Murals

Murals are popular throughout México and Oaxaca is no exception. This is a small collection, all within the centro. If the slideshow doesn't appear, apparently it doesn't work on an iPad, go to my picasa web album.  The captions are the street names of the murals. Some are advertising.  

Santo Domingo de Guzmán

The Church and former monastery of Santo Domingo de Guzmán, Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzmán, were founded by the Dominican Order. Construction begun in the mid 16^th century continued for over 200 years. The monastery was active from 1608 to 1857. During the revolutionary wars the military occupied the buildings. The church returned to religious use in 1938. In 1972 the monastery became a regional museum, and in 1993 restoration began which completed in 1999. It is an exceptional example of conservation architecture by Juan Urquiaga. The church has also been fully restored. Its highly decorated interior includes use of more than 60,000 sheets of 23.5-karat gold leaf. The main facade of the temple, oriented to the west, is constructed of local quarry stone. The temple is one of the most outstanding examples of Mexican baroque.

The rooms that formerly constituted the monastery now house the Cultural Centre of Oaxaca, which was founded with the help of Oaxacan-born artist Francisco Toledo. This museum includes an important collection of pre-Columbian artefacts, among them the contents of Tomb 7 from the nearby Zapotec site of Monte Albán. The former monastery garden is now an Ethnobotanical Garden, containing a large collection of plants native to the region.

On the main floor of the ex-convent has gallery space which at various times has hosted a wide range of exhibits from contemporary art to Mexican history. The courtyard hosts concerts and other cultural functions. For a closer look please view my photo gallery.

Sierra Norte

Oaxaca lies in a convergence of three valleys at about 1500 m (5000’). Mountain ranges of more than 3000 m (10,000’) block the weather from both the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific. Mexicans refer to the people who live in these mountains as ‘the people of the clouds’. Some of these people live in a group of small pueblos known collectively as the Pueblos Mancomunados that are run as cooperatives and together they own about 70,000 acres of the Sierra Norte. The Pueblos Mancomunados provide services for eco tourism. You can stay in an adobe cabin at night, eat at a restaurant in town, then during the day hike or mountain bike on trails or on roads connecting the pueblos. Only 40 miles from Oaxaca, San Isidro Llano Grande is one of those pueblos surrounded by pine forest with a bit of fir and a lot of madroña and a bit of scrub oak. The woods contain many useful plants including pennyroyal, pericón, chepil, papal, rabbit grass, copal, chepiche, purslane, maguey, and epazote. In the rainy summer months they have mushrooms. Considering the elevation the terrain is fairly gentile.

Since for each 1000’ of elevation the temperature drops from 3 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit with 5 being the norm for clear skies it can be 25 degrees cooler than the valley floor. Even though it can get cold, it rarely snows in the Sierra Norte. When the clouds come usually it warming and it rains. Although every place on this earth is unique the upper elevations of the Sierra Norte feel a bit like coast range in southern Oregon near Ashland with a touch of California’s Northern Sierra thrown in, but then there are the tropical plants such as bromeliads. For another 20 pictures please go to my picasa web album.

Here are a few websites with a bit more information:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parque_Nacional_Benito_Juárez

http://www.cdi.gob.mx/ecoturismo/oaxaca_llano_san_isidro.html

http://tierraventura.wordpress.com/the-sierra-norte-of-oaxaca/

http://www.oaxaca.travel/index.php?te=TE0002&ds=TE0090&st=TE0001&at=AT0288&pagina=1&lang=en

Los Danzantes and El Timon

Los Danzantes

Holiday greeters in the courtyard in front of Los Danzantes

Let’s take a break and have something to eat. Oaxaca has many choices. Los Danzantes is a sister restaurant to one in Mexico City. It’s located off an interior courtyard on Macedonia Alcala between Bravo and Allende and is open for lunch and dinner starting at around 1:30 PM. While not traditional Oaxacan cuisine it is very upscale and combines modern and traditional elements in both food and décor. Normally they command top prices but on Wednesday and Friday they offer a price fix comida consisting of a mezcalito, sopa o entrada, plato fuerte, agua de sabor, postre, and café o té all for $105 (pesos) and prepared to their high standards. Get there early, it starts around 1:30 PM and when they run out your out of luck. For 25 pesos more they’ll throw in a glass of wine. Another nice thing about the comida, the chef gets to play. At most restaurants in town the menu rarely changes.

Before the lunch rush

Pools and the lounge area

Stuffed squash blossoms with chapulines

A starter of pasta with camaróne

The main course a chili stuffed with mariscos

A dessert of guayaba with a salsa of tuna

Los Danzantes movable awning of sails

El Timon

The second place, El Timon, is a hole in the wall with about 7 small tables. El Timon translates to the rudder so expect mariscos. The main thing here is tostadas or cócteles of mariscos, including camarón, pulpo, ceviche, almejas, y ostras or in English, shrimp, octopus, ceviche, clams, and oysters. You can also get a shrimp soup and on Fridays and Saturdays whole fried fish, usually Huachinango or red snapper. The ceviche here is better than at some of Oaxaca’s finest. The cóctele de camarón y pulpo is a personal favorite. The cócteles come in three sizes and you can wash one down with fresh limonada or naranjada, bottled water or coke. Everything is made to order including the limonada and it’s often a one man show so be prepared to wait. El Timon located on Matamoros between Porfirio Diaz and Garcia Vigil is open midday only from around 12:30 to about 6.  Unfortunately El Timon closed in January 2012.

Yanhuitlán - Manuel Reyes

Santo Domingo Yanhuitlán es un pueblo de la Alta Mixteca del estado de Oaxaca, situado al noreste de la ciudad de Oaxaca. Su nombre proviene de la patrona de la ciudad (Santo Domingo) y la última parte es del náhuatl. El pueblo está dominado por el Templo y Ex-convento de Santo Domingo construido a partir de 1541. También es el hogar de ceramista Manuel Reyes. Primero visitamos Manuel Reyes quien nació en la Ciudad de México en diciembre de 1972 a los padres de Oaxaca.

Mis padres son de la Mixteca Alta, en esta región del estado, y siempre me he considerado un oaxaqueño. Esa es mi herencia, mi derecho de nacimiento. Aunque he tenido la formación de algunos de los grandes maestros del arte mexicano, he desarrollado una gran parte de mi estilo artístico de mirar y hablar con los artistas locales aquí en la Mixteca.

Santo Domingo Yanhuitlán is a village in the Mixteca alta of the state of Oaxaca, located northeast of Oaxaca city. Its name comes from the patron saint of the town (Saint Dominic) and the last part is from Náhuatl.  The village is dominated by the Templo y Ex-convento de Santo Domingo built in starting in 1541. It is also home to  ceramic artist Manuel Reyes. First we visit Manuel Reyes who was born in Mexico City in December 1972 to Oaxacan parents.

My parents are from the Mixteca alta, in this region of the state, and I've always considered myself a Oaxacan. That's my heritage, my birthright. While I've had training from some of the grand masters of Mexican art, I've developed a large part of my artistic style from watching and speaking to local artists right here in the Mixteca.

En 1990 Reyes comenzó a estudiar arte en la Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas en Xochimilco, Ciudad de México. En 2003, Reyes regresó a la Mixteca a restablecido en sus raíces.

" Las lecciones que aprendí a través de mi entrenamiento formal han sido inestimables, pero obtener inspiración y han adoptado técnicas no sólo de mis maestros, a quien le debo mucho, pero también de los artistas y artesanos del barrio oaxaqueño de Nochixtlán. " Reyes trabaja en conjunto con su esposa Maricela, un talentoso artista en su propio derecho. " Lo que he aprendido de la gente de mi cultura ha sido muy valiosa para mi trabajo, el uso de un horno de leña hecho de barro y ladrillo, sobre los diferentes tipos de arcillas para esculpir disponibles en Oaxaca y la forma de mezclar diferentes tipos de los suelos para crear una amplia gama de colores de la pintura y los tonos y texturas. Al final, mis piezas son producto de mi ambiente local. "

In 1990 Reyes began studying art at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas in Xochimilco, Mexico City. In 2003, Reyes returned to the Mixteca to re-established his roots.

"The lessons I learned through my formal training have been invaluable, but I gain inspiration and have adopted techniques not solely from my teachers, to whom I owe a great deal, but also from the artists and craftspeople of the Oaxacan district of Nochixtlán." Reyes works together with his wife Maricela, a gifted artist in her own right. “What I've learned from the people of my culture has been invaluable to my work, the use of a wood-burning kiln made of mud and brick, about the different kinds of clays for sculpting available in Oaxaca and how to mix different kinds of soils to create a broad range of paint colors and tones, and textures. In the end, my pieces are products of my local environment."

Reyes explica la imaginería sexual representa en sus esculturas actuales. "He estado haciendo un buen número de hombres desnudos desde el año 2005, no inicialmente por el diseño específico, sino más bien porque eso es lo que se representa a menudo en el arte y las representaciones de las actividades del día a día prehispánica, y ese es el tipo de trabajo que he disfrutado haciendo en los últimos tres años. Cuando nos fijamos en las primeras figuras de barro zapoteca, y de hecho los que datan de los olmecas y los primeros tiempos, eso es lo que mis antepasados ​​estaban creando. varias esculturas retratar la esperanza y la oración, así , por lo tanto una parte de la antigüedad, con la cabeza mirando hacia arriba a los cielos y las manos en alto. "  Reyes reconoce que esto sigue siendo un negocio por lo que cuando los coleccionistas de hombres gays comenzaron a tomar interés en esta fase de su desarrollo artístico, que lo motivó a continuar y experimentar con el tema de la sexualidad masculina, como se representa en los códices y esculturas de civilizaciones anteriores.

Reyes experimentos con máscaras como una forma de arte. Su uso en las fiestas es común en Oaxaca, la tradición que se remonta quizás 3.000 años.  Manuel también le gusta el rock y el blues de los años 60 y 70 así como un homenaje que ha creado figuras de John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix y Jim Morrison. Para ver Juan y Jimi y más de la obra de Manuel visitar mi álbum web.

Reyes explains the sexual imagery depicted in his current sculptures. "I've been doing a fair number with nude males since 2005, not initially by specific design, but rather because that's what is often depicted in pre-Hispanic art and representations of day-to-day activities, and that's the kind of work that I've enjoyed doing over the past three years. When you look at the earliest Zapotec clay figures, and in fact those dating to Olmec and earlier times, that's what my ancestors were creating. A number of sculptures portray hope and prayer as well, so much a part of ancient times, with head looking upward to the heavens and hands raised."

Reyes acknowledges that this is still a business so when gay male collectors began taking an interest in this phase of his artistic development, it motivated him to continue and experiment with the theme of male sexuality as depicted in the codices and sculptures of earlier civilizations. 

Reyes experiments with masks as an art form. Their use at fiestas is common in Oaxaca, the tradition dating back perhaps 3,000 years. Manuel also likes rock and blues of the '60s and '70s so as a homage he has created figures of John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison. To see John and Jimi and more of Manuel's work visit my web album.