Brian’s Microblog

Wednesday

After our classes we walked around a little and then we had reservations with another student at a fancy restaurant called Levadura de Olla. The service was amazing and their concept is to present traditional foods in creative ways. The food was very good, but it is expensive.

Later we walked around town again. The plaza at the Basilica of Nuestra Señora de Soledad had a Guelaguetza event, maybe a practice, presented by schoolchildren. Guelaguetza is an annual indigenous cultural event in Oaxaca and nearby villages. The celebration, which takes place in July, features traditional costumed dancing, native food, and artisanal crafts.

We walked over to the Zocalo and it was much different than the previous Wednesday. There were food stands and other vendors all over as well as a number of camping tents. It seemed to have something to do with a teacher’s union or government employee union seeking support. Then we walked up to the Santo Domingo church to see if anything was happening there, but it was quiet.

Thursday

At noon a man and his son came to visit us at the language school with a lot of textile products. The father received some awards for his traditional weaving craftwork, and together they showed and explained how ancestral weavers in the area were able to produce dyes of different colors for their wool textiles. Various plants are used for several colors and tiny snails that live on cacti produce a purple color.

After our afternoon class we went in search of quesillo, a traditional Oaxacan cheese that has a sort of stringy form which is rolled into a ball. We found a good shop and bought some to bring home, then stopped at a rooftop terrace restaurant with a great view of the city.

After bringing the cheese back to our room and resting for a bit we went out again to look at some of the old local churches. Unfortunately we did not go in to the Basilica of Nuestra Señora de Soledad because a sign said no shorts were allowed and we were both wearing shorts.

We went in to the Catedral de Oaxaca. This is an elaborate cathedral with many chapels along either side of the main area, and the main area is sort of divided by an area for a choir or maybe for monks with a walkway down the middle to a speaking platform with statuary.

Afterwards we looked for a light dinner and had been recommended La Popular. It was good but not great. The highlight of the dinner was when a procession that might have been a wedding procession passed by with a big cloth sphere on a stick, large dancing mannequins of a man and a woman, a couple of Tiliche dancers, several traditional dancers, and a big band. The Tiliche is a figure we have seen in various forms around town but I was not able to get a good picture of it.

From this Substack entry:

A tiliche is a man wearing a huge suit of tattered clothing covered in multi-colored strips of cloth. The tiliche’s mask is made up of animal skins, and their huge, exaggerated sombrero is made of woven palm fibers. Tiliches are associated specifically with the town of Putla Villa de Guerrero and are famously connected to the town’s huge and raucous Carnaval Putleco, which occurs just before the start of the Catholic ritual of Lent, which lasts for 40 days.

You can see some in action here.

And there is a tiliche statue in the Zocalo.

We did some homework back in our room and then caught up with some email and internet stuff, and I started working on this blog. The power went out three or four times for several minutes each time, and then at almost ten there was a pretty big fireworks display from the nearby Basilica of Nuestra Señora.