Bici-Zapata

Bici-Zapata, Calle Crespo, Oaxaca de Júarez, Oaxaca. October 2010.

It's been a while I know! I've been contemplating coming back for a few weeks now but sometimes life gets in the way and then before you know it we just don't know how to come back... Where to begin!

October and November are probably hands down two of my favorite months here in Oaxaca for so many reasons that I don't think I can explain just yet. Can't say December's been too shabby either ;]  I don't see myself writing about the 'lost weeks' at the moment, but something tells me I will come back to these 'lost weeks' at this time next year when I am completely homesick for Oaxaca...

Now back to where we left off...

This Bici-Zapata went up a few weeks ago. It was designed by two young artist friends and I had the chance to see their original stencil. The piece is about 5 feet tall (to give you some perspective), and the stencil looked very complicated. They put the piece together on paper and then pasted it on the wall. I think this was their trial piece since I found pieces of others throughout the city after a protest march. Pasting stenciled pieces is becoming increasingly popular because of the speed these artists can put their work up clandestinely.

There is no doubt that stenciling continues to be all the rage here in Oaxaca. Just the other day, M and I walked into an art school and found the whole inside of the building had been used as a canvas by stenciling artists. The city itself is a changing canvas upon which artists paste and stencil their work, archeological remains of those that came before found in bits and pieces framing the most recently exhibited work.

I leave you then with exhibit B...  and yes I am back ;]

Ps.
I am working on redesigning my page, so bare with me... It will look weird for a while until I get the redesign all done :]

Flores Magon & friends... Barrio de Xochimilco, Los Arquitos, Oaxaca de Júarez. November 2010.

Bicentenario from the South (part deux)

Break dancers  next to calle Indpendencia practicing their moves, Sept. 15, 2010.

Oaxaca's bicentenario celebrations were no where near what we saw in newspapers, through youtube videos, and heard coming from DF, but it was very much a reflection of where Oaxaca (and maybe the rest of the country), is. It was evident that for one, the PRIs defeat (the country's ruling political party for over 70 years, and in Oaxaca for almost 80), put a big damper on the 'official' celebration. In Santo Domingo, the anti-government celebration was left to be, although there was no lack of intimidation. Truck loads of soldiers passing on nearby streets, state police on motorcycles periodically running through the pedestrian street where the Triqui women from Copala had setup camp, etc. Nothing out of the ordinary really.

Near the zocalo, the group of young break-dancers that usually gathers on weekday and weekend evenings, set up their radio and put on a show for each other and the curious passerby. The show was interrupted periodically by those tourists and locals wanting to take a picture in front of the countdown clock (which was miraculous clean, no graffiti, no stencil art, no tagging). 

Despite the mostly tranquil bicentenario in the city of Oaxaca, there were several communities under threat, Copala, Zimatlan de Matamoros, and Ixcatlán, hence unable to celebrate. In the community of Copala 3 women were shot during the days leading up to the national celebration. Due to the threats on the community, none of the women were able to receive medical attention until they were 'recued' from the community by state police.

Here are a few more pictures from the bicentenario celebrations in the city of Oaxaca. The few night images I could rescue from my digital camera ;)  Enjoy!

Heroes de la Independencia with National Anthem in several Oaxacan indigenous languages, Spet. 15, 2010.

Catedral, Sept. 15, 2010.

Zocalo de Oaxaca, Sept. 15, 2010. 

Sombrerote, Hidalgo y Morelos, Sept. 15, 2010. 

Ex-Palacio de Gobernación, Sept. 15, 2010.

Banderas, reguiletes, y soldados (soldier convoy) en Alcala, Sept. 15, 2010. 

El Bicentenario from the South

Vocho, bandera y paloma, Sept. 2010.

After a year of preparations, analysis, and talk about Mexico's 200th independence anniversary... IT ARRIVED! Toda pomp y circumstance, but not all out pavorreal, aventando la casa por la ventana as we might have expected, or as DF seems to have gone. Unless you've been living under a rock, in some hole, or the such here in Mexico, there was no way around the Bicentenario frenzie. Living through the bicentennial celebrations here in Oaxaca was interesting. Unlike the DFs all-out-bash, (a few links for your enjoyment: link 1 link 2), Oaxaca seemed quite tranquilo, and if you walked through the zocalo just the day before "el grito" the plaza was full of anti-government graffiti up the waaazoo! It was hard to imagine any government celebration actually taking place the next night. 

The next day I was actually shocked to walk through the same plaza to find it all painted over, cleaned, and as festive as an army of workers could get the place. You could still make out the words ASESINO through the paint during the day, but lucky for the government night time lighting can perform miracles. 

The celebrations went on without a hitch. I say celebrations because there were two in the centro de Oaxaca, the 'official' celebration over which the outgoing governor presided, and an anti-official celebration held in front of Santo Domingo (one of Oaxaca'z main churches and tourist corridor), where the on-going planton by Triqui women was reinstalled after having to move a few days before. At the second celebration videos highlighting some of the ongoing struggles in Oaxaca were projected. The place was filled with mostly young people.

At the 'official' celebration, three stages were set up from which music acts alternated. The whole place was strung up in green white and red lights and large portraits of some of the indenpendence heroes were set up in front of the cathedral with the himno nacional (national anthem) written in a few of Oaxaca's 16 indigenous languages. 

To celebrate Mauricio and I had a plate of nachos, a beer, and I accidently ordered some kind of Cancun-Spring-Break drink that the waitress insisted on setting-on-fire and having me chug with a straw... Hmmm Yeah! It wasn't my style at 16 or 19... Turns out I'm still not into the chugging, so I didn't! Who knew that Juan Rulfo's classic "El Llano en Llamas" would be turned into some flaming chugging devil drink?! Se a de estar revolcando en la tumba!

Anywho, here are a few images of how the Bicentenario looked down south in Oaxaca. Will post the night time images on another post. Enjoy!

Balcon y bandera, Sept. 15, 2010.

Ex-Palacio de Gobierno, Oaxaca, Sept. 15, 2010.

Sombrero Viva México, Sept. 15, 2010.
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Papel picado, Sept. 15, 2010.

Our lunch! Chiles en nogada, only available during this time of year... Click here for a recipe

Reguiletes, Sept. 15, 2010.
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Manequín, Sept. 15, 2010.

Grita tu Pesar, Sept. 15, 2010.

Hereo de la Independencia, Guerrero como Boxeador, Sept. 15, 2010.

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Zapata Instructions

Zapata léase instrucciones, Buscando a Zapata Series, Oaxaca, 2010.

Our back and forth travels lately have left me with little time to write so I apologize de antemano for la tardanza with this post. 

Now only a few weeks from el grito commemorating the 200th anniversary of Mexico's Independence, and with this year also marking the 100th anniversary of la Revolución, it is, I think, appropriate that Zapata makes another appearance on this blog. One of my favorite, along with the Zapata Punk that no longer exists, in my Buscando a Zapata series, this mural sits inside a house nestled in the middle of our currently chaotic city of Oaxaca. Sometimes I think it might do better sitting outside where people can see and read it... A reminder of where we are 100 years later.

As for the chaos...
Transportation costs went up 64% from one day to the next with bus fares going from 4.50pesos a few days ago to 7pesos. Yesterday the streets were blocked everywhere, making it impossible for people to get from one place to another. We got home just in time for it...WELCOME TO OAXACA!

This is not the first time I see Oaxaca on foot, but the mere scale of this time's street blockades was much larger than I have ever seen except for the 2006 uprising. Traffic seems to be flowing today, and negotiations between state 'regulators' and the transportation companies have cut the initial increase to 22%, 1 peso for the time being... Still, it does make you wonder how much can be squeezed out of people, many of whom could barely pay the previous fee... 

In the meantime... Zapata con todo e instrucciones!

Simply Zapata

Emiliano Zapata, Crespo, Oaxaca de Juárez, July 2010. 

Emiliano Zapata, Jardín El Pañuelito, Oaxaca de Juárez, July 2010. 

Punk Emiliano Zapata, La Piztola design, Oaxaca de Juárez, July 2010. 

The Scream and Oventic, Chiapas

Caracol Resistencia y Rebeldía por la Humanidad, Oventic, Chiapas,
sabado 29 de mayo, 2010.

'Zapata,' Oventic, Chiapas, May 29, 2010.*

"In the beginning is the scream. WE SCREAM.

When we write or when we read, it is easy to forget that the beginning is not the word, but the scream. Faced with the mutilation of human lives by capitalism, a scream of sadness, a scream of horror, a scream of anger, a scream of refusal: NO.

... It is from rage that thought is born, not from the pose of reason, not from the reasoned-sitting-back-and-reflecting-on-the-mysteries-of-existence that is the conventional image of the thinker..." 

- from Change the World without taking power, by Josh Holloway.

Lately the scream has been building up inside of me. Lethal cocktail, chemical reaction between myself and the world apparently...

No soda POP f i z z i n g ,  j u s t   a   B I G   B A N G ! glass and fire flying   s l o w   m o t i o n  through the air...

Can't read the paper, can't hear the news, can't over hear conversations on the street without the SCREAM  b u b b l i n g  up like lava in a volcano...
YA BASTA!

Flotillas, oil, bullets, and tassers... not to mention the ball of quesillo** that gets bigger and BIGGER each day here in Oaxaca... YA BASTA! They screamed form the SOUTH!

Now their silence   e  c  h  o  e  s   like a pebble tossed in a calm lake.

So we went to that place called Chiapas to see for ourselves. Turns out the revolution will NOT be televised... but IT WILL be painted.

P a i n t e d  on  the muros y paredes of every building, in every corner, wherever the eye can see... s h i e l d s   o f   c o l o r   a n d   h o p e. 

Aquí, a few of the pictures I took while in Oventic. The second of two Zapata in Chiapas posts.

Los Zapatas de Oventic

* Click on the images to enlarge.
** Quesillo is a Oaxacan string cheese wrapped into a ball much like a ball of yarn. There is a saying in Oaxaca, that basically pokes fun at the fact that Oaxacans managed to even make cheese difficult by wrapping it into a ball. 

Zapata en Chiapas

Zapata en San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas

I first traveled to San Cristobal in the summer of 2006 amidst the Oaxacan movement. To be completely honest, I can't say I liked it much. It took one tamal and about a day to decide to head back to Oaxaca as soon as possible. The town's mini European city feel with its abundance of cafes, wine and cheese bars, as well as the stark divisions between the indigenous population, revolutionary travelers, and coletos* to name a few, were too much to take while my head was immersed in Oaxaca's barricaded streets. 

I went back last week. This time I knew we would be there at least a week and I went with the intention of giving San Cristobal and myself a second chance.  Things turned out well and I have much to write and reflect upon. First off, however, I am posting some of the Zapata images I found throughout the city. 

To say you can find a Zapata or two in Chiapas is an understatement. Zapatas mark the Chiapaneco landscape like no other place I have been to in Mexico. Here is the first of two entries on Zapata in Chiapas. A very brief sampling of the contrasts and the irony of how his image is used.

"See you in 2010," stencil en calle Guadalupe Victoría, Centro, San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, mayo 2010.

"Rebeldia Zapata Cover," Tierra Adentro, San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, mayo 2010.

"Zapata Corner," San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, mayo 2010.

* Coletos - is the term used for people who are from San Cristobal.

Zapata en Marcha

'Zapata en Marcha,' Calle Independencia, Oaxaca de Juárez, abril 2010.

And so Zapata keeps on marching con esa mirada callada, encendida, llena de coraje multiplicada en los rostros de docenas, de cientos, de miles, de millones cuyos pasos tejen y remendan esta tierra.

And yet, once upon a time it was out of Oaxaca's veins that this nation's great thinkers and leaders emerged. 

Dicen por allí that La Revolución never got to Oaxaca... que, it never reached the South. Murmullan que es por eso su condición, permanent caudillismo, sheer abandonment, sin modernismo... The price it has payed. 

And yet I find it hard to believe, hard to take in the national myth of the absent South... Si es que Zapata never reached these lands, como es que las sigue caminando?

I see him roaming, walking, marching throughout estas tierras perforadas. Firm, resolute, and unwavering...on the faces of many and marching.

Hay Chihuahua!

 'Adelita Remix,' Tlacolula, Oaxaca, marzo 2010.

I have been irritable, w i g g l i n  g   out   of my own skin just to JUMP back in with the Cherríe Moraga, Sandra Cisneros, Anzaldua Chicana in me. The I AM the great granddaughter of one of Pancho Villas men... Magdaleno 'El Mocho' y aquí mis cacahuates truenan!

I am short of patience long with Hay Chihuahua straight shooting. Woke up this morning and wrapped my Guadalupana in a mantle of hooks, Lorde, and Davis, para empezar. 

Went to a book presentation last night, mas bien, went to ANOTHER book presentation last night. Here they come like a junkie's need for a good   l  o  n  g   hit. No criticism just the fly high. The lull until the next presentation is where the withdrawal slowly creeps in...

But back to the fix...
Como dicen por allí 'Dios los hace y ellos se juntan,' mas o menos translated to 'God makes them and they gather.' Same scenario here, same faces, same protocol, same bravo bravo from the same IN-crowd de aquí a Timbuktu.

Listened to the man talk about the desires and wants of a 'beautiful and goodsmelling' female prostitute. Her ability to love despite her condition... her condition... a poco su condition no era human?

Listened to the other man talk about how he made her, c o m p i l ed  her from the stories of many putas. Did a lot of ethnographic research, REALLY got into it... So much so he can smell her, she smells good... a chabacanos, Channel, a sexo... She sings... has the most beautiful voice. She sings because he likes it...she sings.

A woman made from his male desire? No no, como crees cuide mucho que fuera ella misma, says the man.

Listened to these two men dissect her, want her with every pore on their body. Want her more for her inalcanzable condition, her made-up condition. Listened to the first man try to handle the complexity of globalization, talk about the neoliberazation of a woman's body with a few s t u m b l i n g words... 

Escaped inside myself as heads nodded in aw and approval. Then wondered where I could get DUCK TAPE to rescue the sounds of the night... the far off wooing of a marimba and youth fresitas overtaking the street outside the smoke filled labyrinth of 'literature'...

Hello Again Zapata

100 years after the official start of the Mexican Revolution, the enigma of Zapata in the Mexican  imaginary continues to be unprecedented.  In the grand irony of life, the campesino from the south who went up in arms demanding land reform, has been invoked by government implementing land privatization programs as well as by insurgent and grassroots groups alike.

The image of Zapata with his emblematic thick black mustache and intense dark eyes, continues to be scattered like confetti throughout Mexico on walls, t-shirts, stickers, posters, etc...  He pops up in the most unexpected nooks, crevices, and craters of society. A ranchero or a punk, zapatan imagery invokes the forging of national identity that is both official and unofficial. And so in my continuing quest to find Zapata here is another image I found near Grafica Actual, an artist workshop/gallery, in Oaxaca.

'HELLO Zapata,' calle Allende entre Porfirio Diaz y Garcia Vigil, Oaxaca de Juárez, abril 2010.

Zapata Punk

Zapata Punk began to pop up in 2006 during the APPO movement. The art collective ASARO stenciled the Mohawk clad Zapata on walls in a sense claiming his image for the underground, marginalized and highly persecuted youth movement that sprung during the 2006 mobilizations. Four years later, despite an apparent return to the status quot, the youth movement that walked the streets in support of change continues to march to its own beat through small collectives. And so Zapata Punk continues to make his appearance here and there as if to confirm their continued resistance.

  'Zapata Punketo...' from the 'Looking for Zapata' series. Oaxaca de Juárez, 30 marzo, 2010.

Zapata en Tlacolula

As promised... I am still looking for Zapata...

'Zapata en Tlacolula,' from the 'Looking for Zapata,' series, March 28, 2010.

Buscando a Zapata

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Mexican Revolution. Here in Oaxaca,  the federal and state governments have placed a large countdown clock on one side of the zócalo (main town square), counting down minutes, hours and days. Speculation about what might or will happen given the dire circumstances of large sections of the population in most of the country vary.

There are whispers amongst some of the possibility of armed rebellion, while others speak of fundamental social change through different and peaceful means. Regardless of ongoing debates on the significance of this year in the national Mexican imaginary, I have decided to document echos of the 1910 Mexican Revolution through a series I am calling 'looking for Zapata' or 'buscando a Zapata'. Here is the first image. 

'Zapata en CASOTA,' Oaxaca, Oaxaca de Juárez, 4 de marzo, 2010.