This Oklahoma-based band tells it like it is through music. You will love the lyrics and the music! At least, I hope you do. During DT1, ex-pats gathered to hold a rally in downtown Oaxaca protesting the deportation of immigrants and the construction of a wall. The cost could have been used to feed the hungry, give immigrants access to education so they could secure the path to citizenship, and shore up our social justice commitments. Now, with DT2, we have more of the same. Prairie Rebels writes and performs — a voice I personally embrace.
They contacted me to ask permission to use the photo, and while I usually charge for rights to use, I waived this in gratitude for their messages.
Please watch and share. Thank you.
We are being taught to be afraid. Fear of speaking out, truth-telling, and calling out discriminationg are being met with punishment, retribution, and threats of job loss. In 47s second term, it didn’t take but weeks to send us on an emotional roller coaster sewn with chaos and instability. We won’t stop speaking out — through voice and the written word.
Posted onMonday, December 23, 2024|Comments Off on Holiday Greetings! Best of the Best Oaxaca Photo Workshop
Sending you warmest greetings from sunny, sparkly Taos, New Mexico, where we are basking in high desert winter sunshine and 50 degrees (20 degrees above average). Perfect walking weather. Global warming? Definitely!
I’m getting ready to return to Oaxaca on December 30. I won’t be complaining about the mid-70’s there. I want to thank you for a spectacular year for Oaxaca Cultural Navigator (OCN). As I focus more and more on health and well-being, I am grateful to YOU, who read and follow and shop here. And, special gratitude for Eric Chavez Santiago and his wife Elsa Sanchez Diaz who are my OCN partners. They are managing so many of the details that I no longer have the bandwidth to concentrate on. They are a blessing to me. I’m also grateful to the many artists and artisans who we know. They contribute their family history, talent, and resourcefulness to what we do, and welcome our guests with open arms and kindness.
As we close out 2024, I want to share with you the Best of the Best Photos from our October Day of the Dead Photography Workshop in Teotitlan del Valle with Luvia Lazo. Luvia had a private session with each workshop participant, and they selected the three best photos they took during our three days together. Here they are:
A long time ago, I participated in a workshop that Norma organized. She brought professional photographers from the Duke University Center for Documentary Studies to Oaxaca to teach us about composition, lighting, tips, and tools for using the camera. This opportunity helped immensely to improve my approach to photography.
Over the years, I discovered the most important tool for me: Storytelling. There came a point in my career when I realized that as long as I could tell a story in a natural, honest, and sincere way, it would bring me more joy and create deeper empathy with the subjects I was portraying.
When I was invited to give this workshop, my challenge was to teach this lesson to the participants: How do we begin to see again without being influenced by everything we have learned from others? How do we start to discover our personal way of seeing the world through the lens of our cameras?
Teaching is an honor because it provides the opportunity to exchange ideas, learn, and share. During this workshop, I emphasized that we all have a story to tell and a unique way of seeing the world. The photographs that each participant took, reflected this, and I couldn’t be happier with the results.
Are you interested in our next Portrait and Street Photography Workshop in 2026 with Luvia?
Send an email and we will add you to our interested list.
Yesterday, Luvia Lazo, our instructor, scheduled an online review of photographs I had taken during our recent Day of the Dead Photography Workshop in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca. Everyone who participated sent Luvia a selection of what they considered to be their best 10-15 shots taken during the three days we were together. She arranged a personal session with each participant to talk about strengths and ways the photography could be improved upon.
During this time together, I focused on street photography, still life, and portraits. Luvia pointed out that she felt my strongest work captured people’s faces. I had taken these during arranged portrait sessions in local homes or when I stopped people on the street or in the market to ask permission to photograph them. She sifted through the 17 photos I had submitted for review and selected those she felt were the strongest — capturing light, shadow, emotion, telling a visual story.
Luivia’s comments were instructive. She said these captured natural moments, with the subjects looking at the photographer and not at the camera, how the shot was framed, perspective, composition, with shadows deep in the image. She recommended that each photograph provide enough information to keep the viewer’s attention. She called out those she didn’t like as much (I haven’t published them), telling me what could have made a difference and improved the shot — some were out of focus, others needed cropping, a few were overexposed, several were out of kilter and needed better framing.
It demonstrated that I need to pay attention to set up the shot and take my time. Morever, Luvia was a guest at Apple’s launch of the iPhone 16 in Cupertino — all expenses paid! (Yes, she is that famous.) They gave her a new phone as a gift. She showed me technical features on my iPhone 14 Pro Max that improved my picture-taking capabilities. Very, very helpful. Yes, I took all these using my iPhone!
We are considering offering this workshop in a longer format in 2025 or 2026, but not during the Day of the Dead. All types of cameras are welcome — from SmartPhone to DSLR to mirrorless! If this interests you, please email me to get on an interested list.
We met at Luvia’s photography studio at 9:30 a.m. Before that, most of us returned to the village market to take more pictures. The early morning light here is illuminating. The light plays with shadows and texture; there is so much to capture the eye. This is a daily market in Teotitlan del Valle, one of the few remaining here in indigenous culture. During Dia de los Muertos, as families buy flowers, bread, chocolate, fruit, candles to decorate graves and home altars, the market is even more resplendent.
At the studio, we send photos to Luvia’s computer and then have a look-see with a discussion about each of our works taken the day before and this morning. We were frantically editing the ones from this morning to get these ready to send. We talked about composition, cropping, lighting, finding the details, getting closer to our subjects than many of us are comfortable with. It’s an exercise in asking permission to photograph and then stepping into a space that is tighter than usual.
We began to see our world differently and with more definition.
We especially enjoyed our visit to the home of Luvia’s grandmother. She is age 78. Many women age faster here, especially the older generation who have borne and raised many children, and did everything by hand including: shucking corn from the cob, washing laundry and dishes, carrying water, preparing meals three times a day, and feeding the farm animals — chickens, goats, turkeys, cows. Each morning they walked to the market and home again throughout their lives where the daily social contact there was so important. Many ducked into the local convenience store to sip mezcal together and catch up on gossip.
Then it was home again to do everything necessary to keep an extended-family household going.
We were so happy this workshop fit into Luvia’s schedule. Her work has been featured in The New Yorker and Vogue magazines, and she has had exhibitions in the USA and Europe. Fujifilm and Leica awarded her grants as a rising star, and she will be going to New York to participate in an arts residency in 2025. Both Luvia and I agree: we do not want to hold workshops during Day of the Dead — November 1 and November 2. We want this to be quiet time with our families to reflect on meaning, loss, life and death, and to remember our loved ones.
Here are some of the photos I took that day in the market and with Luvia’s grandmother:
And here is my Day Of the Dead Altar to remember my parents. I call it my Memory Altar. It looks very much the same year after year, which is very reassuring.
On the second day of our photography workshop in Teotitlan del Valle, our instructor, Luvia Lazo Gutierrez, made appointments with families to visit them in their homes. This was an incredible exercise to capture a more intimate view of village life and to understand the technical aspects of light, shadow, distance, and perspective. Luvia, whose work is featured in The New Yorker magazine, Vogue magazine, and represented in U.S. galleries, made suggestions for ways to best focus on portrait elements. In addition, we took turns photographing each other, which was very fun.
We visited two weaving families and a practice session for the new Dance of the Feathers group. Luvia asked us to look at subjects differently — to move close up with our feet rather than using the zoom feature, to focus on elements such as hands and feet or a particular section of the body. We challenged ourselves to be more conceptual rather than literal. It was an excellent learning experience.
Since it’s Halloween today, I want to make an important distinction between this tradition rooted in Catholicism, and Day of the Dead which is rooted in pre-Hispanic indigenous tradition. Day of the Dead is NOT Halloween. It is an important ritual to remember, respect, and honor those we love who have passed before us. It is quiet, reflective, introspective, and reverent. We sit at gravesites cleaned and decorated with fresh flowers, fruit, vegetables, drinks that loved ones preferred, talk to them, and feel their presence even though they are gone from us.
Visitors have brought the film Coco to Oaxaca, with face painting, revelry, and little understanding of indigenous culture. Day of the Dead is NOT this.
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.
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We organize private travel + tours for museums, arts, organizations, collectors + appreciators.
Creating Connectionand 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.
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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January 8-15, 2026: Oaxaca Textiles, Craft + Culture Tour Plus Workshops with Taos Wools. Participate in weaving, natural dyeing workshops, and hand-spinning experience. Explore the Tlacolula Market, meet artisans, immerse yourself in Zapotec culture and history. In collaboration with Taos Wools.
January 22-February 2, 2026:Guatemala, Here We Come. A cultural immersion tour into the textiles and folk art of Mayan people. Off-the-Beaten-Path. Adventure travel. Into the rainforest. Indigo dye workshop and MORE!
March 3-11, 2026: Chiapas Textile Study Tour: Deep Into the Maya World. Based in San Cristobal de las Casas, we introduce you to some of the best weavers in the region, into off-the-beaten-path remote villages where culture and tradition remain strong.
Oaxaca Coast Textile Study Tour -- January 2026
Michoacan Monarch Buttterflies, Folk Art + Textiles -- Early February 2026
Oaxaca has the largest and most diverse textile culture in Mexico! Learn about it.
When you visit Oaxaca immerse yourself in our textile culture: How is indigenous clothing made, what is the best value, most economical, finest available. Suitable for adults only. Set your own dates.
One-Day Tours: Schedule When YOU Want to Go!
Ruta del Mezcal One-Day Tour.We start the day with a pottery master and then have lunch with a traditional Oaxaca Cook, who is the mole-making expert. In Mitla, we meet with our favorite flying shuttle loom weaver, and then finish off with a mezcal tasting at a palenque you may NEVER find on your own! Schedule at your convenience!
Teotitlan del Valle Map with select rug weavers, restaurants, village attractions
Tlacolula Market Map -- where to find food, shopping, ATMs, and more
Our Favorite Things to Do in Oaxaca -- eating, shopping, gallery hopping + more
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