Companerismo: companionship

I believe we are placed here
to be companions.
A wonderful word that comes
from the Latin..CUM PANIS...
( with bread )
We are here to share bread
with one another, so that
everyone has enough, no one
has too much and our social
order achieves this goal with
minimal coercion.
There are many names for such
sharing: utopia, community,
communion of saints. And while
the goal is too vast to be realized
solely on this planet, it is still
our task to create foretastes of
it in this world...living glimpses
of what life is meant to be, which
include art and music and shared
laughter and picnics and politics
and moral outrage, and wonder and
humor and endless love.
To counterbalance the otherwise
immobilizing realities of tyrants,
starving children, death camps, and
just plain greed.

Robert McAfee Brown

Give us this day our daily bread.
Matthew 6:11

Love doesn't just sit there,
like a stone, it has to be made,
like bread, remade all the time,
made new.

Ursula Le Guin

When we cast our bread upon the
water, we can presume that someone
downstream whose face we will never
know, will benefit from our action.
As we, who are downstream from
another will profit from that
grantor's gift.

Maya Angelou

Sharing, creating music

We are a spectacular,
splendid manifestation
of life.
We have language, we
have affection, we have
the genes for usefulness.
And usefulness is about
as close to a 'common goal'
of nature as I can guess at.
And finally, and perhaps
best of all, we have music.

Lewis Thomas

Oaxaquenos-Cultural diversity

They called themselves the Cloud People.
They lived on the forested slopes and in
the highland valleys of Mexico's Sierra Madre del
Sur. They worked corn seed into their communal
fields and prayed to the gods of rain and
sun for abundance.
Thousands of years later, they still do.
The Cloud People never left these mountains in
the state of Oaxaca. Once warriors, builders
and artists, they are today primarily peasant
farmers, quiet Indian people with formal manners
and calloused hands.
The Cloud People are not Aztec or Maya, though their
ancestors created civilizations rivaling those of the
larger, more celebrated groups. They are known as the
Zapotec and Mixtec. Along with the Chatino, Trique, Mixe
and other groups, they make Oaxaca the most ethnically
complex of Mexico's 31 states. At least 16 indigenous languages
and 90 dialects are spoken in this land the size of Indiana.
Nearly half of it's 3 million people speak an indigenous tongue.
Oaxaca's cultural diversity rises directly from its fractured
landscape. Spreading out from a mile-high central valley, the
ranges of the Sierra Madre ( 20 peaks over 10,000 ft. high ) break
the state into thousands of fairly isolated communities. Every village
is a world, in this rugged countryside, every town is a universe.
Oaxacans are typically more loyal to their pueblo than to their state
or nation, or even to their ethnic group. People find indentity in
the way they glaze a pot, embroider a blouse, or play a piece of music.

Sandra Dibble, San Diego Tribune

Oaxaquenos: more photos

Oaxaquenos: photos

Freedom of Simplicity

"Develop close friendships and enjoy long evenings of serious and hilarious conversa- tion. Such times are far more rewarding than all the plastic entertain- ment that the comercial world tries to foist upon us. Value music, art, books, significant travel."
Richard Foster
Freedom of Simplicity

Folk music-Son Jarocho style

Son Jarocho.. (Sohn..Hah- ROW-cho) ..is a vibrant regional folk music style with origins in the state of Veracruz on Mexico's eastern coast. Son, simply means the music is rural, or folk music.
The folk music of Mexico starts to emerge as a mix of Spanish, native or indigenous, Caribbean, Colombian and Venezuelan, and African music and dance. The Spanish during the conquest brought music influenced by the African Muslims, Sephardic Jews, and Gypsy cultures. These combined with the ancient Meso-American native groups, and with the slave trade to the Caribbean region, African rhythms and percussion were brought in.
The Spanish brought the European Baroque style instruments of the violin, harp and guitar. And for the next 300 years, the indigenous and Mestizo groups of Mexico developed their own regional stringed instruments and musical flavors and dance.
Since Veracruz has been the main port of entry from the sea for Mexico in it's history, here the races and music mixed...the Mexican, Spanish, the Africans brought in for the labor in the sugar cane plantations in the early 19th century...sailors, farmers, merchants, laborers...all mixed together their musics.
Many of the regional folk music styles of Spanish America are song and dance styles using a 6/8 rhythm syncopated with 2/4 and 3/4 rhythms. Jarocho music of Veracruz is one of those, with its percussive rhythms, syncopation and improvisations.
The musical heart of Jarocho, is the instrument called the JARANA, which drives the rhythm with chords. A small guitar based on the Baroque era guitar, it has five courses of strings, and at least 3 of these are doubled ( same note ), and Jaranas come in three sizes.
Next is the REQUINTO, a melody instrument with four strings that is plucked with a cowhorn pick and improvishes the percussive melodies.
The dance aspect of son jarocho is called ZAPATEADO, and it is a strong part of the style. It is a percussive heel dance of tapping out the beats with both feet. As musicians perform the sones, people dance on a wooden platform that is called the TARIMA.
The QUIJADA is a mule or horse jawbone that is scrapped and hit with a stick to povide more percussive rhythm.
A FANDANGO, is an open musical ritual. There is a common battle of verse compositions from the 'soneros', singers who can more deeply describe the beauty of a flower, a woman's smile, who can best descibe a loyal friend, a beautiful dawn, the pain of betrayal, the taste of wine, celebrate the charms of a women, express social or political differences. Singing verses, 'versada' is the way to express yourself in a fandango.
Son Jarocho is spontaneous, everyone interprets their SON, their ESTILLO, their VERDAD. Everything is about sharing.
Katy and I have found a local treasure, in the talents of the Bautista family. I met and went with the whole family on a trip to the 27th Encuentro National de los Jaraneros ( National gathering of Jarocho musicians ) in Tlacoltalpan, in the state of Veracruz in early Febuary.
And here, back in Oaxaca we usually meet once a week in their home for lessons in Jarocho music. Katy is learning the zapateado dance, and I am learning to play the requinto and jarana. The whole family is quite gifted, as they all sing and dance and play. And above that, the are hugely giving if their personalities and passions in life. We are thankful students, and all of us are dear friends.

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

Berthold Auerbach

Every now and then, take out your mind and dance on it. It is getting all caked up.

Mark Twain

Photos: Son Jarocho music

Son Jarocho music: photos

Amaranth

Amaranth is a plant dating back to pre-Columbian times and it’s making a come-back! It almost disappeared from production for hundreds of years because the early Spanish conquistadors were suspicious of it. It was highly revered by the Aztecs and Mayans which was sufficient reason according to the Spanish to make it illegal to produce or use. However, it survived in a few small isolated communities in these rural parts of Mexico. Now scientists the world over are looking into the benefits of this plant to fight hunger and malnutrition. It is a good source of vitamins and protein. The seed contains a nearly perfect balance of essential amino acids that the body needs to make proteins. Plus, it grows in arid places. Amaranth could be the answer to many community nutritional, agricultural and economic problems.

Thursday we had the opportunity to see how amaranth could make a difference in one small community here in southern Mexico.
For the first time we made a mid-week visit to the rural mountain communities we go to each Saturday. We went along with several Manos de Vida employees: Javier is a horticulture specialist. Osiris is a nurse and Linda is a doctor.
When we got to our destination, Javier left for a few hours with a hydro-electrical engineer. They were exploring ways to help the communities get a consistent source of water. Linda set up a ‘clinic’ and accepted patients free of charge. Bruce and I went with Osiris, a young energetic woman who is highly respected in these communities. We drove around collecting her “prometoras”- her health disciples. After we had about 6 women we drove to Carmelita’s house where Osiris had a workshop on Amaranth.
She explained the nutritional value of Amaranth, gave the ladies a few samples and presented an idea to benefit the community; they could make and sell amaranth treats within their own community.

Carmelita’s d

Mexican style

Mexican style is grace itself. Its perfection lies in the unexpected..our reality is a cross between light and shadow, tears and laughter, life and death, truth and fantasy, innocence and widom. It embraces the way we live and the sense we make of life.
Because it is so complex and unsettling, Mexican reality must be understood intuitively, through the senses. In this way alone can we grasp the essence of what is Mexican.

Marie-Pierre Colle, preface
to the book, Casa Mexicana.

Mexican style-photos

Mexican style-photos

Family as a Gift

Romans 12:10 Love one another with affection as members of one family, giving precedence and showing honor to one another.

You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.

Desmond Tutu

Family as a Gift: photos