Mexico Mosaic: The Journey Continues

The Sierras and Parque Nacional Cumbres (National Summits Park) have been described as "the best scenery in the world.” I had a list of places to see: Cola de Caballo, Puerto Genoveva, El Manzano, Cienega de Gonzales, Cañon de San Cristobal, Cañon de San Isidro and Laguna de Sanchez, a dry lake. It would be an all-day drive into the mountains. I preferred to have some company and be free to look at the sights rather than watching the road.

Spotlight on Jacobo Ángeles ...

Try searching the Americas to find creators of folk art with more form, symbolism and importance to the development and sustenance of their culture, than those of indigenous ancestry in Oaxaca, one of the southernmost Mexican states.

Many so-called experts in folk art have mistakenly written that the origins of Oaxaca's wood carving tradition date back fifty or sixty years, to a small number of carvers residing in one of the central valleys of Oaxaca, a few miles from the state capital of the same name. The error has consistently been equating the recent commercialization of the art-form with its origins, and ignoring its pre-Hispanic roots and subsequent development.

Jacobo Ángeles lives with his wife María and two children in San Martín Tilcajete, one of three main native Zapotec villages, where most residents earn a living from carving and painting colorful figures, often generically referred to as alebrijes. The others are Arrazola and La Unión Tejalapan.

Leaping Dancers

Nine young Zapotec men in their 20's and 30’s bedecked in bold primary colors – red, green, yellow, black -- and crowned with feathered headdresses the size of a large moon, leap and twirl into the air, shake rattles and raise a carved and painted wooden talisman to the sky. They are reenacting the Spanish conquest through dance as an annual ritual of remembrance. The accompanying band, a crew of both veteran and youthful musicians, play flutes, cymbals, drums, trumpets, tubas, clarinets, saxophones, in an oompah-pah cadence reminiscent of a Sousa march with hints of German polka. They chant and speak a conversation between Moctezuma and Cortes, in which Cortes says there will be a special god that will come in the appearance of Cortes and conquer the Aztecs. The entourage includes Malinche, the Aztec princess who learned Spanish, became courtesan to Cortes, and betrayed her people according to lore. Two masked clowns, the buffoons, parade between the dancers and along the sidelines, make mocking gestures. Village children represent the Spanish soldiers in a parade before the dance begins.

This year (2008), the Dance of the Feathers is scheduled to start July 9th in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca.

Border Crossing

The Grand Marquis needed a lube, an oil change, and the tires rotated. I stopped before the border in Laredo, Texas. There was a long wait so I went to a café next door, sat down, ordered coffee, and looked in my guidebook for Villa Santiago, Mexico's latest designated Pueblo Mágico. This Magic Town was not listed in the Lonely Planet Guide, but my map showed that Villa Santiago was just southeast of Monterrey in the Sierra Madre Mountains. I guessed it would be about a 4-hour drive from the border, but with Monterrey in between it might be longer. Villa Santiago would be a new experience. I would head east, take the scenic route, back roads and side trips, before going south to San Luis Potosi.