Pledging allegiance

Last Thursday was Flag Day in Mexico.  Did you know there is a Flag Day in the United States too?  According to Wikipedia, it is June 14.  Few Mexicans would need Wikipedia to know what day is Flag Day here (February 24).

From an early age kids are taught to revere the flag.  Every school begins the week with a flag ceremony called “homenagen.”  A cadre of six or seven students marches the flag around a courtyard while everybody else stands at attention with one hand on their chest.  (The salute looks funny to those not used to it.  The hand on the chest remains open with palm to the ground.)  Then everybody sings the national anthem, after which the cadre repeats the march while everyone salutes again.

Homenagen for the nursery school and kindergarteners.

Saluting the flag.

Besides school, the homenagen opens other events as well.  For instance, last week Max’s soccer team attended a trophy ceremony at the end of a tournament.  (Max joined the team too late to play in that tournament.)  The ceremony began with an homenagen.  On Thursday, Natalie and I stumbled upon an homenagen competition while walking through a park on our way to brunch.  Schools from around Oaxaca sent their flag cadres to compete.  Our camera battery was dying, but we got a couple of pictures.

In Mexico Unconquered, a book by John Gibler about resistance movements in Mexico from the conquest through the present, Gibler observes that protestors in Mexico do not burn the flag in protest, as they do in the United States and other countries.  Instead they view their movement, whatever it might be, as being true to the flag, and the groups they oppose as betraying it.  There is a widespread reverence for the flag that we simply do not see at home.  Of course, we also are patriotic in the United States and the flag is an important symbol of that patriotism.  But the ways we demonstrate our patriotism in our daily lives do not feel as formal, or reverential, as they do here.

So the question is:  what should Helen and Max do during homenagen while everybody in the school stands at attention, saluting the flag?  We have told them they do not need to salute, but we have seen both of them saluting along with everybody else.  In Max’s case, he does not want to appear to be disrespectful, while Helen probably does it because everybody else is doing it.

Helen practicing her salute.

If Natalie and I had been raised to revere the flag like they do here, it might bother us to see our children saluting a different country’s flag.  Instead, we just think it is cute.  --Harrison

Tlacolula

When we told they kids we were going to the market in Tlacolula last Sunday they were a little less than enthusiastic. Fortunately one of the things that you get to do in Mexico that you don't get to do at home is ride in the "way back" of the car.  This novelty took the edge off the start of the day.

When we got to Tlacolula we parked in someone's courtyard on the outskirts of the centro and walked a few blocks to where the streets were cordoned off and entered the market. It is hard to describe how large and varied this market is. Instead of writing about it I have added way more pictures than is recommended for a single post and put captions on them. Pretend we are having a cup of coffee and I am showing you my trip photos, describing them as we go.

Breakfast at one of the many tiny restaurants.  Mix and match meat and mole.

Green powered knife sharpening guy outside the restaurant.

The hall of grilled meats.

The hall of bread.

Harrison and our neighbor choosing which aisle to tackle first:  meat or bread.

Ladies selling cachuates... aka - peanuts.

How much fried pork skin do we need?  The answer is more than you'd expect.

Ladies selling veggies just opposite the pork skins.

Helen and Max squealed appropriately at this stand.

The colors here are amazing, this stand was even more vivid and beautiful in real life.

Acres of fruits, vegetables and smiling women.

Selling chalk that keeps the food from sticking to the comal (tortilla cooker).

Acres of shoes and every other imaginable article of clothing.

Mounds of garlic every few feet.

Cutest little old ladies everywhere.

Max with market purchases - Hat and belt with cool buckle.

Live birds for dinner.

List of our purchases:

1 kg mangos
1 kg mandarin oranges
1 bag of ground cinnamon
2 apples
Dress and apron for Helen (like the woman in the "hall of grilled meats" photo is wearing)
Hat and belt for Max
Belt for Natalie
Hand carved wooden comb
Notebook for Helen
50 handmade firecrackers
1 small sheet of dried pork skin
1 handwoven bedspread
2 handwoven scarves

As you can see, we were restrained.  We plan to return.  --Natalie

Street food

Now that we have gotten over our initial fear of street food, there is no end to the good eats.  By “street food,” I mean anything you can buy in a stand, as opposed to food prepared in a restaurant or in our own kitchen.  We shied away from most street food at first to give our stomachs a chance to adjust.  But there are only so many times you can walk by someone selling mangos on a stick, fresh squeezed juice, or quesadillas on hand-made tortillas, before you have to give it a try.

Mango.

We try to choose food stands that look relatively clean, but that category grows the longer we are here and the more accustomed we get to how things look and work.  It also helps that almost all street stands use bottled water.

Here is an example of a street food meal that stands up to anything we have had in a restaurant.  Yesterday while walking past the “20 de Noviembre” market near the Zócalo, I ducked into a smoky corridor full of meat vendors.  Next to each stand is a red-hot grill.  Here is how it works:

Hall of Meat Stands

First, get a basket and vegetables for grilling from one stand. 

Second, choose your meat at a different stand.  Leave the basket with them.

Someone at the meat stand will grill the meat and vegetables, then bring them to you.

Meanwhile, order a drink and select your salsas.

Yum.

In addition to the types of food I mentioned above (street, restaurant, and our own kitchen), there is another popular category of food we have not tried.  It is food people cook in their own kitchens and then sell as take-out.  We have not quite adjusted to the timing yet to have one of these meals.  They are available mostly for the early-afternoon “comida,” which is the big meal here.  Try as we might, we usually are not ready for a big meal until about 4:00, and by then the home take-out places have closed for the day.  We will get there.  --Harrison

Waiter, there's a wasp in my opossum

Last Sunday we were going to go to a water park in Etla, which is a half hour north of Oaxaca.  We encouraged Max to invite a friend from school.  The first person he called could not reach his mother, who was in Mexico City, to ask her.  The second person said he could go, but they live 40 minutes south of Oaxaca, in Ócotlan.  Since all of it is new to us, we decided to go to Ócotlan instead, and to look for a swimming pool there.  Then the first friend called back.  He had reached his mother, and she said he could go.  Then, when I called the family in Ócotlan back to tell them we were leaving, they invited us to eat with them before going to the pool.


And that is how a day at a water park in Etla turned into an excursion to Ócotlan, where we did some sight-seeing, ate lunch at a funky restaurant /compound outside of town, and did not go swimming.  But no regrets.  To the contrary, most of our days here are fairly structured.  When we wake up we have a decent idea how the day will play out.  We have to, in order to manage school, Spanish classes, dance classes, soccer practices, a homework tutor, etc.  So it is a treat to drop the pretense of a plan and to see where the day takes us, like we did last Sunday.  In that case, it lead to a wonderful day of discoveries, and to meeting a gracious family that we will surely spend more time with.

Which leads to the restaurant.  It took our two-minivan convoy about 15 minutes driving on a dirt road to get there.  We parked next to a wall that hid a “palenque,” where they make mezcal, a liquor similar to tequila.  The two men running the palenque were like caricatures of whom you would expect to find making moonshine in any number of countries, our own included.  They have sampled their share of the product.

In front of the fermentation tanks

On top of the still.  Please, don't fall.

A footbridge across from the palenque lead to the restaurant, called "La Herencia."  The bridge crossed a stream that the kids explored while the adults sat at the restaurant and talked and enjoyed the mezcal.  The restaurant was a collection of brick and adobe shacks with thatch roofs surrounding a small lawn that served as a makeshift soccer field.  

Bridge to "La Herencia"

Our table

The lawn.  Cacti double as goal posts.

We ordered grilled beef fillets with pasta and vegetables, and deer in yellow sauce.  Helen preferred the deer, but she thought it was chicken.  We felt no need to correct her.

Beef with pasta and veggies

Deer in yellow sauce (that's actually red)

After lunch, we asked our hosts about chapulinis, the fried, seasoned grasshoppers that are a prized snack food here.  They said chapulinis are delicious, but it is best to eat them fresh instead of getting the old ones sold at the market in Oaxaca.  While we were talking, the restaurant owner brought us a plate of small black pellets.  He explained that they were out of chapulinis, but we might enjoy these too.  (We are left to wonder:  did he just find some random bugs and drop them into the fryer?)  At first we thought they were pill bugs, but on closer inspection we decided they were wasps.  Whatever they were, Natalie and I thought they were tasteless, and our hosts agreed.  They insist we will prefer chapulinis.  (Update:  yesterday we ate fresh, baby chapulinis at a different restaurant.  Indeed, they tasted better.  Even Max and Helen tried them.)

Fried wasps.  Surprisingly bland.

Wasps aside, we had a very nice meal.  And, as we learned after a behind-the-scenes look at where they keep some of the ingredients, with three days notice we could have sampled a number of other dishes. But they probably would have tasted like chicken.

The tortilla kitchen

Bunnies

Back-flipping squirrel

Tlacuache (aka opossum)

Now we are off to visit the ruins of Mitla with our neighbors.  At least, that's what we think we are doing. Maybe we will end up at a water park in Etla.  --Harrison

So much to do

Before our trip, a lot of people asked me what I was going to do here.  I had ideas, but no plan.  Six weeks into our trip and I still have no plan, but there is plenty to do.  Here is a list of ten things I might do on a typical day.  They are in no particular order.

10.  Cook with Cristi.  The woman who cleans our house and who plays with Helen and our neighbor’s son, José Andres, in the afternoons is a fantastic cook.  She is teaching me how to make different regional dishes.

Cristi with Chilaqueiles de Tomate, quesillo, and tasajo (tortilla chips soaked in tomato sauce, artisan cheese, and grilled beef fillet).

The chef with her assistant, who tries not to get in the way while sneaking a taste.

9.  Look for someone to teach me some Mexican songs on the guitar.  I had big plans to learn Mexican music, but so far this has been a bust.  The only place I have heard live music, besides the Peruvian pan pipe group in the Zócalo and the roving marimba players, has been on buses.  Every now and then a person with a guitar boards the bus, sings a few songs, then asks for tips.  This has happened to me three times, and each singer has been worse than the last.  I am not being a snob.  Two of them were so horribly out of tune I considered getting off the bus.  I will keep looking for the rich music scene I know is here.

Busride serenade.  Looks better than it sounded.

8.  Grocery shop.  I do most of the shopping, since Natalie takes Spanish every morning.  Sometimes it requires going to the big grocery store, Soriana, but usually I can get what we need in one of several markets.  By far my favorite market is "La Central de Abastos," although it is farther from our house than the others.  It is huge.  They sell everything, from produce to hardware to clothing to pirated CDs.  I have never seen anything like it.  There will have to be a separate blog entry on La Central.

I switched to a blue shopping bag after a taxi driver said only women use these bags.

Bulk Frosted Flakes, Cocoa Krispies, Corn Flakes, and Fruit Loops at La Central.  Dried chili peppers are in the back.  Not to be eaten with the cereal.

Is the stuffed baby opossum on top of the nuts supposed to attract customers?

One shopping trip's haul:  Tortillas, celery, kale, a pot, water glasses, shot glasses

7.  Walk kids to school.  All four of us usually walk to school together.  It's a highlight of the day.  For me and Natalie, that is.  Probably not for Max and Helen.

Walking out the driveway

6.  Watch Helen and Max at school.  Actually, it is difficult to observe much because parents are not allowed to wander beyond the front courtyard.  On Monday, however, we were invited to participate in Helen's biweekly psycho-motor class ("psicomotricidad").  It is like Gymboree with a lot of pedagogy attached to it.

Clearly designed for smaller people

Making it look easy

The kids in psicimotricidad.  Practicing their solutes in a safe position?  (Helen is bottom left.)

5.  Make Fruit Loops Valentines for breakfast.  (Did I mention that one of Helen's best friends at school, a cute little boy named José Manuel, brought her a dozen roses today?  We assume they are a late Valentine's Day gift, but we are not positive.)

Valentine's breakfast.

Roses from José Manuel

4.  Plan birthday parties.  Helen's and Natalie's.

Helen's party at Poing Poing.

Natalie's party in our backyard.

Grilling skirt steaks with José Manuel for Natalie's birthday (not the same José Manuel  who gave Helen the roses).

3.  Go sight-seeing.  In earlier posts I described visits to the rug-making town of Teotitlán del Valle, and the Zapotec ruins at Monte Alban.  Last Sunday we visited the town of Ócotlan de Morelos, which is where the renowned (but previously not known to me) Mexican artist, Rudolfo Morales, lived.  Morales was dedicated to improving the town.  He started a foundation that has sponsored many projects, including renovating the church and the attached monastery.  Now the monastery is a museum for his art.  The church and the museum both are very impressive.

Gallery in the Morales museum with some unique cylindrical paintings.

Tourists at the restored church in Ócotlan

2.  Make a hammock.  Some people did not believe me when I said I wanted to learn how to make hammocks.  It was true, and I am learning.  A hammock maker I met at a market is teaching me.  This is another subject that will get its own blog entry one of these days.

My first Mexican hammock, still on the rack.

Two good reasons to make hammocks.  (I did not make this hammock.)

1.  Play video games.  Once or twice a week, Max and I go to a place where we can play Xbox for about a dollar an hour.  It is a nice escape.  And, after this whole blog entry, if you are still wondering what I do to fill my time, check out this next picture:

Angry Birds Excellence.

This list is not exhaustive, but it gives an idea of where my days go.


Before I sign off, a special shout-out to Ms. Friedman's Spanish I class at Berkeley High.  Que bueno que están leyendo este blog.  ¡Están muy padres!  --Harrison