Following Up on Teachers, Sort Of

A quick scan of the headlines tonight at Noticias offers nothing new on the subject of teachers' bonuses, so I resort to sharing what I've got. What follows is hardly responsible journalism, but I've yet to make that claim here.

Among the random stuff in my inbox: this today, from somewhat known sources, acquaintances through the Oaxaca Study Action Group, a Yahoo group open to anyone with a Yahoo username. I don't know who added the English text summarizing each paragraph, but I figure it's worth a read. If nothing else, it's sort of fun to observe how information moves in this community. See for yourself:

14/12/2007 12:56:06 PM Autor: Rebeca Luna Jiménez Oaxaca, México. Diciembre 14- El Secretario General de Gobierno, Manuel García Corpus informó que el gobernador Ulises Ruiz logró canalizar recursos por el orden de los mil 350 millones de pesos para el pago de los salarios de los más de 70 mil trabajadores de la educación, luego de sostener reuniones de trabajo con los titulares de Gobernación y Hacienda del gobierno federal en la ciudad de México. He managed to find the money to pay salaries. Dijo que el mandatario destrabó la problemática derivada de la insuficiencia de recursos económicos para el pago de salarios y el correspondiente al primer pago del aguinaldo de los maestros. But there's not enough to pay the bonus En tanto, los maestros por segundo día bloquearon tres partes de la capital oaxaqueña, además que maestros de la región de la Cuenca cerraron la carretera federal en Tuxtepec a la altura del puente El Caracol con la finalidad de exigir el pago de su aguinaldo. Therefore the teachers blocked three fourths of the city of Oaxaca and closed the highway in Tuxtepec Ruiz Ortíz logró el pago correspondiente a las dos quincenas de diciembre, por lo que a partir de las 14.00 horas estaba subsanado el problema, sin embargo a las 15.00 horas las manifestaciones continuaban con sus bloqueos por trabajadores administrativos y educandos. Había bloqueos sobre la carretera federal Cristóbal Colón frente al Instituto Estatal de Educación Pública de Oaxaca (IEEPO), en el puente del Tecnológico, la gasolinera Bautista, la Secretaría de Finanzas. Dos puntos fueron desbloqueados el del monumento a la Madre y de la Universidad Pedagógica Nacional (UPN). García Corpus dijo que el gobernador sostuvo entrevistas con el titular de Gobernación, Francisco Ramírez Acuña, y el de Hacienda, Agustín Cartens para que de acuerdo a la normativilidad se les pagará el aguinaldo a los maestros el próximo martes, en tanto que los salarios del mes a partir de las 14.00 horas de este viernes. Pay the aguinaldo next Tuesday, is what the secretary general of government came up with Se hizo la inmediata gestión a efecto de cumplir en términos generales con el magisterio en su conjunto, por lo cual destacó que el jefe del Ejecutivo local así como los titulares de la SEGOB y la propia SHyCP, acordaron canalizar recursos por el orden de mil 350 millones de pesos. No hay un tema tan sensible que tiene que ver con el salario", razón de ello, subrayó, la atención inmediata del mandatario con los servidores públicos del Gobierno Federal quienes en una actitud de corresponsabilidad con la administració n estatal, hicieron una negociación extraordinaria para cubrir los adeudos por concepto de salarios y aguinaldos". So Ruiz is doing right by negotiating for the release of extraordinary funds

I couldn't easily offer the English in red, as it appeared in my inbox, so I bolded it. Lack of terminal punctuation is faithful to the original.

Christmas Cheer, Teachers Demonstrate

UPDATE:My friend Adam tells me that, as of Friday, the government scrambled up some money, borrowed from next year's budgets, to pay the teachers and get them off the streets. So crisis averted, for now.
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I've been pretty swamped this week between grad school applications, teaching and tutoring, and running around to all the holiday parties that have sprung up in Oaxaca this Christmas season. So when I read today that there's a teachers' demonstration in Oaxaca this week, I'm not exactly surprised that I didn't hear about it.

Demonstrations are not taking place in the zocalo, as did the strike of 2006. This article from Saturday's Noticias only says:

Las manifestaciones originaron un enorme caos vial en la ciudad capital, al establecer bloqueos en seis accesos carreteros y calles de la capital, algunos de los cuales se mantenían hasta anoche.

In a nutshell (and my translation is always questionable): "Demonstrations brought enormous chaos to the capital city, establishing blockades along six access roads and streets in the capital. Some protesters have been out since last night."

I didn't observe this "enorme caos" during my workday Friday, which took me from the south end of the Periferico at 20 de Noviembre, through the center, back out to Cinco Senores, passing by the road to the airport, and down Universidad to Plaza del Valle and Simbolos Patrios. As of 4:00 pm Friday I didn't have a sense that anything unusual was happening at any of these points, but that easily could have changed in the evening or during the day Saturday. If anybody knows where the demonstrations are happening, comments would be welcomed and appreciated.

I received this English language summary of events from Ronald Waterbury, of the Oaxaca Study Forum:

Conditions have indeed returned to “normal” (at least in the statistical sense) in Oaxaca. The government does not fulfill its obligations, and in response the teachers’ union blocks the streets and produces vehicular chaos. In this particular example of the ritual, the federal government (which provides the vast bulk of the money to pay teachers) didn’t release funds for the regular December paychecks nor for the first installment of the traditional Christmas bonus (due December 8). At least the state government appears to have learned a lesson from the 2006 conflict because rather than crack heads, as it did on June 14, 2006, it simply returned to the years-long practice of ignoring the protests. They didn’t even send out traffic cops to help the besieged motorists maneuver through the mess. This way the government hopes that the public will blame the teachers for the inconveniences, and from my own very unscientific survey of vendors in one of the public markets, the government was successful. Even people who sympathized with the APPO movement of last year, in frustrated anger used phrases like: “the teachers are at it again!”

Emphasis mine. Nancy Davies offers this, via the Oaxaca Study Action Group:

. . . we have another situation here with the teachers, who have been blockading the roads for two days to demand their pay AND their usual annual "aguinaldo", the Christmas bonus. The bonus for most workers is part of the pay package, not a nice gesture at the will of the employer. In this case, the governor-employer URO says he's so sorry but there's no money to pay it.

Emphasis mine. Jill Freidberg, of Corrugated Films, adds:

In addition to concerns people have about traffic and losing money, there may be some hard feelings left over from 2006. Folks might feel like the teachers are willing to mobilize on a large scale when it comes to them getting paid, but not when it came to sticking with the "fuera URO" mobilizations in the last couple months of 2006, after the teachers had lifted their strike. This is a long-standing complaint - that the teachers are usually only acting in their own interest when they take to the streets, not in the interest of civil society in general. I think it's important to remind people that, during 2006, thousands of teachers who DO place civil society's demands and needs above the teachers' union demands, saw the formation of the APPO and the subsequent mobilizations as an opportunity for teachers to finally rebuild that tie with civil society. But not all 70,000 teachers feel that way, and there are quite a few of them who really are much more likely to hit the streets over their salary than over any other demand.

Emphasis mine. Okay, that's a lot of information to digest. And here I am oblivious to all of it until I wake up Sunday morning and check two days of mail in my inbox.

Let me throw my two cents in, both of which might be highly uninformed at any given moment. It seems to me that Ronald Waterbury has it right, that Governor Ruiz would rather wait for public opinion to turn against the teachers than to send in troops to clear the streets. Especially now, when tourism is on a gentle but sustained uptick, and the festival season creates commercial opportunities for so many businesses. Even for a guy with his record, Ulises Ruiz can't want images of police in riot gear and protesters with bloodied heads on the news pages of the Mexican papers during the holiday season. I've heard (wildly) unsubstantiated speculation that Calderon may consider removing Ruiz from office before the end of his term, and another round of violence in the streets won't bode well for the governor's political future, assuming he even has one.

Nancy Davies points out that the Governor says he's "sorry but there's no money" to pay for teachers' bonuses this year, which are part of a negotiated pay package and not a true bonus in the first place. The issue of bonuses aside, the way I read Ronald Waterbury is that December 8 salary checks haven't even been issued, so we're not merely talking about a bonus problem but an actual failure to pay teachers what they are owed for work completed. Imagine a similar problem in, say, Michigan, two weeks before Christmas. I think we'd hear an uproar, and nobody would suggest that the teachers were in the wrong. As far as the "no money" thing goes, I point you to this article in today's Noticias, wherein the state reveals it has invested "tres mil 11 millones de pesos" in roadway improvements in 2007. (Can this possibly be right? 3,011,000,000 pesos? Over 300 million dollars toward roads in the second poorest state in Mexico!?) Some of that money has been used to tear up the existing streets in the center of town and replace them with historic looking, pedestrian friendly streets that don't appear to make anybody very happy, least of all shopkeepers who have lost all their drive-by traffic and deal with the daily construction process.

Finally, Jill Freidberg's observation that public opinion may see teachers as more likely to mobilize on their own behalf--and on their own bottom line--than that of the greater human rights sweep in Oaxaca, seems like a no-brainer to me. Teachers didn't come to the capital in 2006 to demand the removal of the governor. They came, 70,000 strong, to ask for wage increases, better health insurance, and more government support for impoverished students. While addressing human rights violations in Oaxaca has become the order of the day for many, it is preposterous to assert that this should be the teachers' main objective. That perception, however, plays nicely into what Ronald Waterbury points to as the government waiting for public opinion to turn against the teachers.

There is much to consider today in Oaxaca. Stay tuned.

Will Work 4 Food

Want an idea how the Oaxacan economy is doing? Noticias reported Friday that the state has yet to recover some 21,000 jobs lost as a result of the teachers' strike and ensuing social unrest of 2006.

On the upside, says one government employee, "this year there has been more calm and peace."*

Thanks to Oaxaca Study Forum for the link.

*My translation.

Human Rights Worker Assaulted in Oaxaca

CORRECTION: In the text below, I refer to a group of poinsettia flowers as "buenas noches," in Spanish. That should read "noches buenas."
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Here's a post that ended up in my box (you may need a Yahoo account to click through, I'm not sure). In a nutshell, Mexican human rights worker Nancy Mota Figueroa was abducted on December 2, forced into an unmarked vehicle, blindfolded, harassed at gunpoint, interrogated about her work, and threatened with further assault, rape, and murder if she continued her activist work. She was then released in an abandoned lot.

Nancy Mota Figueroa, who is a leader of a women's organisation in Oaxaca and an activist with the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca, APPO), was temporarily abducted by unknown armed individuals on 2 December. She was questioned about other APPO activists, threatened with death and rape and was told that she could be abducted again. Amnesty International is gravely concerned for her safety. According to Nancy Mota, she was walking in a street in Oaxaca when a white SUV vehicle with tinted windows and without number plates stopped next to her. Two men who had their faces covered, got out of the vehicle, forced her in and then blindfolded her. The blindfold was impregnated with a liquid that irritated her eyes. According to her testimony, while the vehicle was circulating Oaxaca's streets, the two men questioned her about what she knew about other APPO activists, some of whom are currently in detention. They forced her head between her knees, then pulled her hair and pointed two guns at her head. She heard them pull the trigger and say they would shoot her. They told her to stop her activism or they may abduct her again and rape her. She was also hit in the stomach. She was held for one hour and then freed in an empty lot near the city centre with the warning that she could be abducted again. The abductors also reportedly downloaded all the telephone numbers saved on her cellular phone. Nancy Mota filed a complaint with the Oaxaca State Attorney General's office (Procuraduría General del Estado de Oaxaca) and has spoken out about her abduction in a press conference.

Walking through the zocalo last night to meet a group of bilingual Christmas carolers, I caught part of a small protest under the pavilion at the center of the public square. There were signs posted on behalf of Nancy Mota Figueroa, broad red flags waved above the gathering crowd, and the amplified speech of human rights proponents and political activists competed with flashing Christmas lights, government sponsored holiday concerts, and local mariachis playing for pesos to diners at sidewalk tables. Flower beds in the zocalo have been planted with poinsettias, or buenas noches, en espanol, from one end clear to the other, a red sea of holiday fervor.

El Enemigo Comun has more, and here is Nancy Mota Figueroa's statement, in Spanish.

Oaxaca Governor Survies Copter Crash

I'm quite late to this and still muddling along through the Spanish, but Noticias reports today that Governor Ulises Ruiz survived a helicopter crash on Wednesday evening outside San Felipe del Agua, a neighborhood in northern Oaxaca City. As far as I can tell, there were no fatalities and no grave injuries.




It is unclear to me whether these are the men I saw from my window several times last week.




















Photos courtesy of Noticias.

Sosa Brother Freed

UPDATE: Horacio Sosa calls his imprisonment "psychologically torturing."
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I'm still looking for an accurate tally of Oaxacan political prisoners currently held in Mexican prisons, but today the Sosa family can be thankful there's one less. Horacio Sosa, brother of prominent APPO figurehead Flavio Sosa, was released from police custody this week after nearly a year in prison.

The Sosa brothers were arrested along with two others on December 4, 2006. According to Noticias, the group was accused of carrying out crimes of sedition, attacking communications channels, and inciting violence, resulting in their detention in a maximum security facility in Altiplano, Mexico.*

Flavio Sosa remains in prison.


*My translation.

"Un poquito de tanta verdad"

Al Giordano on "A Little Bit of So Much Truth":

The new documentary brings the viewer on a 93-minute rollercoaster ride alongside the dramatic six-month occupation of the state capital and other cities and towns. The focus of “Un poquito de tanta verdad” turns the lights on, what this reviewer agrees is, the most significant advance to come out of the popular assembly movement in Oaxaca: the citizenry’s reclaiming of the broadcast airwaves from those that have monopolized and abused them.

I'm still waiting to see this one, and I've heard only good things. And it's subtitled in English, so there's no reason for non-Spanish speakers not to see it.

Giordano's review goes so far as to establish much of the context of 2006 conflict in Oaxaca so that the viewer may have a greater understanding of events chronicled in the film.

We hear the frightened but continuing voices of Radio Plantón hosts in the predawn hours of June 14, as state police come storming into their studios, destroying the equipment as the station goes off the air. The station was the first target of the police raid. We watch the teargas bombs shot from helicopters above the city, and the wounded testify from hospital beds of how direct hits from the canisters ripped off human skin, now in bandages. [snip] The documentary also brings us to the terrible events of November 25, 2006 when the boot came down and hundreds of social leaders and citizens were beaten and imprisoned by the federal government. The national TV screamed, “there is no repression” as the governor’s own pirate radio station broadcasted home addresses of APPO participants urging assassination and violence against them, as well as against members of the press including, by name, Nancy Davies, who has chronicled the movement from the start with her commentaries on Narco News and the book, The People Decide.

It all sounds very dramatic, but then again events in Oaxaca in 2006 were very dramatic. Read Giordano's article for a greater sense of what has happened in Oaxaca, and then, if you can, see the movie. I'll be looking for my opportunity presently.

Whirlybirds: Update

UPDATE, 11:07 am: I see and hear the helo for the fourth time this morning. When it goes over our house all the windows rattle in their sills. Each time it circles twice and then goes away again for a little while, presumably to spy on another part of the city.

I could do this all day, furtively watch the sky from my front door like a character out of "Good Fellas", but really I've got to go to work.
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UPDATE, 10:15 am: Make that three passes.
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It's 9:19 am, and the police helicopter has overflown the city center twice. There are three armed men standing on the landing skids, surveying the streets.

Incidentally, November 25 is the one year anniversary of the federal army's forcible eviction of demonstrators from the city center.

Whirlybirds

Can anybody tell me why there's been a police helicopter circling central Oaxaca the past several days with armed gunmen standing strapped to the outside of it?

My three guesses all boil down to the same thing: increased military presence. Explanations might include narcotrafficking, which is government-speak for increased military presence; intimidation, surveillance, and apprehension of political opposition figures, which is repugnant yet a slightly less dissembling way of acknowledging an increased military presence; and increased military presence, for its own sake, plain and simple.

Comments?

Oaxaca and the Sheffield Anarchists

This ended up in my inbox today. Not sure yet what I think about it.

The problem is that APPO, as I understand it, was never supposed to be an anarchist organization. APPO was formed as a means to unify the collective might of the 300-some smaller teachers' unions, workers' groups, pueblos' organizations and the like that made their way to Oaxaca City in 2006, in solidarity with the striking teachers, to protest the oppressive regime of the Ulises Ruiz government.

A major complaint against many demonstrations that took place in Oaxaca in 2006 and again in the summer of 2007 is that they attracted anarchists who simply want to throw rocks at police and light buses on fire, thus undermining peaceful attempts to draw attention to human rights violations and oppressive government policies in Oaxaca, and giving police a green light to start busting heads (and they don't appear to need much provocation on this order).

So when the fashionable Sheffield Anarchist Federation, boasting that their fundraising gig got shut down by "the riot squad," donates a little bit of money to the APPO, and the APPO accepts it, how can anyone argue that the APPO functions as a legitimate organization for responsible change?

I need more time to think about it.

"Justice For Our Dead"

Remember this picture?

I noticed it was missing, painted over pretty much the day after I took that shot.

Check out this score. Kudos to Christopher Stowens for catching that one in action.

Mexico Reporter

Meet my new favorite English language website for Mexican news: Mexico Reporter. The layout is appealing, the writing is great, the site is easy to navigate. And it's actually a Wordpress blog, which, frankly, judging by their results, fills my generic little Blogger template with petty envy.

This post caught my attention, and I went on to read a whole passel of others. In a nutshell, the post summarizes an article from the daily newspaper Milenio, reporting that the government of Oaxaca, after first being accused of not doing enough in response to the murder of American indy journalist Brad Will, is close to successfully closing its investigation. Specifically, "The newspaper report also noted that the Special Prosecutors [sic] Office for Crimes Against Journalists is very close to ‘solving the crime’." Good news, right?

Wait. This, says Mexico Reporter, "will dismay groups lobbying for justice in the case of Brad Will, such as The Friends of Brad Will and the Committee to Protect Journalists."

Here's the disconnect: Even though Will filmed his own murder and that footage is widely available (it's on YouTube; caution, highly disturbing content), and Brad Will and others captured images of his assailants*, word coming out of the Attorney General's office is that Will was killed from a distance of 50 centimeters, not the 30 meters originally supposed. This suggestion is being used, it seems, to support the notion that the journalist was not killed by government strongmen but by a member of the APPO, for reasons as to which we can only speculate (one of the more popular theories I've encountered is that the government means to suggest that APPO operatives, or some fringe element within the group, desperately sought to attract international attention by any means).

I, of course, can't comment on the thoroughness of the investigation, the veracity of accounts on either side of the conflict, or even on the reliability, in the end, of information presented in the videotape. All I can say is the government line is hard to swallow. **

The challenge of filtering information and assessing what to believe is no different in Oaxaca than anywhere else in the world. People with vested interests work very hard to ensure that their interests are met (asses are covered) and that's just a fact of life wherever you go. For me it becomes a little harder here because of my mediocre Spanish: I get the gist of what I read in the newspapers and on Spanish language websites, but the finer points are lost on me. So I welcome Mexico Reporter into my life at a time where I need all the help I can get to just understand the events of daily life as they unfold in Oaxaca and in Mexico.

*Photo published by Narco News with credit to El Universal. These men appear to have been shooting in the direction of Brad Will prior to the footage of his actual death. These men are not seen--as far as I can tell--in the actual footage when Brad Will is struck by gunfire. Here is a link to a longer version of the tape that Will shot, which includes images of the men shooting in Will's direction.

**My uncle, after reading this summer's posts from Oaxaca, called me politically naive. I can hear him choking on his Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger right now: "Jesus Christ! Of course the government is lying!"

Quien Sabe? (Who Knows?)

When Nancy Davies, whose writing I turn to again and again for insight into the tenor and tone of Oaxaca's muddled politics, doesn't know what's happened or what's going on, then I just don't know where on the Internet to turn anymore for reliable information about Oaxaca. The irony being, of course, that even when you're right here it's pretty difficult to tell what's going on.

Days later I am left wondering what exactly happened. Having shown that the government retains absolute control, did Ruiz let the few brave enough to return in the afternoon have their crumbs of commemoration? Or did Ruiz back down? Did the APPO win again on the anniversary of the battle for Radio Universidad?

Read the whole, confusing non-episode here.
 

Thousands Turn Out to See Frida Kahlo's Moustache

Okay. I know it's not kind to joke, but really, the National Museum in Oaxaca was mobbed on Thursday night when we went in to see the largest tapeta de arena of all. Seriously. We haven't seen so many foreigners in Oaxaca this year until now. Jenna doesn't recall this many when she visited three years ago. I am excited to report that, at least this weekend, tourism thrives in Oaxaca.*

Same for Friday night when we walked down Abasolo all the way to the panteon, the cemetery. Street vendors lined the calle as we got closer, and carnival games were set up in booths. There were little shooting galleries, throw-the-dart-at-the-balloons games and even a small carousel running round and round on a gas powered generator (and much faster than anything you'd see in the States; that's kind of how it goes here: kids are expected to hold on tight and grow up fast) peppered in between stands selling tlayudas, tortas, memelitas, tacos dorado, tostadas, and many, many more food stuffs. Vendors sold cds, jewelry, baskets, leather works, clothing and even kitchen supplies. Oaxacans and tourists made their way through the crowds, each casually inspecting the other amid the noise and celebration.

Only the main gate was open for passage in and out of the panteon, and so the mob merged into a tight stream of people jostling to get in, or out, of the cemetery. A brass band played rompous parade music under the grand concrete awning just inside entry hall, a sort of oom-pah-pah oom-pah-pah with a Latin twist, and candles glowed warmly at every tomb on the walls (picture an Egyptian type catacomb, or something out of the Matrix, slender, horizontal pods extending deep into the walls one on top of the other where bodies were laid to rest and cemented in place).

The graveyard itself, taking up the garden within the massive enclosure, was crowded full with off-kilter above-ground graves in various states of splendor and disarray. In the night, with the air of joyous remembrance and just a tinge of sadness for those most recent, most unjust deaths, with so many candles lighting the paths and the strong aroma of fresh flowers on every breath, with the beer and the mescal and the wine that people brought and shared and poured in plastic cups or real glasses, it was difficult to see the cemetery as a place for somberness, melancholy or sobriety. Families sat on the recently-tended graves of their deceased and told stories, told jokes, sang songs and took turns crying and laughing out loud in honor of the holiday of the dead. I found myself wishing we had a similar custom back home.

I returned to the museum on Friday during the lunch hour to take these photos of Frida when the exhibit was a little less crowded. Ironically enough, a young man stopped me to ask where I was visiting from and the like. I answered his questions in the entryway as he filled in the column on his clipboard, and then I proceeded into the museum. It was only after I took my pictures and headed for the exit that I saw the signs posted in the entrance requesting patrons leave their bags at the bag check and please don't take any photos. Well, nobody stopped me, and in this country that's as good as having gotten permission.

So here are some potentially contraband pics of Mexico's national artista, rendered in sand. These were taken from a second floor mezzanine, looking down on the ground floor. The attention to detail in the portrait of sand is stunning.

*I don't know but suspect that, if asked, local hoteliers would reply that reservations and room rentals are still below average (since the unrest of last summer and fall).

Notes on Oaxaca

Tapetas de arenas. Carpets of sand. That's what a friend told me today. In reference to the sand images photographed for my previous post. And el Dia de Muertos is this week, Friday (Thursday too, but less so), not "next weekend" as the post casually mentioned. When I was writing Monday night the holiday still seemed a little ways away, but not anymore. The streets are busy as vendors near the mercado 20 de Noviembre, several blocks from our house, crowd the sidewalks with stalls selling marigolds and a deep red velvety flower which name I do not know (perhaps somebody will tell me tomorrow) and skulls made of sugar, pan dulces (sweet breads) with faces of sugar baked into the crusts, and all manner of garish plastic trinket or toy featuring skeletons or ghouls practicing their arts.

"JUSTICE FOR OUR DEAD"

If the city is in turmoil--and I don't presume that quiet is the same as resolution--it is less obvious to me now than it was this summer. While there are military patrols there is not the same presence of force observed during the Guelaguetza or the August 5 election. While there is still the tug of war between political graffiti artists and the city crews whose job it is to follow with whitewash and rollers, especially in the zocalo and other central points, there does not appear to be, in the past two weeks since our return, the protests, demonstrations, ad hoc public kiosks demanding the release of political prisoners or the further investigation of human rights abuses or the removal from power of Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. I'm not saying these things aren't happening, I'm just saying that, for me, they are not as visible as they were in the peak of the summer.

The tone right now to the casual eye is much more neutral, except for all the empty tables in all the restaurants that rely on tourism for so much of their business, which is very nearly all the restaurants in the centro historico. For these owners and employees I can only wonder how much the emptiness is costing in lost profits and wages. I wondered out loud the other day how many empresarios have gone or are going deep into debt in order to keep their businesses running throughout the tourist drought of the past 18 months. And who are the few creditors bankrolling much of the city as the lull endures? The way things work in Oaxaca, I think, there will be three or four very powerful people with their thumbs on all the commerce of the city. Of course when I read about Mexico in general I get the sense it is the same ten families who, when you cut through the smoke and paperwork, appear to run everything, so maybe nothing is so unusual after all.

I haven't been keeping up with the papers since we returned but intend to start reading again soon, now that we're settled. This week marks the year anniversary of the murder of American independent journalist Brad Will, and that's generated its own bit of attention, though moreso outside Oaxaca and Mexico, as far as I can tell, than here in the city where he died (see here to scroll through various posts on the subject). Outwardly things are calm. I am not informed enough at present to suggest what may be going on under the surface.

El Dia de Muertos: Images

The streets flow over with excitement as Oaxaca prepares for el Dia de Muertos next weekend. Fireworks go off nightly, though that's hardly limited to the holidays in Oaxaca. Brass bands and throngs of dancers fill the zocalo while religious ceremonies overflow the sanctuary of the great cathedral at Santo Domingo and into the front courtyard, illuminating the night. Colorful altars, populated with images or likenesses of deceased loved ones and adorned with offerings of chocolate, candies, cigarettes, mescal, sweet breads, flowers, fruits, toys, trinkets and more are installed in homes, restaurants, bars, galleries, souvenir shops.

Here two men in the zocalo labor over one of the many sand illustrations that have cropped up before the holiday.


And here are some striking images from the Alcala, one of the wide stone avenues in the historic center of town. These displays are made almost entirely with sand, though some incorporate maize, flower petals and more. Enjoy!

Art and the Resistance

The title of the post manages to sound trite and lofty all at the same time (it's a gift, I swear) but most everybody in Oaxaca seems to agree on this one thing: the street art keeps getting better. I tried to capture some of it this summer but never did it justice. Check out some of these images, though, at Puntos B. You don't have to read Spanish to be struck by the art that rises from the wreckage of last year's unresolved conflict.

Regresamos a Oaxaca

Jenna and I have returned to Oaxaca, and I´ll be writing from here over the next six months. The city is much as we left it, although traffic seems to be worse as a result of the government´s grand plan to create something like 10 more blocks of pedestrian-only streets in the historic center. From the little I hear, businesses are screaming because there are no tourists coming to the city now--an enduring result of Oaxaca´s political instability the past year and a half--and it´s generally tourists who shop and sight-see in the historic center. So the streets downtown are all torn up and nobody is happy about it.

That´s the quick update. I hope to write more, with more perspective, very soon.

Oaxaca and the EPR

On Thursday the LA Times ran an informative piece about the Mexican rebel group EPR (Popular Revolutionary Army, in English). I've been out of the loop lately, what with honeymooning and all--and we're not done yet; we leave for Alaska tonight--so this article helps me understand a little more about the coordinated oil pipeline bombings that took place in Mexico earlier this month.

One thing I find very interesting is the relationship portrayed between the EPR and the state of Oaxaca, where the group is now reportedly based.

. . . the rebel group has split several times. It now appears to be rooted in the adjacent state of Oaxaca, whose social inequities and heavy-handed governing style have fed several militant movements.

In August the EPR, blamed for a bombing at a Sears store in Oaxaca, was offered up as a reason for much of the militarization of the city in the run-up to the August 5 election. Many people I spoke with at the time, however, suspected the government of staging the bombing, issuing a statement claiming responsibility by the EPR, and focusing attention on the EPR in order to justify a heavy show of force on election day. Total speculation, of course, but the thing to note is that few people in Oaxaca trust the government or what they read in Mexican papers, which are generally perceived as mouthpieces for one brand of propaganda or another.

I don't have the impression that the EPR is viewed favorably, generally, by Oaxacans. But it sure is convenient for a government prone to demonstrate force to have a shadowy terrorist group lurking about in order to justify a heavy police presence in the state.

A Lesson on Silence

“Being silent is a guarantee for the police, military and politicians to continue their tactics with impunity. Surely many [of the disappeared] are dead, but their families want to know where they are buried, to at least place a flower. Our children don’t know us or where we went. Those who were not interested in politics are now raising their voices to overcome their fear. Say no to silence, denounce the torturers. We know who they are and the interminable list of those who must be held responsible. Against illegal arbitrary arrests we must keep on raising our voice."

This is Juan Sosa Maldonado, abducted in 1998, tortured, and imprisoned until 2006, speaking last Friday in Oaxaca at a national forum entitled “Twenty-First Century: Forced Disappearance, A Current Policy in the Nation of Mexico.” NarcoNews has a story on the conference, the practice of forced disappearances in Oaxaca, and the current investigation into the police beating of a protester in July. Read the whole thing here.