Bye-bye Oaxaca!

Wonky WiFi

I've been getting spotty internet access the last two days and I left my camera's USB cable at home, so there will be a slight pause in posting until I resolve both of these issues. But the institute officially kicked off last night with a reception that included some delicious local foods, many made by our institute's director and hosts, and a wonderfully sleep-inducing mezcal drink. We had opening lectures today and will be traveling tomorrow to both Monte Alban and Mitla with Professor Spores, an authority on Mesoamerican archaeology. As soon as I get reliable access -- I'm typing this up on my iPod -- I'll post photos.

Hasta pronto and stay in touch on FB!

Primera dia

What I Did: Planned to shop locally at the markets but ended up at a supermercado. Bought some basic foodstuffs and minimal utensils for the apartment. Will be a more thoughtful shopper tomorrow. Channeling Scarlett O'Hara, but I'm dead tired from yesterday's trip.

Where I Ate:La Olla for a huge breakfast of eggs over easy, chorizo, pan tostado, frijoles, nopal (cactus), a 7-fruit juice, and the best coffee in Oaxaca. (Forgot to take photos until I'd eaten it all. I'll do better tomorrow!) A small sandwich from Cafeteria La Principal for lunch. Lots of cacahuates.

Something I Learned: Not everyone loves futbol. I took a cab home from Soriano's supermarket, and the driver remarked that he finds watching it very boring and prefers to sing and play guitar in a local band. We had a nice conversation all in Spanish although I'm stumbling whenever I need to express complex ideas. But he said I spoke like an angel, so he has a warm place in my heart!

What I'm Thinking About: You need to have a pretty thick skin to be a photographer, especially if you're taking photos of local people. Before noon, I'd seen so many things that I thought would make great pictures but was reluctant to take out my camera. I mean, really, does the guy sweeping the sidewalk using a twig broom that's taller than he is really want to appear on my blog? I also saw a confirmation group of little kids all dressed in white, long chiffon dresses for the girls and mini tuxes for the boys, outside a church on the north perimeter of Parque El Llano and a funeral procession down Calle Porfirio Diaz that included many people on foot carrying white gladioli, calla lilies and Madonna lilies following the hearse, some singing very solemnly. But I will leave these scenes to your imagination.

And about texting, something I'd never done before this trip, all I can say is that the language of the tweet or text is just one step above grunting. R U gettin' me?

A trip without drama would be like . . . .

My experience with flying has taught me for every good trip you pay with a bad one. Today's fight to Oaxaca follows a relaxing, stress-free flight to Rome this winter. Although it didn't match the trip-from-hell from Alabama this past Christmas -- and, really, what could? -- it was, door-to-door, a 15-hour groan fest.

For some reason -- maybe the weather, but who knows-- flights out fo Mexico City were delayed this afternoon. The top photo, taken on the sly with my Mexitel cellphone, shows a group who had been waiting for hours to get to Villahermosa and been told that they couldn't get on a flight until tomorrow. Things got a little -- ahem -- out of hand, and the Policia Federal were called along with some private security. Most of the group was escorted away, some still screaming bloody murder as we boarded our only-two-hours-late flight to Oaxaca.

But I arrived along with my luggage this time and am staying in a small apartment that lacks charm but makes up for it in space and convenience. I plan to go to the markets tomorrow and stock up on supplies and maybe get a few things to make the space a little cheerier.

But for now, estoy muy cansada. Hasta manana!

Boorish behavior

(royalty free clip art image)



I dreamed last night that I was sitting for a final exam and nervously awaiting the proctor's cue to turn my sheet over and begin. Imagine my delight when I read that the essay topic was on Fordian production and Neoliberal Economic Models. What luck! I'd just finished doing all the reading for my trip to Oaxaca and had brushed up on these very topics. With a flourish of my Waterman fountain pen, I wrote my name and began to outline my thoughts when the proctor said, "Time's up!" I protested and began to cry, but it was no use. I had to turn in a blank sheet of paper and failed the class.

Not that I'm anxious or anything. However, I will admit that I haven't done much heavy reading since I dropped out of grad school for the fifth, and probably final, time ten years ago. So Terence Turner's reference to "Foucauldian critiques of representation and subjectivity" -- not to mention his allusions to Durkheim and Hegel -- had me digging out my undergraduate sociology texts. (Okay, I admit it. I read passages aloud to my dinner guests last night and had them snorting food through their nostrils. I can be un poco cretino sometimes.) But, seriously, I'm enjoying the challenge of the reading and note-taking so much that I'm flirting with the idea of grad school -- yet again.

I'm still set on taking no hard copies of the articles and relying on my Kindle while I'm in Mexico. To that end, I've jotted a few notes in my journal that I hope will help me in class discussions so that I'm not frantically squinting at the teeny-weeny PDF texts every time I need to find some bit of info. Now I just have to decide what to do with all that extra room in my suitcase!

Cineclub El Pochote

One of the places that I didn't get to visit last year and planned to check out this summer was the Cineclub El Pochote, one of the projects supported by the artist Francisco Toledo. (Toledo is also responsible for CaSa and the Instituto de Artes Graficas de Oaxaca, among others.) The Cineclub had an eclectic program of film, concentrating on children's movies and classics of Mexican cinema, but also independents and the offbeat. Last summer I remember they were showing a series with titles like Frankenstein meets the Vampire Zombie or something like that. The theater was architecturally interesting, built into an 18th Century aqueduct that brought water from San Felipe del Agua, and supposedly had a nice sculpture garden and pond out back. It looked like a lot of fun and was close to where I'll be staying this summer.

So I've been searching the 'net looking for the most recent schedule or the blog that they used to keep and couldn't find any information. Sadly, I just came across this notice: "Anuncia Francisco Toledo cierre de cineclub “El Pochote” tras 17 años." This feels like a big loss for Oaxaca. Although the notice states that there are plans to relocate the cineclub, I can't find any evidence that has happened as of now. I'll be curious to find out what the space is being used for and hope I'll be pleasantly surprised in July to discover that the cinema has been reopened somewhere in the city.

As May draws to a close, I'm still working my way through the readings for the NEH institute this summer. I don't plan to blog about what I've gleaned from the articles and will save all my scathingly brilliant insights for my colleagues in Oaxaca. Let's just say that my longstanding embrace of a purely Marxist analysis of material culture is going through a long overdue sea change, and my somewhat smug belief that I've been on the side of the angels is taking a bit of a beating. ;-)

CaSa

photo of Jan Hendrix sculpture via www.casanagustin.org.mx


Last summer, The Husband and I made our way up to the Centro des los Artes de San Agustin in San Agustin Etla to see the textile and ceramic exhibits. I was very struck by the retrospective of Mexico City artist Gustavo Perez and was delighted to see that he'll be working on a project with potters from San Bartolo Coyotepec, a village famous for its black pottery, and presenting the work at CaSa in early June.

Sadly I won't be there early enough to see it -- or two other shows, one of textiles and one of the installation artist, Jan Hendrix. I was happy to see on the NEH syllabus that we'll be visiting CaSa as part of our studies, and equally sorry to see that we would not be going to San Bartolo as a group. I hope this doesn't sound too whiny. I'm pretty good about other travel annoyances, and you'll rarely hear me complain about heat, bugs, bad food, peeing in a hole in the ground, or companions who are un poco desagradable . But I will bitch and moan about all the things I don't have time to see even as I deeply appreciate all the wonderful opportunities that travel brings. So I must learn to accept that there are inevitable trade-offs to make when you have a limited amount of time in a place with so many things to absorb.

In the meantime, I'll add San Bartolo to my ever-growing list of places to go in my free time!

Sports and Politics

I often travel overseas alone. This predilection started when I was in college and my Dad worked for Pan Am. I used to schedule all of my classes on Tues/Thurs so that I could take long weekend trips on our family's employee pass. Since this was just before airline deregulation in 1978, very few people flew anywhere as prices were high, so I almost always traveled alone.

I became very spoiled in the sense that I now prefer to travel alone and do what I want to do when I want to do it. Not many of my friends ever wanted to follow me to Yorkshire to visit the Bronte shrine in Haworth or out to Sussex to see Charleston Farmhouse, not to mention spend time in Venice visiting the Fortuny house. I am very lucky now to be married to someone who is happy to go wherever I want to go, so I still get the joy of planning and navigating all to myself with the pleasure of an amenable travel companion!

But the first trips were difficult for me. I used to be pathologically shy around strangers and only overwhelming curiosity (and hunger) got me interacting on my first trips to France and Italy. But I discovered early on that there are two things that almost everyone is interested in no matter where you travel: sports and politics. By learning a little bit about both, I found an easy entree into conversations with classmates, hotel maids, waiters, bus drivers, and the man on the street.

Outside the United States, soccer (futbol)is the sport that almost everyone has an opinion about whether they hate it or love it. Unlike the US -- where intellectuals often consider sports fanatacism beneath them -- undying love of the local soccer team crosses social, educational and economic boundaries in other countries. I can't think of a country I've visited that isn't crazy about soccer.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, beisbol is the second most popular sport, and in some countries -- Puerto Rico, Cuba and DR, for example -- it's more popular than soccer. Mexico in particular has Triple AAA affiliated teams sponsored by Major League Baseball (MLB) here in the US.

In Oaxaca, the AAA team is the Guerreros. In the early '90's, the Venezualan player Oscar Azocar played in Oaxaca before being called up by the Yankees and the Padres. Sadly, if you check the standings, Oaxaca is almost dead last in their division this year after being in first place in 2008. That could be a good thing if you want tickets, though, and their schedule shows them playing many home games in Eduardo Vasconcelos Stadium in July. I'm hoping that some of my NEH colleagues will be interested in attending a couple of these games!

For their Spanish language site, check out the Guerreros home page.

Glad I booked that flight!

(Images via www.tomzap.com)

From the moment you arrive at the Oaxaca airport, your senses are caressed by the colors, tastes and smells of a tropical paradise. And I'll be seeing it again in the summer. I'm glad already I booked my flight for July 1 for the same flights I took last summer on Aeromexico. I've been trolling Kayak for airfares and noticed that flights to Mexico are considerably higher now than they were last fall.

In the meantime, I'm off to Rome tomorrow night. Ciao amici! Comincio a studiare seriamente lo spagnolo il mese prossimo! Ciao, ciao!