Today in Mexican history - Oct. 2

From Wikipedia:

The Tlatelolco massacre, also known as The Night of Tlatelolco (from a book title by the Mexican writer Elena Poniatowska), was a killing of an estimated 30 to 300 students and civilians by military and police on October 2, 1968, in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City. The events are considered part of the Mexican Dirty War, when the government used its forces to suppress political opposition. The massacre occurred 10 days before the opening of the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. More than 1300 people were arrested by security police. There has been no consensus on how many were killed that day in the plaza area.

At the time the government and the mainstream media in Mexico claimed that government forces had been provoked by protesters shooting at them. But government documents made public since 2000 suggest that the snipers had been employed by the government. Estimates of the death toll ranged from 30 to 300, with eyewitnesses reporting hundreds dead. According to US national security archives, Kate Doyle, a Senior Analyst of US policy in Latin America, documented the deaths of 44 people. The head of the Federal Directorate of Security reported the arrests of 1,345 people.

There are protests planned for this afternoon, but I caught this gathering earlier today.

One of the paintings just outside the entrance.  The man is Heriberto Pazos Ortiz, leader and founder of the Movement of Triqui Unification and Struggle (MULT), who was killed in last year in Oaxaca.

This guy was singing his heart out, and quite good, to backing tracks, but his audience, mostly Triquis from outlying villages broke nary a smile.  They are justifiably dour.

One of the toughest crowds I've seen in a while, but he just belting it out.

The zocalo remains in a constant state of protest ringed by vendors, all pretty ugly.
But today, they remember the horrible events of 1968.  What a year that was!
As they say, "¡Viva la Revolución!"

Muzak? - Etla syle

The market in Etla was really hoppin' this morning.  All this rain has produced some mighty fine looking things.  Judging from the abundance of mandarins, tangerines, it must be the season.  I asked how many I could get for five pesos and was promptly given ten.  That's about $.04 US a piece and man o man, are they tasty.  I'm ready to go back and spend another five whole pesos on them.

But wait!  What's that behind the giant rolls.  I hear music.

And there you have it, one of Etla's strolling musicians.  I love the fact that there is always some sort of live music playing while I am shopping.

 I needed a burro to get all the good stuff I bought home.

Fall cleaning

 

A beautiful day today, but while it was raining the last few days, I satisfied my neuroses and gave the house a thorough cleaning including taking all the rugs outside and really shaking them out.  They, the rugs, seem much happier. 

Today, it was the air, the aura, the vibe of the place, which got a nice cleansing treatment with three kinds of copal straight from a good source in Tlacolula.

The wind and sun cooperated and the smoke moved through the entire house and out the windows.  Cleansing completed.

Ain't no sunshine...

The rainy season continues so instead of this...

we have this....

However, the plants are happy.  My first hand of bananas.

I have taken advantage of end end of all those annuals to redesign the whole thing.

Pretty cool, seeing as though there was nothing there just a few months ago.

Lots of fragrant plants, lemon verbena, scented geraniums, rosemary and of course, agave, cacti and succulents.

With all this rain, things are popping up.  You can see I am using the old zinnia plants as thatch like covering for the paths.  I figure they will slowly disintegrate and in the mean time provide a little shade for the soil.

Nice day for a drive

 

What a difference a day makes. Today I took the drive I attempted to take yesterday. I scooted through the city like poop through a goose.... well, very quickly anyway. After yesterday's blockades, I had a cunning plan.... to go south and try to bypass everything. The underpass at Cinco Senores worked like a charm. What a huge difference. I also wanted to check out the State Police strike, but it was quiet when I passed by it.  I went through San Bartolo Coyotepec all the way to Ocotlan, then took a left and headed north through Santa Catarina Minas on my way to Mitla.  It is a gorgeous drive, one of my favorites. 

The road is not heavily used and cuts through dramatic country. 

It is a perfect day drive, about two or three hours.  The countryside is verdant, lush in areas from all the rains.  Other parts look like they had received very little.

 Nice day for it, wouldn't you say?

I did learn something and that was that going in the other direction, my normal choice, has much better vistas, things unfold before you.  On this drive, I was always craning my neck around to look behind me.  I did see lots of potential protests, large assemblies of dump trucks and semis on the outskirts of the city, but I made it back just fine.  However, they were not out there for their health, not like me.

Grrrr.... (updated)

Count to ten... breath deeply.

Defeated!  I planned on taking a nice drive through mezcal land today and catching a fiesta in Tlacochahuaya, but....  normal life in Oaxaca got in the way.

I really know my way through the city and there is always a way to get by protests and blockades. So the first one on the north side of the city, by the moto-taxis and the huge CTE dump trucks, barely fazed me. Then, after fifteen minutes, I  made it into the city, only to come to a total stop as gridlock set in due to a march... by whom, who knows. The cops were directing traffic onto side streets, which are narrow and full of potholes and lots of topes, speed bumps. Imagine buses, dump trucks, pipas, water trucks and lots of cars...... good times ensued.

A one point I realized I was trapped, nothing moving in sight and I spotted the only one way out, did a u-turn, pulled every trick in the book, including going in between poles set in the road, backing down streets and going the wrong way down one way streets.

Trust me. I was not alone. This kind of stuff is almost a daily hassle. It is just considered normal and people do incredibly well under the circumstances. I eventually made it back to my initial spot, where by now, the marchers had passed, only to be stopped by a few buses blocking the road completely as I approached or tried to approach the new shopping center.

Again the cops directed traffic on to narrow streets.  By then I had given up getting over to the Mitla area, just bagged the idea, and using those same tricks made it back through the city, which was actually pretty quiet. I guess everyone was trapped elsewhere. Oh, well, such is life.  I will try tomorrow for the same drive, but will leave earlier to beat the protesters at their game. Yeah, right.  Like that could happen. They are winning. We are into the third month of these protests and it is someone or something different every day.

Update:  So you want pictures?
Protest #1

Mobile vet at your service.

I was slightly concerned when I saw this guy.  Where am I???

Morning constitutional in Atzompa

Clouds have dominated the last few days with some good rains.  I guess "good" depends where you are, there has been serious flooding and an amazing new crop of "baches" or potholes has appeared.  However, this morning I awoke to this sight out my window.

I am very lucky to be just a few minutes away from the archaeological site in Atzompa, so I decided to do a quick visit in search of some elusive and dramatic shots with sun and clouds.  The clouds were scudding across the skies.... there! I got to use "scudding" in a sentence, not a regular occurrence.... and the clouds scudded el sol right out of the picture. 

The sun appeared in distant patches, but the shot I waited for, the sun hitting Monte Alban, never happened, close, but not really.

Still, once again, I was completely alone. It is crazy, but no one ever seems to go there even though it is a major site and a huge restoration project.  No one there?  Fine with me.  I saw only five workers the entire time I was there.

Progress is being made.  A new sign.

The largest ball park in the area. 

Imagine playing the ball game here.  I've played a version of it and the ball would bounce like crazy off those angles.... at least they do in my imagination.

That's Monte Alban across the valley. 

The two sites  were vibrant centers of activity and remember, Monte Alban was founded in 500 BC!  Think about that!  2000 years later, the cities in Europe had raw sewage running through the streets. These places are so sophisticated and advanced with lots of mathematical and astronomical elements involved in their design and placement. Me, I'm just watching the birds riding the thermals.

I guess I wasn't alone. The gods were there.

The whole walk was just over an hour, only half of it was uphill.... a wonderful constitutional.

Mariposa

Even though we have had some nice rains, the dry season is coming, so I am prepping for it.  This means whacking the hundreds or thousands of zinnia and cosmos that filled the space.  There are things planted among them and now's the time to expose them and get them acclimated to the intense sun that is coming.  The zinnias are still flowering, but better to get them on the compost pile while they are a little green.  As I cleared the space, I could see some design flaws so...I redesigned the whole garden just by putting in some paths.  I also could see that the rains were depositing silt, the rocks lining the paths will now catch it.  The soil has lots of clay in it so I am taking advantage of the timing, before it turns into cement, to dig down and turn it.  It actually will get so hard you need a bareta to dig a hole in February or March.  I keep adding organic material and getting air into it so maybe this year is will be better.  In fact I am thinking of using the zinnia plants as a mulch or else grinding them up and using that for mulch.  What the soil needs is tons of organic material and a few years, but for now after only one year, it looks pretty damn good, if I say so myself... which I never would.

I'm leaving plenty of flowers to finish the cycle and attract the butterflies, bees and birds.  The garden is always full of them... and grasshoppers, ants, caterpillars, etc...  I've had some huge mariposas in the last few days and this one was all..."I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille."

And the cacti are drinking the moisture and flowering.  This is a nice biznaga of some sort.

They'll last a week or so and when the rains stop, the plant will just see in the sun and wait.

Can you hear me now???

One thing I have noticed about amplified music in Mexico... and it would be hard to not notice... is that they like it beyond loud.  If Spinal Tap goes to Eleven, these guys go to Thirteen.  And there are always people, mostly abuelas, sitting directly in front of the massive speakers.  OK, maybe it is not mostly abulas, but they are there along with lots of others, right in front of the speakers.  Gut thumping, teeth grinding, bone rattling, you know, nice and loud.

This band, Estrellas de Santa Cecilia, was set up to the side of the cathedral and was trying hard to exceed that "13" level.  Quite loud.

Of course, they had to be loud because directly across the zocalo, they were testing the sound setup for El Grito and they were pumping an equally loud CD, I forget what, but it did have a good beat. To say that John Cage would have been pleased, would be an understatement, as the two musics mixed together in a pretty amazing version of "Cacophony."

Of course, I was drawn to the tuba player, as his bass line was moving the ground beneath my feet.

 

Then I spotted this trumpeter, very Dizzy Gillespie like.

From the front.

And to be fair, straight ahead, guapo.

 

That reminds me.  I am going to do a post on the haircuts of Oaxaca. I think there is a Pulitzer in there.

Independence Day!

No, Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico's Independence Day, today is.

And the place is decked out in the national colors.  I almost think they go crazier here than folks do in the States for the Fourth of July.  I know, I know, hard to believe, but truth be known, Mexicans know how to party extremely hearty, better than in the US.

El Grito was delivered by the governor last night at 11 PM from this balcony.... oh, sorry it is being blocked by large protest banners.  Hmmm... another shot..... No lower, please.

Ah yes, here's the balcony.

Notice the guy making sure the bell is ready.  Notice the mic.  I am sure it will be nice and loud. 

And video

Once again I missed the call.  However, this morning I am being serenaded by a couple of bands off in the mountains and cohetes, nice loud fireworks.

I'll head into the city to check out the parade.  I hear that the State Police are on strike so with all the other protests, maybe it will be more exciting than normal.

After the rains

Well, really, it's just a brief interlude if the weather reports prove accurate.

Looks glorious, doesn't it?  That's the view from my back yard.... if I'm up on the roof.

My shirt say what???

That's the look on this guapo's face as I explained what his shirt said.

It did have back that sorta explained it.... still, I dunno.