Oaxaca Guelaguetza: chaotic, calm and kind…and a lot of crazy fun

I was worried when I returned to Oaxaca it might have lost its luster for me, but nope I still love it. This time I saw Oaxaca in a new way (Guelaguetza) and loved it even more. This is my third visit in 2 years but the first visit for Brant. I was so excited to share it with him.

This city at times seems like a well designed movie set. Perfectly placed colors and art everywhere. Designed for fun and food at every turn, but with beautiful steep mountains in the background and art everywhere . The warmth of the people is seems so genuine. They are used to having many languages and they have realized it’s unnecessary to have perfect language skills … body language, lots of smiles and slow simple sentences in Spanish is a lot of fun and it works well.

The plan for this trip was Guelaguetza. This is a month long celebration based around dance. The indigenous word means to share. So this is a bit like thanksgiving but more fun (and I love Thanksgiving). I would say if you do not like crowds or being confused then this is probably the wrong event for you. For example, when trying to sort out where and when to go to a parade we would get different info from a dozen people. The official internet would have 3 different times and AI would say there were no parades! Then finally on the day of the parade we would determine there were actually 2 huge parades attended by street clogging thousands, 10 minutes after the parade started. Someone knew!

We started with Monte Alban, considered one of the 2 most important archeological sites in Mexico. I was glad Edgar (and glad I kept my contact with Edgar who was an excellent driver from a previous trip) talked us (especially me) into leaving at 7:20. We had Monte Alban almost completely to ourselves for about an hour. Somehow it appears we were there before it opened… perfect during Guelaguetza which is the busiest time of year.

While there is evidence in the area of prehistoric man dating back 11,000 YEARS!!! … the construction of Monte Alban by the Zapotecs began in 500 BCE. They built lots and lots of pyramids over some 40 square miles. They had a bustling civilization for about 1200 years! Then for unclear reasons they gradually abandoned it. Drought? Then the Mixtecs (who fought with Zapotecs) started using it for burials (google tumba 7) and religious activities. Finally the Mexica arrived and annexed everyone. You can sort of think of the Mexica as rulers a bit like the Romans. They allowed the other groups they took over to continue with their own traditions. . Literature often calls them the Aztecs, but ultimately the Aztec term really referred to everyone as they sort of melded together as they annexed more and more of the land and people. Remember it’s Mexico not Azteco!

Then the Spanish realized it was a pretty nice climate with lots of silver so with the indiscriminate use of guns and germs but in the name of God, Spain took over for about 300 years. Then the French got Mexico for about 5 years (the spoils of war) until Benito Juarez managed to bring the country together as a united group. Mexico finally became a functioning independent nation that was a combo of many many different indigenous groups as well as many Spaniards and I’m sure a few from France as well (of course, it is much more complicated/boring than this ) . As we sit in this bus passing hundreds of miles of empty beautiful land, I can not figure out why all these guys didn’t just pick different mountain /valley regions rather than fighting over one area for thousands of years. And as I read all this history, I feel sorry for the Mexican child trying to get this all straight. Much easier to just start with the pilgrims.

After Monte Alban we made a quick stop at one of those alebrije towns. Hard to resist finding out what your spirit animal is . The history of albrijes is very clever (google it). A clever way to insure art and religion stays current and approachable. (While writing this a friend texted from the Napa area that one of the most famous albrije studios from Oaxaca was in the Napa area doing a workshop. ) It’s especially good to find out what your spirit animal is at the beginning of a trip so you can buy that animal for the rest of the trip. Love giving men shopping goals!

And I love seeing any place with cool architecture so we took a detour to the Ex convent in Cuilápam . Interesting though that is was begun by 4 Dominican monks doing their best to convert the Zapotecs and Mixtecs to Christianity. In fact the daughter of the last Zapotec king was buried at the church after being beheaded by the Mixtecs when the Zapotecs broke a promise. Apparently the monks thought burying her there might improve church attendance.

We didn’t know what to expect on our first Guelaguetza event (and there are a lot of events). Guelaguetza is celebrated throughout the small communities but after a terrible earthquake nearly destroyed Oaxaca many decades ago they decided to promote it in order to raise money for the city. We actually saw very very few gringos but it appeared very well attended with most events either free or a small charge.

The Convite (an invitation to celebrate) was a parade. It’s described as a joyful celebration and that sure does seem like a good description. People lined 5 or more deep on the streets on both sides. We chose to watch as the parade turned the corner, and I noticed as time went on more and more people squeezed into the street. Prizes were thrown and lots of mezcal poured. For prizes, we aren’t talking just candy prizes but bowls, colanders? , pineapples, avocados, and lots and lots of Mezcal . The person next to me managed to grab a bowl and then had people pour Mezcal directly into the bowl which he then chugged (repeatedly). It ended with fireworks at the cathedral…that is after the dance performances were completed.

I guess a good question is whether we were frightened. No not really… everyone just seemed to be having such a good time that you just joined the fun. Porque no?

We spent 4 days staying downtown at a terrific guest house (Agrado Guest House). Then another 4 days in a small town outside the city called San Andres Huayapam .(Hotel Huayapam Yuu Spa)

I think Brant is curious what the town is like with fewer people but we are both amazed how calmly and kindly all these events unrolled. Yet at the same time it was so chaotic and energetic. I know that seems like an odd combo of words but it was calm and chaotic.

Our next parade which I am not sure is a calenda or a convite was very different. This featured all the dancers from the various regions around Oaxaca…essentially it was a dance performance. Lots of kids with very little mezcal this time. Our friends from Oaxaca encouraged us to get there early…even a couple hours early it was pretty filled up with people. We enjoyed talking to the people around us. We met a man from LA who grew up in Puebla (until age 18) then married a woman in LA who was from Oaxaca. He had 3 kids all in college all in the UC system. He got out his phone and told me great places we should visit in Mexico. He was having a food filled visit his wive’s family…so nice to see and we appreciated the travel tips from this guy who decided to take a chance when he was 18.

These are photos of Zaachila where we went to watch the performance that marks the end of Guelaguetza. It’s a very long performance…6 hours (yes we were shocked too). Right next to this archeological site that hosts the performance is a massive number of food and drink venders with intermittent bands marching through the middle of it. (Hopefully there is a video of this). At the end we enjoyed lamb tacos. We asked if they had any mezcal to go with our tacos and a man appeared out of nowhere with a big jug. He kept pouring and we kept drinking…then he declined any money for the mezcal. a sharing holiday….

I think this picture sums it up. Beautiful landscapes and art everywhere . But what I really wanted to convey was how much fun stuff was happening all day long…pretty much non stop. Sadly we didn’t always understand the symbolism or the meaning of many of the events, but you could feel the pride and how much the Oaxacans really wanted us to have a good time. They wanted us to try everything and so we did! We did not disappoint! This is probably the toughest blog I’ve ever done given a tremendous number of pictures and so many of people. It was also the beginning of reading a lot about the history of Mexico. Stay tuned for more on that….