Like a writer, a photojournalist captures and tells a story through the still photographs s/he takes that is accompanied by a short written narrative. Oaxaca, Mexico, during the extraordinary and magical Christmas season will be our workshop laboratory to discover and record the scenes of the season– Las Cuevitas and Day of the Three Kings (Epiphany).
Las Cuevitas–The Caves and Dia de los Tres Reyes–Day of the Three Kings, arrive December 31 and depart January 7
Plus add-on a Zapotec cooking class with Reyna Mendoza Ruiz on December 31 [arrive December 30] or on January 7 [depart January 8] – details below
Bring your digital camera (point-and-shoot or DSLRs welcome), your memory cards, your note pad and pen, your imagination and your sense of adventure. We will teach you the techniques for capturing and documenting the culture with your camera and writing about what you see to accompany your photos.
The Christmas holidays in Oaxaca are magical and mystical, vibrant and festive. They are filled with processions, special foods, merrymaking and solemnity. Together, we will discuss the region’s rich history and culture, the art and craft traditions, belief systems and relationships to nature and daily life. We will visit archeological sites and crafts villages. This will inform your photographic work that is anchored with diary entries.
Outline of Itinerary:
December 31 — Arrive in Oaxaca and travel from airport to Teotitlan del Valle, check in to bed and breakfast inn. (If you want to take a cooking class today, arrive on December 30.)
January 1 — Our workshop starts with a morning learning session followed by a day trip to the local Tlacolula regional tianguis (market) filled with food, aprons, household goods, crafts, everything and the kitchen sink. All day excursion on local bus includes lunch.
January 2 — Morning learning session followed by lunch with a famous weaving family and a procession to Las Cuevitas, the magical caves of Teotitlan del Valle (bring tripods for night photography if you wish)
January 3 — leave in early morning for a day in craft villages of Arrazola and Atzompa, with visit to renown Mesoamerican archeological site of Monte Alban. Following dinner in the city, return to Teotitlan del Valle.
January 4 — Morning learning session followed by weaving and natural dyeing demonstration with Master weaver Federico Chavez Sosa.
January 5 — After morning learning session, enjoy a demonstration with artisans who work in natural dyes and handspun and woven silk. Spend the afternoon with a family celebrating Dia de Los Tres Reyes.
January 6 — After morning learning session, spend the day on your own to explore, shop or prepare for the evening final presentation and best of week show.
January 7 — Depart or stay an extra day for a cooking class in traditional Oaxacan foods including how to prepare mole [also available on December 31 before the workshop begins]
June Finfer, photographer, filmmaker, playwright
June Finfer, Chicago playwright, documentarian, and photographer will lead you in this learning adventure where you will enter into the world of the Mixtec and Zapotec people. June will share her tips on using your camera to capture the decisive moment, and her writing experience on how to keep a diary of your experience. You will in effect be a photojournalist.
Use what you learn to become a photojournalist
The Internet has created many opportunities for amateurs to contribute to the art of photojournalism. Small, portable cameras give each of us the personal power to create stories through images that are publishable on blogs, podcasts and online news magazines.
Even traditional media outlets welcome photographs from amateurs who capture an important event with fair and accurate representation.
We will discuss ethical approaches to objectivity, the role of the citizen journalist, what to shoot, how to frame, and how to edit.
You can focus in-depth on a subject or a wide survey. You will build a portfolio of photographs and narration based on these important rituals that combine pre-Hispanic and Catholic traditions. Using the techniques of photojournalism, you will be able to record the visual elements of the celebrations while learning about their significance.
About Your Workshop Leader June Finfer
JUNE FINFER is an award-winning playwright, photographer, and a producer of documentaries. She studied photography at Illinois Institute of Technology with Aaron Siskind and her films about the architecture of Mies van der Rohe have been broadcast on A&E and PBS. Her play, The Glass House, was produced off-Broadway in New York in 2010. She adapted an unfinished novel by Shirley Jackson, directed by Joanne Woodward for American Playhouse, nationally broadcast by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
June’s films include Greentowns USA: A New Deal, Earthshapers, Creating Community: Lafayette Park, and The Tugendhat House: Mies van der Rohe’s Czech Masterpiece. Awards and Grants include: American Film Festival, first prize CINE Goethe-Institute Graham Foundation for Advanced Study in the Fine Arts, Illinois Arts Council, Illinois Humanities Council, Maryland Humanities Council, Ohio Humanities Council, TELLY U.S. International Film and Video Festival. See details at www.lostandfoundproductions.org
Lodging and Costs:
We will be based in the Zapotec weaving village of Teotitlan del Valle. To keep this program affordable, we have selected clean and basic accommodations at a woman-operated bed and breakfast inn that is part of their family compound. Josefina, along with her mother-in-law Magdalena and daughter Eloisa, prepare delicious meals from scratch. (If you desire luxury travel, please consider a different experience.)
Base Cost: $1195 per person double occupancy with shared bath facilities. 6 nights, 7 days.
[ ] Option 1: I will share a room, double occupancy with shared bath, $1195 per person.
[ ] Option 2: I prefer a single room with shared bath for a total of $1,295 per person.
[ ] Option 3: I will share a room, double occupancy, with private bath for a total of $1,295 per person.
[ ] Option 4: I prefer a single room with private bath for a total of $1,495.
[ ] Option 5: Add-on a 5-hour Zapotec cooking class, includes local market shopping tour and lunch, on December 31 (arrive on December 30) or January 7 (depart on January 8). Add $110 for cooking class and additional night lodging.
If you want to arrive earlier or stay later, we can arrange additional nights lodging in Teotitlan del Valle at $55 per night and additional nights lodging in Oaxaca city at $125 per night (each includes breakfast).
Most travel workshops of this type and length cost more than twice as much!
The trip does NOT include airfare, taxes, gratuities, travel insurance, liquor or alcoholic beverages, some meals, and local transportation to and from Oaxaca city.
We reserve the right to substitute instructors and alter the program as needed.
Register Today! Use the Registration Form on the banner.
Full payment is due to register you for the program. We prefer Payment with PayPal.
Please see our cancellation policy in the “Register Today” section of the home page. We strongly recommend that you take out trip cancellation, baggage, emergency evacuation and medical insurance before you begin your trip, since unforeseen circumstances are possible.
To get your questions answered and to register, contact: normahawthorne@mac.com or call (919) 274-6194. Thank you.
This program is produced by Norma Hawthorne, Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC.
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Christmas in Oaxaca: Teotitlan del Valle Posadas
For nine days and nights leading up to Christmas eve, the Zapotec village of Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico recreates the journey of Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem. Each night they sleep on the road, which means they arrive at the home of a host family who welcomes them to their courtyard, then altar room, filled with copal incense and prayers.
There is a huge feast for invited guests: tamales, roasted beef or pork, homemade tortillas, wild turkey called guacalote. I can smell the charcoal cook fires from a distance.
The villagers gather at the front gate. Hosts distribute tamales and atole (women have been cooking for days), men sip beer and mezcal, children blow whistles. The celebration is grand, festive. Then, at around 6:30 p.m. the procession leaves the host home and passes through the streets of village, up hills, through narrow alleyways, from one side to the other, until they come to the home of the next night’s host family and the celebration continues.
It is both solemn and celebratory. Women, men and children are selected by each host family to do the honors of leading the procession and light the way with handmade beeswax candles decorated with beeswax flowers, birds, and glittering pendants. Followers cover their heads in scarves as if in church.
The men who handle the fireworks and shooting rockets are out in front to guide the way with sight and sound. From all corners of the village we can hear them until late at night, and then again in the morning as a wake up call. I arise at six to the blast of a rocket. Behind the fireworks are the altar boys carrying crosses, then four young women carry the palanquin of Mary and Joseph.
On this night, our procession must have picked up more than 300 people along the way as the route passed through every corner of the village and ended at a home not more than two blocks from the one we had left.
Up hill and down, across cobbled streets, we picked our, way careful of potholes and uneven stones and construction materials. The streets were swept clean and watered so there would be no dust for us. We must have walked three miles at a steady shuffle.
Those who didn’t process waited in doorways. The older people who had difficulty walking made it part of the way and then dropped off, as did the parents carrying sleeping babes on their shoulders, and holding toddlers by their hands.
On the night of December 24, the baby Jesus appears in the altar room of the host family for La Ultima Posada — the last procession. This is the biggest party of them all and it will continue through the night and into the morning.
Visitors are welcome to join the procession. You can spend the night at Las Granadas B&B or at Casa Elena, both excellent establishments. You can start out having comida at Las Granadas prepared by Josefina and then end the night with a glass of wine or a cup of mezcal!
A Word About Night Photography
It is difficult! In the ideal world, one would use a tripod to hold the camera steady, avoid flash, use manual settings on your camera to manipulate the shutter speed, aperture, and film speed/ISO. That means constantly changing settings for various lighting situations. In very dark situations, like during this posada on streets barely illuminated, one gets a golden glow. I also turned off the automatic focus setting on my camera and lens and used manual focus. The lens has a hard time reading light and will not focus otherwise. With my bad eyes and very low light, that meant guessing, which is why many of my photos were blurry. Those you see here have a warm, golden glow typical of low light, night photography using a hand-held camera. I was able to adjust some of the photos using Lightroom photo editing software. We teach all this in our Oaxaca Cultural Navigator photography workshops. We learn about the camera and immerse ourselves in the indigenous culture, too.
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Posted in Cultural Commentary, Oaxaca Mexico art and culture, Photography, Teotitlan del Valle, Travel & Tourism, Workshops and Retreats
Tagged Christmas, culture, Mexico, night, Oaxaca, photography, Posadas, processions, traditions