update 2016

I saw a news report stating that the strongest teachers union in the world has blockaded all roads leading into Oaxaca, thus cutting off food supplies to the residents.  The government had to supply the citizens with food aide so Oaxacans don't starve to death.  I haven't been able to contact any of my friends there to verify the info..

Last day in Oaxaca

Tomorrow morning early we leave town just as the snowbirds fly in.  We are making our final purchases and eating our favorite foods before leaving.

Goodbye Leslie

Leslie left early this morning.  Yesterday she and I visited San Bartolo Coyotepec which is a pottery town.  The clay in this area produces a unique dark colored pottery known as Barro negro.  For 1000s of years, the pottery served utilitarian purpose, but the pieces became popular as collectables in the 1950s with the discovery of a new polishing technique. Once fired, Barro negro sports a dull gray color, but if the pottery is polished before placing it in the kiln, it comes out as shiny black. Barro negro is now known throughout the world and many use it now as a decorative pieces. 

And the price is right!

We had a heyday purchasing pottery and spent less than $20 total.  Arin and I had taken an expensive tour there earlier this year.  Leslie and I found a bus for 6 pesos.

Last night we had dinner at our friends Cameron and Jay's home.  Jay cooked delicious Indian food.  They have the nicest apartment we have seen in Oaxaca.  It looked much like home.  Most of the other homes here have barren walls and uncomfortable wooden furniture.

Arin and I have one week remaining in Oaxaca.  We are going to miss this place, but some of the things I will not miss are the crowds, the traffic, the sound of bus drivers yelling Cuarteles and Volcanes, each time one of those bus routes stops in front of my house, but especially not the constant barrage of bottle rockets released from churches during all hours of the day and night.

The ruins of Mitla

Leslie and I ventured out of town to Mitla which is another of the Zapotec historical sites.  We caught a bus in front of our place then transfered to a very nice greyhound type bus.  Lastly, we rode in a this motocar taxi.  While Monte' Alban is isolated, this is a tourist town where people live near the ruins.  The Zapotec building are composed of interesting tile designs.

We had a soup of yellow mole which has no relationship to the chocolate type moles.   I originaly thought that all moles were chocolate flavored, but there are actually several types. 

Somehow we were convinced to taste mezcal.  There were several types of sweet fruited mezcal including tamarind which seems to be the favorite flavor of Oaxacanos.  We didn't like those so much.  Leslie purchased a really cute touristy type bottle on which was tied a bamboo shot glass and a bag of worm salt

Miguel and Miguelito and Emilio, our tutoriong students

Arin and I are very busy with our teaching and tutoring.  I have two Miguels.  Miguel Spain is my 37 year old whom I am teaching English, although I learn just as much Spanish from him. We are trading English lessons  for cooking lessons.
Miguelito, which I call him so as to differentiate, is my 11 year old who attends Esperanza.   I am tutoring Miguelito in Spanish.  For the most part, he needs to read and then write a summary.   Luckily, I am very good at Spanish reading and spelling although not so good at speaking.

The Esperanza children are allowed on the computer to do math and have been using Mexican math websites. Today I  introduced American children's math websites in which you learn by playing games.  I received a big hug from Miguelito's friend over this, because the only math websites which they have been using at Esperanza are very dry.  Also today, Miguelito presented me with a Feliz Navidad card that he crafted.

Arin also has a student at Esperanza who speaks almost fluent English.  Once in awhile, Emilio's mother takes Arin on an excursion to the market or a festival with the family. Arin is getting a nice taste of the town and Emilio's family gets to practice English conversation.

Leslie and the vendadoras

I wish I would have had my camera today and photographed Leslie on the tourist street.  She was sandwiched between two vendadoras.  One woman was in front of her selling painted combs and painted wooded teaspoons while the other was behind her massaging her back and trying to sell her the massager. I was standing about 6 feet away laughing on the sidewalk.  There are so many cute little painted things to buy that it is hard to resist.

Leslie visits from the USA

Leslie has been here a couple days and we are having our adventures.  Today was the long-awaited cooking class.  I arranged an intercambio with Miguel (from Spain).  I am teaching him English and his friends are teaching me to cook.  Today Leslie and I were taught the secrets to chiles relleños. 

Noviembre Oaxaca Cultural 2014

Every month we have been here there is some type of festival.
July-Guela Guetzta
August -There must have been something...
September-Dia de Independencia
October-Dia de los Muertos
November -Revolution Day
                  -Noviembre Oaxaca Cultural 2014
November is a month of free musical concerts.  Musicians from around the world play in several venues around town.  Unfortunately I did not find out about these until Thursday, but since then I have seen a strings concert and a piano-horns concert in the Teatro Macedonaio Alcala.  I was glad to finally have the opportunity to see this theater.  It seats about 700 people on 5 levels.  There are about 250 floor seats and the remainder are all box seats.  This is one of many Mexico theaters built by, you guessed it, Portfirio Diaz.  He had a mistress who was a great singer so he had the taxpayers build theaters worthy of her performance. Here is a picture of me in one of the box seats

Recpies

Roasted salsa
Place grilled; onions, serrano peppers,  and garlic in the blender with water.  Finally, pulse grilled tomatoes two times.

Chillaquiles sauce
Soaked dried guajillo peppers in hot water.  Place grilled: onions, garlic and and about 10X more tomatoes in blender.  Remove peppers from water and blend, then pour through a sieve to remove pulp and seeds.  Note:  Be sure to remove all char marks from vegetables, including cafe colored marks on the garlic.

Chiles rellaños
12 chilies de agua  -medium sized bright green chilies
2 eggs
fruit vinegar

Roast chilies.  Place in plastic bag to cool.  Once cooled, peel and remove seeds.  Place chilies in fruit vinegar to clean.
Beat egg whites until peaks form.  Fold in a sprinkling of flour, and eggs yolks. Dip chilies in egg mixture.  Cook in oil.  While chilies cook on one side, splash oil on top side, then flip.

Revolution Day November 20th.

Revolution Day celebrates the removal from office of Portfirio Diaz.  He was elected President and refused to vacate the post for 30 years.  As usual in Oaxaca, the day is celebrated by parades. I saw one parade of little children today.  The boys were dressed in white outfits draped with rifles.  The girls are named Las Soldaderas.  Soldaderas were female fighters.


Porfirio Díaz, who ran Mexico for more years than any other president, was born in Oaxaca and was 18 years old when the Mexican-American War of 1848 started. He watched while the U.S. annexed about half of Mexico’s land as a result of winning that war. Mexico continued to fight foreign invasions and wars throughout the century. The last of the foreign occupiers were the French. The French had  installed an emperor and controlled the country throughout the 1860s.. Portfirio Díaz became a hero fighting against the French occupation, but he wasn't always successful. In 1863, the French captured and held him as a prisoner of war. However, he soon escaped and became a commander in Benito Juárez’s Central Army.
In this capacity, he led several victories against the French, including the very important Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Does this date sound familiar? Maybe if you hear it in Spanish, the date will sound familiar. This is the event which is celebrated on Cinco de Mayo each year. This battle was the turning point of the war for Mexico and for Portfirio Diaz. In that battle, Diaz became a war hero. He became so loved by many Mexican citizens who honored him by naming their streets and their babies after him.
Porfirio Díaz stayed loyal to Benito Juárez until the French were repelled and order was restored. However, his loyalty failed when Benito Juárez became President of Mexico in 1868. Soon after Juárez’s election, Díaz decided that he himself should be President, so he led a revolt against the Mexican president. The revolt failed, but Diaz and allowed to serve in Congress as a delegate from Veracruz. He persisted in his fight to gain control of the central government. And finally, in 1876, he was able to defeat the federal troops. He declared himself President of Mexico soon after.
Díaz’s original presidency lasted only one term (four years) from 1876 to 1880, and disappointed many who had considered him a hero. Almost immediately, people understood that his plan was to remain in power by the use of corruption and violence, especially against the poor. Instead of serving a second term, he made sure that the new president, elected in 1880, would be his puppet. Thus Manuel González continued the corruption and repression that was Díaz’s hallmark – so much so that Díaz was able to get re-elected in 1884 by a populace disgusted even more with González.
Díaz then served as president, uninterrupted, from 1884 to 1910, for a grand total of 30 years. The irony of the so-called Porfiriato, the time when Díaz was president, was that it represented 30 years of relative peace and stability in Mexico, including economic stability. But both the peace and the economic stability came at a price. Díaz wanted Mexico to emulate the sophistication of Europe – and to that end, he re-made Mexico City in the image of the great European cities, virtually eliminating the influence of indigenous culture. He surrounded himself with rich advisors, the científicos, who dominated Mexico as a privileged upper class. Díaz so dissociated himself from his own indigenous roots, and so admired Europeans, that he would sometimes paint his face to make it look whiter than it actually was.

Though Porfirio Diaz was so hatted that November 20 celebrates his removal, he remains popular in Oaxaca only because he is a native son. The name Portfirio remains popular a street name and a a  name for male children.

The Mexican Revolution sparked the Constitution of 1917 which provided for separation of Church and state, government ownership of the subsoil, holding of land by communal groups, the right of labor to organize and strike and many other aspirations.

Long awaited cooking lessons

I fit the description of a foodie, but since I cannot afford to eat every meal at a restaurant, I have to learn to cook myself. Hence, I have been searching for someone to teach me Mexican cooking.

Esperanza to the rescue!.  I was looking at the brochure and noticed volunteer opportunities in the kitchen so I presented myself to the cook, Juanita,  and she agreed to my assistance.  I perused the weekly menu to chose my recipes days.  I was very excited about today's menu item, Chipolte Salchita Lentils.  Much to my disappointment, salchita turned out to be hot dogs, but at least I was able to learn how to make the chilpolte sauce.  I also cut up 3 dozen bananas for Fried Bananas. I was aghast to discover they are deep fried in oil.  My grilled bananas recipe is much healthier and very tasty. If you want to try it, slice whole bananas lenthwise while maintaining the banana in the peel. Then grill the banana. Next, place a dollup of crema mexican and drizzle some maple syrup. Yum, yum!

Yet another cooking opportunity has presented itself.  I had posted at the Oaxaca Lending Library that I would trade cooking lessons for English lessons.  I received an inquiry email today.

Centro de Esperanza -another volunteer opportunity

Cameron ran a summer bridge class for elementary aged children and the International Bridge Association has continued to support his endeavor in hopes of a new world-wide bridge resurgence.  He is now giving lessons at Centro de Experanza Infantil A.C. which is a block from our apartment.
Arin and I visited the center today and are very impressed with their vision.  They find donors who will support a year of education for youngsters who otherwise would not be able to attend school.  The children come for breakfast then spend the day in school   After they eat lunch,  they return to the Zocolo to assist their parents in selling handicrafts which support the family.  The donors get a quarterly grade report.  If a child is not making the grade, they are required to attend tutoring sessions at the center.  This is where we come in.  I start Tuesday.

If you are interested in supporting a child, or volunteering, the website is www.oaxacastreetchldrengrassroots.org

A Cooking lesson on roasted salsa

I have been searching for someone to teach me about Mexican cooking. One of my coworkers, Adrianna, volunteered.  She drove me to an outdoor market near her home.  We purchased meat and salsa ingredients.  When purchasing the meat, tomatoes, onion and serrano peppers, you have an option to have them grilled on a BBQ.  After the grilling, we went to her place where we seeded the serranos and placed them in a blender with the onions, garlic and some water.  At the final, the tomatoes were added whole, then pulsed twice.  Now I know how to make roasted salsa.  Maybe I won't have to go to the buffet everyday.  Adrianna also showed me the best place to purchase cheese, tortillas and for the first time in Oaxaca I found fresh eggs.  The market vendors were referring to me as "La California."

Unfortunately my lessons were short-lived because her husband was hit by a drunk driver.  He is in the hospital but will be fine.  Oaxaca does not punish drunk drivers just as the USA had no punishment before MADD pushed for drinkers to take responsibility for their choices.   If you have forgotten those crazy days, I suggest you watch Dragnet which is an old black and white cop show from the 1960s which reenacts real crimes or Quincy which depicts the investigative techniques of a coroner.  In one Quimcy episode, a man purposely mows down an enemy with his car, then chugs a couple bottles of booze while waiting for the cops. You see, before MADD, being drunk precluded you from punishment because it "wasn't my fault". 

$2.80 Buffet

On Murguia street there are 3 buffet restaurants situated in a row.  They cost about $2.80.  I try to visit one of these each day to pig out and then only need a snack either for breakfast or lunch depending on which meal I chose to eat at the buffet.  The best part of the buffet is the unlimited fresh squeezed juice of orange, mango, some kind of green healthy drink, cantaloupe, beet, papaya, or guava.  Arin will sometimes join me if guava juice is present.  He loves that fruit.  It's hard to believe that one can eat an entire buffet for the price of one glass of juice made from concentrate in the states.

Dia de los Muertos traditonal bread

Our landlady hung skeletons on all our apartment doors and today she served pan de muertos and hot chocolate to all her guests.  The pan de muertos has the head of a doll baked in.

Visiting the cemetery for Dia de los Muertos

Our friend Daniel offered to take us around to some of the sites for Dia de los Muertos.  We visited a cemetery named Panteon General.  When we arrived at the locations, we first cruised through a tunnel of carnival games and food.  Daniel playing one of the ball throwing games and won a piece of candy.  He encouraged me to drink Ponche which is similar to mulled wine but is made with beer and fermented fruit.  Floating in the cup are pieces of apple and peach and small seeded fruits which I could not identify

. Inside the cemetery walls were hundreds of people, many of them with painted faces.  Daniel is paying his way through college working as a clown on the city buses.

Many of the graves or should I say tombs, were decorated with flowers of red cocks comb and orange marigolds.  One of the tombs was in disrepair and I asked Daniel the reason.  He told me that if the person buried there did not have a son or if the son did not get married and have children then there was no one to tend the family tomb.

Also built into the cemetery is a large amphitheater.  A famous Oaxacan actor was giving a performance.  On the walk home we observed in one building, a large family alter.  The family allowed us access and encouraged us to take photos. 

Dia de los muertos Day of the Dead

November 1st and 2nd are important dates in Mexico.  On these days, Mexicans honor their departed loved ones.  This usually entails a visit to the cemetery which may include a picnic and soft music.  Also, each family generally builds an altar which displays not only pictures of the departed but also contains foods and other items which the relative or friend enjoyed while living.  The theme of the celebrations is skeletons.  Skeletons hang from buildings and 3D pictures constructed with sand are designed around the skeleton theme.

Most interestingly, people paint their faces black and white to simulate skeletons.  Being raised with the American equivalent of Halloween, I am somewhat spooked by the skeletons, but the Mexican culture does not present them as frightening.  This is a perfect example of cultural influence.

All of these floor murals are constructed from sand.

Halloween at the our English school

There is a guideline in Mexico whereas in every English school at least 50% of the teachers must be native Mexicans.  We have some teachers from Canada, some from England and then most are from United States and Mexico.  The staff decided that we would sponsor a traditional Halloween party for the students.

I was in charge of the "Bobbing for Apples" game.  I thought that the kids would just come around to the games at their leisure, but that was not the case.  An audience sat in chairs and the barrel of apples was placed on the stage.  At that point, I had to convince three kids to come to the stage and see who could get the apples first.  Well, the children had never seen the game and would not put their heads under the water to retrieve the apples, plus, the apples were giant sized and much too large for their mouths.  Needless to say, the game took forever and I was expected to MC the whole thing in Spanish.  Luckily, there were only six kids at the party at that time, so I only had to do it twice.  Our  friend Bety had accompanied me to the party and she said that I didn't do too badly with my Spanish.  Bety and I also passed out candy to the kids when they came to each classroom in their costumes.  They were required to knock on the door and say,"Trick or Treat" in order to receive their candy.

There was one traditional Mexican competition in which the children write a calavera which are satirical mock obituaries about politicians, teachers and other people in power positions.  They poke fun at people and are used as a reminder that once we pass, we all end up in the same place.

Arin's first paycheck ever

Arin received a check for a whopping 120 pesos which may sound like a lot, but is only about 10 bucks.

Arin walks in a calenda (parade with mezcal)

Arin has been tutoring one of our summer school students, Daniel, and yesterday Daniel invited us to participate in a calenda sponsored by his college.  I had to work, but Arin walked the 3 miles in what he describes as a mobile party.  The calenda winds through the streets of town.  One person carries a giant paper globe with the name of the group and others might carry smaller decorations made from cellophane. You walk about 150 steps drinking mezcal, then the band starts playing and everybody stops to dance.  Another 150 steps and you repeat.  Of course traffic is halted while you snake through the streets of town and it took about 3 hours to go 3 miles.  He said that virtually every person has either a bottle, a shot glass, or a cup in their hand.   

Some of the calendas have choreographed dances with participants in traditional dress, but this calenda was just a drinking one.  Arin didn't take any pictures but as we say in Oaxaca, "If you miss the parade, wait 5 minutes and catch the next one."  I'll post a picture as soon as the next calenda marches by.


Update-I just ran out to the street because I thought I heard one, but it was another protest march instead.