Mixelandia

Irma invited us to visit her family in a Mixe village, 7 hours southeast of Oaxaca. The Mixes are one of the largest ethnic groups in Oaxaca.





















Irma lives in Oaxaca city but yearns to go back to her native soil. Irma came from a poor farming family who couldn't support her. She was told to go to the city as a young girl to work as a servant.






















Marvelling at her father's chili harvest






















Arriving at the corn and chili field



































Susanna and Irma





















Irma's family was exiled from their ancestral lands for being evangelical protestants in a Catholic land. Villagers congregate at the evangelical church next to Irma's house.




















Outside Irma's kitchen
















Arlo and Talia goofing in the car

Irma and her sister prepared chicken soup for us

Irma's kitchen

The girls giving Irma a hand in the kitchen with her daughter

Hands in the masa

The tortilla press

A sacred mountain on the horizon

Irma's father constructing a house for a neighbor. The shared experience of the exile from their original village has made for a very close community.

Puppies found in a roadside garbage bag

Our neighbor Myra had been walking down the piece of road we liked to call Dead Dog Alley for all the stiff and stinking dead dogs discarded there. After a few days in the sun, people often threw lime on them. On this occasion, Myra saw a garbage bag squirming. Inside were 5 week old pups, soon to be the next casualties on dead dog alley. She ran to our house, knowing we were the neighborhood softies for homeless critters and perhaps among the few that could afford to buy dog food.

The kids begged and we took them in. They were too young for food; they had to be bottle fed. 5 times a night! I left to do some work in Chiapas but I hear it was ugly in there. Our friend and spanish teacher, Merecedes came and lent a hand. Tyler went nearly nuts - it made double breast feeding seem like a walk in the park. She found an animal rights activists to take them in, temporarily. When Tyler found a permanent home for the pups with a vet, the activist asked the vet's name, which Tyler innocently divulged. She's a dog killer, the woman barked. And Tyler had to find them a new home.