I used to play Shane McGowan and The Pogues…turn it up…and do housework. The kids, when they were little, would groan, plug their ears and beg me to turn it off.
Shane’s growl is nearly unintelligible so these are some of the lyrics from this nationalist song from Ireland:
“If I should fall from grace with god
Where no doctor can relieve me
If Im buried neath the sod
But the angels wont receive me
Let me go, boys
Let me go, boys
Let me go down in the mud
Where the rivers all run dry
This land was always ours
Was the proud land of our fathers
It belongs to us and them
Not to any of the others”
Went to Las Vegas to spend a week with my son Greg over New Year’s. Greg and I went to bed New Years Eve at 10:30…he got called in at 1:30am for an emergency…a four year old had gotten bit on the face by the family pet Dachsund. The dog was sleeping and when the child leaned over to kiss it the dog became alarmed and bit him. Sad. Then Greg had to get up the next day at 5am to work again. New Years Day, Greg had a bunch of friends over to eat pizza and watch a Bowl game. I felt like I had entered a time warp after being in Oaxaca.
Greg in the brown shirt on the couch
Now it’s weird being back…from one galaxy to another and back again! Plane left 1am on the 5th so getting here at 11am left me pretty frazzled. Really enjoyed Greg and his friends…so high energy! But relief to get back where things are slower. Didn’t even go to one casino. They just leave me feeling vacuous. Just hung around his house…wallowing in luxury and convenience. Toilet seat didn’t even slip around when I sat down. Did some computer parts shopping…got a strobe light for my video camera…missed filming some things here over Christmas because I didn’t have one. And got a connector for my 20 inch flat screen. Now can watch movies and not lose my eyesight. Greg now has my desktop G5…just couldn’t bring it down here on the plane…plane from Houston to Oaxaca is one of those tiny two seats on one side and one seat on the other configurations…tiny overhead. Cooked some nice meals for Greg and his friend Mike who is staying with Greg until Mike lands a job…much to their delight…but mostly stuff I missed eating myself..like rack of lamb!
Have been burning and uploading videos of the last seven months of the teacher strike here. And videos of fiestas and parties…all can be accessed on “My Links” in the column on the right hand side of this web page.
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.
In the middle of November there were a series of Women’s Marches protesting the dead and disappeared and the assault of some women by the Federal (PFP) who had been occupying the Zocalo.
Last weekend I took Mica, Bardo and the kids from Hauyapam, and Charlie, who used to be a coffee bean roaster in Oaxaca in the 70’s but now is a roaster in Canada and here for a few weeks, in the car to Hierva El Agua about 50 miles into the mountains. There cold water mineral springs fall over steep cliffs and solidify into rock-hard deposits forming algae-painted slabs in level spots and accumulating into what appear to be grand frozen waterfalls…shining in the sun.
The governor is building a huge glassed-in pyramid-shaped restaurant within yards of the springs…giving diners (what diners?) a spectacular view of the Sierra Sur mountains where the indigenous Mixe live…but the place is accessed by pot-holed dirt roads. The only place to eat was an empty shack…interestingly named “Alice’s Restaurant” where we were the only patrons. The first evening a good-looking young woman gave us black beans, salsa and bread and coffee while she nursed her ten-month old little boy…her two year old by her side. She says it is common here for women to have ten children…but she has had her tubes tied, she says.
We stayed in the only bungalow…with “matrimonial” bed in a loft and two sets of bunk beds below. There was no gas for the stove or water heater. The gate-keeper in the same building had spent six years in LA and wanted to practice his English.
The next day we sat next to a smoke-filled wood fire in the corner of the dirt yard of the “restaurant” while an older woman made fresh corn tortillas on a huge comal. The tomatoes for the fresh salsa were roasted in the wood ashes…giving it a wonderful smoky flavor. She amazingly was able to grind the chilis on a window sill next to the fire. We devoured the avocados and cheese memelitas with the salsa and coffee…running for cover from the wood smoke whenever the woman stoked the fire. Best-tasting Oaxacan food yet!
On the way home, we stopped at a small family-run traditional mescal factory to buy jugs of Mescal. I will buy a small oak barrel with a spigot at the market to keep the mescal from drawing the taste of the plastic jug. The maguay plants are ground to a pulp in a round concrete “trough” under a huge marble “wheel” that is pulled round and round by a donkey. The mescal I chose had been stilled and aged with several different local fruits-and chicken breasts-in addition to the magay plant! Smooth, slightly sweet and full of flavor…40% alcohol…compared to the young 100% alcohol stuff that burns the gullet all the way to the stomach.
This week, Joe, a recently retired CPA from Chicago who is living in my apartment complex and teaching English, and I will have lunch together. Joe was married and has two grown children. Has also come here for a new life. Funny and gregarious…very nice guy. A young couple has just moved into the apartment (there are four apartments) from Canada. He is a writer …they have a 4 year old little boy who is squaring it off with the little girl in the manager’s apartment…neither of which knows the other’s language. They are driving the mothers nuts!
Can’t believe I’ve been here six months already. When my visa expires in August I will go to Asia to see my son and his wife, Josh and Amy, in Beijing China and son Doug and Luk, his wife, on the island of Koh Samui in Thailand…then probably back here if everything returns to normal politically. If not I’ll just stay in Asia.
At 8 in the morning the PFP advances upon the University of Oaxaca and begins firing at the radio and the university campus. Helicopters fly over and descend upon the radio university. At 9 in the morning 2 military convoys arrive as well as another convoy of PFP to help in the displacement of the radio. Throughout the morning police and tanks continue arriving. The Federal Preventative Police violently attack the people, throwing tear gas/gas bombs at the people that work inside of Radio Universidad of Oaxaca. Tear gas is also thrown from the helicopters. At 11:40 in the morning 18 people had already been detaining, including a student leader of the movement, two minors and a professor of the University of Oaxaca.
The people form a human chain in the area immediately around Radio Universidad. The radio calls out to neighbors to come out into the streets and give flowers to the military who are also in the areas around CU with their fire arms. The radio underscores that this is a peaceful resistance. They do not want deaths or injured people.
At ten in the morning the PFP severely attacks the population in the cross of five men where the barricade is located. In some areas of the city it is reported that the PRIistas are firing into the air, hoping to discourage people from leaving in the streets in solidarity with Radio Universidad de Oaxaca.
Medical help is sought. Many people are hurt as the PFP is using tear gas, a non-lethal arm, as a lethal weapon, firing it directly into people’s bodies at point blank range. The hospitals do not want to receive the injured people of the social movement.
Two of those detained were liberated. Vargas, the PFP official, was the one who had apprehended these people. They were savagely beaten before being released.
Marches in solidarity with Oaxaca, heading toward Radio Universidad, continue to leave throughout the morning.
In the afternoon, the PFP finds itself virtually surrounded by various groups who are in solidarity with the APPO and unable to leave.
At 5pm the PFP leaves the university zone after 6 hours of conflict, throwing tear gas bombs into houses while withdrawing.
The day of struggle left more than 70 injured persons and 32 detained by police, some of whom were flown away in helicopters of the federal police and army.
It is an example of dozens of videos you can buy in the street for $2.00 each. They were filmed and edited by amateur videographers, activists and/or supporters of the “movement.” To get the other side of things people can watch government controlled Televisa or TV Azteca.
Charly, Mica, Bardo, their kids and I went to a wedding today…a happy thing. Someone related to Mica. A professional couple. The wedding was in the very nice home of a relative…as is often the case the house was in a poor looking neighborhood on the side of a hill…weeds all around. Just the judge sitting at a table with the couple and witnesses standing facing him. Then we ate BBQ Chivo (goat) and drank lots of Tequila. The couple didn’t dance to the live combo…so neither did we.
Laughingnomad 