Guatemala Textile Study Tour 2025: Cloth and Culture
Registration is now open. A $750 non-refundable deposit will reserve your space. We offered this tour first to those who expressed interest a couple of months ago, and we have filled seven out of fourteen spaces. We hope that if you want to go to Guatemala with us in February 2025, you won’t hesitate to […]
Day of the Dead Etiquette and Behavior: Teotitlan del Valle Cemetery
Last year, 2022, Day of the Dead in Teotitlan del Valle was a frenzy. Big tour buses and mini-vans each holding 24 to 36 passengers unloaded face-painted visitors in front of our cemetery. I had made a plan this year to go early and not stay very long, expecting the same thing — travelers looking […]
Travel Tips: How to Safely Pack Mezcal, Pottery for the Trip Home
It’s been some years since I wrote about how I pack mezcal bottles, pottery and other fragile artisan crafts to take back to the USA after my stay in Oaxaca. For the most part, I can claim 99.5% success that all will arrive undamaged. Only once, did a plate arrive broken! Basically, what I do […]
2024 Oaxaca Coast Textile Study Tour
Arrive on Saturday, January 13 and depart on Monday, January 22, 2024 — 9 nights, 10 days in textile heaven! We go deep, and not wide. We give you an intimate, connecting experience. We spend time to know the culture. You will meet artisans in their homes and workshops, enjoy local cuisine, dip your hands […]
On the Oaxaca Coast, It’s About the Cloth, Not the Cut
On the Oaxaca Coast, it’s about the cloth, not the cut. Why? Because lengths of cloth meticulously woven on the back strap loom are never cut. They are squares and rectangles that are joined together at right angles to create a garment. The garment construction never has darts, either. Nor is it form-fitting. Plus, the […]
Oaxaca Day of the Dead Day Tour: Ocotlan Highway, October 27, 2023
Get a head start on Day of the Dead and arrive a few days early to enjoy the rich artisan culture and history of our region’s villages. Each artisan we visit along the Ocotlan Highway will not only talk about and demonstrate their craft, they will discuss their personal experiences and traditions growing up and […]
Interlude: Road to Venustiano Carranza, Chiapas
This week is one of rest! Hahahaha! I scheduled myself for a calming week between our two Chiapas textile tours. In between, eating, sleeping, walking around and getting super-fixed with shiatsu massage from Kentaro, I asked our guide Gabriela if she would take me to the distant weaving village of Venustiano Carranza. I have never […]
Where is Zacoalpan, Guerrero? Find It on the Oaxaca Coast Textile Tour
The Costa Chica of Oaxaca actually includes the southern part of Guerrero state, stretching from Puerto Escondido north to Acapulco. We don’t go quite as far as Acapulco, but we go deep into Amuzgo territory. The Amuzgo ethnic group encompasses northern Oaxaca and southern Guerrero. As in many parts of the world, political boundaries have […]
Best of Oaxaca’s Biodiversity at Ejido Union Zapata: Day of Plenty
Oaxaca celebrates indigenous food and handmade at the annual Agro-biodiversity Fair in Ejido Union Zapata. This once a year event is building traction. The main street of several blocks, cordoned off for booths and foot traffic, was packed by noon. The natural food color was beyond belief. Billed as a seed exchange, farmers came from […]
Happy Thanksgiving From Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico
I woke up early with the wind at my back, ready to get a jump on the Day of Giving Thanks. In Mexico we call it Dia de Accion de Gracias. It is a good day to take a walk and think about all the goodness of life. It was close to eight o’clock this morning […]
Documentary Film: Zapotec in Oaxaca, Mexico, Dizhsa Nabani, A Living Language
All ten, five-minute episodes of the documentary film, Dizhasa Nabani/Lengua Viva/Living Language, premiered last night in San Jeronimo Tlacachahuaya. This is an ancient and important village in the Tlacolula Valley, center of the Catholic diocese. The film is in Zapotec, with Spanish and English subtitles. Just wonderful! Yet, the risk of indigenous Zapotec language loss […]
Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead: Talking With the Ancestors
The altar is complete. Dia de los Muertos — Day of the Dead– 2018 has passed. The difuntos, spirits of the ancestors, have returned to their resting places content that we have welcomed them back to earth for the day to celebrate their lives. Some of us talk to our parents, ask their advice, admonish […]
Day of the Dead — Dia de los Muertos — Is it Halloween?
Today is Halloween in El Norte, the northern part of North America aka USA. In southern North America aka Mexico, the celebration is very different. And, the border is more permeable so iconic images of carved pumpkins, witches on broomsticks, and the call of trick or treat are becoming part of the Mexican holiday landscape. Catholic […]
On Becoming a Permanent Resident in Mexico
Last month I was invited to contribute a chapter to a book about ex-pat women from the USA who have chosen to make a life in Mexico. Tell your story, the editor said. Write about your experience. What was your reason for leaving our land of the free, home of the brave (my tongue and […]
Day of the Dead 2019 Women’s Writing Retreat: How Memory Inspires Us
Arrive Wednesday, October 30 and leave Monday, November 4, 2019. The retreat can accommodate up to 10 women. We gather for Day of the Dead 2019 in the traditional Zapotec village of Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico to write with intention for five nights and four days. Day of the Dead inspires us to revisit our […]
Global Day of Clay, Video and National Ceramics School, San Marcos Tlapazola
My father was a potter so I have a special affinity for clay. My kitchen in Teotitlan del Valle holds an assortment of San Marcos Tlapazola barro rojo from for cooking. Shelves are stacked with elegant, simple red clay dishes and bowls from which to dine. I love this clay and the women who make […]
Ringing the Bells: San Miguel Arcangel Church, San Miguel del Valle, Oaxaca
San Miguel del Valle, Oaxaca, calls to me. Perhaps because it is hidden — escondido — beyond Santa Ana del Valle and Diaz Ordaz, tucked into the fold of the foothills leading to the Sierra Juarez on the way to the eco-tourism center of Cuajilomoyas. There are dazzling, artful aprons there that talented women embroider […]
Podcast: Tixinda Dreamweavers Plus Our Oaxaca Coast Textile Study Tour
Listen to the WEAVE Podcast from Gist Yarn & Fiber Today, Sarah Resnick from Gist Yarn & Fiber, talks with Patrice Perillie, an immigration attorney based in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, and Mixtec weaver Amada Sanchez Cruz from Pinotepa de Don Luis. She also interviews Norma Schafer at the end of the segment. Patrice started the […]
Zaachila Zancudos: Dancing on Stilts is Cultural Heritage
The Stilt Dancers of Zaachila are called Zancudos because stilts are long and leggy like mosquito legs. Stilts are called zancos in Spanish. The Zancudos are very proprietary about this dance. They consider it part of their cultural identity and heritage. After I wrote the blog post about the Lila Downs concert during Guelaguetza season […]
Flouncy Aprons of San Miguel del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico
Oh, gosh, how to resist these extraordinary aprons of San Miguel del Valle. The Zapotec community is nestled into a steep hillside 8 km up into the Sierra Juarez from the Tlacolula crossroads on the way to Cuajimoloyas. Remote but accessible by car. This is a small village of about 1,000 people many of whom […]
Leslie’s Regrets Sale: Clothing From Chiapas and Oaxaca
I had this crazy idea of starting an on-line e-commerce website marketplace to sell and resell new and like-new Mexico clothing AND my own dress design. (Skip the story, if you like, and scroll down to the goods.) (I’ve been making and wearing the same dress pattern in different fabrics for the last several years. […]
A Day in Oaxaca Villages with Envia Foundation
Yes, I went on a tour! Envia Foundation offers half-day excursions out to villages where their borrowers live and work. I say borrowers because Envia’s primary goal is to offer microfinancing — interest-free loans — to women entrepreneurs who want to start or expand a small business. Responsible tourism is part of that. We visit […]
Video: Danza de los Diablos, African Roots in Mexico, El Tule Guelaguetza 2018
Danza de los Diablos is connected with the Afro-Mestizo history of Oaxaca’s Costa Chica, the Pacific coast region between Puerto Escondido and Acapulco, Guerrero. Now referred to as Mexico’s Third Root, people of African descent are an integral part of what it means to be Mexican, more than only the mix of Europeans and AmerIndians. With the […]
Fancy Dancing: Video of Huajuapan de Leon Jarabe Mixteco
On Monday night, while the crowd of 11,000 was in the Auditorio Guelaguetza enjoying the main event, I joined friends Winn and Jacki in Santa Maria del Tule for their First Guelaguetza. There are other villages around Oaxaca, too, that produce smaller-scale guelaguetzas for a fraction of the cost, more accessible and affordable to a […]
Lila Downs Concert Is Mini-Guelaguetza Extravaganza
How could each Lila Downs Concert be better then those that came before? The Best Ever is what I heard people say who have gone to many in the past. I don’t know, but Lila Downs knows how to dazzle a crowd. The Guelaguetza Stadium on the Cerro Fortin in Oaxaca city was full on […]
Foodie Fest, Wild Mushrooms Fair (Feria del Hongos) in San Antonio Cuajimoloyas
Just a forty minute drive into the mountains from the Tlacolula de Matamoros crossroads at MEX 190–Panamerican Highway — is the village of San Antonio Cuajimoloyas. It is one of several known as the Pueblos Mancomunados for eco-tourism. A Zip-Line crosses the village and mountain bikes are everywhere. Each year during Guelaguetza time they host […]
Wear Your Apron: Photos From the Feria del Barro Rojo
First, the last day of this year’s (2018) Feria del Barro Rojo in San Marcos Tlapazola is tomorrow, Monday, July 16, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. If you go, wear your distinctive Tlapazola apron, like I did. It’s gingham trimmed in folded ribbon that ends up looking like frosting on a wedding cake. Too […]
Preview: Teotitlan del Valle Celebrates Village Life with Basket Parade
The fiesta in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, is an annual event, always celebrated the first week in July. This year it continues through July 9. I’m posting the schedule below for those of you in Oaxaca. This is a festival that honors the village church, Preciosa Sangre de Nuestro Senor Jesucristo. This is a religious […]
Long Day, Soft Landing to Oaxaca, Mexico — City Mouse, Country Mouse
Life is bimodal. I’m a city mouse in Durham, North Carolina, and a country mouse in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca. Federico says I’m an honorary Zapoteca although I can only say hello and raise a toast in his native language. For the time being, I travel back and forth, with roots in both places with […]
A Word About Chiapas From Trish Tieger
I want to share this with you. It came to me this week unsolicited from Trish Tieger who lives along the Hudson River Valley in New York State. She traveled with us to Chiapas in 2018 and wanted me to know about her experience. Dear Norma, So much time has passed since we returned from […]