Oaxaca -- a beautiful day for a protest

[bixaorellana]

Today I had to go downtown. Lo and behold, when I got off the bus I ran smack into a mega march by the teachers from the entire state of Oaxaca. They’d all had a monster chunk “discounted” from their paychecks, and were out in force to protest.

It was a beautiful day, and being a Mexican protest, it was pretty jolly.

Here’s where I had to go – the office of immigration, which is in a colonial building across the street from the north side of the cathedral. Pretty, huh?




Let's leave. You can see part of the crowd there on the side of the cathedral ~


Here's a closer look at that side ~


Look at the intersection. There are still people arriving from the march -- the same march that was going on when I got here almost an hour ago. To the left in the photo is the Alameda -- the big square in front of the cathedral.


Texting, talking, milling ~~

Just one of the many food and drink carts catering to the crowd ~

[bixaorellana]

Part of the Alameda is a park. This is across from the front of the cathedral. There were speeches being given.


But what is this, to one side of the speaker's platform? Why, it's a filthy, torn old mattress, set up on an easel.


I have GOT to see what this is.

It's an artist "painting" a scene of the cathedral with thread!




I can truthfully say that I've never seen anything like it before.

[bixaorellana]

Ready to brave the zócalo? There are vendors everywhere, selling everything you can think of -- lots of clothing, purses, wallets, hippie jewelry, food, you name it.


But good grief, what a throng!


Get your revolutionary documentaries here!


Jicaletas -- big round slices of jícama on a stick, just like a lollipop, or paleta. The round things are tamarind mixed with sugar, brown is plain, red is with chile.

A quiet moment, as one waits to go on, and the other looks for customers ~




Fruit ~

and more fruit ~

[bixaorellana]

But don't let the festive atmosphere fool you into thinking that there isn't real anger and dissatisfaction with the government. This is part of a protest that's been up for a while, attached to the front of the old governmental palace, which is now a museum.
Art history students -- recognize the picture?






Well, I'm ready to head home. First, here under the banners, I buy some bare-rooted Christmas cactus. Then I go in the first section of the Benito Juarez market, just off the zócalo, for dog bones.

Now I'm entering the second section so I can buy bread.

Blind singers ~

This is what's in the lighted display you can see at the end of the entrance photo. It's the fancy jewelry worn by women from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Some of it is fake, and some of it is 10 carat gold-plate.


Back out on the street, I'm getting a real sensory overload from the heat, crowds,
and sheer stuff for sale everywhere. I'm going home!

[hwinpp]

Looks a bit like a regular fiesta, Bix!

Under that poster of all the leftie revolutionary heroes, is that a face of Pablo Escobar I spy?

Don't tell me the myth building around him is already starting...

[lola]

Great report, Bixa. Wonderful photos. I love the faces, forms, colors.

Mattress art: a folk artist original. How would this look over the couch, dear?

(Goya -- Saturn Devouring His Children. Let's see. The gov't is .. I mean the naked headless... There must be some sort of subtle symbolism)

[imec]

Great post bixa! (and I love how the colours from your new camera really POP!)

[tod2]

Wow Bixa, those photos are fantastic! This gave me such a wonderful insight to the sights, "sounds" and people (Some years ago I used to import golf hats from a company in GUANAJUATO, Mexico).
I am very intrigued about the "mattress artist" - can you tell me how he was applying the thread to the mattress? Like, what kind of needle (curved, large, straight??) and was he knotting the ends as he sewed on the picture?

[bjd]

Thanks Bixa -- nice to see some bright colours after our dreary November rain.

Hmmm, HW is right -- it looks like Pablo Escobar!

"'Tis the season to demonstrate, la, la la...": France, England, Italy, Mexico, Afghanistan, Ireland... Any I've missed?

[mickthecactus]

Great photos Bixa - thanks.

The more I see of these the more I get to know about a country of which I know very little beyond their native vegetation.....

I'd love to visit one day. Perhaps when Mr Lottery pops by...

[bixaorellana]

HW, since vendors seem to appear from nowhere whenever there is a crowd, it does make for a festive atmosphere.

Another thing is that there have been vendors in the zócalo and the alameda for some time now, in defiance of the governor. I'm strongly in support of the vendors, as they add interesting local color and because it's a way for the so many rural and/or uneducated people to make a living.

The city of Morelia, in Michoacán, "cleaned up" the area of vendors. The result is a clean, open, totally boring city center that looks like a movie set. In Pátzcuaro, also in Michoacán, there used to be a thriving street business of people selling the distinctive embroidery of the region. Not any more. The stupidity of yanking away a revenue source for a large part of the population with few resources is breathtaking.

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Thanks so much, Lola.
The Goya poster says: "No more violence among Mixtec brothers! No more kidnappings! Resolve the agrarian conflict in Yosoñama." This is in reference to a land dispute.

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Thank you, Imec. I did have to diddle with the pics. Many were taken by pointing blindly, as the sun was so strong I couldn't see the viewing screen.

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I've visited Guanajuato, Tod -- a very pretty town, where Diego Rivera was born.

Sorry -- didn't pay much attention. I think it was a straight needle and that he was slicing the thread as he went along. I can't imagine anyone actually purchasing the finished work, so maybe he pulls out all the threads & starts over. I assume people give money, the same way they do for chalk artists, but I didn't see a collection hat or anything.

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Bjd, my heart sank when I realized I'd have to swim through an ocean of people to get where I was going. But I was also eager to finish my business to get back where the action was!
I did a two-part report on civil unrest in Oaxaca: pt. 1 and pt. 2.
And yeah, there are at least a couple of movies about Escobar, including a documentary that's been run on tv about his son, who wants to make amends for his father. That's supposed to be really interesting.

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Mick, I can't think of anything I'd like more than to accompany you into the countryside where your beloved cactus grow. I'd learn so much and we'd have fun!

[bjd]

About Escobar's son -- when we were in Colombia last year, there was a film+interview on about him. Apparently the son of a murdered (by Escobar) governor said he forgave everything and was filmed talking with Escobar's son. However, most of the Colombians we talked to about it were rather cynical about the whole thing since the son actually lives in Argentina under an assumed name, has lots of money and is supposedly working as an architect.

[myrt]

How fascinating! Your protests are much more interesting than ours in the UK! And sooo much more colourful......and the mattress art is very odd but strangely effective...Art through Adversity....delicate too - fancy having the patience to do that on such a scale in the middle of a political protest!

Really interesting Bixa, thank you!

[Deleted]

Hooray, Bixa has a working camera again! Now she can get down to business.

And yes, the immigration office is in a beautiful setting.

Countries where people still have protest marches fill my heart with joy.

[hwinpp]

Nov 26, 2010 16:16:27 GMT bixaorellana said:

HW, since vendors seem to appear from nowhere whenever there is a crowd, it does make for a festive atmosphere.

Another thing is that there have been vendors in the zócalo and the alameda for some time now, in defiance of the governor. I'm strongly in support of the vendors, as they add interesting local color and because it's a way for the so many rural and/or uneducated people to make a living.

...

I'm also strongly in support defying governors generally.

[bixaorellana]

heh heh heh heh ~~ today I had to go back to the immigration office. It was with great glee I snapped this picture. The hated governor finally left office yesterday.


You can see that there is no forgiving & forgetting going on. This was on the wall of the post office.

[Deleted]

They'll have to recycle the countdown sign for somebody else now!

[lagatta]

I don't look at the photo threads on my own clunker, but I'm catching up a bit elsewhere. Lovely photos but bummer about the underhand theft of the teachers' wages.

[bixaorellana]

Sorry, LaGatta ~~ I completely failed to see your reply.

A friend reminded me that part of that march might have been to commemorate November 25, 2006, the day Federal might was used to crush populist protest.

It's hard not to interpret the wage docking as the outgoing governor's final fillip of revenge against the teachers and a petty-minded "because I can" gesture.

However, the teachers have lost an enormous amount of ground in terms of public sympathy. Bottom line is that when the chips were down, the teachers turned around and blandly screwed the very movement that backed them. The teacher strike attacked by the police in June 2006, the one that ignited the uprising against the governor, was the 25th yearly strike. Since many children don't attend school because their parents can't afford the (not required by law) uniforms nor the excessive number of supplies mandated by teachers snottily divorced from how vast portions of the population live, there is more than a tad of cynicism about what the teachers really want.

To read a fairly balanced account of the movement, scroll to "recent" in this link. Much more detail here. Keep in mind two crucial things -- one, that Ruiz Ortiz is widely assumed to have stolen his 2004 election; and two, that ungovernability had to be proved in order for the governor to be removed. That was emphatically proved, but nonetheless, Fox sent in the troops and bulldozed the movement.

And thanks for the photo compliment!