Saturday, October 29, 2005

( Tlah-koh-chah-WYE-yah )


Katy and I were inside the church listening to a special concert on a pipe organ that was placed here in 1735. This very rare and very fancifully carved wood and metal machine was restored in 1991 by a woman from the U.S. who lives in Oaxaca and is fanatical about saving the few pipe organ treasures left inside Mexico. A nice gift and gesture.
But the grand treasure chest itself, is the aged church and the the still vibrant, living wisdom and comfort that comes from the spirit of this place. This still survives in Mexico too, people come to restore and be restored. Some say fanatically, but still a nice gift and gesture.
This pueblo of about two thousand is named San Jeronimo Tlacochahuaya (tlah-koh-chah-WYE-yah) and is only 12 miles outside of Oaxaca city. Many of the towns in the state have this Native/Spanish Catholic saint mixture, but the locals usually drop the saints name off when referring to the town.
But in Tlacochahuaya, La Iglesia San Jeronimo is something to be proud of. That is why many of us are here for part of the week long celebration of the church's finished construction in 1586. This church was a project of the Dominican Order. They were a major player on the winning team of Spanish colonialists that came in the 1520's. The story of those ages is profound and complex, but there were a few good priests who helped restrain some of the excesses toward the indigenous people.
One good one, perhaps with a few fanatical quirks, was a Friar named Juan de Cordoba. He spent 25 years in the church without ever going out. They say he never touched money and wore only shoes to celebrate mass. But he also worked hard and wrote the first Zapotec language dictionary in 1575.
The 420 year old church has been touched up a bit with mascara/paint and construction/crutches...but the old timer still wears its age honestly. I have no photos, we are not permitted to use camera flash inside; the frescoes and artwork are delicate. And so is the atmosphere. This is not a musuem or concert hall but a functioning sacred house. While perhaps 25 concert-goers listen to Sarabanda by Handel and Gallards by Juan Cabanillas, another 60 or more townsfolk walk in and around the church listening and sometimes chatting in whispers for a connection with the statuary and painted works of St. Jerome, the Virgin of Guadalupe, and God. Very real and genuine.
Quite often Katy and I would have to shuffle aside on our wooden pew bench, along the wall of the church and underneath wooden statues that were all within reach of a hand. Zapotec families would respectfully crowd close to us, as we tilted our heads so they could touch and whisper in small tears and smiles a greeting and word of thanks and concern. Nice gesture.
These mostly Zapotec villagers of Tlacochahuaya have been here here a long time, approx. 2,500 years. The Zapotecs are the largest of the state of Oaxaca's indigenous groups..upwards of 500,000 and about one-third of the total native people.
In it's history, Mexico has had incredible shifts in the native population. Historians/Demographers estimate that Mexico had at the time of the Spanish conquest in 1519 approx. 20 million indigenous people. By the year 1600, they guess only 1 million remained after European diseases, mostly measles and smallpox, and brutal treatment. Not until 1940 did Mexico reach the same population as 1519! The state of Oaxaca will have their population reach pre-conquest levels in 2019..500 years later.
And now, many, many seasons of maize/corn later, Katy and I are here only for a short time and pleased to be a part of this town's celebration. This cycle, of restoring and being restored in Tlacochahuaya...of organs and of souls...God willing, will always be here.

The Mixteca



Every time Katy and I travel to help in the rural literacy project in the isolated Mixteca mountains, we are humbled and blessed. We try and assist them, as they try to learn how to speak up for themselves with the ability to read and write the market-place necessary Spanish.
These people have only a little, and yet we always seem to leave receiving. All of us give and take in this deal. God must surely be moderating in this mysterious, reciprocal and wonderful exchange.

SPEAK UP FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES, FOR THE RIGHTS OF ALL WHO ARE DESTITUTE. SPEAK UP AND JUDGE FAIRLY; DEFEND THE RIGHTS OF THE POOR AND NEEDY.

PROVERBS 31:8-9

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Music in the classroom




Music I heard with you was more than music, and bread I broke with you was more than bread.

Conrad Aiken

These photos are in my music class at the Casa de la Cultura in the city of Oaxaca. This awesome community arts school was started in 1971 and offers Mon.-Sat. day and evening classes to all ages, all levels..in watercolor/oil painting, folk arts,wood carving, levels of dance from Mex. Folkloric regional styles to contemporary. Music classes in guitar-classical/pop...brass band ensembles, and my class called the Music of Latin America. The room is full of instruments such as the charango, a small, sort of mandolin/ukelele wood and armadillo thing from South Am...jaranas and requintos, which are used as the foundations for driving the Sons Jarocho style, the very rythmic style of Veracruz..drums and wood flutes and pipes of all sizes to deliver the heart of music from Bolivia, Peru.

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But man, there's no boundary line to music and art.
Charlie Parker

What a blessing to be able to meet such Musicos Oaxaquenos! With my small but improving Spanish, and their large and gracious cultural heart...I am creating and blending my passion and ability in folk music into this years experience.
Que milagro! ....Bruce

Music on the street




These photos are when I accepted an invitation from my music teacher to assist one of his bands. I was flattered! And a bit nervous when the 'gig' turned out to be a public political rally celebrating the anniversary of the death and life of the latin American revolutionary Che Guevarra! Katy took a few nice shots...and perhaps also the CIA operatives in Mexico! If we come up missing, contact the US Embassy here in Oaxaca.

Sunday, October 02, 2005

Savor the days




If your everyday life seems poor, don't blame it, blame yourself. Admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches, because for the creator there is no poverty and no poor indifferent place.

Rainer Maria Rilke