Cutting Comedy: Passover Greetings from Jared and Ivanka (Not Really)
This is Norma speaking: Tonight is the first night of Passover. We will all be praying, regardless of our beliefs, for liberation from this on-going affliction we call coronavirus. A dear friend in Philadelphia (I know her from Oaxaca) writes comedy. She doesn’t publish it, except to send her pieces out periodically to friends and […]
An Immigrant to Mexico, Not an Ex-Pat
This year, I will live in North Carolina for only a few weeks. I will be here to vote. That is mostly why I bought my apartment condo in Downtown Durham, though you could say I could vote absentee ballot. But to do that, you need a permanent address. A post office box will not […]
Oaxaca #DAYOFDINNERS Raises Funds for MALDEF
Twenty-two Oaxaca, Mexico, residents and visitors came together yesterday in Teotitlan del Valle to share food and community, think and talk about injustice, what being “the other” means, our vision of hope for the future, and what divides us and brings us together as human beings. The #DAYOFDINNERS was organized in the United States as […]
Being a Oaxaca Host: Lessons for People and Nations
My friend Debbie from North Carolina came to visit me in Oaxaca this week. It was a fast three nights and two-and-a-half days. We packed a lot in as the news of the world was (and continues to) unfolding, raging, tangling itself up around us. I wanted to show her my world here. Archeological sites. […]
From Oaxaca, Mexico: Feliz Fiestas y Navidad, Merry Holidays, Chag Sameach
Wishing you all the blessings of peace, contentment, safety and good health at this joyous time of year when we think of renewal, looking beyond the Winter Solstice as the earth turns, the days grow longer and all is well in the land. We are dormant now. Slower. More thoughtful, perhaps. In ancient cultures our […]
For All the Bad Hombres and Nasty Women: An Essay on Voting
Yesterday was opening day for early voting in North Carolina, where I live when I’m not in Oaxaca. The top priority for being here now was to change my voter registration to my new legal name of Norma Lee Schafer and to vote in this presidential election. I drove to Graham, North Carolina, the Alamance […]
Que Supresa! Oaxaca in San Diego, California
As I drive south from my son’s home in Huntington Beach, California, on my way to visit Barbara and David, and dear friend Merry Foss in San Diego, I marvel at how the landscape looks like Mexico, how the climate feels like Mexico. Except there is development everywhere, new houses, shopping centers, freeway congestion. Infrastructure. […]
Clothing Matters: Dress and Identity in Oaxaca
In planning for a visit to India in November 2016 and on the recommendation of a friend, I ordered a copy of Emma Tarlo’s book, Clothing Matters: Dress and Identity in India. What strikes me are the similarities between Mexico and India and the politics of cloth as a statement of belonging, assimilation and independence. […]
At the Dolores Olmedo Museum: Pablo O’Higgins Prints
The entire Frida Kahlo permanent exhibition of paintings at the Dolores Olmedo Patiño Museum in Mexico City is on loan to the Faberge Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, until April 30. We discovered this last Sunday as we made our afternoon visit as part of the Looking for Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera Art History […]
2016 Summer-Fall: Looking for Frida Kahlo + Diego Rivera–Mexico City Art History Study Tour
Come to Mexico City to explore the lives of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera through their art. This is in-depth art history education at its best! We offer you a narrated cultural immersion that you can miss if you visit on your own. Our expert guide is a bi-lingual Mexican art historian! Come solo, with […]
Book Preview–Milpa: From Seed to Salsa, Oaxaca Food, Recipes, Sustainability
When I visited photographer Judith Cooper Haden in her Santa Fe home recently, she showed me the final proofs for Milpa: From Seed to Salsa, Ancient Ingredients for a Sustainable Future. The book explores the Mesoamerican way of growing, cooking and eating food. The photography is stunning! Four years in the making, the book is […]
Artist Salvador Dali at Port Lligat, Girona, Spain
Port Lligat on Spain’s Costa Brava, is a niche in the rock wall coast line of the Mediterranean Sea, just around the bend from Cadaques. This tiny fishing village is where surrealist artist Salvador Dali lived and painted for most of his adult life. We ended up here more or less by accident, since we had […]
Forgotten Murals of Abelardo Rodriguez Market, Mexico City
The fresco murals painted by Diego Rivera‘s disciples on the walls of the Abelardo Rodriguez Market in Mexico City are a historic art treasure at risk. Most on the first floor are deteriorating, peeling, fading, etched by attempts of graffiti at knife point, hidden by stalls, storage areas and obscured by dust. Yet, they are […]
Tonina, Hidden Chiapas Archeology Gem: The Road Less Traveled
Few people make Tonina, the classic Maya archeological site just beyond Ocosingo, Chiapas, a travel destination. Instead, they choose to go between San Cristobal de Las Casas and Palenque directly, bypassing the most vertical site of the ancient Maya world. It’s another three hours by road to reach Palenque, which demands at least one overnight […]
The Journey Begins: San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico
Most of our Penland School of Crafts travelers continued on with me from Oaxaca to explore Chiapas. Our journey began at the ADO bus station where we boarded an overnight luxury bus called the Platino with twenty-five reclining seats, leaving at 8:30 p.m. and arriving in San Cristobal de Las Casas at 7:30 a.m. the […]
In Mexico City: Looking for Diego Rivera
Frida Kahlo, iconic painter, called him The Frog and married him twice. They count her as his third and fourth wife. We know Diego Rivera as a communist, socialist, painter, bad boy of 1930’s Mexico who snubbed Nelson Rockefeller by refusing to eliminate Lenin’s portrait from the infamous Rockefeller Center mural. Fired and his mural […]
Madrid, Morocco and Mexico: Conquest, Empire, Power and Religion
Madrid was my gateway city to and from Morocco. I planned two full days there on the way back for arts immersion. (It wasn’t enough time!) What was quickly revealed were the inextricable links between Spain, Mexico and the Americas, and North Africa. This last stop on my journey tied it all together. Our histories […]