Miracle in a Boot

Last week, Natalie and I went to the town of San Martin Tilcajete on our way to the Friday market in Ocotlán.  It was our first trip to San Martin, which is known for its alebrijes (painted wooden animals).  We could not resist buying a couple more to add to our small but growing collection.  

Alebrijes and other pieces we have bought or made.  (Max and Natalie made the dragon on the right for a school project.)

Otter by Narciso Gonzalez Ramirez; Penguin by Maria Jimenez Ojeda.

Armadillo by Cirilo Rios, who lives and works at the farm across the street.

In general, the alebrije painting is reminiscent of Natalie’s painting, but we visited one workshop where even Natalie could not believe the detail.  The painters used brushes with perhaps five hairs to create intricate designs based on Zapotec motifs.  We ended up splurging on a sea otter – which they called a nutria – carved and painted by Jacobo and María Ángeles, who own the workshop.  It is an incredible piece, and Natalie says the painting will be an inspiration.

Alebrije carving at the workshop of Jacobo and María Ángeles.

Station where natural colors for the alebrijes are mixed.

Painting station.

Sea-otter/Nutria

Detail of the details. 

Happy artists, happy buyers.

Unlike most alebrije workshops we visited, the Ángeles' cater mostly to foreign collectors.  One benefit:  A ride back to town with Jacobo after we made our purchase.

We did not know if we would get back to Oaxaca in time to pick up the kids from school, so we asked Mercedes to do it.  She brought them to our house to change, and then to the soccer field, where we met them.  Max and I went to soccer practice, while Natalie, Helen, and Mercedes went to the shopping mall to wait for us.

Here is where it gets interesting.  From the time they left the house until they reached the mall, about a half hour later, Helen complained about a mosquito in her boot.  Nobody paid much attention because it seemed unlikely.  Helen also said there was a plant growing out of the lace hole.  Finally, after Helen, Natalie, and Mercedes sat down at a coffee shop in the mall, Mercedes took off Helen’s boot to take a look. Mercedes gasped and told Natalie to come outside, where she poured something out of the boot onto the sidewalk.  The picture tells the rest:   

Boot and scorpion.

Mercedes thinks it was a miracle the scorpion did not sting Helen.  She attributes it to a small pin with the Virgin of Juiquila Helen was wearing – a gift from Christie.  The less religious explanation is that the scorpion’s stinger (and not a plant) got stuck in the lace hole, which prevented it from stinging Helen.  The two explanations are not incompatible.  Whatever the explanation, we were extremely lucky, and relieved.  If the scorpion had stung Helen, she would have experienced severe pain and flu-like symptoms for two or three days.  She also would have missed her Hawaian and Tahitian dance performance the following afternoon.

Dance performance! 

Watching the big kids dance -- and imitating them.  (Helen is on the right.  Video to follow.) 

One the subject of bugs, this is an interesting time in Oaxaca.  Every morning there are large flying ants in the air and on the ground.  The ants are called chicatana.

A chicatana measures about two inches from tip of antenae to tip of wings. 

Max learned firsthand what Oaxacans like to do with chicatanas.  One morning at school, Max saw his friend, Pedro, collecting the oversized ants and putting them in his pencil case.  Max thought Pedro would use them to scare someone.  Wrong.  At lunchtime, Pedro took them out and, in Max’s words, “he just shoved them all in,” i.e., he ate them.  Wings and all.  We subsequently learned that people fry the chicatanas and eat them whole or grind them into a powder for salsa.  Pedro is the only person we know who eats them fresh.  --Harrison