Have been in Oaxaca for a few days now and am really enjoying it. Such a contrast to Mexico DF and my first taste of the Mexico I´d heard described.
It´s a small town in a valley surrounded by mountains. The historic centre is laid out in a gridlike pattern which should make getting around pretty easy, but I seem to get confused at least every 15mins, though am now slowly discovering which way not to go.
The school I´m studying at (Solexico) is smaller than previous ones I´ve been to. The advanatge is smaller sized classes (3 people per teacher in mine) and a quite close knit group of alumni - we´ve met up most nights by random chance wandering the streets and ended up going out til the early hours of the morning. I´ve been put in the most advanced class which is generally revision which suits me fine. If I were wanting a more demanding advanced course I´d probably consider changing schools, but as a laid back way to tune up my skills and get some language practice without too much homework it suits me fine.
Today is the second full day of Day of the Dead festivities. The tradition is that on the 1st November the dead children come back to visit their relatives and on the 2nd they are joined by dead adults. Processions of children and adults dressed up in costume led by musicians throng through the streets in the evening while the local graveyards are filled with family members of the recently departed who are in turn out numbered by hundreds of tourists snapping photos and burning up video tape.
Our school organised a trip to a 16th century graveyard on the eve of the events - and while it was fascinating to walk among the graves it did feel a bit intrusive as the day is obviously quite an emotional event for some families. However the Mexican tourists far outnumbered the gringos, there were hundreds of stalls selling foods and special sweets to the crowds nearby and an enormous band played typical Mexican songs just inside the graveyard so I guess it´s fairly acceptable to gawk. Nevertheless I concentrated my picture taking on graves which weren´t being attended to while I was there.
Amusingly we managed to lose two of the group who still weren´t back at the meeting point an hour after the specified time. Bearing in mind we were on the outskirts of town and there were precious few taxis it´s not clear how or even if they ever made it back. I guess it pays to listen to instructions.
Last night I had drinks with some friends from Mexico City and then went for a wander. My teacher had mentioned a big spectacle outside one of the city´s churches so I went along to investigate.
It was amazing. The story of the day of the dead told with music, dance, ballet, fireworks (set off amongst the cast at times threatening to reunite them with their lost ones rather sooner than planned) and a lots of dry ice. As well as offering a real insight into the backstory it was surprisngly affecting in parts - both when the dead appeared to rise out of the ground and then again later when they are dragged away from their unaware still living relatives. Truly memorable and unlike anything I´d seen before.
I´d met a group of friends at the show and we set off afterwards to the city´s central modern graveyard - quite different from the first. Very few family members this time but the modern looking shrines were all lit by candlelight, as were the walls of tombs. After a wander about 15 of us gathered in a circle, opened a bottle of mezcal (think of tequila then add petrol) and proceded to tell each other ghost stories. After a while a couple of Mexicans in their 50s decided to join the group. I think more attracted by a couple of cute swiss germans rather than my storytelling powers. At the end the one sitting next to me informed me his friend was a notorious drugs smuggler. Nice.
Today is the main day of festivities and there´s no school. So have been instead looking at some of the wonderful and pretty twisted works of art that scatter the city to mark the DoD, a couple of examples of which can be seen here.
Oaxaca has the reputation of housing Mexico´s leading arts scene so some of the craftsmanship is very impressive. Highly tempted to start exercising the credit cards but sadly I guess the cost of shipping the objects back home would be prohibitive, so the photos are going to have to do.
One last tale before I go. In class yesterday I asked the teacher why this area had near non-existant crime levels when Mexico DF has the opposite extreme yet is just 6hrs by car.
She told us that although domestic violence is a major problem here most people refrain from attacking others because it´s a close knit community and they are still influenced by the way they and their families lived in the nearby villages. To illustrate she told us that about half a year ago in a village several miles outside Oaxaca the local policeman went out got drunk and caught a taxi to get home. Ona arriving at his destination he refused to pay provoking an argument with the now irate taxi driver. Things came to a head when the driver turned to leave, still unpaid, and the policeman shot him dead in the back. The next day the policeman was lynched.
Being a law enforcement officer the police wanted to discover who was responsible and sent in the detectives. No-one talked. For three months no-one was allowed to leave or enter the village and all the inhabitants were questioned. No-one talked. Policemen were posted at every corner to try and discover what had happened. No-one talked. Eventually the police were forced to abandon the case and the whole matter was hushed up.
The moral of the story is that I now check I always have change before hailing a cab.
Chao muchachos
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