http://buyathread.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/2009-weave-of-the-week-43-mexican-tablecloth/

A message popped into my inbox last week from NYC textile designer Fern Devlin, who had found us on a Google search.  She had a handwoven tablecloth that she thought might be from Oaxaca and asked me about provenance.  I took a close look and saw texture and pattern elements that were familiar to me in the woven cloth work I have seen in Mitla.  But, the real expertise would need to come from Eric Chavez Santiago and the Museo Textil de Oaxaca.  I forwarded Fern’s request to Eric who gave his expert assessment of the piece.  You can read about it on Fern’s blog.

Opens Saturday, November 28, 2009, 7 p.m., Museo Textil de Oaxaca, and continues through March 15, 2010

Curated by Olga Margarita Davila, this contemporary art exhibition translates the experiences of Mexican  emigration through the eyes of Tijuana born artist Eduardo Poeter.  Through textiles, photos, and personal stories, she traces the experiences of 13 people representing five ethnic groups and seven regions of Oaxaca.  Clothing and textiles become the metaphor for psycho-social status and how people engage in and are seen as being part of or outside the community.  The exhibition artistically explores the possible connotations of emigration, how individuals and communities are transformed through the experience, and how clothing serves as a language to communicate identity and belonging.

In Oaxaca, textiles are highly prized and very important.  Dress is the identity of community, and important decisions about color, shape, texture and size have evolved over time.  Fabrics are woven using the backstrap loom or fixed-frame pedal loom and convey the richness and variety of the culture.   Each garment conveys a way of life.  When Eduardo began her creative process, she studied this system of shape, pattern and design to understand the profound experiences retold by each of the immigrants.

The impetus for this collection of works is a translation by Eduardo of the immigrants’ experiences and stories.   She is driven to understand, reflect upon, and create universal understanding:  you are in me and I in you.

***

La exposición IDentidades RE-Vestidas se conforma con obras de arte contemporáneo que nacieron de un proceso de vinculación con las comunidades de Oaxaca con una indumentaria relevante y que la presencia de la migración fuera significativa; en la que la vestimenta se entiende como un reflejo de la condición psico-social de la comunidad y en la que se explorara artísticamente las posibles connotaciones de afectación y transformación de la emigración, revertida en una intervención en la ropa. Es así que las diez piezas resultantes de esta investigación y experimentación, recogen las experiencias de 13 personas en 5 grupos étnicos y 7 regiones de Oaxaca.

La vestimenta es el rostro de una comunidad. Es la personalidad en tela que se conforma poco a poco con el paso del tiempo y con decisiones de color, forma, textura y tamaño. En textiles, Oaxaca es reina, no solo porque aún las telas se hacen a mano en telar de cintura o de pedal, sino porque su riqueza y variedad reflejan las culturas que la conforman y porque conllevan a saberes rebosantes en el que cada uno contiene una plenitud cosmogónica. Cada uno de ellos propone un código de vida que se expresa en atuendos, con los cuales Eduardo empezó su proceso creativo, entendiendo su sistema de signos que lo conforman y las pautas que siguen, para de ahí poder intervenir, tomar parte del asunto, con el mensaje profundo de cada una de las vivencias de los emigrantes.

El ímpetu de la presente colección de obras es una traducción de Eduardo. Esta parte de varias pulsiones, siendo la más atractiva para ser un punto de partida de la presente reflexión, la de conformarse hacia una practica artística pluri-versal, es decir, dejar atrás el concepto de artista universalista enfocada en su yo como dictador de realidad, para crear-se hacia la artista mutua, con el enunciado: tú eres en mí y yo en ti. color

Inauguración Sábado 28 a las 19:00 hrs en el
Museo Textil de Oaxaca color
Hidalgo 917
Centro 68000, Oaxaca, México.
Teléfono (951) 5 01 11 04

La exposición estará hasta el 15 de marzo del 2010

Para información sobre visitas, el taller La Intervención en el Arte Contemporáneo, conferecias y programa educativo para niños dirigirse a Difusión y Servicios Educativos:
(951) 5011617 ext.104
info@museotextildeoaxaca.org

It’s always cheaper to fly round trip into Mexico City and then figure out how to get to Oaxaca from there, albeit the bus ride is six hours long and rather boring unless you have your computer or are into a good book.  And, it’s much cheaper to book three months in advance and go during off-season, which would be between January and March.  Of course, if you live in the cold northern hemisphere, this is exactly the time you want to be in Oaxaca.

Erica, Jim and I just booked our tickets on Continental Airlines for the documentary film making workshop we are teaching in Teotitlan del Valle from Feb. 19-26, 2010.  We could not find a round-trip ticket to Oaxaca for less than $900 each (including taxes and fees) anywhere on the Internet.  I told Erica and Jim that I was finding $340 RT fares to Mexico City (our flights originate from RDU).  The trick was how to get to Oaxaca without spending hours on the bus.  Erica had a brilliant idea.  She checked out in-country flights on Mexicana from MEX to OAX and discovered that we could make easy connecting flights for $200USD round trip, including taxes and fees.  We did all this online.

That brought our fare in under $600 each, which saved us over $300 on each ticket.  A deal in anybody’s book!

Note:  Beware of the prices quoted on many internet sites.  Often, the low fare that is published is for one-way only (I found a lot of those).  When I went to book is when I discovered the price doubled, and on top of that the taxes and fees were added on.  Hotwire.com is one of the few sites that do not add on taxes and fees; what is published is the total REAL price, and I appreciated that.  Another reliable site is Travelocity.com.  Some people tout cheapoair.com but I find that their fees are higher than other sites.

I am prompted to write this blog post after receiving a comment from a recent Oaxaca traveler who asked his hotel to hire a taxi driver to take him to Teotitlan del Valle and other villages for an authentic shopping experience.  This person, on a previous trip to Oaxaca, had taken a company tour and said he was frustrated because the tour operators had a set schedule with brief, predetermined stops.  He suspected that the tour operator received a commission on rug prices that were inflated, and he was right.

What the traveler wasn’t aware of is that the hotel who pre-arranged the taxi driver during his recent Day of the Dead return visit to Oaxaca will likely have taken a share of the commission on any sales made during the day-long excursion, in addition to the fee charged for the taxi services.   This is standard practice in Oaxaca.  My best recommendation is to know where you want to go in advance and go out on the street, hail a taxi and negotiate the price.  Typical hourly rates are 120 pesos and you can engage a driver for the entire day.  When you go into your artisan’s workshop, ask the driver to stay in the taxi and wait for you.  Don’t pay until the day is over.

I hesitated to publish the traveler’s comments, afraid that this would constitute an endorsement by me of this hidden practice that few tourists are aware of, and does not support my commitment to Fair Trade.  Fair Trade means that the “middle man” is bypassed, kick-backs are nil, and that all tourist dollars land directly in the hands of the artisan who created the art.

Admittedly, even great artisans will participate in this commission scheme.  When the tour buses pull into the famous artisan’s restaurant and gallery, the driver and tour organizer will likely receive a commission.  So will the taxi drivers who bring prospective clients to the famed carver’s house/gallery in San Martin Tilcajete.  So will the taxi drivers who deliver customers to the big houses on Benito Juarez Ave. leading into Teotitlan del Valle to buy rugs.  Watch out of the corner of your eye when the driver hangs behind to negotiate the commission while the visitors are observing a natural dye or weaving demonstration.

Commissions in the Oaxaca valley can range from ten to forty percent.  This is a hefty chunk of change and many families depend on this system to keep their wives and children eating.  Yet, the artist who actually created the work will receive a fraction of what the visitor has spent on the purchase price.  Frequently, especially at the well-known “big houses,” rugs or carved animalitos are created by contract weavers who are paid by the piece.  If a rug sells for $350 USD, you can bet that the weaver may have been paid $90 for a week’s worth of labor.  Not every master artisan will participate in this system, preferring to have fewer sales than to give forty percent away.

If the system is going to change, then tourists need to do their homework and identify in advance the craftspeople they want to visit.  Visit museums and galleries and ask who are the best crafts people in each village.  Go into a village and ask around for the name of the artist and where s/he lives.  Ask the village moto-taxi driver or the convenience store clerk or at the crafts cooperative in the zocolo open-air market.

Put your pesos into the hands of the people who make the art.  Avoid paying middlemen, and don’t kid yourself if you hire a taxi driver recommended by your hotel.  If you do, then you can unwittingly become part of supporting the patronage system.

If you are a repeated visitor to Mexico and you are interested in a historical, social, political, cultural, artistic commentary, then this comprehensive, 700+-page tome by Earl Shorris is a must read.   Shorris’ insights into why Mexico works the way it does is rooted in its experience as a Spanish outpost in the New World, an inherited conservative legal system rooted in a Latin judicial system, and Olmec creativity and Aztec stratified hierarchies that adapted to conquest.  There is so much going on in this book that it can be at times overwhelming and dense.  It took me over a month to read it, but it was well worth the investment of time.

If I were a psychologist, I might draw the conclusion that today’s Mexico is a bi-polar country, torn between its indigenous and Spanish heritage, and the tension of identity that this creates.  Shorris talks about the metiszo or mestizaje, the Mexican who is the blend of Spanish and indigenous parentage, and the self-love/hate relationship that that promotes and promulgates.  He discusses why it was so easy for the red-bearded Cortes to be embraced as the Quetzalcoatl, and how the Aztec emblem of the double-eagle which was also the coat of arms of the Spanish crown, became common symbols that were embraced by the conquered.    When I toured the Ex-Convento Santa Rosa in Puebla recently, there was a clay sculpture that embodied this history.  The base was adorned with Spanish soldiers and Aztec warriors, depicting the conquest of New Spain.  At the top was La Malinche and Cortes, arms outstretched to heaven, holding a baby that represented the blending of the two and the future of the country.  La Malinche was Cortes’ mistress who served as his translator and betrayed her people.  These figures could be the Virgin Mary or the Virgin of Guadalupe and God, bringing forth the Baby Jesus who would become the saviour.

There remains in Mexico today a social class system based upon heritage.  Criollos are those of “pure” Spanish descent.  The mestizos are the mix of Spanish and indigenous.  The indigenous, or indians, are usually darker, rural and less educated, with less access to social services and opportunities.  Skin color can define a person’s opportunity to succeed and advance.  The social movements that have turned to street activism are the result of a closed system where democratic principles are difficult to actualize.   As Mexico seeks to expand it’s international partnerships with other nations, it will begin to break loose from the domination of its northern neighbor.

NAFTA, economic opportunity, immigration, the economic engine of Monterrey, Carlos Slim Helu (owner of Telmex and one of the richest men in the world), the 70-year “presidency” of Porfirio Diaz, the political leadership decisions to create Mexico as a labor market rather than a manufacturing/production market, the 1910 “revolution” and implications for democracy, and the incredible literary and arts contributions made to the world by Mexican writers and painters are all discussed in this extraordinary book.

When I read Shorris’ perspectives about the dream imagery of the ancient Mayans, Aztecs and Zapotecs that have influenced contemporary artists, I understand how my friend Pantaleon Ruiz Martinez in the village of Teotitlan del Valle is bringing forth the soul of his people to convey floating people, animals and symbology on canvas.

There is so much more than what I have touched on here.  Please pick this up and settle in for a good read.  You will love and understand Mexico so much more for it.

http://www.amazon.com/Life-Times-Mexico-Earl-Shorris/dp/0393327671

http://www.amazon.com/Earl-Shorris/e/B001HD433E/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1

We were trying to book a “last-minute” trip to Oaxaca over winter break and having no luck with “good” fares, ie. those under $600.  Indeed, prices were veering upwards of $900-1200 per ticket.  Okay, granted, we are less than five weeks away from our intended departure date and there is a penalty for waiting so long to decide whether we were going again.  I think we spent a good six to eight hours traveling around various travel sites to compare prices and schedules and determine whether the published fare was what it would actually cost us once the taxes and fees are added on.

Our preferred routing has been on Continental through Houston which is the only airline that has a direct flight to Oaxaca.  However, the hefty cost was prohibitive.  We searched Travelocity, American Airlines, Expedia, CheapOAir, and Airfare Watchdog, finally landing on Hotwire where the published prices include all taxes and fees (no hidden costs here).  On the others, the enticement is a low fare until you go to book and discover that $110 to $160 can be added on, or the price quoted is only for one-way!

We decided to book on Hotwire to Mexico City where we found a round trip fare for $438.  We’ll spend the night in Houston for $45 (with our AAA discount) at a Knight’s Inn three miles from the airport, and pick up the morning flight to Mexico City.  From there, we’ll take a $5 taxi to the CAPU bus station and take a $35 first class bus (TV and toilet) to Oaxaca and get in in time for dinner.  Our total savings will be around $400 plus or minus.  Not bad for a bit of online fare sleuthing.

On the return trip, I’m planning to bus from Oaxaca to Puebla, spend the night and pick up another Talavera ceramic plate or two.  Four hours via bus from Oaxaca to Puebla, another hour and a half from Puebla to Mexico the next day.

It was going to be touch and go, I just knew it.  I could imagine the luggage I left back in Oaxaca, filled to the brim and getting heavier in my mind’s eye.  That’s why I decided to ask Talavera Armando to ship the three plates, bowl, and six small tiles I bought.  How much, I asked, would it be to send these by air freight.  Fifteen hundred pesos, she answered.  She pointed to the maestro who was in charge of shipping, saying that he does this every day.  Barbara pulled out her iPhone with the instant currency converter app and showed that the cost would be $123 USD.  We gulped.  Then, we thought about what it would mean to jam these things into our luggage, which was already at risk of being overweight, and decided to take the plunge.  Okay, we said and forked over our pesos.  It’ll arrive by Monday, she said, four days from now.

Back in North Carolina, I waited.  Then, we got a call from FedEx.  Talavera Armando had not transcribed my address correctly, even though I had printed it clearly enough.   My husband, who received the phone call, corrected the address and today, four days later, we received the package.

Gleefully, I just opened it only to find the poorest packaging possible, a bit of bubble wrap protecting the fragile contents, in a box much too small to safely cushion each piece.  In fact, the dishes were wrapped together with only a thin veneer of bubble between each of them, and there was no tape to keep the bubble wrap secured.   When I saw that, I was not surprised to see that the contents arrived broken.

Lots of things work in Mexico.  This didn’t.  I have filed my FedEx claim, but who knows?  Meanwhile, the $123 we paid for shipping and handling (most of which probably went to the “handling” or the “packaging” was a way for Talavera Armando to put a few extra dollars in their pocket.  I’ll know better the next time.

Meanwhile, everything I packed myself and shipped home in my suitcase came undamaged.  The safest bet is to use Mail Boxes Plus or Mail Boxes Etc.  They do a great job from their franchise in Oaxaca.

Sheri picked us up in her white van at the pre-determined 9 a.m. hour, early by Oaxaca standards, though the streets were already abuzz with honking vehicles.  Our first stop was the ATM (exchange rate 13.12 pesos to the dollar) to stock up again for the day long adventure down the Ocotlan highway.  We passed the airport and headed south along the valley highway that leads to some incredible crafts villages, stopping for gas at Pemex the state-owned oil company.  The earlier the better along this road because the Ocotlan market attracts people from throughout the region whose motivations are to shop for the sheer pleasure of it or for survival needs of buying and selling everything from oilcloth table coverings, hammocks, woven baskets, pipes and gaskets, kitchen utensils, leather belts, children’s plastic shoes and everything else under the sun, including live turkeys raised for market, feet bound in twine so as not to escape.  The van boasted New Mexico license plates, a good fit for around these parts, although vehicles are brought down from every state in north America to be bought, sold and traded.

We circumvented the hubbub, stopping first at the three Aguilar sisters whose shops you might miss if you didn’t pay attention.  They are on the right side of the road heading into Ocotlan, about three blocks before arriving at the zocalo, market central.  This is true folk art at its best.  Josefina sits with legs tucked under her on a padded blanket in the courtyard of her home and sales area forming figures out of soft clay that will later be fired in a kiln that may not reach more than eight hundred degrees.  Grandchildren dart around playing with kittens.  Sons and daughters participate in the clay forming and painting.  Tourists from all corners of the earth stream in and out.  This is a famous stopping place for collecting Oaxaca art, yet the prices of the pieces match the humble working and living space:  smaller figures range in price from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty pesos.  That translates from about twelve to twenty dollars each.  Collectors and dealers buy, pack and resell these figures in the U.S. for triple or quadruple the cost.

Next door, sister Irene sculpts hot women of the night and paints their hair yellow, applying blue glitter to create a dress, bosom prominent, one arm on hip, the other akimbo sporting a cigarette, a snake boa wrapped to cover cleavage (just barely).  Imagination flies.  A muerta, not yet painted, bares her skeletal teeth and she flaunts a haughty lilt of the head topped with a wide-brimmed hat to shade her from the strong sun.  How will I get these home?  I ask myself as I consider a purchase.  Oh, don’t think about it, I answer silently.  Go for it anyway, and I do, and because of my magic packing suitcase, everything arrives undamaged.  My prize possession from Guillermina is a skeletal crone whose flowing dress is painted black.  The hem is adorned with cream colored skulls, a red spider crawls along the folds of her skirt, a black shawl frames the sinister face.  Dia de los Muertos is characterized by underworld forms.

Forgive me if I repeat myself.  The impressions of Oaxaca are continuous revelations in memory.   As we head back out of town, we make a left turn almost immediately onto the side road leading to San Antonino, where I want to relocate Don Jose Garcia, the blind potter.  We go down a ways, turn right, make an immediate left at the next street and look for the clay animals that hang over the door to the courtyard that signals we have arrived.  A dog barks.  The door is ajar.  We ring the bell and step inside to be welcomed by the family.  Life-size clay figures cluster around the patio, are tucked haphazardly into corners, are laying on their sides — humans, animals, children.  We are greeted by Don Jose and his wife who guide us into the workshop packed with more sculpture, wall to wall, like the clay soldiers of Xian, men, women, and children stand or kneel side by side, almost alive, waiting to be adopted and taken home.

These pieces are glorious, primitive, raw clay, unglazed.  Some are rough.  Some are polished.  Each with a unique expression that conveys individuality and personality, a special quality that Don Jose has breathed life into as he forms the clay, braids the hair, fashions the nose, tilts the neck, arches the brow or mustache.  These are heavy pieces, primitive.  To ship them would require a crate and an investment of hundreds of dollars.  We admire and take our leave.

Hungry, our next stop is at Azucena where Jacobo Angeles operates a fine restaurant that caters to tourists and tour buses, Elderhostel, and other forms of non-adventure travel.  This is good for San Martin Tilcajete business, since Jacobo represents many of the finest carvers in the village.  On this day, there is a special exhibition of regional folk art on the grounds of the restaurant and gallery, a perfect opportunity to pick up another carving, to eat and drink well, and to make a necessary bathroom stop.

We backtrack to Santo Tomas Jalieza to visit Abigail Mendoza and her family at Nicolas Bravo #1.  On backstrap looms, they weave fine cloth with intricate figures that are fashioned into handbags, belts, wrist bands, table runners, and placemats.  Abigail does the finish work for the rugs woven by Arnulfo Mendoza and Tito Mendoza.  This is among the finest quality backstrap loom weaving you will find anywhere in the Oaxaca valley.

By now, it is five o’clock in the afternoon and the light is beginning to wane.  We travel along the highway back to Oaxaca with a trunk full of goodies, ready for a fresh mango margarita and guacamole at La Olla.  Descanse.

We ate this for a late supper (cena) at El Mural de Los Poblanos restaurant in Puebla.  It was delicious.  The best I could do was identify the ingredients and try to recreate this at home.  The soup bowl came with the chewable ingredients mounded in the center, about 1 cup per bowl of broth.  Our server poured the steaming clear chicken broth into the bowl from a covered pitcher, designed so that the diner would be served the hottest soup possible.  I loved that idea.

Ingredients:

• Cubed queso fresco (the white, firm Oaxaca-style cheese)
• Baby zucchini cubes
• Diced green pepper
• Sliced mushrooms
• Fresh corn kernels (use frozen, then thawed,  if fresh is not available)
• Squash blossoms
• Bits of fresh spinach or chard
• Hot chicken broth, pre-seasoned with salt, pepper, a bit of ground chili for bite

Serve with hot, crusty french rolls and butter and a glass of chilled white wine.

There are one hundred fifty-five pesos in my pocket, equivalent to about twelve dollars.  Just enough left after paying 385 pesos or $25 USD for my extra bag.  Take your pick.  One weights fifty pounds exactly and the other is thirty eight pounds.  The smaller duffle is packed to the gills with soft clothing.  I can barely close the zipper.  I wore the same black pants and two different shirts for a week, so why did I bring all these extra clothes?  It sure didn’t seem like much when I left home.  Space, like time, is precious.  The biggest bag is hard sided and measures thirty inches high by 23 inches wide by twelve inches deep (deeper when unzipped to expand) .  When I install a sturdy woven bamboo basket inside to create a rigid barrier, it becomes a great shipping container for ceramics and alebrijes.  This bag weight in at fifty-one pounds, one pound over limit.  Not even a smile and a plea to let it go worked, so I removed a small bubble-wrapped package from the cache of like wrapped packages, and stuffed it into my carry on.

Now, we are all tucked away in the Continental Express jet to Houston, two hours and seventeen minutes away.  Palms and blooming orange jacarandas line the runway.  The sky is pure, clear blue, without a cloud, transparent to heaven.  It will be another beautiful day.