Zocalo

Funeral & Friends In The Zocalo

Posted on by Laughingnomad

After getting home from the trucha dinner Saturday night, Gerardo had called me. He had just heard on the radio that one of the APPO guards at a barricade had been shot and killed early Saturday morning. 7am this morning (Sunday) I walked to the Zocalo to see what was happening. The family and few friends were gathered around the casket…flowers everywhere. I asked a long-haired Mexican book-seller what was going to happen next. A march, he said…and then the church funeral.

I sat for a couple of hours and watched…not feeling like taking pictures. Then I saw my friend Sharon barrelling through the Zocalo…trying to catch the people marching to the church with the casket. We headed back to the Zocalo for coffee. Then Benito showed up. Then Benito’s law professor. Then a young French woman who is working with local banks to encourage micro-lending. Then Mike appeared after working all morning on his photos in the apartment.

By 1pm Sharon drifted off to read her Spanish-language newspapers, Laura left to catch her bus for Mexico City and Benito, his professor and Mike and I headed off for the Tabula Rasa which wasn’t open yet. Found another cantina, of course. Mike took pictures of the signs on the bano (bathroom) doors…Viejas (old women) and Machos for men! What does that tell you about Mexican men’s attitude toward woman?

By 4:30pm I stumbled home for a siesta leaving Mike to take pictures in the Zocalo. Gerardo called. I begged off. Am getting too old for this! Go find Mike, I told him! Call me later tonight!

And so it continues in Oaxaca

Monte Alban & Huayapam

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Yesterday morning Mike and I drove 30 minutes to Monte Alban…a gigantic Zapotec ruins on top of one of the mountains surrounding Oaxaca City…passing early morning walkers along the way. We were the sole visitors this morning in this ancient ruins…meditating on the lives of this great indigenous people…looking sadly at the carvings of naked vanquished enemies. And we are surprised that the descendents of this proud people are standing up to their oppressors and shouting Basta!?

Around 500 BC ancestors of Oaxaca’s Zapotec people founded what many believe to be Americas’ earliest metropolis. They raised monumental platforms, pyramids, palaces and ceremonial courts. Encompasing 3 sq miles, Monte Alban flourished for centuries as a city with as many 40,000 at it’s height a thousand years later until an invasion of Mixtecs from the north who became the ruling class in a number of valley city-states. The blend of Mixtec and Zapotec art and architecture sometimes led to new forms especially visible at the sites of Yagul and Mitla.

Monte Alban is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

By 10 am we were drinking bad coffee with Mirella, my Australian friend and my friend Sharon in the Zocalo.

Then I walked across the Zocalo to visit Max at a sidewalk cafe. After awhile, I received a call from Gerardo. “Come to Bardo’s and bring some beer and cheap mescal,” says Gerardo. Just as I hung up, an old Mexican comes by our table selling a three-liter gas can full of mescal…smooth yellow mescal…”anejo” (aged) mescal. I bought a liter of water, dumped it out, gave Max a liter and took off for the apartment to get Mike who had collapsed in his room earlier for a nap. “Hey, Mike, get up, you want to party?” And off we went to Huayapam…of course getting lost in a small village but finding our way through dirt roads to Bardo’s house. I gave out my gifts I had brought for the family and Bardo sent out for great pastor tacos with those glorious sweet roasted onions while Gerardo regaled us with the story of his march, his hard life in Mexico and ten years in the US while poor Bardo, tired of listening to Gerardo’s untranslated (slurred by this time) English, finally retreated with his wife Mica to their bedroom to watch TV.

Dodging the burning tires and barricades through the Centro, we finally made our way home at 2am…eating left-over vegetable soup and guacamole before collapsing into our beds.

Getting Visa At Immigration

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Went to the zocalo at 7am…burned out car half a block from zocalo on Bustamante. Wanted to go to immigration to get my visa…waited half an hour for bus on Pino Suarez…none came so I took a taxi to immigration. Edna at immigration said 5 buses were burned last night but I saw none. Their land line was down for a few hours this morning. Buses and shopping carts are blocking all streets on all sides of Gigante Market but the store itself is open and the ATM is working. . Most other businesses are closed. People are grouped at various corners. On the way back the taxi didn’t want to take me to the zocalo so I returned home to Fiallo St..