Women in the Military

Independence Day Parade

There were not any floats in this parade, but mostly a display of military troops and equipment. First, some very well-camouflaged military, including some that look like Wookies.

New Apartment

Here are some pictures of the new apartment. It is minimalist at the moment.

Red, White and Green

Today is a national holiday for the birthday of Benito Juarez with banks and many stores closed. Here is some red, white and green in honor of their national pride.


Benito Juarez served five terms as President of Mexico, and was very popular for lessening the power of the Catholic Church and standing up for the indigenous. Benito was from the town of Guelatao, about an hour outside of Oaxaca. He was orphaned when he was three, raised by his uncle and aunt, and spoke only Zapotec, the language of the largest indigenous group in Oaxaca. He was illiterate until he was 12 when he started school in Oaxaca and learned Spanish. Later he went to law school. Oaxaca is extremely proud of their Benito, who is on the 20 peso bill. There are two monuments to Benito here and--trivia alert--one in Chicago on Michigan Avenue.

Flags are flying large today. There isn't much wind in Oaxaca so it is not easy to get a waving flag. One flag is in the zócalo. The other flag at one of the Benito Juarez monuments, several miles away. I was walking up my street and it caught my eye because it is not usually there.

Triqui Women

The Triquis are one of the 16 indigenous groups in Oaxaca, with only 8000 speakers of their language. It is one of the poorest and most marginalized ethnic groups, with much violence directed towards them. They govern through indigenous customs and do not recognize existing government.

The Triquis are easily recognized through the red huipiles that the women wear. Here they are at the south end of the zócalo setting up their stands with blouses, shawls, scarves, change purses, keyrings and headbands.

Lent

They decorate for Lent here with Easter being the most important holiday in Mexico. Besides doorways, they put bows or ribbons along the windows. To give you an idea of the weather, they used crepe paper for this doorway without fear of it being ruined in the rain.

Zaachila Market

Thursday is market day in the village of Zaachila, about 20 minutes south of Oaxaca. I went there for the first time this week and was very pleasantly surprised at the size of the market and the wide selection of products. As typical of markets in Mexico, abundance is in everything, see the woman surrounded by mangoes and oranges.

La señora makes caramelized popcorn and colors the caramel with red, yellow and green. It was SO good, I was sorry I had only bought one package. I wanted a photo of the popcorn, she thought I wanted her photo and immediately posed while the ladies adjacent to her gave her posing advice. I had to shift my camera from the popcorn to her face so fast as I didn't want to miss an opportunity.

Baskets are used to carry products to market or for washing clothes. The clothes are placed in the baskets and water is poured through.

Different types of beans on this table including the red beans in the center which I bought. Note the large sized grayish black beans in the front, very unusual.

A box of sugar, called panela or piloncillo. It is very hard and is broken apart or grated or melted. This is the sugar used to caramelize the garbanzo beans from a previous post.