Groovies Converging, Waves Crashing

Groovies Converging, Waves Crashing

One is never too old to don drawstring pants and grow dreadlocks. We’re having to hold Talia back from growing her own. Among the nesting sea tortoises, the tattoo variety is astounding and some, troublingly ugly. Mazunte, Mexico. A fabulous place to take refuge from the swine flu. A place where no one gives a hoot about the swine flu and if they did, they’d chalk it up to a government conspiracy to get funds for upcoming elections. In that respect, Mazunte is hardly alone. Most people we talk to have a similar cynical view of the swine flu.

Argentine jewelry craftspeople are abundant. We met one couple – from whom we bought our second wedding rings, on the road for 8 years selling jewelry, now with baby. We’re doing our own beading sessions when the sun is too brutal for swimming. If you ever doubted that what the 60s got started wasn’t durable, come to Mazunte. It’s the summer of love for decades running. Which would be impossible without the cheap Mexican living, the tasty fish that the fishermen haul in and the internet cafes where hippees and bougies can stay plugged in.

With the water over 80 degrees, we’ve been spending hours (7 one day) in the ocean bobbing. The kids are ecstatic.

Teizcali School Closing Ceremony - Talia on stage

Talia was thrilled to get a boy part in the Mazateca dance at her school's closing bash. Each class presented a dance from one of Oaxaca's regions. Talia's teacher was from Huatla de Jimenez in the Mazateca. She was a fun-loving teacher - we'd often find the classroom littered with paper balls after either a school project or a paper ball fight. We were never sure. She led the class through a special project on the supernatural during which they watched horror flicks, presumably to detect the supernatural within, but the only thing we detected was that Talia began to spend the night in our bed again. The class had 8 kids and Talia grew very, very fond of them; Tyler described it as a cozy rabbit's warren, all nestled up to one another.
















Clara Elena, the teacher and Talia













































the cozy gang















Our friends, Lis and Humberto's daughter, Mariana





























Talia dancing the Mazateca step















getting ready for the stage















The last huddles before the performance

Happy mom and proud daughter

Tyler tapping and clogging

The zapateada dancers were treated to live music from the jarana class - classes were hold at the Perez house, a family of musicians forming Grupo Raices. The shoes had affordable taps - dozens of small nails driven into the heel.







































Requinto player extraordinaire, Tavo, playing the marimbel

Zapotec clarinet, rhinoceros beetles and a gene farm

at our favorite music joint, club babel



















this zapotec musician generally plays with a traditional marching wind band in his village but added wild jazzy variety to the cuban sones.





















early in the rainy season, these rhinoceros beetles or some such things fly and die everywhere. We were swatting away a swarm of them at a baseball game.

La Guelaguetza Popular

Oaxaca has 4 principal tourism spikes - one of them occurs for the Guelaguetza. The word guelaguetza is zapotec meaning a kind of reciprocal gift giving. Over the years, the guelaguetza has evolved from a record kept of labors provided to neighbors, to an offering to the gods of corn, to in modern day, a festival of indigenous dances. Anthropologists and savvy governments had a lot to do with boosting this last incarnation and turning it into a cash bonanza.

In 2006, the Guelaguetza Popular was born. The teachers' union organized from among its teacher and student bases, an alternative dance festival, one which would not feed corrupt government coffers, but which would return the Guelaguetza to its gift-giving roots. These photos are of this gorgeous, moving event. It was particularly fascinating for me (Daniel) to attend, because one of my projects while in Oaxaca was to write an article on the emergence of this alternative festival. It's entitled "Rescuing the Guelaguetza from the jaws of the tourism trade" and will soon appear in a book of essays on alternative tourism.














































The event was covered by an indigenous community radio station. The Mixe people are one of the largest ethnic groups in Oaxaca.


































It's a quite politicized event. His hat says death to URO, the standing governor.















The day prior to the Guelaguetza, there was a calenda, a procession, winding through city neighborhoods. The photos below are of this wild dance, lasting many hours in the blazing sun, in which on-lookers are plied with mezcal - part of the gift giving.





















































Tourists, likely in town for the "official" Guelaguetza, enjoying the amply provided mezcal.

From the Mixteca region

From the Oaxacan coast

From Huatla, in the Mazateca, birth place of Maria Sabina and her mushroom medicine.

Rejecting the privatization of education

The ubiquitous anarchists always participate in protest gatherings