Oaxaca, Mexico July 20-24, 2011

Fried grasshoppers, a Oaxacan specialty

Enjoying lunch on a balcony overlooking the Zocalo

Beautiful views from the Santo Domingo monastery

Practicing for Monday's Guelaguetza (reciprocity)

festival in Santo Domingo's square

http://youtu.be/hyXY8Cph7iI 

Universidad de la Tierra 
“Oaxaca: Alternatives to Education” lecture by Oliver Froehling, Academic Director
http://unitierra.org/09/index.php

Universidad de la Tierra offers a different type of learning environment for indigenous communities and urban neighborhoods. Learn new skills, get hands-on practice, make a living and give back to your community. Tierra uses Internships, seminars and workshops rather than formal semester courses. Ex: urban agriculture, human rights how to maneuver legalities

#1 – communications – new media
#2 - environmental management – eco techniques, latrines, water capture, reclaiming land w/ small dams.

Tierra's rooftop urban garden classroom

Compost toilet

Not Tierra’s agenda to prepare students for global marketplace – rather prepare students for a local way of life – not necessarily in opposition but very different perspective

Goal is to go back to their own community, build community networks

Sergio  Beltran worked for Tierra and is still connected with their work and maintains his relationships. Sergio is thoughtful and passionate about his work and shared some of his innovative concepts with Linda and I.
'Upcycling' – being responsible for your waste and have to  make it more durable, more useful and more beautiful than it was before. Garbage is most abandoned resource in the world.

'Co-motion' not promotion – work together as equals rather than exploit and be superior.
'From Scaling Up to Scaling Across'

Goal of projects are independent sustainability, conversations – everyone can learn from each other/ figure it out together -  not just one way conversation and learning, find and nurture local partnerships, figure out together how to pay – how do you get $ to get what they need, not what you have to offer. Look for Tierra's work in Oaxaca and Chiapas in the new book, Walk Out Walk On.
http://www.walkoutwalkon.net/

Tierra in action w/ Sergio Beltran in  Teotitlan del Valle.

An amazing group of Zapotec women from this village have created Vida Nueva, a collective based on their traditional cargo system, that is 'creating economic and artistic opportunities'. Every year the women choose a project that enriches and empowers their community. 

Oven project to increase efficiency in order to reduce quantity of wood used as well as negative health effects.

Waste management, recycling and composting to increase cleanliness of community and be responsible for waste. Every Sunday, every family in the community cleans the street in fornt of their home.

Tree replanting– 30 trees that Sergio promised to deliver
Mother’s day gifts and toys for children

Revive use of natural dyes

Violet demonstrates the natural dyes used to create textiles.

Indigo - fermentation of root from coastal Oaxaca
Blue - Zacatincan plant from the indigo family. It is a green plant changes water to red and when used for dying changes to blue.

Cochinel red is a white parasite/bug on a cactus, carefully removed, dried for 3 days or oven, ground by hand w/ volcanic rock. Cochinel is a symbol of blood and was more valuable than gold.
Ginda is del Valle's original dark red color
   + lime = orange
   + ash= purple
   + limestone, vinegar, leaves
11 different shades and 5 natural colors of wool – over 100 different colors, shades, tones

Brown - bark, pecan, walnuts – shell of nut fermented
Yellow – marigold

Camino de la vida is an original design that reflects the peaks of life’s journey, birth, youth, reproduction, old age, death, roadblocks. I bought the Camino de la vida rug, 3rd from the left.

Another original design inspired by the Zapotec designs on the community's church and colored with different amounts of cochinel and ash.

“Indigenous Organizations and Social Conflicts in Oaxaca”
Why is Oaxaca  a center for protest? –
After colonization, refugees retreated to mountains to be left alone. Oaxaca has the largest diversity of cultural life, 80% surface area of the state of Oaxaca is not private but social/communal property.
Oaxaca has the largest # of municipalities in Mexico - 2,300 – 570 of Mexico’s 2300 are in Oaxaca Indigenous communities maintain a 2-tier electoral system referred to as Usos y Costumbres where they elect authorities to the community assembly in their own way.
   
Many communities in Chiapas, such as Chamula, also use the Usos y Costumbres system. The system requires the assembly to designate people for a position /cargo of unpaid service to community for a period of time. In some villages, you must be male and over 45 years old to participate in the assembly. Due to the large number of men working temporarily in the United States and an increase in women’s cooperative, more communities are selecting women for the assembly. Cargo is a requirement for assembly members and can often be a hardship for women who may also be raising children, maintaining and enriching their textile traditions.

Shopping in Oaxaca

Oaxaca's very own festival
¡ Guelaguetza !

A Zapotec word indicating an offering 

The Guelaguetza is a commitment to sharing and the practice of contributing for the betterment of the community – often referred to as 'usos y costumbres'. The mason may build a brick oven for the baker with the understanding that the baker will provide cakes for the weddings of the mason’s three daughters (though at the time of the building they may be ages 8, 10 and 14). The town upholsterer might re-do the undertaker's furniture, thereby guaranteeing that his funeral will be take care of. The community might also come together to see that people in unfortunate circumstances are looked after.

Since 1932 (Oaxaca’s 400th anniversary) groups from the seven regions of the valley of Oaxaca have presented carefully chosen dances with local characteristics and regional dress at this annual festival. During the dances, to symbolize the commitment to sharing, local gifts are tossed to the crowd.

 In preparation of Monday's festival, there was a parade to the zocalo this afternoon welcoming the seven regions to the city of Oaxaca. During the parade, I received a red kerchief and multiple offers of homemade alcohol. 

The amazing cathedral light and music show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP-QXK_vlbU

 Lisa and I with our new blouses