Friday, December 22, 2017
Google Oaxaca Daily update ⋅ December 22, 2017 NEWS The Oaxacan Christmas Celebration That's All About Radishes Extra Crispy Gingerbread houses can be awfully crusty, and not always in the golden brown sense of the word. The cookies get stale, the icing gathers dust, the whole thing gets sneezed on. In the central valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, they have an answer to this problem: build your charming yuletide food-art out of ...
The Oaxacan Christmas Celebration That’s All About Radishes
The tradition of Noche de Rábanos involves making dioramas from carved vegetables
Gingerbread houses can be awfully crusty, and not always in the golden brown sense of the word. The cookies get stale, the icing gathers dust, the whole thing gets sneezed on. In the central valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, they have an answer to this problem: build your charming yuletide food-art out of radishes. On one magical night each December, Halloween, Christmas, and general partying combine as radishes are carved up like something between a jack-o-lantern, a gingerbread village, and an edible arrangement.
The biggest Noche de Rábanos, or Night of the Radishes, takes place each December 23rd in Oaxaca City’s central square, or zócalo. The massive festival includes a competition for best carving, a large cash prize, and viewing platforms along which some 100,000 locals and tourists file past the lush, tuberous dioramas. But the origins of the festival are much more humble. Official records date back to 1897, when farmers selling produce at the municipal market wanted to up their display game Christmas shoppers. Some say the tradition of carving radishes dates back even further, that carving was born of the hard-sell a 15th century Spanish priest tried to spark interest in the non-native plant. As they say, when life gives you radishes, make a centerpiece.
In spite of Noche de Rábanos’ longstanding popularity in Oaxaca, it has remained a relatively regional festival in Mexico, and one that went unmarked in the US until recently. In 2009, restaurant owners at South Central’s Mercado La Paloma teamed up with the organization Esperanza Community Housing to create their own LA-based Noche de Rábanos. The event has grown in scale each year, including bands, folk dances, stalls selling seasonal sweets like ponche and buñuelos, and of course, radish carving. Though it was not too hard to attract attendees from Los Angeles’ sizeable Oaxacan community, it is apparently hard to get one’s hands on some of the supplies, like flor inmortal, tiny dried flowers native to Oaxaca which are often used to decorate the carvings. Juan Antonio and Sophia, proprietors of the Mercado’s Oaxacalifornia Cafe & Juice Bar, had to source larger, carvable radishes specifically for the event. Although the six inch red radishes they managed to get for this year’s festival seemed enormous, apparently they are nothing compared to the Oaxacan radishes cultivated especially for Noche de rábanos which can clock in at fifteen inches, and are particularly good for constructing cathedrals.
Most of the Oaxacans who attend this event have not carved competitively before—back home they leave it to the farmers—but there are plenty of old timers ready to try their hand because they know exactly how the figures are supposed to look. Yadira Arvelo, one of the event’s organizers, tells me that every year she hears older Oaxacans complain about the carvings of their young, Americanized children and grandchildren. Traditional radish carvings usually include scenes of folk life like dances from La Guelaguetza, another huge regional festival, or religious themes. But this year, alongside the chalice and the host, mixed in among the nativity scenes, there is a toy train entitled “Mi Infancia,” a little cluster of dinosaurs called “Age Dino,” and a snowman that does a surprisingly good job capturing the awkward oval snow-torso of Olaf, from Pixar’s Frozen.
Still, at Noche de Rábanos, tradition prevails. The winning piece is a scene executed with labor from a whole family, incorporating at least a dozen different radishes. First, there is the band, playing tiny radish instruments, wearing cornhusks wrapped around their heads like little turbans. They play “Las Mañanitas,” a birthday song that is traditionally sung sung, complete with a band, to the birthday person at the moment of waking. In this scene, though, the birthday girl is actually a miraculous statue of the Virgin Mary from the rural town of Amialtepec.
At the end of the night a musician stops by, unplanned, to play music from his hometown in the Mixteca region of Oaxaca. The sound is an unusual follow-up to the folk classics that were performed earlier in the night like the Flor de Piña dance: this musician plays a horn, sings in a regional falsetto style called “lamento Triqui.” The lyrics are in a little-used tribal language, and the audience is wowed by the impromptu performance. The MC wishes a goodnight and reminds the cheering crowd that Noche de rábanos is an important festival—the 10th most important festival! In Oaxaca! In the month of December! The holiday season is a busy one everywhere and Noche de Rábanos might just be the eve-of-Christmas-eve breather that the cookie-d out revelers need. Santa, a plate of radishes this year to balance things out?
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Thursday, December 21, 2017
Why Mexico Still Excites Me After 10 Years Living Here International Living They probably think of Oaxaca (where I bought table linens and handmade rugs, and sincerely wished I'd brought a U-Haul for more) or San Cristóbal de las Casas. Nor is it a great center for commercially made household goods (go to Tonalá and Tlaquepaque, outside Guadalajara, for those).
| Why Mexico Still Excites Me After 10 Years Living Here
They probably think of Oaxaca (where I bought table linens and handmade rugs, and sincerely wished I'd brought a U-Haul for more) or San Cristóbal de las Casas. Nor is it a great center for commercially made household goods (go to Tonalá and Tlaquepaque, outside Guadalajara, for those).
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Why Mexico Still Excites Me After 10 Years Living Here
This past spring, I traveled around Mexico to buy furnishings for the new upstairs of my house in Guanajuato, in Mexico’s Colonial Highlands. I’d decided that I was going to completely furnish the space with handcrafted items, and I have.
Several trips were to the nearby state of Michoacán. Folks outside Mexico don’t necessarily think of Michoacán for handicrafts. They probably think of Oaxaca (where I bought table linens and handmade rugs, and sincerely wished I’d brought a U-Haul for more) or San Cristóbal de las Casas. Nor is it a great center for commercially made household goods (go to Tonalá and Tlaquepaque, outside Guadalajara, for those).
But the fact is, when you live in Mexico, you find wonders—handicraft villages, ancient ruins, fabulous markets, superb local festivals—everywhere. And exploring this staggering richness is one of the joys of living here.
On my buying trips, the journey itself was half the fun. Friends and I would set out for a two- or three-day trip…and certain things on our agenda were sacred. First, we always stopped right away for a snack. Guanajuato State is Mexico’s strawberry capital, and stalls line the highway outside town, advertising fresh strawberries and cream. We have a favorite stall, where a big plastic cup of strawberries and fresh cream, lightly dusted with sugar, costs just over $1. As a midmorning snack, it can’t be beat.
In Pátzcuaro, a lovely Spanish-colonial city, we stay at an aging, colonial-style hotel that is slightly rundown but centrally located…and where double rooms (with a king-size bed) run about $25 a night and singles about $15. (Someday someone will buy this hotel and tart it up…and it will probably lose its authentic, down-at-heels charm.)
From Pátzcuaro we hit all the nearby villages…the one that specializes in furniture, the one that does wicker, the “copper village,” the market with the best wooden spoons around… And we stop to eat at favorite places, like the out-of-the-way village with the out-of-this-world turkey mole. (Lunch for four—two enormous handmade, corn-tortilla tacos apiece—cost $12. The homemade pickled peppers—we ate the whole jar—were free.) We end the day with dinner at a restaurant where the waiters know us, our favorite red wine is always available, and where the steaks are cooked exactly the way we like them.
I discovered similarly “favorite places” when I lived in the Yucatán Peninsula. I visited Maya ruins and nature areas that are featured only in the most detailed, specialized guidebooks—if at all. I know a place in the little village of Muna where an artist makes museum-quality replicas of Maya pottery…and if you’re lucky, cochinita pibil—pork in pibil sauce, one of the glories of Yucatecan cooking—is on the lunch menu.
My experience is far from unique; expats in any of Mexico’s many expat havens can speak eloquently of colorful, special, favorite places near them. And no matter how many of these special places you find, there always seem to be more—Mexico is that big. After living here more than 10 years, I’ve reconciled myself to having a bucket list that grows eternally longer, not shorter. (Just ask me about that kayak trip down the coast of Baja California Sur, on the Sea of Cortez, that I’ve long dreamed of doing.)
So, brace yourself: When you move to Mexico, you, too, will find yourself making ever-longer bucket lists.
So much to see, so little time. It’s a good problem to have.
14 tonnes of radishes harvested for festival The Night of the Radishes takes place Saturday in Oaxaca
14 tonnes of radishes harvested for festival
The Night of the Radishes takes place Saturday in Oaxaca
It’s time for radishes in Oaxaca.
This year marks the 120th edition of the traditional Noche de Rábanos, or Night of the Radishes, when growers from the central valleys of Oaxaca gather in the capital city and display not just carved radishes but weird specimens of the tuber that can be up to 50 centimeters long and weigh up to three kilograms.
This year, a farmer from San Antonino Castillo Velasco showed reporters from the newspaper Milenio a radish that resembled a hand.
“I present you this hand, it came out complete, five fingers and all. How great is God under the earth, designing everything for us. [The radishes] are joined together. Why? Because he wants us to be together, the times are going to be difficult but we’ll be together,” said Francisca Lidia Sánchez Mateos.
She was speaking on the day of the harvest, when 14 tonnes of radishes were collected from a municipal parcel of land in the El Tequio park.
“Thanks to the government of Oaxaca that grants us this parcel of land, we’ve got something to eat every day and we keep the craft alive,” Sánchez said.
Those crafts are folk art creations that will be on display for one night only. On Saturday, 143 radish producers — including 82 children — will set up their skillfully carved radish figures at more than 100 stands installed around the Oaxaca city zócalo.
Also on display will be creations made with totomoxtle, or dried corn husks, and with flor inmortal, or immortal flower, a local flower that dries quickly and keeps most of its characteristic deep violet color. Thirteen people signed up for the first category, while 12 will be participating with immortal flower creations.
Visitors can see entire scenes created with radishes, flowers and totomoxtle starting in the late afternoon. The whole event concludes with the awarding of the best displays in the early evening.
The popularity of the event and the fame of the farmers’ creations will draw a large number of Oaxaca citizens and visitors to the city’s main square.
Source: Milenio (sp)
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Zipolite or more calm beach town?
Dec 20, 2017, 6:30 PM
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Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Ocean Radio Chilled "Midnight Silhouettes" 12-10-17
[mixcloud https://www.mixcloud.com/eyeam4real/ocean-radio-chilled-midnight-silhouettes-12-10-17/ width=100% height=60 hide_cover=1 mini=1]
https://www.mixcloud.com/eyeam4real/ocean-radio-chilled-midnight-silhouettes-12-10-17/
https://www.mixcloud.com/eyeam4real/ocean-radio-chilled-midnight-silhouettes-12-10-17/
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Monday, December 18, 2017
Fighting Displacement in Oaxaca
Fighting Displacement in Oaxaca from sub.Media on Vimeo.
The Zapotec people of Tilzapote, in Oaxaca's coastal Pochutla District, are fighting against property developers who are trying to force over 70 families off a 300 hectare area of communal lands in order to build luxury tourist resorts.
Video by: Proyecto Costa
For more information, check out this article by our comrades at Avispa Midia: avispa.org/mexico-real-estate-sector-robs-zapotecs-of-their-communal-lands-on-the-coast-of-oaxaca/
For more information, check out this article by our comrades at Avispa Midia: avispa.org/mexico-real-estate-sector-robs-zapotecs-of-their-communal-lands-on-the-coast-of-oaxaca/
Artist recognized for his use of insect dye Alejandro Martínez has developed 15 different tones using cochineal carmine
Artist recognized for his use of insect dye
Alejandro Martínez has developed 15 different tones using cochineal carmine
A painter’s interest in pre-Hispanic pigments has led him on a path of rediscovery and international outreach.
Alejandro Martínez Hernández, 46, began using the natural dye carmine almost 10 years ago, encouraging a resurgence in interest in the pigment and the insect from which it is obtained, cochineal (Dactylopius coccus).
Cochineal carmine used to be the second most valuable export from colonial Mexico, second only to silver. But the growth in popularity of commercial synthetic red dyes in modern times meant a drastic drop in demand for the natural product. However, its harvest in Oaxaca, where it feeds on the moisture and nutrients of nopal cactus, has continued.
A native of the state, Martínez not only rediscovered the dye and began using it in his art but he tried incorporating various additives, through which he has been able to develop 15 different tones.
Martínez can now produce the bright shades of red that made cochineal a pricey product in the past, along with equally vibrant violets and pinks, shades of orange and even of grey, through the use of solvents.
Martínez’s cochineal creations have earned him recognition in Mexico and abroad, reaching exhibition spaces in the United States, Argentina, Costa Rica, Spain and Italy.
It was in the latter country that Martínez participated in an exhibit in September with five other artists from Oaxaca. The Firenze Il Bisonte Foundation, an art center that specializes in printmaking, took note of his work and invited him to give a workshop.
Martínez will be going back to Italy in November, taking his cochineal pigments and teaching young artists about their use.
The fall art courses will be a continuation of Martínez’s rediscovery of cochineal. In Oaxaca, he leads a collective and workshop known as El Espacio de Sabina, where he teaches courses on the use of the natural dye.
The space also serves as a gallery, where his work can be bought. “I like it that those who buy my work can also watch the process, and understand why I paint with what I paint,” he told the newspaper El Universal.
Sunday, December 17, 2017
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