Tuesday, October 31st
Today, for my morning walk, I was joined by Bea. Our goal is The Auditorio Guelaguetza (known locally as The Diaper), a performance venue that sits in the hill above Oaxaca on the Pan-American Highway. It is the big white thing in the picture above.
Here is an outdoor exercise area for Oaxacan residents that sits near the Pan-American Highway, pictured below.
Above is The Diaper, below is the view from The Diaper.
As you cross under the Pan-American Highway to get to the stairs back to the city, you pass all this great art. It has been up for a number of years (I have photographed these works before) and they are starting to show some wear.
Here is the stair case that leads back down to where our hotel is in Oaxaca.
Bea and I are back so that I can make the workshop by ten.
Sue hard at work
My theater is done
My stage hand
My prop master
My leading man
My leading female
Happy Birthday, Robin!
In the afternoon, I decide I want to walk to the tallers (print workshops) are so I can buy a print.
I was attracted to this taller, Temenk Galeria, by the magnificent artwork on the exterior of the building.
I selected this lithograph print by this artist to purchase. The artist is Manuel Bernal and the piece is called Sendero (Path) and is a young boy from Guatemala trying to catch a train to escape to Mexico.
Now I decide I want to walk to the market and buy my tin. Oaxaca is famous for its ornamental tin making and I like to use it in my art. I head in the direction of the market but get hopelessly lost.
I do manage to find the Soledad Church again.
Not only did I stumble on the church by accident but I find the sand paintings we could not find the other night.
Despite the intervention of God and Catholicism, I am done. I know which way the zocalo is from the church so I start walking--and run right into the market I thought I could not find.
So after walking around the market for awhile I got the idea that my tin booth was gone. The market is huge and I am directional impaired so...I finally just asked someone which direction in the building would take me towards the zocalo. They pointed, I walked that way and ...there was my tin booth. I got my tin!
On the way back to the hotel, on the acala, I see that the Benito Juarez school is open so that I can go in and see the ofrendas, or as the sign below indicates: Dead Altars!
No, he's fine. Dogs do this in tropical regions. Seriously, he is happy. Not dead.
Next up I walked to the baseball stadium and gymnastics facility near the Pan-American Highway because it has the best great street art.
This art, made from bottle caps, was on the wall of an escuela (school).
At this point of my day I was booking back to the hotel because the critique was scheduled for 3:00 p.m. when I found myself walking next to a little tiny Mexican guy who was intrigued by my jean jacket because it has a big Sun Studio patch on its back. He had been to Memphis and that was our conversation starter. Talking to this guy in broken English and broken Spanish about all the places he had been in my country made me realize a few things about our current international relationships. It made me think that if more people traveled, if more people talked to people when they traveled, the world would be a much better place. When we parted, we shook hands, two amigos.
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