixteen people, pass the beverages, make toasts, and eat a hearty meal of spicy goat soup soaked up by Magda’s fresh tortillas.

For more information, use this link about Las Granadas Bed and Breakfast in Teotitlan del Valle.

Thanks to Roberta Christie and Art Mayers for photography and video, and to Roberta for adding her experience and editing to this post.

Share

Skip the Hotel and Be Our Experiment

“Skip the hotel and be our experiment.” That’s what my friend Annie Burns wrote to me after I took her up on her invitation to come visit her in Teotitlan del Valle.  “You and Stephen can be the first to stay with Josefina and Magda,” she said.

Annie has a heart as big as Mexico, probably as big as the world. Over the years she has supported women in the village by raising money in order to help them buy a loom or a spinning wheel that would provide a livelihood for them and their families.  Often, the women were single or abandoned by husbands who had gone north to work and never returned.  Sometimes, the money went toward building a composting toilet to improve quality of life.  This time, the situation was urgent.

Ana del Campo at Her Garden Gate

Annie’s friends, Josefina and Magda, had both lost their husbands during that year.  The daughter-in-law –- mother-in-law duo shared the same household as was tradition and were raising Josefina’s three young children together.  They were in mourning. Josefina was in her mid-30’s.  Her husband Eligio, a famed and accomplished weaver, had just died at age 38 from a rare cancer.  Magda’s husband, Eligio’s father, had succumbed just months before. The two women had no way to earn a living since the men were the household income earners.  Neither women were weavers but both were great cooks.

The Fiesta Plate--Christmas Tamales

Annie’s light bulb went on:  Why not start a bed and breakfast?  “Will you do it?” she asked me.   Sure, I said, not having a clue about what that would mean.   The only thing I knew about Teotitlan del Valle was that it was a textile and rug-weaving village.  Since I had learned to weave when I was a graduate student in San Francisco, and I had collected textiles all my life, I was eager for the experience of discovery.

Magda at the Chocolate Cauldron

We arrived a few days before Christmas.  Annie and the Teoti taxi-driver met us at the airport.  During the thirty minute drive, Annie prepared us:  only drink bottled water; only use plastic utensils and paper products until we have Western sanitation practices in place; yes, there is a flush toilet but don’t put paper in it.

When we pulled up in front of the tall aluminum doors and rapped, we were greeted warmly by Josefina, Magda, Eloisa, Willi, and young Eligio.     We later learned that Magda had given up her room and bed in order to house us.  Our nightstand was a kitchen chair.  Our closet was a rope strung wall-to-wall.  A lacy tablecloth was our privacy curtain to cover the door.

From Magda's Bedroom Window

I marveled at the miraculous meals that could be prepared in a simple dirt floor kitchen equipped with only a tiny three-burner stove and small refrigerator.  The papaya were huge, the squash young and tender, and the tamales melted in my mouth.

Then, I realized that Magda got down on her knees and ground her masa on a traditional metate in the courtyard.  She fueled her comal from wood she gathered in the campo just beyond the village.  We enjoyed fresh-made tortillas from that comal that she knelt by on the ground every day during our visit as if it were an altar, fanning the fire to just the right temperature, turning the tortillas with her thumb and forefinger.  I watched as Josefina learned to air-dry dishes and utensils at her outdoor sink, and prepare food with sanitized water.   Annie was ecstatic!  Lo and behold: We did not get sick.  We returned the next year without hesitation to celebrate Christmas and Eligio’s birthday, and after that for Eloisa’s quinciniera.  That was then.

Eligio and Willi on the Bus to Tlacolula with Papa Noel

This is now:  Eloisa grew up, went to culinary school, joined the women in the kitchen and got married.  Willi and Eligio are young men learning to weave like their father and participating in the village recycling education program.  Annie recruited Roberta to build a second-story onto the compound where Roberta would live. The bonus was that a new, large, modern kitchen was added to the patio level, along with real guest rooms and upgraded bathrooms.   The dirt patio got paved; kitchen compost fertilizes squash, chipil, and a kitchen garden.  The planters along the border are lush with full-grown cactus.  And the crowning glory is the new outdoor comal where Magda reigns over the preparing of daily homemade tortillas without having to squat.

Magda at the New Comal

Welcome to Las Granadas Bed and Breakfast.  It is amazing how dreams can unfold.

View From the Rooftop Patio, Las Granadas

Share

Three Documentary Videos Produced at 2010 Film Making Workshop

YouTube Channel  http://www.youtube.com/user/normahawthorne

Rescate Seda features the taller of Arte y Seda and the family of Aurora Contreras and Reynoldo Sosa, written and directed by filmmakers Sheri Brautigam and Pam Holland.  The interview was conducted in Spanish and translated to English subtitles.  The film, below, features the labor-intensive process of growing silkworms, cultivating the cocoons, spinning the silk and weaving it, then dyeing it with natural materials.

Pantaleon Ruiz Martinez: Pintor de Teotitlan del Valle was written and directed by filmmakers Laura Dunne and Eric Chavez Santiago.  The interview was conducted in Spanish and translated to English subtitles.  The film, below, features the oil paintings and weavings of Pantaleon who is a noted Oaxacan artist.

Magdalena’s Traditional Tortillas was written and directed by filmmakers Lauren Waits and Dara Stillman.  The interview was conducted in Zapotec and translated to English subtitles.  Magdalena is one of the owners of Las Granadas Bed and Breakfast in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca.

These three films were produced during the one week intensive documentary filmmaking workshop held in February 2010 in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca.  Participants were novice to intermediate level students taught by Erica Rothman, Nighlight Productions LLC, Durham, NC, and Jim Haverkamp, also of Durham, who teaches at the Duke University Center for Documentary Studies.  Executive Producer of the program is Norma Hawthorne, Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC.

Here is the photo album from the workshop:

http://picasaweb.google.com/10235250516489975217

Las Granadas Bed & Breakfast: An Interview with Josefina Ruiz Vazquez

Scenes of Las Granadas Bed & Breakfast, Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca

In 2005, our friend Annie Burns invited Stephen and I to visit her in Teotitlan del Valle, where she was now living permanently.  She told us about a young mother and mother-in-law who were at a loss to figure out how to provide income for themselves and their three children/grandchildren after their husbands had died earlier that year.  That is how we came to know Josefina Ruiz Vazquez and her mother-in-law Magdalena. Josefina’s husband and Magda’s son was a famous weaver (Eligio Bazan) who died suddenly of a rare form of cancer at age 38.  Annie said she was encouraging them to start a guesthouse and asked if we would be the first guests as an experiment to get the venture launched.  Of course, we said yes, and that is how Las Granadas Bed & Breakfast was born.

Now, four years later, the house at 2 de Abril is transformed into a garden paradise in large part through the effort of the two women and the help of Roberta Christie, a Florida State University administrator, who took early retirement and helped renovate the compound.  Lush bougainvilla, clean, basic rooms, and fruit-bearing pomegranate trees surround the outdoor kitchen where Magda now prepares her famous hot chocolate made from cacao beans she roasts herself.  During the early morning hours before breakfast, you can see Magda at the comal (outdoor wood fired clay griddle) preparing the fresh maize tortillas that she mixed earlier, turning them with her fingers.

Now, participants who enroll in the workshops and small group tours offered through Oaxaca Cultural Navigator: weaving, natural dyeing, oil painting, documentary filmmaking, enjoy a stay at Las Granadas as part of the package cost.

I asked Roberta to talk with Josefina about her life as an innkeeper.  Here is her response.

R:  What things do you enjoy most about operating a B&B in Teotitlan?

J:  I like everything about it.  I enjoy working in my own home and making sure that our guests enjoy their stay with us.  It is very interesting for me and my family to get to know people from other countries.

I especially enjoy cooking for our guests and am proud when they finish every bit of food on their plates.   They seem to especially enjoy the fresh fruit and fresh juice I serve at breakfast, and many say they have never tasted such good eggs — all from local chickens. Everyone enjoys the quesadillas straight from the comal.   I’m also pleased to serve vegetarians the things they want to eat.   Luckily I can get fresh vegetables every day at our market.

R:  How has Las Granadas made a difference in your life?

J:  With the income, our life has improved a lot.  I sleep better (laughs) because I feel confident that I will be able to support my family.

We’ve also been able to sell some tapetes (rugs) and bolsas (shoulder bags), and Magdalena has sold chocolate. This is also good for us and is very satisfying when people tell us how beautiful the rugs are and how delicious the chocolate is.

R:  What are your plans for the future?

J:  We are making improvements to the house and second level using some of the income from room rental.  I want to eventually put tile on the kitchen and patio-level rooms.  Poco a poco, Las Granadas will become even better and we hope even more people will come and enjoy their stay with us.

Contact:  www.lasagranadasoaxaca.com or email lasgranadasoaxaca@gmail.com