Tuesday, July 7, 2015
A wedding in Oaxaca with no ordinary bride Young and reptilian, the lizard princess marries the mayor
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A wedding in Oaxaca with no ordinary bride
Young and reptilian, the lizard princess marries the mayor
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The mayor of San Pedro Huamelula, a municipality of several thousand people in the isthmus region of Oaxaca, got married last month, but it was no ordinary wedding.
Indeed, there was nothing ordinary about the bride either, who was barely 18 months old.
And a crocodile at that.
The lizard princess, as she is known, is the symbolic daughter of the Huave people and the totem figure of the nearby town of San Mateo del Mar. Each year, she is offered in matrimony to the mayor of San Pedro Huamelula in a rite of amity and fertility. Both towns lie close to the port of Salina Cruz, on the Pacific coast of the state of Oaxaca.
Wearing a blue and green dress and red plastic flowers on her head, the squirming lizard princess visits every home in Huamelula accompanied by a band of musicians. Despite having her jaws fastened shut by a white ribbon, the princess looks colorful and festive, her finery erasing all her ferocity.
“She is now a holy being,” says town chronicler Jaime Zárate Escamilla.
Before the wedding, the princess child, as the crocodile is also called, is baptized by the town’s seniors at the San Pedro Apóstol church, “removing all of its bestiality,” says councilor Flor de Liz Aquino Hernández, whose job it is to find and capture the 18 month-old reptile.
Following the baptism, the bride-to-be is introduced to residents.
José Trinidad Pomposo is in charge of carrying the lizard princess in a saunter across town. He wears a traditional manta outfit and is the captain of the mareño comparsa, one of the five dancing troupes that escort the princess. Mareños are also known as Huaves or Guapis; the other four troupes are the Muljú (blacks); the Pichilinguis (turks); the Caballeros (guardians); and the Mulyatas (mulattas), homosexual men who don traditional chontal dresses.
Trinidad presents the princess to the people of Huamelula, visiting them at their homes and solemnly proclaiming: “I come, as is our people’s tradition, to introduce the lizard princess to you, so you get a chance to meet her, hoping that the rains will be benevolent, and that sickness may stay away from you and yours. That your life is good and your harvest, bountiful. Now, you can dance with the bride.”
For their part, each household makes a symbolic contribution to the mareños of 10 to 100 pesos and then people have a chance to carry the bride and dance with her on their patios, fulfilling the bonding ritual with the lizard princess.
At the end of her two-hour tour around town, the princess returns to the house of her padrinos, the godparents. She is dressed in her wedding gown and then she waits for the groom, Mayor Joel Vásquez Rojas, and the Guapis troupe to take her to the Palacio Municipal, or city hall.
At the entrance to city hall two elderly men throw their casting nets to the four cardinal points of the compass, beseeching permission and blessings for the princess’ matrimony.
The wedding proper takes place before the town council, where after one hour of negotiations the marital bond is completed, and a kiss between the the mayor and the princess seals the deal. The former then takes his bride to the town’s central plaza where they dance a son before the townspeople, fulfilling the tradition for yet another year.
The wedding represents the relationship between humankind and nature, explains Vásquez Rojas, and is also a way of honoring the fraternity between the Huave and Chontal people, who have always shared the Pacific seaboard.
“This is a pact with which we seek the harmonization of nature and humankind. Huamelula is a magical town that honors and preserves these fertility festivities, through which we ask for a good fishing and farming year. On this day we close our pact with the sea, with the sky and the land. We thus maintain an equilibrium, giving everything its proper perspective without altering or destroying,” explained the mayor.
The wedding festivities in Huamelula began on June 23. Traditional dancing and theatrical representations of the Spanish conquest take place for a week, ending on the 30th.
Source: El Universal (sp)
Sunday, July 5, 2015
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Why the TSA May Stop Accepting Your Driver's License June 24, 2015 9:57 am by Kate Sitarz
Why the TSA May Stop Accepting Your Driver's License
This past April, my fiance Chris noticed a typo on his Washington state driver's license. His name read "Christoper." I replied with an outrageous laugh and nonsensical taunts: Christopurr the cat. Christo-per-usual. I was having a ball.
"I need the name on my license to match the name on my car title exactly to be able to ship my car overseas," Chris explained, not even getting into the problems that may arise when applying for an overseas driver's license. "And Washington requires me to go in-person to get this fixed—even though it was their error."
My face dropped. Chris is in the military, currently stationed in southern Arizona for a class with his next assignment in Germany starting this fall. Going back to Washington would be next to impossible with his schedule, not to mention a wedding ceremony this summer.
"So, just get an Arizona license!" I told him. Problem solved.
"Arizona licenses won't be valid with TSA next year," he casually replied.
This is ridiculous, I thought. But as I began digging deeper to find out what the heck was happening, I realized it's true. And still ridiculous. How can an entire state risk keeping its citizens grounded? It turns out, several are doing it. Travelers with driver's licenses from Arizona, Maine, Louisiana, and New Hampshire (as well as American Samoa) may soon find themselves in a bind.
The REAL ID Act of 2005
It's all because of the REAL ID Act of 2005, a set of federal standards passed after 9/11 aimed at making licenses harder to counterfeit. Several states, including Arizona, rejected the mandates. State law currently prohibits Arizona from complying with these federal requirements.
Accepting the REAL ID Act would mean accepting outside intervention in state affairs, say opponents, who feel the bill is too sweeping and intrusive. Some worry that this is a way for the federal government to create a national identity card. Others think it will act like a tracking device, recording people's whereabouts and providing the government with a way to spy on them.
To comply with the act, states would need to include typical information on licenses (name, date of birth, gender, license number, a photograph, address, and signature) in addition to "machine-readable technology, with defined minimum data elements," and security features to prevent duplication or counterfeiting. To issue these licenses, citizens would have to show proof of identity, including date of birth, proof of social security account number, and documentation of address.
The federal government recommends states offer an alternative labeled "Not for Federal Identification," so residents that prefer to opt out of the federally compliant version can do so, whether for religious reasons or because they don't want to verify proof of citizenship. The new system would also require states to retain paper or digital copies of source documents, facial image capture, and for states to provide electronic access to all other states' database, including data printed on licenses and drivers' histories.
Because of this, some state lawmakers and citizens believe this database will be accessible to federal officials, though the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) maintains that "there is no Federal database of driver information. Each jurisdiction will issue its own unique license and maintain its own records."
Timeline for Enforcement
The DHS says REAL ID enforcement for boarding aircraft will happen "no sooner than 2016," but enforcement in other areas has been rolling out since early 2014. Those with non-conforming licenses are already barred from entering certain federal buildings unless they have alternate identification, such as a passport or Permanent Residency Card.
It wouldn't be surprising if the airline enforcement is pushed back, given the noncommittal time frame, plus the fact that DHS promises the public will have "ample advanced notice before identification requirements for boarding aircraft change. That notice will include information on the process for individuals with a noncompliant driver's license or identification card to be able to travel by aircraft."
But imagine if the timeline isn't pushed back. It's hard to picture travelers, entire vacations planned, getting turned away before even reaching the X-ray machine. Depending on how seriously it's enforced, it may just result in epic delays for passengers without sufficient ID. Even if residents of noncompliant states are informed, it'll take weeks for them to get a passport (not to mention forking over the money for said passport, especially if they need it rushed).
If noncompliant states pass laws to meet ID requirements, it'll take some time for each state's department of motor vehicles (or equivalent department) to get everything up and running. In the meantime, why aren't these states informing their citizens?
Several of my fiance's colleagues, also in the military, recently switched their licenses to Arizona. None of them were informed that they may have some issues as soon as six months from now.
What's Next?
The law the Arizona state government is trying to pass would make the new license voluntary, giving citizens the option to purchase the federally compliant version. That it's only now coming to a head (an entire decade later) is, although absurd, a moot point. Citizens still skeptical wouldn't need to do anything—besides get a passport if they want to avoid driving hours and hours to get to their next vacation destination.
Citizens with noncompliant licenses will still be able to drive, as well as vote, receive federal benefits, appear in court, and access health services. Even residents who hold unexpired, noncompliant IDs from states that have complied or filed for an extension will be able to use their ID through October 2020.
Right now, only a handful of state licenses meet requirements, with most others having filed for extensions with justification for their noncompliance. Five states—Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Vermont, and Washington—offer Enhanced Driver's Licenses (EDL). These licenses are acceptable forms of identification for the TSA—and for crossing the Canadian and Mexican borders. Residents in New York and Minnesota with a regular, non-EDL license don't have an acceptable ID.
So for now, because we can't risk waiting like the government can, it seems we have an excuse to plan a Washington vacation—even if it involves sitting in the waiting room at the Department of Licensing.
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