Nothing new under the Mexican sun

 I  loved Greek ruins- all those unique key designs.... what? They're in Mexico as well?? 
 Yep.  

Meander-Greek Key  

History and Meaning

The meander motif took its name from the river Meander, a river with many twists, mentioned by Homer in  the Iliad. The motif is also known as Greek key or Greek fret.

Meander was the most important symbol in Ancient Greece, symbolizing infinity or the eternal flow of things. Many temples and objects were decorated with this motif, and it is considered that there is a connection with the Cretan labyrinth – indeed - a labyrinth can be drawn using a Greek key.

http://www.culturetaste.com/meander-greek-key-history-and-meaning-66.html

Greek 159-138 BC
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Meanders.jpg

That's your history lesson for today. Back to Mexico!

I was here three weeks ago... look at that stone work. 

Looks like a variation on a Greek key to me.  

"The main distinguishing feature of Mitla is the intricate mosaic fretwork and geometric designs that profusely adorn the walls of both the Church and Columns groups. The geometric patterns called grecas in Spanish seen on some of the stone walls and door frames are made from thousands of cut, polished stones that are fitted together without mortar. The pieces were set against a stucco background painted red.The stones are held in place by the weight of the stones that surround them.Walls, friezes and tombs are decorated with mosaic fretwork. In some cases, such as in lintels, these stone “tiles” are embedded directly into the stone beam. The elaborate mosaics are considered to be a type of “Baroque” design as the designs are elaborate and intricate and in some cases cover entire walls. None of the fretwork designs are repeated exactly anywhere in the complex.The fretwork here is unique in all of Mesoamerica."(Wikipedia)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitla

All this proves I'm not an archeologist. But it was thought provoking to see ancient stone work that looks so similar to work done years earlier in the Mediterranean,across the ocean from Mexico.

By the way- those steps are REALLY big- probably close to 18 inches. You were supposed to go down facing sideways- so your back was never turned to the king/ priest/deity. With nothing to really hold on to, the first step is a huge step of faith and gut wrenching bravery. Or you can sit down and scoot like I did.

It's hard to see but all those designs are multiple pieces of stone, fitted together. Amazing!

 And a weaver in Oaxaca made the design into a rug.  Equally amazing.

Irene Ruiz works in vibrant shades of emerald, evoking early starlight. 

She weaves virgin wool on the handloom with traditional Zapotec techniques, 

employing natural dyes derived from native plants.

Here's another rug with elements of ancient design.

My favorite rug design... now laying on my floor. 

This is the wall of a room inside a Zapotec structure. This is a larger room off an open courtyard.  

There are also tombs underground,  wet and low.  You creep, in a squat, to see the walls.  
The things we do for the sake of exploration.  Oh, never mind- these have been explored for ages!

I was fascinate how this stonework probably inspired the weaving industry.  You are discouraged from photographing rugs- designs are hand created by each weaver. Since there is no copyright protection, a photograph could be used to copy a pattern.

Tile floor in a church-

A women from Oaxaca  doing hand-embroidery on a blouse. 
Her pattern echoes the church floor.

I love textiles- the feel of sturdy cotton and felted wools, the drape of a lighter cotton in a lowly dishtowel, the filmy flounce of a gauze blouse —all music to my fingers.  Then you add color and embroidery and layers of colorful aprons over lace dresses- Mexico is a textile feast for the senses. The ancient sense of style starting with stone work a thousand years old ends with women stitching and men weaving beauty today.  A legacy of color and texture and pride.  Viva Mexico! 

Sounds of Mexico

My casita. 

I wake to the loud tick of the clock and the quiet chirp of the birds.
The lizards skitter into the lush undergrowth along my sidewalk, the cicadas buzz and more birds sing.

That "tree" is a poinsettia. It'll turn red in the winter. 

I walk to school to the sound of roosters crowing, turkeys gobbling and an occasional put-put of a mototaxi or motorcycle.  Both modes of transportation use about the same size engine but one is a taxi cab for two or possibly three (friendly) people.

The gas truck comes by and signals its presence with a series of great moos- like a tortured cow, followed by loud radio news and music, blasting from the driver's open window.

The music doesn't bother the burros. This is the road to town, past the field behind the school. What you can't hear is the buzz of insects and what you can't feel?  The itch of mosquito welts!   That doesnt't seem to concern the burro either. 

The smell of fresh ground chocolate is much better than the sound! 

Lots of construction noise in Mitla's central square. All this dug up by hand. Took a handful of men less than a week with pick axes for the concrete and shovels for the trench. Amazing workers.

Behind my casita is a field hidden behind a screen of tall prickly pear cactus and green trees. One century plant sticks up, a flagpole topped with tiny gourds.  Somewhere in that secret field is a man with a deep, guttural cough/hiccup that he uses to signal the cattle and move them from area to area.  That took me a week to figure out. I can't see anything until the cattle are around the far side of the field, down by the laundry room. Ahh- it's a man herding cows and he's making that very weird noise.

Ok- so it's not cows. I told you...the cows are hidden. The goats are by the other fence. And they have their own sound of maa...ing.

There is usually a thrum of music except at night when the thrum becomes the throb of a full-blown brass band with Mariachi crooners.  Can't capture that in a photo!

But my favorite sound weaves them all together. From most homes and business echoes the clacking of weavers at their looms. Foot operated timeless machines create the backbone industry of Oaxaca- beautiful, handmade textiles.

This man is creating the threads for the looms. He'll wind the threads onto the rack in the foreground and feed it onto the loom in the background. There are two looms back there. All a very labor-intensive process. 

I'll miss the sights...and sounds of San Pablo Valle de Mitla, Oaxaca. Mexico.

A day in the life....

I thought I'd tell you my typical day here in Mitla.  I rise with the sun- about 6:30...unless I need to be at school early, then I sleep in and rush around like a crazy woman looking for protein to get me through the day!  I miss my phone alarm. I miss my phone....

This morning we were supposed to go to a horse ranch today and RIDE! but it rained all night and made a muck of the ranch. I didn't sleep well and the 8am phone call to cancel riding woke me up. So we had school- 9-10:30, then break for recess. We have another two hours session after recess, before lunch and afternoon classes of PE and Art (crafts).

Today it was wet but not raining so the children all played outside. This group of 2nd-8th all play very well together- lots of variations of tag, some stilt walking, some climbing, oops- "No, you cannot climb the tetherball poles!"

Usually, when I have time before going to the classroom, I head from my little casita to the office area. I can only print in color there. This is my process: lock my door AND remember the key- this one's tough, I never lock my house at home;  walk on the sidewalk under the fruited (but not ripe!) pomegranate trees! and head across the common greens for the office.

This is a jade plant in bloom!

Past the communal laundry, down a couple of small set of concrete and stone stairs and through a metal gate. Everything is gated here. Security is not as necessary as it was twenty years ago but no one is forgetting the threats from that time.

Gates have keys, doors have keys, some keys are kept inside locked doors.... arghh! I unlock the "key room" door, retrieve the "office key" for the room with copiers and relock the key room. Walk to said office and unlock it.  Oops- the copier wants bigger paper before it will print and I need to resend the print job.  Next time bring computer!

Return keys and relock doors, return home, unlock my door, get computer, return to office area and repeat.  It becomes a bit of a joke- one key opens all the exterior gates to get off the center and into the school yard, - directly across the dirt road.  It is the Puerto Primario key- Primary Gate, in English.  Nicely engraved with PP- and referred to regularly as the PP key.  "The gate's locked. Do you have your PP key?"  Followed by giggles- clearly we are suited to dealing with silly children.

Must have a guard on duty- no keys necessary right now. Hurrah!

A rare rainblow on the walk to the church.

Lots of rain means it's really green here right now. 

The town square is being rebuilt but the lovely city office building stands strong. 

The fuss with the keys is a minor complaint in a place I have very little to complain about. My casita is comfortable (and filling up with beautiful hand-woven textiles and inexpensive goodies for gifts).  I love walking into town for the market. Today we're going to the Aztec ruins a half a mile away to see the church built on the same grounds and tour the ruins. Afterward, we'll do some more mandatory shopping- supporting the local economy when there are few tourists.

This is where you buy your cowboy gear

And I have four lovely children to teach that make this all worthwhile. But that's a blog for next time!

Food, glorious food!

I've been to markets and large Mexican grocery stores. I love to cook and bought lots of exotic ingredients.  I've been asked, "What is that and what are you going to do with it?"  My reply? I'm not sure but there must be some answer on the web.  So I am cooking some but the restaurants are so fun and when we're out and about... we have to try them. Here's a sampling, a taste of Oaxaca!

We're not in jail- we're inside, away from the pesky pigeons. 

The two in the background are small botanas or appetizers- pickled carrots and spicy peanuts with a squirt of lime. Delicious.
The frothy drink is a virgin pina colada- very refreshing on a hot day.
And the soup was a wonderful classic tortilla soup with a large chili in the middle. I didn't eat the chili. 

This is an Oaxacan tamal.or Zapotec actually One tamale. They plaster the masa or ground corn on the banana leaf and add chicken and dark mole sauce.  It's not like a wonderful green corn tamale in Tucson. So far- my least favorite dish. 

Last but not least... a lovely dish of fresh lettuce ( I didn't eat that either- was it washed? Who knows?) But I did enjoy the fresh tomato so clearly I'm not a purist here. The frioles or beans were yummy. And the brown in the tortilla shell? Chapulines. Translation? Grasshoppers. Fried. Tastes like bacon with a slight aftertaste of...dirt?

They are collected only at certain times of year (from their hatching in early May through the late summer/early autumn). After being thoroughly cleaned and washed, they are toasted on a comal (broad flat cookware) with garlic, lime juice and salt containing extract of agave worms (more yum....), lending a sour-spicy-salty taste to the finished product. Sometimes the grasshoppers are also toasted with chili, although it can be used to cover up for stale chapulines.

One of the regions of Mexico where chapulines are most widely consumed is Oaxaca, where they are sold as snacks at local sports events and are becoming revived among foodies. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapulines#/media/File:Chapulines_de_Oaxaca.jpg

You see them all over the markets and I had to try them once. I've eaten worse things. 

And they are full of protein. 

Another adventure in the land of friendly people
and
tasty new food!

Zapotec church service- this is why we're all here

One of the helpers for our school time is a former homeschooling mom, current librarian and with her Zapotec husband is translating one that branches of his language. Turns out there are dozens of Zapotec dialects... and they all need Bibles. 

She took us to this sweet evening service. Her husband leads the weekday service in his native Zapotec. He speaks some English- he was her language tutor 25 years ago...:)   

This is their third church- home, garage, now a poured concrete building.  Heavy rains caused a small stream in the yard- we just waded over on rocks.  This is in a decent sized Mexican town, not their Zapotec village in the mountains.

What more can I say...so heartfelt. 

And true to the gospel. 

The evening got late for some. 

Everyone else was quiet and attentive.

The pastor spoke using slides from his computer!  He was great at soliciting questions and answers from the congregation. 

I tried to include a wonderful little video but it doesn't seem to want to load. It's too late at night to figure that out. I have to teach tomorrow!

Mitla on Mexico's Independence Day

Here's a small taste of my home for the next three weeks-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaMM7JJNj3Q

Clearly, this drone was flying at five am in the summer- I don't see much traffic.




No overloaded trucks, no taxis and no cute little micro- taxies.

Micro-taxies It cost three of us ten pesos to get home.
Total, not each. You do the math. 

But today is Mexico's Independence Day- the day the Catholic priest Miguel Hildago y Costilla from Delores led the peasants- mostly indigenous Indians and mestizos with a cry of defiance.

September 16 is Independence Day in Mexico since it was proclaimed such a day of 1810. The popular Spanish term for this celebration is the Scream of Dolores .

·      The independence of Mexico was demanded for the first time in 1810, but it did not become official until 1821.

·       El Grito de Dolores is the most famous moment in the history of Mexican independence

El Grito was the proclamation of independence given by Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla , who had rebelled against the Spanish government in power. Feelings of independence had been incubating for some time, due to the American and French revolutions, as well as the French occupation of Spain in the early nineteenth century. After learning that the government intended to arrest him, Hidalgo sounded the bell of his church in the southern coastal town of Dolores, went up to the pulpit and announced his plans to rebel, encouraging the other parishioners to join him. After several hours had gathered an army of people ready to rebel against Spain. This uprising against the authorities was the trigger of a revolutionary war that would last a decade.

We walked to the center of town, looked at the construction all over the plaza, avoided the persistent street food vendors and ended up squished under a tent in a downpour with thousands of friendly Mexicans.  And listened to this for two hours. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY3u0M3owdo
Mostly warming up the trumpets.

It had been drizzling and we wondered and waited some more. The people watching was great! Just as the rain really started, the parade of the beautiful young woman came toward the tent.  One had a huge headdress of peacock feathers and a ballgown with local scenery painted on it. And I left my camera behind because it was dark....

We listened -all in Spanish, of course, and watched as each local official was introduced and brought forward a Mexican flag. Then each of the six schools did the same. The young women sang the national anthem while people milled and bumped into each other as more pushed in to avoid the rain, now torrential.

The anthem has ten stanzas but the girls only sang four.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpFQ0I8AcF0

Fifteen minutes later, my feet were killing me and we had a long wet walk home.  They started retiring the flags with the same pomp and ceremony; we started for home.

We missed the Grito!- the great war cry, but one of our group stayed behind and it was all over soon after we left.  They didn't do the great grito after all but it was great fun to be a part of a local party. Normally there would be a parade today but not this Mexican Independence Day.

The night was a more subdued celebration with reference to the many who have died from the latest earthquake in this beautiful but precarious land.

I'm back to the blog...and out of the country!

I just realized it's been almost a year since I last blogged. I do miss the musing and writing but I've been busy with so many other projects, this has fallen by the wayside. But I'm in Mexico for a month and thought I'd use my poor neglected blog to collect my own thoughts and share my adventure.

I arrived last night- late, around midnight, to San Pablo Villa de Mitla.  I think that is a village designation, not the name of a villa.

This is NOT my digs....

This is my home for the next month... it's perfect.

I'm in a rather spartan one bedroom apartment on the center for linguists and translation here in Milta, Oaxaca (the "state") in southwest Mexico.  It's less than 100 miles from the hard hit town of Juchitán de Zaragoza, Oaxaca but there is little damage to see here. I'll be out and about in a few minutes.

I added some color asap and will bring home fresh flowers.  Check out the formal coffee table! 

Cooking on GAS- LOVE it!

I could have a slumber party on that bed. 

I'm here to teach the English speaking children of international translators for three weeks. The center hosts the children and their families twice a year to give the homeschooled children a classroom experience. The irony is not lost on me- I spent twenty years homeschooling and maybe two as an occasional substitute teacher. But I can create a classroom experience- I hope!


This morning I'll go with the education director to pick up another teacher and find a grocery store. In my careful packing- "I will NOT pay extra to bring unnecessary stuff to Mexico!", I forgot to pack some protein bars. So breakfast was a spoon of hemp and dry peanut butter reconstituted with chai tea. It was actually delicious.

The water has boiled so I'll wash my face and get ready to meet Mexico. Off to buy fruits and veggies (directions to soak them in bleach or iodine in the apartment manual).

But I have faster wifi than at my house and gorgeous bougainvillea outside my front door. The chai was lovely and the day is new.

For my SD  friends....yes, Harley Davidson is available right in the Mexico City airport!

I was too busy ogling the view and forgot to take a better picture of the amazing beauty of Mexico City at night.
 That is on BIG city.