Oaxaca Journal by Oliver Sacks
Oliver Sacks is obviously too seasoned a traveller and too astute an observer to confine himself to ferns. One encounters a host of pleasures as he ruminates on a variety of topics. He muses about the New World's contributions to civilization -cocoa, tobacco, potatoes, tomatoes, chilies, gourds, pepper, maize, chewing gum, cochineal and exotic hallucinogens. In Monte Alban he considers the production of rubber which the Zapotec people used to make balls.
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Oaxaca, the spirit of Mexico
Review of "Oaxaca, The Spirit of Mexico"
Photographs by Judith Cooper Haden, introduction by Phil Borges, text by Matthew Jaffe; published by Artisan, 2002
All journeys of discovery have a beginning ...
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Surface Tension
Only the official registration form on file in the archives and my now-aging memory can attest to Celestino’s entry in the 1952 contest, the year of his biggest loss. The neighbors only saw him carry...
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Dry season in Oaaxaca: are we flushing today?
I have been living in southern Mexico, in the city of Oaxaca, for two years noticing daily customs and ways of doing things that are not the same as where I lived in the mountains of Colorado. One big ...
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The bus ride from hell that I learned to love Oaxaca
"Is it always this bad?" I asked, panting in the heat.
"Oh no! Sometimes it's much worse," the grandmotherly woman across the aisle assured me. "It can be much hotter...and a lot more crowded."
The b...
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The Virgin of Guadalupe celebration in Oaxaca
Guadalupe is the mother of all Mexicans, the savior and succor of the indigenous spirit, protectress of the poor, dark, ailing and humble. She is the Dark Madonna of Indian features, who appeared just after the invasion by the white-skinned Europeans. She is miraculous and comforting, the emotional support to a conquered nation, orphaned from their pantheon of gods and spirits of nature.
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Stan Gotlieb and Diana Ricci in Oaxaca
Diana and Stan's Biography
Photography by Diana Ricci
Stan Gotlieb and Diana Ricci have been together for about six years. This is a story about their time together. The picture at the r...
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Classical concert in Oaxaca's Macedonio Alcala Theater
Inside the main chapel at Santo Domingo Church, one of many highly decorated colonial and post colonial buildings in Oaxaca in which music is presented.
The Teatro Macedonio Alcala exists because of t...
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My search for a doctor in Oaxaca
This drawing of a latrine is painted on a wall next to the main square in San Martin Tilcajete, Oaxaca. It was paid for by the National Health, as a preventative medicine strategy.
There are fou...
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Questions and answers on life in Oaxaca, Mexico
Below are some archives of letters to the editor that Stan has chosen to answer with open responses.December 20, 1995
Victor Salas writes that, having been born and raised in Mexico, and having come t...
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Handcrafted puzzles for sale: The rompecabeza man in Oaxaca
Maestro Ignacio Cervantes plies his trade in the Alameda, in front of the Cathedral in Oaxaca. Photography by Diana Ricci
[" Rompe - Cabeza " (ROM-pe ca -BAY-sa, literally "head b...
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What's today's rate? Mexico's floating peso
I wrote this in early 1995, when the peso was on a slide. For many, especially the Mexican people, the "devaluation" was no laughing matter.
"It's 5.0 at the Caseta de Cambio (money changer) in Cinco ...
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No tengo cambio: Paying with coins in Mexico
This clown is plying his trade in the Oaxaca Zócalo.
He probably needs change. Photography by Diana Ricci
There is a deep, dark, secret hole where all the change goes, and nobody k...
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A writer in Oaxaca: On being an old extranjero
This is our patio. We can seat 26 in a pinch, but we like to hold it down to 20. This is not as much work as it may seem, since all our large parties are pot-luck, and everyone we know either cooks lik...
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Flying to Oaxaca at Christmas time
A latecomer brought by TV and consumerism from El Norte, this Santa, with his reindeer made from local tree branches, was greeted with a mixture of awe and nervousness by the children on the plaza in f...
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Sharing the wealth in Mexico
If you hang out in the Zocalo (town square) as much as I do, the beggars get to know you. Depending on how you handle yourself, the nightly encounters can be easy or annoying. The reactions of the othe...
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Please stop rocking the bus: Protests in Oaxaca
All roads in Oaxaca state lead to the south side of the Zócalo, facing the state Government Palace. On most days, there is a march and demonstration there by one disaffected group or other. This...
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Quien sabe?
I read somewhere that there are three stages to many occurrences in Mexico: the event; the contradictory rumors that are told about the event; and the decision that, given all the preposterous rumors, ...
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Shopping on Sunday
Made by art students from sand and other materials, this sculpture in front of the Oaxaca Cathedral was created for Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Photography by Diana Ricci ...
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Nobody expects the Protestant Inquisition
First written in the spring of 1994, this story has been revised several times as dictated by subsequent events. It has generated more responses than any other. Most of them have been at least somewhat...
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Plenty too much everything
Figures made from cornhusks on display at Radish Festival, held on December 24 in the zocalo, Oaxaca. Photography by Diana Ricci
In Oaxaca, having "bastante" (too much) is not consid...
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The servant
In early 1994, when this letter first appeared, I did not have any personal knowledge regarding the practices outlined here; nor do I now. I introduced this subject because there had been persistently ...
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New kids on the block
In March of 1994, I was contemplating the saying "Mexico: so far from God, so close to the United States", and having a good chuckle over El Sub's interview with Ed Bradley. In March of 1996, Marcos me...
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