Oaxaca Cultural Navigator

Short Version: I am a university administrator, writer and artist who grew up in Los Angeles, lived in San Francisco, Indiana, and Virginia, and then migrated to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. My husband and I have been invited by an indigenous family to live in Teotitlan del Valle, a Zapotec village in Oaxaca, Mexico. I am committed to preserving the arts and cultural traditions of Zapotec people who have lived in the Oaxaca Valley for over 2,000 years. My vision is to facilitate intercultural exchange programs, workshops and residencies between artists, teachers and students in the U.S. and Oaxaca; open opportunities for more village artists to exhibit and sell their work in the U.S.; and to broaden opportunities for visitors to have authentic, personal experiences in Oaxaca.

About Me, Norma Hawthorne: I am the lead development officer in the School of Nursing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where I just completed a successful $15 million fundraising campaign for scholarships, professorships, and academic programs. The group I manage is responsible for alumni affairs, annual giving, and magazine publishing. I am currently chair-elect of the Nursing Advancement Professionals Network of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. I have worked in universites — Indiana University, University of Virginia, George Washington University — for over 25 years, in academic marketing, communications, business development, continuing education, corporate and community relations, and public affairs. I am also a fiber and jewelry artist, published fiction writer and poet, and have traveled off-the-beaten path in China, Thailand, Australia, Guatemala, Panama and Mexico, in addition to “mainstream” travel in France and Italy.

I hold the B.A. in history from California State University at Northridge (although I started as an art major) and the M.S. from University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. I also attended UCLA Anderson School of Management and San Francisco State University.

My husband, Stephen, is a family therapist, fluent French-speaker and former Peace Corps volunteer (Cameroon), who is in private practice in Durham, NC. He started the Family Studies Program in the Department of Psychiatry at Duke University where he has been a clinical instructor for over 30 years.

Please visit my website for other biographical information, facts about the Federico Chavez family, weaving and natural dyes, and for an extensive photo gallery: www.oaxacaculture.com I took the header photo, “Sunset at Las Cuevitas,” at the annual January 2 village celebration . You can read more about this in my November 29, 2007 post.