Tlacolula Market Chickens by Janet Andrews*
Large orange feet and toe nails sticking straight up in the air – rows of them – pull me away from the other sights, sounds, and smells of the Tlacolula Market. The four toes of each foot are spread wide just like Beth instructed us to do with our toes in yoga this morning. Wouldn’t you know it, chickens just naturally spread their toes for stability and connectivity to the earth while I, at age 74, am just learning how important it is to be connected to the ground I walk on.
But why are the chicken’s feet so orange, I wonder? My guess is they are fed yellow corn, but it simply may be that the chickens produced for the United States market have their feet removed before I ever see them. My culture has a nasty habit of trying to sanitize and separate people from the frequently hard-to-take realities of life. Later, I learned that actually Oaxacans feed chickens a concentrated Marigold flower powder to enhance the color of their skin and egg yolks.
Looking down from the chicken’s feet I see they are lying on their backs on a table with their feet facing the aisle. So I am now staring into an empty body cavity that is clean of entrails. Again our yoga practice comes flying into my mind – “let go of your vagina as though it would fall from you to the ground.” Well, the chickens would get a high score for accomplishing that, although I doubt it was for the same purpose we have in yoga.
These Tlacolula chickens, like the ones I encounter at home, have their feathers cleanly plucked, leaving their skin speckled in shades of yellow, tan, and red. Peering into the body cavity I see red muscle, yellow fat, and white fascia, cartilage and bone. All combined, these images allow me to believe my Corpse Pose, Savasana, is a lot more relaxing than the chicken’s.
Market Chickens, photo by Janet Andrews
*Janet Andrews is from Tucson, Arizona, and participated in our 2013 Women’s Creative Writing and Yoga Retreat. She came with the intention of writing more about her family history, which she did. She also gave us this witty take on her experience at the Tlacolula Market.
I love Tlacolula. The colorful indigenous dress, women carrying babes to their breasts wrapped in shawls securely tied around their necks and midriffs, wheelbarrows filled with honey dripping from hives, pushcarts with piles of fresh strawberries and guayaba so ripe that the air is like breathing a smoothie. Men pull goats by coarse ropes. Old women cradle turkeys under their arms. Hawkers call out the daily specials at improvised street cafes where rotisserie chicken spins as diners eat at makeshift tables.
Sunday Tlacolula Market: Getting There, Being There
Every Sunday, with the exception of Easter, all the Teotitlan del Valle buses and collectivos go back and forth from the village to the tianguis at Tlacolula de Matamoros. If you want to get from Oaxaca City to Teotitlan on a Sunday, that’s a different story (see below).
The regional street market draws thousands of sellers and shoppers from throughout the Valles Centrales de Oaxaca. It is a confusion of blue and green tarps that cover probably ten square blocks of the town center, a protection from sun and rain. It is also a cacophony of stuff: farm tools, meats, vegetables, household staples, garden plants and tourist treasures.
I’ve been to this market enough times to recognize the regulars. Among my favorites are the sellers of brightly colored plastic woven baskets, embroidered aprons, and dried hibiscus flowers that I use to make agua de jamaica (ha-my-kah).
Vendors haul their goods wrapped in the plastic tarps they will use to cover their stalls. Most will use the public vehicles provided by their villages, all pointed to Tlacolula on Sunday.
It is wonderful to catch the bus at the corner of my street and join the pack. At 11 a.m. it’s hard to find a seat unless you get on at the village market origination point. Today, my traveling companion is my eight-year-old niece Ixcel Guadalupe, who we call Lupita. She is wearing her best Sunday-go-to-church-dress, adorned with the green felt flower we made together the day before.
Today, my shopping list is a pretty mundane: a bell for the front gate, a rope to hang it, a tightly woven bamboo basket with tray lid to adapt as a packing container for the gifts of mezcal bottles. I’m always open to whatever else may present itself.
I have in mind to get Lupe a smaller version of my shopping basket and perhaps a new apron. First, we come across a costumed Pancho Villa selling art posters of the revolutionary army. We look and move on.
What catches my eye is gorgeous black clay pottery that I recognize from the village of San Bartolo de Coyotepec. But, these pots are different, more authentically rustic, with lots of interesting variegation in the clay. My dad was a potter and I know pottery! I ask the vendor about them. As I suspected, he hand-makes these in the old waterproof style originally used for holding mezcal. Hand-polished. Beautiful. I bought a large one for 400 pesos (that’s about $32 USD). He invited me to come visit him. I extend the invitation to you:
Leopoldo Barranco, Calle Galiana #3, San Bartolo de Coyotepec. No phone. Leopoldo is home all day during the week, he says. A lovely man, definitely worth supporting this ancient craft. His pots are much more interesting, in my opinion, than the commercially produced pieces one sees all over town.
These tools (above) are all hand-forged. The picks are incredibly sharp. I bought two of the golden bells, and two stakes with rings that I am using to secure my roof-top laundry line.
By this time, I’m hauling the clay pot, the basket, the metal stakes, and bells. She is carrying two aprons in her little basket. I decide it’s easier and faster to take the Teotitlan collectivo back to the village. The collectivo station is behind the Tlacolula Zocalo. Turn right, then left. Or ask anyone!
When we get home at 4 p.m., we are greeted by a herd of grazing toros in the field next door. Now, it’s time to pack those bottles of mezcal!
Getting to Tlacolula from Teotitlan del Valle by bus: All the village buses go to Tlacolula on Sundays. They run about every 30 minutes starting early in the morning. Catch it either at the mercado or anywhere along Av. Benito Juarez. Cost is 7 pesos (under 10 cents) each way. Last bus leaving Tlacolula for Teotitlan is at 5 p.m.
The collectivos leave from the parking lot on Benito Juarez. They go when they are filled with five people — two in front (plus driver) and three in the back. Take the back seat if you get the chance. Much more comfortable. Cost is 5 pesos one way per person.
Getting to Teotitlan from Oaxaca on a Sunday: You can take a private taxi that will bring you right into town to your particular destination for 250 pesos. For 10 pesos, catch a bus at the baseball stadium headed toward Tlacolula or Mitla. Ask to get off at the Teotitlan crucero (crossroads). Take a collectivo, or bus or moto-taxi from the crossroads into town. Don’t pay more than 10 pesos for the moto! The bus will cost 7 pesos and the collectivo 5 pesos.
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Posted in Cultural Commentary, Pottery
Tagged black clay, bus, collectivo, market, Oaxaca, pottery, shopping, Sunday, Teotitlan del Valle, Tlacolula, transportation