Festivals & Ceremonies

“El Grito” Cry For Independence

Posted on by Laughingnomad

In two days, Mexico will celebrate Independence Day on September 17. It is traditional for the governor to enter the Governor’s Palace, now a museum since the teacher strike of last year, and utter the “cry for Independence” at midnight. This is done in Mexico City and all over Mexico.

An expat reports “I have not gone today (Saturday) to personally look at the scene, but the usual is to place heavy barriers of metal, cement or razor wire in the roadways of all streets that enter the zocalo. The sidewalks permit entry of single persons who in the past have had their bags searched. The police stand at the barricades in riot gear.

A description of the “safety”, brought to us by a website in support of the government, ADA Sureste describes the event. It is a safety measure to have ready water tanks (high pressure hoses) and teargas, all the police units available as well as firefighters, and to patrol the streets and towns around the area. Inside the museum palace there will be units of police, with a total of ten strategically placed.

This is to continue through the independence day celebrations on the 17th. Since the grito ! will be given at midnight (or 1:00 AM on daylight savings, I don’t know which hour will be used) it will be dark, adding to the need for ‘safety.'”

This article also confirms that a separate “popular grito” will be given at Santo Domingo Church…the people refusing to participate in the official event. A friend in Oaxaca says “I would suggest that any foreigner who chooses to attend either the governor’s ceremony or the popular event do so with circumspect behavior, whatever that means.”

Birthday Fiesta

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Even though my birthday was last wednesday, I had preferred to stay in the zocalo to watch the June 14 commemoration. So last night I picked up friends Sharon and Max and we went to Mica and Bardo’s for cena (afternoon meal eaten at 4pm). Sharon brought a gift of a big jar of chopped garlic from Sam’s Club for Mica as the garlic cloves here are tiny and labor intensive to peel. Max brought a gallon of helado (ice cream.)

I had requested Mica’s shrimp sauteed in olive oil, chili, tomato salsa, garlic, oregano and the juice of oranges…cooled and eaten with fingers…heads and all. mmmm! We also had a juicy mixture of tuna, tomato, chili, garlic and I don’t know what all…wrapped in a flour tortilla and sauteed…also eaten with fingers. mmmm. We all ended up muy satisfecha (satisfied) and muy lleno (full). Mica had bought a chocolate cake soaked in rum with strawberries and my name written on top. We decided six candles were sufficient…I am 63 now. (Wow, how did that happen? Sounds old!) They didn’t even push my face in the cake…mordida…the price you pay for the fiesta…or cake…or your birthday? But they did sing a very long birthday song in Spanish. I felt like a very respected third-ager (last third of your life-span) and very celebrated.

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Xalapa Veracruz

Posted on by Laughingnomad

About 5 miles from Cuatapec, Charly and I caught the annual Xalapa (pronounced halapa) Fair the night before we took the comfortable 1st class bus back to Oaxaca. A small nino was earnestly helping his mom set up her display of toys.
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Some friendly guys from Puebla were helping set up the fair.
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Young guy preparing a sweet bread.
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A bar.
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Wedding In Teotitlan del Camino

Posted on by Laughingnomad

My friend Bardo is from Teotitlan del Camino near the Puebla border and his parents, three brothers and a sister still live there. Bardo’s father, Don Bardo, a furniture maker, and Dona Mari raised six children in their big open-air three story house in this town of 6000 so there was plenty of room for all of us who made the four-hour trip: me, Ana and Oscar from next door, Bardo’s wife Mica and her two children, Pavel and Angelita and Bardo’s sister Pilar. At the last minute Bardo didn’t go and missed the trip entirely.

We took the four lane Mexico City toll highway NE to Tehuacan and then through Puebla back down into Oaxaca again to Teotitlan del Camino (or de Flores Magon) and Pilar drove ahead with Pavel so that we could follow – which did us no good as I drove faster than she did. When it was time to leave the carretera Mica directed us to Miahuatlan instead of the road to Teotitlan so we ended up detouring slowly on pot-holed dirt roads through a couple tiny scenic villages…San Sebastian and Coxcatlan, the birthplace of corn…which was fine with me.
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CoCo’s Cantina

Posted on by Laughingnomad

The last time Max partook of his Brandy Presses at Cocos, a working man’s bar with classic swinging louvered half-doors near his apartment, he met with an altercation with a burly self-professed “communist” Mexican who insisted on appropriating Max’s drink. Max is a gringo…spread the wealth…I guess was this guy’s thinking. But Max, who subsists on a small social security check, was not to be outdone. It ended up with Delia, the bartender, who is incidently quite a lovely woman, walking Max home…cane and all. Embarrassed, Max had not been back for several weeks. So one night this week Steven from next door and I met Max at CoCo’s to help out with his reentry. Max is a great storyteller and the evening was enjoyed by all…if it just wasn’t for the music they apparently assumed would be our preference. We laughed when the minute the bill was settled up they switched to Mexican rancheros. We will have to let them know next time that we really didn’t come to Mexico to listen to old sappy American soft rock especially when we can revel to the happy sounds of drunken Mexican sing-alongs…and that high-pitched “campesino yodel” as I call it. Am going to have to find out what the Mexicans call it…certainly not a “yodel.”

Yesterday I watched “Babel” on my computer…borders and boundaries…subjects I could certainly relate to. Now I’m getting history in the HBO series…”Rome.”

This morning Bardo, Mica, Pavel and Angelita and Steven, Ana and little Oscar and I are driving to Teotitlan del Camino, a small village up by the Puebla border, for a “la boda”…a Mexican blow-out wedding celebration over the weekend. We are taking a hundred dollars worth of Tequila. If I stop blogging someone send out the Green Angels.

Christmas Season

Posted on by Laughingnomad

The Christmas season begins with the celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12 and continues until January 6…the Day of the Three Kings when presents are opened.

The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe or Virgen de Guadalupe) commemorates the traditional account of her appearances to Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin on the hill of Tepeyac near Mexico City from December 9 through December 12, 1531. It is Mexico’s most popular religious and cultural image: Nobel laureate Octavio Paz wrote in 1974 that “the Mexican people, after more than two centuries of experiments, have faith only in the Virgin of Guadalupe and the National Lottery!” On Guadalupe Feast Day people wait in line for hours to enter a church and kiss the foot of the Virgin. Little children are dressed up like the indigenous Indian children to whom the Virgin appeared.

During the Christmas season there is music, dancing and expositions of all kinds in the Zocalo and all around the Centro. One evening there were three music groups going all at once in the Zocalo including a Calenda with traditional indigenous dances in one corner in front of the Cathedral and a stage full of dancers demonstrating modern Mexican dance styles in another corner. A trio of flutes played indigenous folk music in the middle! And that’s not counting the guitarist and singer in one of the cafes and the poor roving singer with long black coat who sings a horrible loud version of “Oaxaca Oaxaca” and then expects you to give him money for your trouble!
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San Andreas Huayapam Fiesta

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Last week, with friends, I attended the annual San Andreas Huayapam Fiesta about 25 minutes northeast of Oaxaca City. Very well organized with a lot of people for such a small pueblo. There was a local band that played music during the fireworks that scared the heck out of me and kept me well back from the action. Men ran up and down with with fireworks shooting out of structures built like bulls and castles. Once in awhile small boys would chase after a wheel that would spin off into the crowd.

Then a huge structure was lit with continuous fireworks shooting up and down and up into the night sky. Young men walked around giving out free copas of mescal and cigarettes. Food stands and carnival rides for the kids surrounded the band stands and dance area. I understand that each family was assessed $30 for the fiesta…a very large amount for most people. By the end of the night no one had ended up in jail as is often the case. When the fireworks were finished a great band played for the dance that began at 1am. The band played until 5am with no break.

Day Of The Dead, Black Mole, Hookah Pipes

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Went to my landlord’s home yesterday morning to make black mole…pronounced “molay” a Oaxacan specialty that is always made for the Day Of The Dead and served exactly at 11:00 on November 2 for the spirits of the dead who come back to eat with the family. It’s a relief to be away from the phone and the computer and the Zocalo that seems only to be giving me bad news the last few days.

A life-long friend of Gerardo’s, a newly minted teacher that will be teaching in the Mixtec about four hours away, was already there visiting. He majored in English which was quite good.

Joe, the other tenant in my apartment building who is here teaching English. arrived soon after. My landlord, Gerardo (another Gerardo from the one I have been hanging out with) and his mother Socorro put us all to work. She put a skinless chicken with onion on the stove to boil. Joe was in charge of charring the dried black Ancho & Pasilla Negro seeded chilis on the hot ceramic comal and putting them in water to soak. Then we fried dried French bread chunks, banana slices, garlic, cinnamon bark, some almonds, a cup of raw sesame seeds, a cup of plumped raisins, oregano, thyme, cumin and some pepper corns, cloves and salt in a bit of oil. Then fried some tomatoes and tomatillos. We put all the fried ingredients together with the chilis into a pot and drove to a nearby torilleria where they ground everything together making a thick paste. Then back to the house where we put the paste into another bit of oil in a huge ceramic pot…stirring constantly…watching the paste turn dark. Then Socorro slowly added cups of the broth from the boiling chicken…Joe stirring for about a half hour with a huge wooden spoon. At the last minute Socorro added a bit of wonderful Oaxacan chocolate.
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Marriage Blessing

Posted on by Laughingnomad

My sons Josh and Greg have flown onto the island of Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands from Beijing and Las Vegas respectively. Josh and Amy will have Malcolm Miner, a close friend and retired Episcopalian minister bless their civil union that took place last September in the Brooklyn courthouse.

Amy drove from New York to Denver where she dropped off her car at her mother’s home and then flew to Hawaii to meet Josh. About 20 of their friends have flown in from all over the U.S. to witness the event and doubtless to party it up.

Josh, as Chef de Cuisine, will open one of the Hilton’s restaurants in Beijing upon arrival back into the city. Good luck with jet lag Josh! Amy will join Josh in Beijing in September after she finishes-out the term teaching history at Rutgers University. Don’t think she realized what she was getting into when she married a Goetz!

CONGRATULATIONS JOSH AND AMY!

Son Douglas and his wife remain at their home on Koh Samui Thailand where yesterday a strong wind caused a palm tree to fall onto some electrical wires and shorted out all their electrical equipment…stereo, washer, fans…everything! “What problem do you have,” I asked Luk, Doug’s wife, when she called me. “Oh, nitnoy” (just a little bit) she says cheerfully! That’s Luk! That’s the Thai attitude!

I remain in Oaxaca Mexico, Bob in Salem Oregon, Amy’s mother in Denver and her father in Florida. Amy’s sister and her husband are taking their young son, Gabe, home to Hemet California today from Loma Linda Children’s Hospital where he has been recovering from a bone marrow transplant to treat leukemia. A miracle in a global family!