When Hernando Cortes, the great conquistador, reached Oaxaca in southern Mexico in 1521, he saw a lush tropical valley, bright with jacarandas and bougainvillea, narrowly enclosed by majestic, ocher-colored mountains; and it all looked so pleasing to him that the Emperor Charles V, who knew how to take a hint, made him Marques del Valle de Oaxaca in 1528.
The great Zapotec and Mixtec temples, built over many centuries, are almost all gone now and a new city has grown over the ruins of the original fort. And while the usual modern inconveniences have encroached over the valley, it has retained most of its charm, and a visit to Oaxaca also offers many rewards to the lover of pre-Columbian art.
The particular charm of Oaxaca (pronounced wah-HAH-kah) comes from its juxtaposition of cultures. Although the Zapotec Indians shaped many of the sites between 500 B.C. and the 12th century, the Mixtecs, when they took control, were content to use, continue and sometimes even develop the earlier forms. When, in turn, the conquistadors moved in, they brought with them a specifically Spanish style, which the Indians melded with everything that had gone before.
Like other Mexican towns built by the Spaniards, modern Oaxaca is dominated by its zocalo, unquestionably one of the most alluring central squares in the country. There, arcades and flowering trees form the perfect background for the white Victorian lacework bandstand; and when, at nightfall, a band plays away in the midst of an admiring crowd, we understand just why Mexico keeps bringing us back again and again.
Right next to the square, a small plaza opens in front of an 18th-century cathedral with a graceful Baroque facade. Its neo-classical interior, however, is a disappointment: grand, but cold and stiff, with awkward proportions; the nave is too high for its length, and is whitewashed where ornaments would help to break the rigidity of the architectural lines.
A few blocks away, however, the fortress-like Church and Monastery of Santo Domingo offers one of the best examples of colonial architecture in Mexico. It, too, opens onto a plaza bordered with shops, full of the sort of weaving - shirts, dresses, shawls, blankets - for which the city is justly famous.
Begun in 1551, Santo Domingo was not completed until 1666. The time was well spent, however: simple and majestic outside, ornate and sumptuous inside, the church reflects the blend of old and new religions, the need seen everywhere in Mexico for majestic monuments, and - above all - the Mexicans' unchanging desire for glittering ornament.
The great golden space inside, under a vast barrel vault, must have looked much like paradise to 17th-century worshipers. The elaborately decorated white and gold interior, however, blends grandeur with immediacy and sophistication with naivete. Polychrome stucco saints enliven and interrupt the baroque ornamental patterns, especially complex in this church. Paintings are set into the vault at regular intervals, and their often darkened canvases provide touches of simplicity that rest the eye.
Just inside the front entrance, multicolored busts representing members of the family of St. Dominic (Domingo de Guzman), patron saint and founder of the Dominican order, bloom on an elaborate genealogical tree. At the other end of the nave, the heavily gilded main altar, reaching all the way up to the vault and adorned with columns on three levels, is an architectural ensemble in itself. Its center moves majestically forward, and everywhere there are niches filled with polychrome wooden saints.
The church manages to escape being merely rich, however. The artisans who built it were local Indians, after all: the grooves on the columns are slightly wavy, the saints slightly awkward, the movement of the sculpture oddly natural rather than stylized. These endearing imperfections humanize what might otherwise have been splendid but cold and crushing.
That is even more true of the enchanting Chapel of the Rosary, built in the late 1720's, a little church in itself. With less gold and far more color, it clearly shows the evolution of Mexican baroque. Indeed, the very naive directness for which Mexican figures have been known in our century first makes its appearance here. There are stucco vases filled with bouquets of flowers, garlands, flying putti, and busts and gold-framed medallions everywhere. Lavishly dressed Evangelists perch on their familiar creatures - indeed, St. John sprawls on his eagle as if it were the most comfortable of sofas. Here the feeling is of exuberant pleasure rather than overwhelming splendor.
Just as the church itself is a blend of Spanish and Indian, so does the Museo Regional de Oaxaca, installed in the former monastery next door, reflect the odd continuity of Mexican culture. Through an exquisitely proportioned arcaded courtyard and up a grand staircase, the visitor finds displays of musical instruments and colorful costumes.
The main attraction, however, is the Mixtec treasure found by the archeologist Alfonso Caso in 1932 when he opened tomb No. 7 in the ruins of neighboring Monte Alban, one of the great finds of this century. The degree of sophistication and splendor achieved by the pre-Columbian Indians is suggested by this find: gold figures, clay figures with huge, complex headdresses, and jewelry made of gold, jade, turquoise and mother-of-pearl.
A few blocks from Santo Domingo, the Museo Rufino Tamayo gives an overview of pre-Columbian art at its best. Installed in an 18th-century house built around a courtyard lush with bougainvillea, roses, dahlias and flowering vines, the collection, gathered by the painter for whom it was named, was given to his native city in 1975.
Here many of the usual rules of museum display have been discarded, and the result is attractive and lively. A great troop of life-size Colima clay dogs clamber up a staircase in one room; miniature clay men and women jostle on a shelf in another; in a third room, a doll-size clay house is inhabited by busy figures. All the niches and vitrines are painted in Tamayo's colors: pink in one room, ocher in another, purple in a third. Quality is high, diversity great, and the arrangement such as to bring the pre-Columbian cultures back to life.
Still closer to that long-vanished world are the archeological sites all around Oaxaca. At some, like Dainzu or Yagul, just off the main road to Mitla, only a few terraces remain, along with the usual ball courts. (The Mesoamericans played a highly dangerous early form of football, in which a very hard rubber ball, thrown with great force, often caused fatal injuries.) The old walls barely rise above a few inches. But the views are striking, and because these sites are not on most tourists' lists, they are often deserted. They are also situated in strikingly beautiful landscapes: the Zapotecs invariably found places from which earth and sky seem to blend in one immense horizon, and man is made to feel small and alone in a limitless space. Here, perhaps more than anywhere, it is possible for those who have some understanding of the pre-Columbian cultures to imagine what they were like.
Of the two major sites, Monte Alban and Mitla, Monte Alban is closer and provides a better picture of how a great religious site was laid out. From Oaxaca, a half hour's drive takes the visitor along a narrow but adequately paved road through two villages complete with whitewashed adobe houses, cactus fences and impressive numbers of turkeys; then it climbs the side of a mountain, offering progressively more spectacular views. The site itself lies on a high plateau, seemingly halfway up to the sky.
Despite what the guidebooks often say, Monte Alban was meant not for living but for worshiping. Buildings first thought to have been palaces or houses are now generally agreed to have served purely religious purposes, though priests may well have lived here and rulers were buried with arms and jewelry in underground vaults. Great ceremonies meant to propitiate the (often difficult) gods probably lasted for days.
That so grand an architectural scheme, in so inaccessible a site, should have been devoted only to worship, says a good deal about the pre-Columbian culture. Here, it is not objects that impress us: they have been removed to various museums. It is the magnitude of the builders' vision.
The great ceremonial plaza, surrounded by high rectangular platforms, reduces even the largest of tour groups to insignificance. Each of the platforms is reached by a broad stone staircase, while, at the far end of the plaza, a pyramid rises against the sky. Although little is left of the buildings that once crowned platforms and pyramid, the scale remains as awe-inspiring as it must have been to the religious processions that once made their way from temple to temple.
A climb to the top of the pyramid provides a majestic view: far below, the valley stretches away to the horizon; further, a chain of mountains rears up brown and craggy peaks. Because here the sky seems so close and yet so vast, because the plaza itself is on a scale apparently unfit for mere mortals, it is hard not to feel that this is indeed the dwelling place of ancient but still powerful gods.
Mitla is on the other side of Oaxaca, a drive of about 40 miles. The road passes the famous Arbol de Tule, a huge cypress thought to be 2,000 years old, with a girth of 138 feet and a height of 130 feet. Growing in the churchyard of Santa Maria del Tule, just off the road, it is well worth a stop.
Weaving is a specialty in the village of Mitla, as elsewhere in the region, but there are better bargains farther on. The plaza behind the ruins is lined with stands full of shirts, blouses, belts, dresses and shawls, all in alluring colors and at well-nigh irresistible prices.
While most of the damage at Monte Alban is due to age and weather, Mitla is yet another victim of Christianity. Because missionaries were bent on eradicating everything that did not conform to their brand of religion, the Spaniards tore down some of the best architecture ever built to put up a singu-larly uninteresting church. Luckily, after a while, they apparently ran out of energy; exhausted by their orgy of destruction, they actually left two buildings standing.
The first of these survives only in part, but while we no longer feel much sense of its original form, the remnants are well worth a look because of their decor. Here at Mitla, the Mixtecs developed a form of high-relief stone mosaic, the complexity and beauty of which is unrivaled anywhere in Mesoamerica. Against a ground of flat stones, once painted ocher, elaborate abstract patterns stand out: cross-shaped and interlaced, in stepped meanders and zigzags, repeated and echoed from panel to panel.
There has been much discussion as to their actual meaning. They may in fact be representations of the lightning, the feathered serpent, the sky or the earth; what is certain is that in their wealth of design, the richness of their light and shade and their endless variety, they are among the most effective and beautiful decorations ever designed.
One of the buildings that surrounded the ball court has survived with virtually no damage. Possibly the house of priests, the so-called palace is a long, low building, pierced in the center of its main facade by a wide opening, which is given majesty and rhythm by three massive columns. Each of the side wings -which might otherwise look both long and dull - is decorated with stone mosaic designs in elaborate stone frames.
Because the patterns differ from panel to panel, and the frames create effects of light and shadow, we read these wings as a series of luxurious images. And although most extended buildings tend to have visually weak corners, the architect gave the line from ground to roof a diagonal thrust outward, thus achieving an effect of barely controlled energy that is reinforced by a series of frames echoing those around the mosaic panels. Stone mosaics also adorn the interior rooms and courtyards. All this is sophisticated, unexpected and remarkably effective.
It also pays to visit the local museum. Many objects found in the ruins are displayed in its four rooms, and while quality and interest varies, there are some first-rate small Zapotec pieces whose clay mask-and-feather headdresses are as complex and finely detailed as those displayed in the Oaxaca museum. There also is a simple restaurant, open for lunch only.
After that, return to Oaxaca. As you sit in the zocalo and look at the Indians walking past, you will see the very features you were looking at earlier in gold or clay. This kind of time warp can be singularly moving. Here, all at once, in an inimitable blend, the cultures of Mexico seem to revive in a great, colorful, and unending fresco. If you go Hotels In town, try the Hotel El Presidente, Calle 5 de Mayo 300, telephone 60611. A former monastery, the hotel has rooms distributed around several charming courtyards; as a result, they tend to be dark. Rates about $25 for a double; a little less for a single. As both exchange rates and prices keep changing, prices listed here should be regarded as only a guide. .
Outside of town, on a hill, the Hotel Victoria, Carretera Panamericana (Mexico City telephone number 250-0655), is only a 10-minute drive from the Zocalo. Set pleasantly in a lush tropical garden, it offers beautiful views of the city - but not, alas, quiet. Trucks grinding up the hill are all too audible, especially at night. The hotel has a large, pleasant pool (on a recent visit it could have been cleaner). Rates about $25 double, a little less for a single. The restaurant, while uneven, is often excellent; the chicken mole is recommended. About $10 to $15 for two. Restaurants The best restaurant in Oaxaca, El Asador Vasco (69719), overlooks the Zocalo; ask for a table on the balcony. The fish soup, stuffed peppers, chicken with almonds and all grilled meats are recommended. With the drinkable house wine, about $20 for two. Museums The Museo Regional (62991) is open from 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. Tuesday to Friday and from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. Saturday and Sunday; closed Monday. The entrance fee is negligible. The Museo Tamayo (64750) is open from 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. and 4 to 7 P.M. every day except Tuesday. Entrance fee negligible. Archeological Sites All the archeological sites are open from 9 A.M. to 6 P.M. every day except Sunday; entrance fee negligible. They can be reached by bus, but it is more pleasant to rent a car; the usual agencies are represented both at the airport and in town. Information The number of the Oaxaca Tourism Office is 63810.O. B.
Photo of sites Oaxaca; Map of Oaxaca