El Primer Dia de mi Proyecto

This morning I started my project with a one hour drive at 7 am to a tiny town called San Magdalena Jaltepec. Cuahtemoc met Natalie and me at the bus station and drove us through the mountains to this tiny puebla which houses a very small community museum. We met with some of the local museum workers over a nice breakfast of hot chocolate and eggs and discussed the future of the museum community.

We are still in the very early planning stages for our own research. But we had a long conversation about palmas (palms), which are an important material source of income for many of the artisans in the community. The people in this town use palm leaves to construct ornate religious ornaments for festivals and celebrations, patetes (which are kind of like straw sleeping mats) and various other useful items that are sold to local citizens.

Currently, due to the lack of tourism and the increasing number of individuals who are immigrating to the U.S., the artisanry of many local towns is slowly beginning to decline. I have been reading a book about immigration trends in Mexico, specifically Oaxaca, that explains that a number of artisans are having to find work elsewhere to supplement their crafts because they are unable to attain a sustainable income through basket weaving or similar sorts of work simply because there is no longer a need in the community for such goods.

Part of my responsibility for our exhibition in Santo Domingo will be to research the history behind this tradition and the impact natural materials have had on shaping the cultural and economic identity of local communities here. It is not uncommon to visit a puebla and find that many artisans specialize in one specific sort of craft, such as alebrijes (see previous entry about Arrazola). The picture above was taken at the community museum this morning. You can see an ornately woven crucifix that has been constructed from palm leaves.

Tabasco

I was warned by virtually everyone I told about my vacation that Tabasco is a very hot place to visit during the summer. So I prepared myself by packing the lightest clothing possible, sunglasses, bug spray, sunscreen and of course lots of water. I figured these essentials would be all I needed to get through a 5 day holiday with my family. Little did I know that this vacation would turn out to be one of the most memorable I´ve experienced yet!

The four of us piled into my mother´s jeep for what was supposed to be an 8 hour journey to Villa Hermosa. We had agreed to stop in Vera Cruz to collect some papers my Sra. needed for her accounting office and then had planned to head to El Gaucho for a nice lunch before finishing the last portion of our trip. Unfortunately, all did not go as planned and our little drive turned into a 14 hour haul in some of the hottest weather I have ever experienced in my entire life.

Tuesday evening, Gabriel, my cousin stayed in Oaxaca so he could drive us back to his hometown since we were staying with his family. My mother had assured me that they had just bought a brand new house with plenty of space to hold us all and of course they had clima (air conditioning), because who would live in Tabasco without it? (If you can imagine the hottest you have ever been, then multiply that times 10 and factor in an insane amount of humidity, you can relate.) Gabriel was doing a wonderful job of getting us there safely, despite the horrible conditions on the carretera (for those of you who live in Indy, the Mexican highway is not much better).

So we made our way approximately thirty miles and Gabriel decides to inform us that we do not have any gas and that he just passed a sign saying there will not be another gas station for 60 more miles. We clearly could not make it that far. So Gabriel decided to flag down a cab to go buy some gas so we could make it to our next stop. This was only a minor set back. And we arrived safely in Villa Hermosa around 10:15 in the evening. Upon entering the family´s house, I realized they had no air conditioning. Gabriel explained this was due to the fact that they had just recently moved and not transferred it yet. I slept directly in front of a fan that night in hopes of not dying of heat stroke in my sleep.

The next day, my family decided it would be nice if Gabriel played tour guide for the day. I agreed because I figured it would be good to get out of the non air conditioned house and explore a new state. He offered to take me to the museo, which I automatically assumed was indoors. So of course I was thrilled at the suggestion of spending the morning in air conditioning. After a quick drive through town, we arrived at a place that looked more like a park than a museum. I figured Gabriel would be accompanying me, but I think he was under the impression that he was just my taxi service for the day because as we pulled into the parking lot, he informed me that he had to go to work right away. I mildly protested, mostly because my mother threatened to never let me leave the house again if I go anywhere unaccompanied in Mexico. So he agreed that maybe I should wait a while until he got off work. He suggested I visit with his sister for a bit and she agreed to host me if I was willing to wait for her to get through her ''massage.'' I figured that wouldn´t take long and once she was finished we´d be on our merry way to the museum.

Gabriel dropped me off at the office where Claudia was getting her massage and I quickly realized this had nothing to do with muscle relaxation. When I walked in the door, I was greeted by woman who appeared to have a vacuum in her hand. That vacuum was actually one of those fat sucking devices that redistributes your cellulite to make you appear slimmer. When I sat down in the front office, the vacuum lady insisted I come sit with Claudia and her friend. So I not only got to see one but TWO girls get their fat sloshed around for an hour....yeah, weird.

I finally made it to the museum around lunch time and apparently there was a miscommunication some where because Gabriel took me to the zoo, which has no air conditioning. I was very hot and somewhat upset because hot weather makes me cranky and I don´t really like Mexican zoos I´ve decided because they have unfamiliar animals running around loose. Some creature that looked like a possum breeded with a skunk bolted toward me when I was walking down the middle of a path trying to look at Olmeca ruins. Here is a picture of me with an Olmecan grandma. She looks like she would´ve cooked well.

Aside from numerous adventures regarding lack of air conditioning, running out of gas on the carretera, not having running water for a day at my house (I showered at Gabriel´s office) and having wild animals bolting toward me, I can still say I had quite an enjoyable time in Tabasco. Villa Hermosa boasts some of the best horchata in Mexico. They also have pretty yummy seafood and beaches with warm water, which is a luxury when you live in the northern suburbs of Chicago. I got to share in a very lively celebration for Independencia, which was held at our house. Our fiesta involved a lot of food, music and dancing. I learned how to salsa and that Mexico is certainly the place to go if you like to party. They even have a verb devoted solely to the act - festejar. I would definitely recommend visiting Tabasco. However, if you don´t enjoy living in ovens, wait until the dead of winter.