Little Paris, kind of...

Yesterday I made my way up to Tlaxiaco, at last. I hopped a suburban heading out of Oaxaca City at 7am to arrive by 10 in mountains of the Mixteca. I toted tons of reading materials with me about indigneous media, Tlaxiaco, as well as the "essential" coat, hat and scarf. (Side bar: the #1 thing that people told me after learning I was heading up to Tlaxiaco was "it's REALLY cold up there. Make sure to dress warm.") Unfortunately, I could barely keep myself awake as we meandered up the major highway towards Mexico City and then off west on little roads to Tlaxiaco. So my memory of the ride is a disjointed glob of the sun breaking on pine tree-filled hills, small hub pueblos with miniature versions of the plaza back home in Oaxaca City and dust.

After inquiring at the bus station, I jumped in a taxi to head to the radio station. The taxista countered, "You want to go to The Poderosa?" Ah, the community station's commercial competition rears its ugly head. "No," I say, "The Voice of the Mixteca." And we barrel off for the small station on the outskirts of town.

First, I will say that it was a very productive day. It began, however, with some resistance. I first met with the station director. Uncertain whether he knew that I was coming or not (you can never be too sure that the Cultural Director at the Commission for Indigenous Peoples is actually making phone calls on your behalf), I was happy to find he recognized my name. After giving him a quick run down on the project he interrupted to let me know that they have a total aversion to researchers and producers coming in from outside of town to do projects. Apparently they have been burned pretty badly in the past. So it took another hour of cajoling and chatting and laying out my project plans to get a thumbs up. He then passed me over to Eva, the producer of the transnational program. I sat in as she edited a piece for air in the U.S. Each of the 5 stations around Mexico that are attached via satellite to stations in the U.S. are asked to produce one 5-minute cultural piece each week. They upload it to Radio Bilingüe's server so that RB can desseminate the pieces to stations around the country to air. Eva gave me a general tour. The rest of the day I spent wandering around the station introducing myself to the new faces (Faustino, Virgen Carmen, Maria Teresa...).

Around 4:30 Eva and departed to make our way towards the center of town. Tlaxiaco is teeny tiny. When I asked if there was a map I could look at they all laughed and said it was totally unnecessary. There is no way to get lost. The city is nestled amongst hills and mountains in Northwest Oaxaca state. The market is open air and small stalls with colored tarps wind off the main plaza, where a giant clock stands as a signpost and too where teenagers play music on huge speakers mounted on one side of the plaza. Just west is the town's government palace (a one-story, melon-colored building) and the main church. I'm including a picture of that church here (another beautiful sky peeks behind stone walls).



There's nothing too glorious about Tlaxiaco on first glance. It's definitely a commercial hub of sorts for the surrounding pueblos. Certainly it is a different place all together come Saturday's giant market, I hear. So I'll have to report on the great merits of Tlaxiaco on my return. But for now, I offer you a list of the many names for the city:

1. Roof of Oaxaca (for its altitude)
2. Grove of the Ball Game (?)
3. La Heroica Ciudad (official name)
4. Place of the Good View (given by the Mixtecs)
5. Little Paris (for its trade route in the early 1900s)

Afer the quick turn about town, Eva showed me up to her "casa humilde," where she graciuosly shared with me some warm tortillas and soup, as well as some conversation.

Here's the plan: travel to as many pueblos spreading out from Tlaxiaco as possible in the months ahead. Some are a quick taxi ride. Others are hours away, and would require that I spend the night. In some places I'll need a translator or cultural broker to smooth the way, others I will not. The purpose: to gather as much information as possible from people about the effect of the station and its programming. My intention: to deliver these testimonials in sound, and to do it as simply or beautifully, or creatively as possible. The director has a lot of interest in these pieces. He's said there has never been any kind of study accomplished about the effects of the station on its community--and they desperately need it. So it sounds like some of them might get some air time, as well. yipee!

I'm looking to accomplish some of the same in other stations around Oaxaca state, but to a lesser degree, as my focus is Tlaxiaco, and their relationship with those who have emigrated north. That means a lot of travel, of course. When I returned on the late suburban back to Oaxaca City, it made me smile to see the tiny dots of city lights as we crested the cero and broke into the valley. It's a nice home base, my home base. So I'll have to figure out in the weeks ahead how to juggle my field research with my editing work in the city. Yea, multi-tasking rocks!

Tomorrow I'm off for Guelatao, just north of Oaxaca by an hour. They are holding their station anniversary this weekend. So I'll take a trip up tomorrow to get to know the place. Then I'll record a bit of the festivities on Saturday. Daniel, the director from Tlaxiaco, said he'll meet me in Guelatao and we'll travel up further north to the station in San Luca Ojitlán Saturday afternoon, where they are also celebrating their anniversary. Hopefully by Sunday, I'll have visited three of the four indigenous stations in the state. I'm sure I'll have much to report on my return.

¡Buenas Noches!