While I was delivering photos and eating wonderful fresh mole negro tamales in Teotitlan del Valle, each with an avocado leaf flavoring the chicken, stuff was happening. The teachers are marching and blockading roads, buildings and businesses. And we have had amazing storms, some of which have been causing quite a bit of damage. I got a call from my friend, spixl, to tell me that one of the huge laurel trees had come down near the zocalo. It turns out they have diseased roots, so others may be in peril. Go check out her shots of the tree at her blog,
View from Casita Colibri.
Somewhere I had received the impression that all of those trees in the Zocolo had been cut down by the authorities during the violent demonstrations ___ years ago?). I had mourned their green canopy so enjoyed in 2000-2001 (?) on my only visit. So this news was both good and bad (and now it seems an attempted resurrection). Having grown up through the arboreal denuding affected by the Dutch Elm disease in Brookline of the 50s-60s, I am quietly emotional about the lives of shade trees. Yet, fungi must live too... (sigh).
ReplyDeleteNot all all, Peter. The zocalo still has wonderful huge trees. The shadiest corner is the northeast and the sunlight dapples the people and shoeshine guys daily. Back when they were renovating the zocalo, maybe in 2005 or so, a couple of the trees were damaged and last year one fell down on the southwest corner, but the trees are beloved by everyone so they will be nurtured, protected and restored as needed. Check out the photo of the cranes lifting the most recent damaged tree at spixl's blog.
ReplyDeleteI am fond of tree doctors... and vets :-). The one trip to Oaxaca placed a spy in my heart that keeps suggesting a return trip someday... I can understand your love for the place. It is also wonderful how your photographic abilities have helped you integrate into the local life.
ReplyDeleteI too, have two homes, although of a more longitudinal spread. In my Santa Monica home (just left a couple of weeks ago) many of the trees planted in the first half of the last century, are either in natural decline or are beset by fungi (including many of the great palms). The sensibilities of our times are anti-shade trees as they often drop leaves and/or need regular maintenance, so how the trees will be replaced is a subject of interest (although left to its own nature, Santa Monica is a desert). My Paris home, where I write this, looks over the experimental gardens and laboratories of the botanical garden (Jardin des plants) and I watch as they maintain the lovely rows of trees, also just past peak maturity.