SNOWBIRDS SNOWBIRDS EVERYWHERE . . .

Though no visitor could be as distinguished and welcome as my Mom, February did bring its share of wonderfully interesting folks stopping by our Oaxacan paradise for a rest. There were even a few non-bookmakers among them. Michael, our Philly friend who we had (coincidentally) met up with in Guanajuato, was once again crossing paths with us in Oaxaca. Guanajuato had been such a great experience that he decided to continue his Mexican adventure, as well as his language classes, with a 3 week stay in our adopted home town. It was great to see him again, and we had lots of fun hosting him for a few days after his study program was through. Michael introduced us to several fellow student-travelers from his language institute. We had a nice time with David, from Vermont, and enjoyed a nice evening discussing Vermont's passage of Civil Union recognition for gay and lesbian couples (you may recall that Ed and I postponed our departure by a week to get our committed butts to Vermont to get 'civilly hitched'. A great experience.). Michael will be back in Latin America in a couple of months, though this time it's Guatemala and we won't be joining him there, having had our own visit there in December.

YES, WE WOULD LIKE FRIES WITH THAT

Ed and I had had just about enough tacos at about the time that we discovered that Yes, Virginia, there IS a McDonald's in Oaxaca. OK, Cut the Attitude! Sure, it's easy for YOU to roll your eyes about eating American junk food while abroad, blah, blah, blah . . . HAH! It tasted GREAT! We were just a bit tired (some of us more than just a bit) of the taco fare, and it sure tasted a lot like home. So sue me.

SO, WHAT VIRGEN ARE WE CELEBRATING TONIGHT?

Of course, no month goes by without at least one religious procession, and the Virgen de Belem was kind enough to detour down our street one night. We raced up to the roof and had a bird's eye view of the 38 flag/banner procession as it wound its way around the neighborhood. The requisite candles, flowers, singing women, clanging brass were present in abundance, and, as usual, there was a complete lack of male participation. You peek in enough churches and you begin to think that only the women are Catholic here.

THIS PLACE JUST GETS FRIENDLIER AND FRIENDLIER

This month brought a new friend into our lives when we got a phone call from Barbara who was in town staying at her friend Maris' place. "Come on over for lunch" is the usual response, and it turned out to be a wonderful beginning to a new friendship. Barbara is an educator/artist from San Francisco, and Maris is an artist from D.C. who also happens to spend about half the year here in sunny Oaxaca. We've since spent lots of time with Maris which has turned out to be anything but boring. She has introduced us to lots of people and places, and her LET'S GO! attitude has brought us new energy and experiences. Stay tuned, because I suspect we'll be getting into lots more trouble with this one!

STILL MOVING MY HIPS

After much searching, I finally found a place to continue my clumsy, but sincere, attempts to gain much needed rhythm. I started dance lessons again here in Oaxaca, though this time it's a larger class, and I'm the resident guero (which is Mexican for 'gringo'). I'm actually doing a second lesson per day until I get caught up with the rest of the class. It's really true that not everyone here can move to a Latin beat, so I'm not totally behind (though my behind sure seems behind at times).

OUR "VISITING ARTIST" PROGRAM, BRINGING CHIAPAS TO OAXACA

Remember our trip to Chiapas? Well, for me, getting kicked out to Mexico was probably one of the most memorable things about the experience (though by no means the MOST memorable. Palenque, San Cristobal de las Casas and Guatemala were all happily more memorable). For Ed, the "I can put bookmaking on 'Pause' but never on 'Stop' guy", one of the most remarkable things was the discovery of the Taller Lenateros in San Cristobal de las Casas. It is an arts cooperative in which the members make paper, prints and books and market them all over Mexico and beyond. Well, after returning to Oaxaca Ed started a correspondence with Ambar Past, one of the guiding forces at the Taller, but someone whom we had unfortunatly not met while in Chiapas. Ambar is a Mexican poet and artist and she and Ed exhanged lots of great e-mail about their mutual interests. Ed's philosophy about making wonderful artist books with materials close at hand seemed to parallel what the members of the Taller Lenateros are doing. They use local plants to make paper and record their stories, poems and experiences on their handmade paper.

Ambar invited Ed to return to Chiapas to work with the Taller folks in a cooperative environment to share what the Taller was doing and to learn some of what Ed knows about bookmaking (which, between you and me, is A LOT!). Ed and I talked about it and we just couldn't see ourselves making the 12 hour bus ride back to San Cristobal. Instead we decided to invite someone from the Taller to spend a week with us in Oaxaca where we could host an exchange of ideas and experiences. That is how we found our new friend: Ambar Past!

Ambar and Ed had exchanged lots of e-mail and had really hit it off. We all looked forward to this "Artist in (our) Residence" experience. Ed had wanted to connect with Mexican artists since before setting foot in Mexico and it was finally going to happen! Ambar wrote Ed directly in English (in which she seemed really proficient) which enabled him to interact with a colleague without needing me to insert myself as a linguistic conduit. When the morning of Ambar's arrival came we could barely contain ourselves. Ambar called from the bus station to let us know that she had arrived after an all night ride and I let her know that she was only a few minutes taxi ride from our house. After I hung up the phone I mentioned to Ed that Ambar's SPOKEN English was at least as good as her written English. I mean, she had NO trace of a Mexican accent at all!

The taxi pulled up and out bounded the very energetic, very upbeat, very talented Ambar Past. We were immediately fast friends, and Ed and I grew to like Ambar more and more over the next few days. Ambar IS a Mexican national, though her fluent English was aided by having been an American for a couple of decades before heading to Mexico where she has lived for more than half of her life. She is a fascinating person and she and Ed had a great time that week, sharing stories, swapping bookmaking tips, learning and teaching each other. There was more to this experience than just the books, and I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about Ambar and her experiences here in her adopted country.

We weren't the only ones who wanted to get to know more about Ambar and the Taller Lenateros. We hosted a reception at our little house so that other Americans in Oaxaca could spend some time looking over the materials that Ambar brought (2 huge boxes!) as well as chatting with Ambar. It was a delightful, though exhausting, experience. The Taller Lenateros is an incredible organization, so stay tuned to learn more about it.

Ed, Ambar and Maris made a field trip one day during Ambar's visit. They headed out to a papermaking workshop located in Etla, a small town just outside the city of Oaxaca. They reported back that day like kids returning from their first trip to the Museum of Natural History in New York City! They had actually visited two papermaking facilities. The Graphic Arts Institute's is quite developed and is run by one of Oaxaca's notable artists. There things are run efficiently, if unenthusiastically, by the numerous workers. The Papel Oaxaca workshop was an entirely different and more interesting experience. It is run by the wildly energetic, outrageously creative and manically focused papermaker Alberto Valenzuela. Ed described this visit in detail, in awe of the small but dedicated crew that had devised ingenious machines to help the papermakers at each step of the process. This was one stop on the tour that DEFINITELY caught his attention. I had a feeling it was not the last we would see of Papel Oaxaca . . .

After about a week of book-talk, Ambar hopped back on a bus and headed off to Mexico City, where she is making a CD recording of some of the Mayan magical spells and drinking songs that are an extension of one of the books that the Taller Lenateros has created. That particular project represented the first book written, illustrated and produced by the Mayan people in 1,000 years.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

After Ambar's visit we went back to our usual routine of enjoying the city. For some unexplainable reason Ed discovered an interest in churches, which led us to some of Oaxaca's (and Catholicism's) more quirky tales. Whether it was a huge stone Saint standing squarely on the heads of heretics (a metaphor for the Mexican church's historic hostility to Freedom of Religious expression even into this century) or the numerous graphic idols displayed around town, Ed shared with me all that he had learned from his history books.

Life in Oaxaca has been nice and simple, with special treats like bagels, coffee and a Newsweek magazine (in English) at a cafe looming large as memorable pastimes. Other memorable interactions include our new haircutter. We both headed out to a neighborhood stylist that we had passed numerous times on strolls around town. The place seemed stylish and the stylist seemed like she would give a good cut. Certainly her heels and bright lipstick were fashionable. It was only several minutes into the hair cut that we both noticed that her voice seemed unusually deep. Once again, Mexico was more than at first meets the eye! A couple of great haircuts later and we were new clients and fans!

Valentine's Day turned out to be a HUGE thing here. Stores, restaurants, bars, schools, markets all sprouted red balloons, hearts, carnations, roses, and expressions of friendship and love. Apparently this day is not just for lovers but for friends as well, so everyone could get in on the marketing and celebrating, hitched or not. Three separate stages appeared in the Plaza and that night there were bands belting out tunes from each one. It seemed like the entire population of Oaxaca had turned out for a good time. Not exactly a quiet, romantic observance. It was nice to see young and old, single and coupled all in the Plaza having a ball.

Ed hosted several more bookmaking classes during this time, and we met lots more interesting people as well. The American Lending Library was a huge find, since we had become hesitant to buy more English language books that we would then either have to leave behind or pay to ship home. Ruth, who has lived in Oaxaca for more than 50 years (losing NONE of her impatience with inefficiency in that time) and Dot, a lovely and vivacious ex-patriot now married to a very nice Mexican, are always a treat to see. We look forward to heading off to the Library, which we visit at least twice per week, and laughing and chatting with this interesting group. Of course, there are some Americans who have settled in Oaxaca whose pretensions would seem more at home in San Miguel de Allende or SoHo, but anywhere you travel you meet all kinds!

SO, YOU GROW WORMS, DO YOU?

Naomi, my knitting teacher and Worm Lady, took us on an adventure out of the city one Saturday morning. Naomi is very interested in using Red Wiggler worms to help with the speed and efficiency of composting organic matter. Check out www.cityworm.com for more info on that. As luck (fate?) would have it, there is a young man here in Etla (on the outskirts of Oaxaca) who does worm composting on a rather large scale. Naomi took several of us out there one morning to meet Eneas Alejandre, tour his 40 acres (plus or minus) and see the worms in action. She also taped an interview that I did with Eneas so she can share all this with like-minded folks back in the USA. Eneas was an energetic about worms and the magic they make with manure as Alberto Valenzuela was with paper and the magic he makes with plant pulp. It must be the water or the air way out here, away from the bus exhaust! Eneas sells his organic compost (what's left when the worms have had their way with the organic material) and it was great to see how he had enlisted chickens to help him take the smaller (baby) worms out of the compost before it was prepared to be sent out. Ed and I also had the opportunity to take a short stroll around the area and almost got the chance to ride a burro (which is a personal goal, since I think they are incredibly cute). I think the nice farmer would have obliged, but the way he was sitting on this donkey, which had packs on either side of it, would have snapped me like a wishbone if I had tried it. Better to wait for a petting zoo before attempting something that could leave me walking funny for the rest of my life.

THE WELCOME MAT IS STILL OUT

February brought several more weather-related refugees from North of the Border. Bob and James stayed with us for a week and Mimi and Stan came the same week and stayed just around the corner. It was a fun week, whether we were all playing together or taking separate, smaller tours of the town. James speaks fluent Spanish, so he and Bob were free to roam around the city and were very independent. Mimi also speaks Spanish, but her book arts connections kept her and Ed chatting all week about this paper or that fold. We had a big turkey dinner for all which required us to bake the bird in a big bucket (cooking here certainly requires some imagination). With independent guests it's easy to just give some recommendations and a map and send them on their way. We did have some group outings, however, most notably the field trip back to Etla to tour both papermaking establishments that Ed had recently visited.

We called a tour company and got a driver and van for the day (the company was very nice, though they did suggest that in the future we try to give them more than just 30 minutes notice of our needs). Mimi, Stan, Bob, James, Ed and I headed to Etla with cameras ready. We weren't disappointed. The larger Graphic Arts Institute was impressive enough, but it seemed very antiseptic, with somewhat unenthusiastic and robotic workers just going through the motions to meet an economic need. After that tour we headed up the road to Alberto's Papel Oaxaca workshop, which makes up in energy what it lacks in size. Alberto was so thrilled to see us that he immediately launched into his philosophy on paper making using a completely natural and environmentally friendly process. James translated for the group (with help from Mimi. James knows lots of Spanish and Mimi knows lots about paper, so between the two of them they did a great job filling the rest of us in on what was going on. I was glad to have others handling all the translating duties, so I just sat back and enjoyed myself) and we all watched and learned. At the end of our time with Alberto he and Ed arranged to get together in Oaxaca in order for Ed to share some bookmaking ideas with Alberto, whose wonderful handmade paper is just begging to be utilized in some creative way.