Days in Oaxaca

The last week has been filled with work work work. I've been trying to crank out this radio series for XETLA before my grant period ends in July. My goal is to cut together and do a final mix of a single piece each week. In addition to that, I've been hard at work on the "what next" project. "What's the 'what next' project," you ask. Well, in a nutshell, a colleague at the station in Tlaxiaco and I are trying to start a youth radio center in a village outside Tlaxiaco. The project germinated from three separate conversations I had with people in this village, San Juan Mixtepec. The first, with the Municipal President, who is trying to get some youth programs started in town to offer what are some very bored teens an opportunity to do something else. The second, with a young villager who always wanted to sit down and gather the stories of the older generation of his town--but didn't know how, or even how to make the time between working to survive. And the third, with a few people around town, lamenting the gradual loss of their mother tongue, Mixteco. That got me thinking, why don't we use radio to 1) engage young people, 2) collect and archive the oral histories of this town and 3) preserve their language.

So there are a bazillion (very scientific word) details to work out about this program in the interim. Here's a list: fundraising, curriculum, organizational structure, setting up a non-profit, getting a visa to do that, getting an advisory board, fundraising, getting municipal support, finding space, buying equipment, did I mention fundraising...? Needless to say my head is spinning in details.

Here are a few of the images that I've plucked out of that spinning mess of the city, when I'm out taking a break from work:

Best recent Oaxacan food/drink discovery: Aguas Casilda. I happened upon a great food blog that had some Oaxaca entries from about six months ago. The first of a few recommendations was this juice and orchata stall within Bénito Juárez Market south of the Zócalo. This miracle is orchata (a rice milk drink) complete with floating cantaloupe, almonds and tuna (the fruit that sits on the end of the prickly pear cactus, not the seafood). Delicious!

Sometimes a random city intersection has the prettiest little hutch wherein sits a Virgin Mary. I found this one particularly interesting because it was sitting above the wall of colorful graffiti, which is in the picture at the top of this blog page.

Okay, here is the fountain that sits in the central courtyard of the museum next to Santo Domingo, the main church in Oaxaca City. This museum is really a renovated convent. It's one of my favorite architectural structures in town. And the courtyard is utterly peaceful midday.


But let's pull up a little closer to take a gander in detail. See the little cherubs crowded around the base?


Is it me or does this little guy look like he's drinking from some sort of tube? Like one of those beer hats?

I sat and read a book while I waited for the shop inside the museum to open; it's got a great collection of books and magazines. Right in front of the stone bench upon which I sat was this fading picture of Mary.


Well, there's a bit of info and a glance at the details of the city. More later on my trip to Mérida!