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Huatulco

Appropriation, Appreciation, Inspiration: The Taking of Mexican Fashion

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By Deborah Van Hoewyk

On Thursday, October 20, 2022, author and Mexican First Lady Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller Instagrammed American designer Ralph Lauren:

Hey, Ralph, we already knew that you’re a big fan of Mexican designs, above all those that work with our ancestral cultures to preserve textile traditions. However, by copying these designs you commit plagiarism, and as you know, plagiarism is illegal and immoral. At least acknowledge it. And I hope you compensate the damage to the native communities that do this work with love and not for million-dollar profits.

Gutiérrez was calling out Lauren for his use of Mexican serape fabric in a cardigan-style jacket in his current line of clothing; she mentioned specifically the weavers from Contla de Juan Cuamatzi in Jalisco and Saltillo in Coahuila as the “authors” of the textile design of the cardigan.

This was not the first time, either. Ralph Lauren has made a mint by refining the looks of the New England preppie, early-Hollywood glamour, and the rough-and-rustic American West. It was hardly a skip or a jump when his collection for Spring/Summer 2013 was described, by The New York Times, as showing there was “no doubt Ralph Lauren was down Mexico way.” Lauren again showed serapes in his Fall 2014 collection, when he added a Polo Ralph Lauren collection for women that included a Mexican-patterned maxi dress and a serape-fabric jacket.

Cultural Appropriation

Gutiérrez clearly sees Lauren’s use of the serape fabric as cultural appropriation. She identifies his work as plagiarism, i.e., an exact copy, and asserts that it has damaged the indigenous communities, whose work is a labor of love that preserves ancient traditions, because Lauren did not acknowledge or compensate them. Lauren no doubt considered it cultural appreciation – if he considered it at all.

A repeat offender like Lauren, Marant included a cape clearly taken from the Purépecha of Michoacán in her 2020-21 Etoile collection. Alejandra Frausto Guerrero, the Mexican Minister of Culture, sought an explanation:

Some symbols [on the cape] that you took have a profound meaning for this culture. These symbols are very old and have been conserved thanks to the memory of the artisans. I ask you, Ms. Isabel Marant, to publicly explain on what grounds you privatize a collective property … and how its use benefits the creator communities.

In 2021, Frausto Guerrero accused several other fashion brands of wrongly appropriating designs from three Oaxacan towns. US-based Anthropologie took embroidery patterns representing the sun, the mountains, and the maguey cactus preserved by the Mixe of Santa María Tlahuitoltepec, and slapped them on fringe-edged shorts no Mexican woman would ever wear. The Spanish retailer Zara made a light green dress with dark green embroidery patterns unique to the Mixtec weaving cooperatives of San Juan Colorado. Internet-based retailer Patowl was selling blouses with elaborate embroidery characteristic of the Zapotec community in San Antonio Castilla Velasco.

Protecting All Cultural Expression

These events foregrounded the need for legal protection of Mexico’s indigenous cultural heritage from the “plagiarism” of appropriation. According to Andrea Bonifaz of the social justice organization Impacto Social Metropolitan Group, which defends the rights of traditional artisanal communities against cultural appropriation, the underlying problem is that “ancestral expressions, like the serape, are collective.” Laws protecting patrimony cover individuals, not communities. “Who or what the community is,” and therefore who can bring suit, is never defined.

However, some progress has been made. In 2020, following the Herrera resort-wear confrontation, Mexico changed the federal copyright law to specify that native communities – if the community has taken the steps to organize as a collective – own the intellectual property rights to craftwork that expresses cultural and local popular tradition. As owners of their work, they can oppose unauthorized use, even when that use altered the original design. In 2021, the Mexican senate passed a federal law that established penalties for taking – by reproducing, copying, imitating, or otherwise appropriating without prior and proper authorization – the designs that represent indigenous cultural heritage, including that of Afro-Mexicans.

These legislative changes set up a legal framework and a registry to recognize cultural expressions, identify the owners of those expressions, and establish the protocols for owners to authorize any permitted use. Mexico’s Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI, manages patents and trademarks) and the Copyright Office (INDAUTOR) give classes for indigenous communities and individual artisans on intellectual property, explaining how to protect their rights to their work. They also give discounts to the artisans or collectives for registering ownership of their work.

From Appropriation to Appreciation

Is it ever okay to use the cultural assets of another people? Vogue India, prompted by Sarah Jessica Parker’s costume in the “Diwali” episode of And Just Like That, asks “How do you know if you are co-opting cultural connotations or innocuously borrowing an aesthetic?”

It’s a longstanding debate, but the answer, actually, is yes, you can appreciate rather than appropriate (see Brooke O’Connor’s article on page 26). Vogue India came up with a rather narrow answer – you have to avoid “demeaning” the culture from which you have taken something. This is a backward way of saying you have to respect, to recognize, to acknowledge the culture that produced it. Vogue India quotes Kelvin Gonclaves, owner of Elkel, an “avante-garde” boutique in the Soho neighborhood in New York City:

If your action disrespects the original idea because of cultural, religious or other customs, then you’ve gone too far. If you claim it as yours without giving credit, you’ve definitely gone too far. There are a few things that should never be done like blackface or dreadlocks on a white person. With taste and acknowledgement, though, most things can be done.

Gonclaves thinks that all art, fashion included, “borrows inspiration from other cultures [to create] new and wonderful things.”

The Gray Area of Inspiration

The designers Mexico has accused of cultural appropriation have said their work is “inspired” by Mexican “ideas.” That may well be so, but it doesn’t determine whether or not they have created something “new and wonderful.”

Take a look at a sweatshirt recently stocked at both Nordstrom and Gonclaves’ boutique:

Billed as a “Gender Inclusive Keith Haring Witches Print Cotton Blend Sweatshirt,” it’s sold out at Nordstrom. According to Nordstrom, the sweatshirt and matching sweatpants were “produced in collaboration with the Keith Haring Foundation” and “creatively showcases the late artist’s iconic designs.” There is no mention that Haring produced the designs forty years ago, or that they were inspired by ancient Mexican hieroglyphic writings and low-relief sculptures.

Keith Haring (1958-90) was a New York “street artist” whose early work, inspired by the graffiti subculture of the early 1980s, was considered pop art, and Haring was very much a part of the pop art scene. In 1982, he was approached by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, who were very much a part of the same scene in England, to prepare designs on the theme of “Witches” for one of McLaren’s albums (Duck Rock) and McLaren/Westwood’s fashion line. By 1983, Haring had produced the Witches series of drawings, but never credited any specific Mexican sources.

Haring was diagnosed with AIDS in 1987; he set up the Keith Haring Foundation to preserve and promote his work, and to raise funds for those affected by AIDS. The Foundation licensed the sweatshirt and pants as a fundraising activity. It can easily be argued that the Witches sweatsuit is “inspired” by Mesoamerican designs, that Keith Haring did not “appropriate” any specific work, and that he created something “new and wonderful.” But a little mention of how he came to use his Mexican inspiration might have been nice.

Huatulco

Editor’s Letter

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By Jane Bauer

“By standing together in unity, solidarity and love, we will heal the wounds in the earth and in each other. We can make a positive difference through our actions.”
Julia Butterfly Hill

This month our writers explore political parties and revolutions. In my cooking classes I always say that the recipe for a revolution is a few very wealthy people controlling everything while poor people do all the work. This has been true during most of the large revolutions of the past that were a reflection of class struggle.

With technology and the decline of environmental quality, we are seeing a new kind of revolution and it doesn’t care how much stuff you have- in fact the less the better.

Back in 1997 Julia Butterfly Hill ascended Luna—a giant 1,500-year-old redwood tree near Stafford, California, and spent 738 days in a tree to protest the logging industry. Her act was seen as radical and perhaps crazy- there is no denying it was a huge commitment. However when examined through the lens of today, while an outrageous act, the philosophy behind it is being embraced more than ever.

People are fleeing urban areas for cleaner air, access to water and nature – planning for survival in an ever growing hostile world. Peasant life is the new rich. With carbon dioxide levels on our planet at the highest they have been in 4 million years, we have seen a rapid increase in temperature, which is leading to drought, forest fires, dying coral, melting permafrost, loss of biodiversity and decimated crops.

Where this will take us is anyone’s guess. As a species we are slow to make immediate changes for long-term gain- we are impatient and want what we want now.

Thanks for reading,

Jane

Huatulco

The Green Revolution

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By Kary Vannice

When we hear the word “revolution,” most of us think of people clashing with other people, fighting for opposing rights or ideologies. However, in recent decades, a new kind of revolution has emerged, one that differs in its focus and purpose. The “Green Revolution” is not about people fighting one another, but about humans combatting a common and existential threat – climate change. This revolution transcends borders and beliefs and pits humanity against the fallout of its own environmentally destructive habits.

Traditional revolutions seek to overthrow existing political systems or religious ideologies. In contrast, the Green Revolution seeks to transform values and behaviors to ensure a sustainable future. It calls for a shift from consumerism to sustainability, from short-term thinking to long-term planning, and from environmental exploitation to conservation and preservation. The transformation it promotes is not political, social, or religious, but connected to our individual and collective values.

Just as different strata of Mexican society rallied together against foreign occupiers during the Mexican Revolution, millions of people across borders, cultures, and demographics have rallied together in the common goal of combating climate change.

All revolutions have their quiet rumblings that start long before they erupt onto the world stage. The Green Revolution’s rumblings started in the mid 20th-century when books like Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) began raising concerns about the impact of pesticides on the environment. Within a decade, the state of the environment became a major part of the global political conversation; the first Earth Day was held in 1970 and the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment happened in 1972.

Climate change has been a major headline grabber for the last two decades, so most of us are familiar with the public figures like Greta Thunberg, Jane Goodall, Al Gore, and Leonardo DiCaprio, as well as the most talked about climate concerns like extreme weather events, renewable energy, deforestation, carbon emissions, and rising sea levels. But, as individuals, it’s difficult to take action against such monumental concepts and global threats.

However, we each have ways in which we can contribute to change for a more sustainable future.

Consumer choices have a significant impact on environmental sustainability. People are increasingly using their purchasing power to drive change, demanding eco-friendly and ethical products. Consumer activism and ethical purchasing are all about supporting sustainable businesses, reducing single-use plastics, and opting for renewable energy sources. By making informed choices and asking companies to adopt sustainable practices, individuals play a pivotal role in the Green Revolution.

Financial institutions and investors are recognizing the value of green finance and investments in driving this environmental revolution. Financing renewable energy projects, green infrastructure, and sustainable businesses is essential for transitioning to a low-carbon economy. Green bonds, sustainability-linked loans, and impact investments are key financial instruments that can be employed to support environmentally responsible initiatives.

Green funds typically invest in companies that follow sustainable practices such as renewable energy, clean technology, conservation, and other environmentally responsible activities. By investing in green funds, individuals or institutions can align their investments with their values, contributing to both environmental and financial goals.

Shifting thinking from a “buy-use-dispose” mindset to a more circular “reduce-reuse-recycle” mindset may seem like a small contribution to a mammoth problem, but every big revolution was won because of a series of small battles. In our communities here in Mexico, as well as back home in the US and Canada, it’s generally the low-income and vulnerable communities that bear the brunt of negative environmental impacts and extreme weather events. Before disposing of an unwanted item, consider whether or not it might still have some life left in it for someone else. Donating items rather than throwing them away can extend product lifecycles, minimize environmental impact, and create a more sustainable economic future.

Participating in local, grassroots community clean-up projects like “Playas Limpias,” supporting community-run farmer’s markets, and buying local, sustainably made products can put you on the front lines of the Green Revolution.

The Green Revolution is not just about averting environmental catastrophe; it’s about preserving the planet for future generations and, like many revolutions throughout our history, is a testament to the potential for positive, collective change. The Green Revolution represents a turning point in the way humanity confronts its most significant challenges.

Huatulco

Helping Street Dogs in Puerto Angel

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By Debbie LaChance

When we think of life in Mexico, our minds often conjure idyllic images of beautiful beaches, glistening blue waters, and endless sunny skies. While this is undoubtedly true, there’s another, less idyllic aspect to Mexico: it is home to the largest population of stray dogs in Latin America, with an estimated 15 to 18 million dogs living without, or abandoned by, human owners. These animals are a tragic sight, with the majority in extremely poor condition. But amidst this challenging reality, one woman in Puerto Angel, a village just 30 kilometres from Huatulco, has made it her life’s mission to alleviate their suffering.

Claudia Mamet, who works full-time as an English professor at a university in Puerto Angel, has always had a strong relationship with animals. During the COVID-19 pandemic when she needed to work from home, she decided to invest any extra free time she had in helping the street animals in her community. Her journey began with her first Mexican rescue during the pandemic, whom she named Bowie. Bowie’s story would ultimately serve as the inspiration for her to establish her non-profit organization, Dogs of Puerto Angel.

Bowie, like countless others, was born into life on the streets with his siblings and mother. Claudia had them all sterilized and treated for ticks and fleas. She fed them daily, but her living situation prevented her from giving them a home. Bowie vanished one day, only for Claudia to learn that a local farmer had taken him in as a guard dog. After two months, while Claudia was out feeding the street dogs, she stumbled upon Bowie, curled up on the side of the road. The farmer had subjected him to starvation and abuse, ultimately discarding him when he was no longer useful.

Claudia decided to move to a pet-friendly home so she could nurse Bowie back to health. Over the course of two months, he made a remarkable recovery, regaining his cheerful and playful demeanor. However, Bowie had the habit of chasing motorcycles and chickens, which in Mexico is a death sentence for a dog. Recognizing this, Claudia resolved to find Bowie a loving home abroad. With the help of a dear friend, she successfully found a forever home for him with a family in the Netherlands, where he is now thriving. Since then, Claudia’s home has become a sanctuary for sick or dying dogs and cats that need a safe place to recover.

The core mission of Dogs of Puerto Angel is to alleviate the suffering of street dogs and cats through a multi-faceted approach. This includes mass sterilization campaigns, educational initiatives within local schools, and the introduction of new local laws that combat animal abuse and neglect.

Claudia fundraises for these sterilization campaigns, partnering with veterinarians who charge her $300 pesos per animal (about $16.40 USD, $22.50 CAD at current exchange rates). Her objective is always ambitious, aiming to sterilize up to 200 dogs and cats over a single weekend—an astounding achievement.

As a teacher, Claudia believes in the power of education to promote responsible pet ownership and create a more compassionate and conscientious society. She takes every opportunity to visit local schools and conduct workshops that raise children’s awareness about the importance of caring for animals.

Claudia’s advocacy extends to pushing for new local laws that protect animals from abuse. On September 8, 2023, her tireless efforts paid off when the municipality of San Pedro Pochutla accepted her proposals and passed the first-ever local regulation on the Oaxaca coast dedicated to the protection, care, and management of companion animals in the region.

Claudia has dedicated her life to making a difference in the lives of Mexico’s animals. Even though it takes an emotional toll on her to see so much suffering, she perseveres because of the animals she can save. The ones like Bowie.

Dogs of Puerto Angel operates solely on donations, with 100% of donations going directly toward helping the dogs and cats in the region. Please consider donating to this inspiring organization and help spread the word about their invaluable work, which is making a positive impact on the lives of animals here. Dogs of Puerto Angel is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in the United States, so Americans who donate can take a tax deduction.

To donate, send via PayPal to info@dogsofpuertoangel.org or go to their website (https://dogsofpuertoangel.org/), and click on the “Donate” button on the home page.

Huatulco

Claudia Sheinbaum: The Next President of Mexico

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By Marcia Chaiken and Jan Chaiken

Unless there is a major political upset in the next eight months, Claudia Sheinbaum is on track to be elected in June 2024 as the next president of Mexico. A poll published in September by El Universal, a major Mexico City newspaper, indicated that she was then far ahead of her four opponents; in a four-way race, she garnered 50% of the vote. Her party, the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), in coalition with other parties, has captured the loyalty of the majority of Mexican voters; MORENA alone received 53% of the vote in the poll. And her champion, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), the current president of Mexico and founder of left-leaning MORENA, has such a high approval rating (60%) that it is a relatively safe bet to start planning to watch her inauguration.

According to The Times of Israel, not only would Sheinbaum be the first woman president of Mexico, she would join a very small number of Jews outside Israel who have become heads of state: Janet Jagan (Guyana), Ricardo Maduro (Honduras), Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (Peru) and, of course, Ukraine’s own Volodymyr Zelensky; she would be the first Jewish person ever to head a country with a population over 50 million people. But Sheinbaum is very quiet about her Judaism, probably partly due to the adamant post-Revolution separation in Mexico between religion and state, the fact that most Jews in Mexico are politically very conservative and unlikely to vote for a MORENA candidate, and the misinformation and smear campaign used against her by her political rivals, notably the former president Vicente Fox. Although antisemitism rears its ugly head less frequently in Mexico than in many other countries, a rumor was started that she wasn’t a viable candidate for president since she was born in Bulgaria – ultimately squelched by the publication of Sheinbaum’s Mexico City birth certificate. And in response to Fox’s intimation that her rival, Gálvez, was a true Mexican (but implicitly not Sheinbaum), Claudia retorted that she was “as Mexican as mole.”

One might say that Sheinbaum has been on track to become the first woman president of Mexico since she was born, 61 years ago. Her parents, two super-achieving scientists affiliated with the National University of Mexico (UNAM), were themselves children of immigrants seeking refuge in Mexico from religious persecution. Her father’s family fled from Russian pogroms and forced conscription of Jews in Lithuania in the 1920s. Her mother’s family escaped the Holocaust, the systematic murder of Jews in Bulgaria in the 1940s. And since young Claudia was close to her grandparents and attended a Jewish secular coed elementary school, there is little doubt that she was imbued with a formative knowledge of the perils of rabid discrimination and the value of helping those who are being oppressed by powerful authoritarians.

After completing her secondary education at Colegio de Ciencias y Humanidades (CCH), a feeder school for UNAM, she matriculated at UNAM studying physics and simultaneously joining other student activists on campus. Her political activism continued throughout her undergraduate and graduate studies, and as a UNAM faculty member in 1998 she was instrumental in the founding of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD). After completing her bachelor’s degree in physics in 1989, she went on to complete her master’s degree and Ph.D. in energy engineering, carrying out research at Lawrence Laboratories, UC Berkeley, on comparative international consumption of energy. She returned to UNAM when she accepted a faculty appointment in 1995.

As an undergraduate, Claudia met and briefly dated student Jesús María Tarriba Unger, currently soon to be her second husband; Tarriba completed his dissertation in physics at UNAM in 1987 and began an award-winning career in financial risk-model applied research. After breaking up with Tarriba, Claudia dated and in 1987 married Carlos Imaz Gispert. She became a stepmother to Imaz’s five-year-old son and in 1988 the couple had a daughter, Mariana, who carried out the Sheinbaum family’s multigenerational academic achievement, earning a BA in history from UNAM, a Master’s degree in comparative literature from the University of Barcelona and a master’s and Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Mariana currently is the Academic Coordinator of Humanities at UNAM-Boston. Claudia and Imaz were divorced in 2016 after 29 years of marriage.

One of the closest political ties Sheinbaum made during her political activism was with AMLO. As Mayor of Mexico City (CDMX), he appointed her as his environmental minister in 2000. In that position, she applied her academic knowledge to reshaping the city’s transportation system, including the installation of the highly efficient and easy-to-use MetroBus that quickly whisks passengers along many routes, including trips from the international airport to the central downtown area.

Claudia was once again back on the faculty of UNAM after 2005 when AMLO stepped down from being Mayor of CDMX to unsuccessfully run for President. She quickly shifted gears, but not fields, and became part of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change, working on assessment of mitigation approaches; along with former U.S, Vice President Al Gore, the group was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

Her absence from the political arena lasted only a few years, and in 2015 she was elected Mayor of Tlalpan, a district of Mexico City. Three years later she was elected Mayor of the City itself, the first woman to hold that office. The processes leading to her election and the reforms she carried out as Mayor were described in The Eye by Carole Reedy (March and November, 2019) – but the bottom line is that she was elected by a large majority based on her platform, and she carried out the measures she promised.

Like all politicians, she has her detractors. She’s been blamed for the outcomes of natural disasters, smeared by some as being too instrumental in the success of her daughter, and accused by others as being simply the puppet of AMLO. Yet, her resume speaks for itself and she remains hugely popular. There is no doubt that she will continue to carry on some of the approaches initiated by AMLO – but given her research in and passion for mitigating climate change and building a sustainable world, one can be quite sure that she will be taking a different direction than AMLO did in supporting Mexico’s petrol industry.

Since we are not citizens of Mexico, we cannot vote for her. But given her past accomplishments, we are looking forward to seeing what successes she will have as President of Mexico.

Huatulco

Saving Fish from Drowning

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By Jane Bauer

‘Do not feed stray dogs and cats.’ I recently posted this opinion on a thread and received a snappy comment from someone who called me cold-hearted and that they couldn’t believe we had friends in common, as though who would be friends with someone who wouldn’t feed stray animals.

While I have seen our community grow, I have seen the stray animal population grow as well.

Different cultures have varied standards for how they regard different animals. In Ecuador eating guinea pigs is a norm, while in the US and Canada they are regarded as pets. While much of the world considers dogs and cats as pets rather than food, there are still many countries where they straddle into the food category. In the Philippines dog meat is the third most popularly consumed meat after pork and goat. In Vietnam fried cat meat and beer is a popular dish in Hanoi. When I was in Switzerland, I was surprised to find Canadian horse meat on offer at the local grocery store. In India cows are considered sacred and not-food, in fact, there are entire towns that are vegetarian. All this to say that there is a wide spectrum of cultural divide in how animals are treated.

While in North America (Canada, US, Mexico) cats and dogs are non-food, there are discrepancies with how they are cared for. For many, pets become a part of our family, they are treated like children that are helpless and require human care for all their needs. For others, they are nice to have, but they also serve the purpose of protection, status or keeping other unwanted critters away.

As the coast has become more developed there are some wonderful organizations that have done amazing work with spay and neuter clinics to help keep the dogs and cats from overpopulation. This is very important because overpopulation of stray animals can lead to pack mentality, they can carry disease and take a toll on the other wildlife.

Then there is the feeding. Each morning during the tourist season as I drive into work, I see a blond woman putting out bowls of food in front of her condo, a pack of dogs cluster around her and she looks very pleased with herself. However, for the rest of the year these dogs roam the neighborhood looking for humans to feed them and have been known to get aggressive.

I recently pulled up to Chahue beach for a sunrise meditation and witnessed a man surrounded by about thirty cats as he doled out kibble, the cats were practically clambering up his legs. While I am sure he believed he was doing a good deed, science would tell you he was not.

Feeding stray animals causes them to congregate in small areas where they are at greater risk from car traffic. If they are not fed by humans, they will expand their search for food and spread out. Cats or dogs hanging out in one spot means they will poop in one spot. If this is an area where people walk their domesticated pets or children play, they are at risk for a variety of zoonotic diseases. Stray cats that are fed by humans are more likely to breed. One study found that stray cats NOT fed by people have smaller litters and lower kitten survival rate. Long-term feeding makes animals dependent on humans and contributes to breeding.

“Sure, some animals do need our help as we often need theirs. But most of them are doing perfectly well on their own and our failure to recognize that not only undermines their natural instincts and intelligence, but can also send us down the rabbit hole of martyrdom and hero syndrome which we can all do without.” Rubaiya Ahmad, founder of Obhoyaronno – Bangladesh Animal Welfare Foundation which is leading the charge for animals in Bangladesh.

So why do people feed stray animals? Check your own bias and needs that are being filled by this act. I have sponsored two spay and neuter clinics in my village and have been asked by many people ‘but why do white people steal dogs.’ Seeing a dog off a leash does not mean it is homeless. If you want to help animals I suggest making a donation to an organization that does spay and neuter clinics.

And why dogs and cats? There are many animals that can use our help. Save marine life by not using sunscreen when you swim or go vegan. Save a chicken, and bring it home with you to Calgary. Studies have shown that chickens feel empathy, experience REM dreams, are behaviorally sophisticated, and demonstrate thinking skills on par with mammals and primates.

A good rule of thumb I use before feeding a stray animal is to ask myself whether I am willing to domesticate it all the way. This means to provide housing, regular food, spaying/neutering, and vaccinations over the course of its lifetime. If the answer is no, walk away.

The best way to help street animals is to financially support organizations that perform free spay and neuter clinics.

Huatulco

A Cultural and Culinary Concierge for Oaxaca

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By Anna Von Frances

Mario Rubén Ramírez López, better known as the cultural guide Mario Come Oaxaca (“Mario Eats Oaxaca), is already waiting for me at a corner table in the back of a blink-and-you’d-miss-it Middle Eastern restaurant tucked away on a cobblestone side street in Xochimilco. I don’t have to look for him, even though the restaurant is relatively full, because his presence, although subtle, commands attention wherever he goes. There is a sort of fairy dust that Mario emits, that it-factor prerequisite of 70s rockstars – people are naturally drawn in. Mario somehow manages to be understated and over the top in the same exact breath. He’s wearing a traditional Oaxacan dress and giant faux fur sandals – he does not blend, and yet, you feel at home with him. In fact, he’s so at home, he’s like a ballerina gliding her body through the space around her.

Mario also seems to glide though markets, past street vendors and around restaurants, comfortably working any room in front of him. His love of Oaxacan food, art, culture, and the people who create it is so infectious you can’t help but get excited yourself. I mean the excitement is palpable.

He doesn’t care that I am late. In fact, he doesn’t even mention it. In some ways we are meeting for the first time but have been in contact for years. I have been taking note of all his recommendations and writing to him about tours and restaurants since I found him three years ago in the midst of the pandemic.

I hesitate to describe “Mario Come Oaxaca” as a food tour, or even an “experience,” because both would come off as trite. Mario is more of a culinary concierge to the city than a tour guide, and it shows. As both a chef and artist in his own right, he has a very carefully curated selection of food and art vendors, built up over decades of working in Oaxaca. Going out with him is an intimate experience – he’s simply inviting you into his culture, and sharing his best recommendations. Eschewing Airbnb and all other mass marketing strategies, he simply books through his social media channels. Want more information? Click the link and you will be directed to his personal What’sApp – which is exactly how we met three years ago and have stayed in touch ever since. It feels as if we are friends and I imagine that is how all his guests feel. It is effortless how he navigates these relationships (which are really his work), always inviting you in and making time for you, always offering you a menu suggestion or a great mezcal.

There is no equal to Oaxaca in terms of its culinary prowess. Mexico, as a nation, enjoys a UNESCO designation on its cuisine, but Oaxaca is the jewel in that crown. It’s where the tortilla, tomato and cacao were born, the cuisine is literally and figuratively endless. In a world of culinary kings, Oaxaca is a king maker. For generations, it’s been a tourism beacon to international chefs, foodies and Mexicans looking to get caught up in an infectious cultural cornucopia of mezcal, cacao, corn, and mushrooms.

Since COVID, however, Oaxaca has been flooded with a new kind of mass market tourism that has made it harder to get straight to its authentic heart. People have always flocked to Oaxaca to eat, but now they are driven more by price point and Instagram selfies, which has somewhat muddied the waters.

Looking for a tour online can be overwhelming. The commodification of Oaxaca is ever present online and in the streets. Lineups have formed. The hot sauce is not spicing like it once was. Day of the Dead is sponsored by international vodka brands now, bringing in electronic music DJs from Europe. Mario calls this the “Coco effect,” after the Pixar movie, which may have had a heavy hand in it. But for me it’s more of a global trend – vaguely reminiscent of a homogenized Starbucks lineup.

We need hosts like Mario more than ever. His story starts in an all too familiar place: three years ago, he was working as a chef in the kitchen of a mezcaleria and lost his job because of COVID and had to move back to his home town of La Mixteca, which is almost at the border of Puebla to the north. Mario was already known around town for his impeccable taste, regularly invited to share a mezcal and his recommendations at the tables of guests in restaurants he worked in. From his family home, he put out some feelers on his Instagram page and booked his first tour within an hour. And things have only grown since that first timid post.

What drew me to him was his taste. Bar none. So many guides who were once locals-in-the-know have been swallowed up by the Starbucks line up and now work with big brands for cash, shedding the small local artisans that made them so popular in favor of branded content and paid-in-full vacations. Mario is a staunch foodie – as a chef, he’s always on the hunt for quality, and there is no shortage of it to showcase in Oaxaca either. You come to Mario when you want to discover something new, when you really want to learn how to eat. And the best part is, whether it’s your first time and you want a proper intimate introduction to Oaxaca cuisine, or you have been a hundred times and you’re looking to up your game, he has both covered with style.

In recent years, Mario has added tours out of the capital city to towns in the Isthmus, as well as the north; most notably his tour to Huautla, home of the mushroom majesty herself, María Sabina. Each of Mario’s tours is off the beaten path and works with locals who are featured directly. On these tours you will still get salsas that pica and mezcal served in unmarked bottles.
To get the best out of his experiences, Mario suggests, “that you come with an open mind, ready to integrate into the culture.”

Here are his top favourite haunts to take visitors to:

  1. Mercado de Abastos: “My number one, because it’s the largest market in Oaxaca, where you will find anything and everything.”
  2. Tianguis de Tlacolula: “It’s the oldest market in the state, where corn and cacao were previously exchanged for goods.”
  3. A tie between the markets of Ocotitlan and Zaachila: “They may not be as well known, but they have retained their essence and authenticity.”

For more info or to book a tour, please visit his Instagram page directly @mario.come.oaxaca.

Photo by Guillermina Foto @ stamatti_foto

Huatulco

COTTON: Politics and Production in Mexico

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By Julie Etra

Did the Mexican Revolution start with a prohibition on “underwear”?

Cotton, Coercion, Morality, and Modernization

Porfirio Díaz, the 33rd president of Mexico, was a complicated and controversial character; by the end of his seventh (and last) term, many considered him a dictator whose policies led directly to the Mexican Revolution. His successive administrations focused on modernization, economic development, and trying to “Europeanize” Mexico.

In the late 19th century, Díaz prohibited men from wearing the traditional white cotton clothing known as calzón de manta. This very Mexican clothing originated in pre-Hispanic times, particularly in the warmer regions of Mexico. It consists of loose-fitting, long-sleeved white shirts and pants, woven from 100% cotton and often tied with a colorful red or blue belt. The design promoted cooling airflow next to the body, and Porfirian administrators saw it as peasant underwear – immoral and definitely not modern.

Calzón de manta was worn particularly by campesinos (rural farmers), and Díaz associated these clothes with the backward, uneducated, and unrefined lower classes; from his perspective, calzón de manta symbolized a Mexico that prevented social and economic growth. Some urban communities, including Guadalajara, required that men arriving from the countryside remove their calzon de manta and rent more appropriate pants, including a type of denim, before entering the city.

Historian Florencia Gutiérrez, Ph.D., of the Colegio de México, ties the prohibition on calzón de manta to the Porfiriato’s concern with eliminating alcoholism and improving personal hygiene; as for calzado (footwear), huaraches were bad, too.

All about Cotton

But cotton, it turns out, is not just a peasant fabric despised by 19th-century elites. Cotton is called algodón in Spanish; the word is ultimately derived from the Arabic name al-qutun. Cotton is known as ixcaxíhuitl in Náhuatl, and taman, piits’ in Mayan.

The scientific name for the species cultivated in the western hemisphere is Gossypium hirsutum; its origin and evolution may be parallel to that of Gossypium barbadense, a cotton that emerged near eastern Sudan in the Middle Nile Basin around 5000 BCE.

The first cultivated cotton fabric of the species G. barbadense appeared around 3000 BCE in the Indus River Valley (present-day Pakistan). Around 2500 BCE, Chinese, Egyptian and South American civilizations begin weaving cotton fabrics. Although Mexico claims to be the origin in the western hemisphere, the oldest cotton fabric was found in Huaca Prieta, an archeological site in Peru, and dated to about 6000 BCE. It is hypothesized that Huaca Preita is the western hemiphere’s site of domestication; cotton seeds and rope dating to about 2500 BCE have also been found in Peru.

Some of the oldest cotton bolls (the mature flower) were discovered in a cave in the Tehuacán Valley in Puebla, Mexico, dating to about 5500 BCE. By 3000 BCE, cotton was being grown and processed in Mexico and the southern United States (the town of Algodones on the Arizona-Mexico border is currently dedicated to dental tourism). In the 1700s, cotton was grown in the Keres and Tiwa native American pueblos in southern Arizona, then sold to other pueblos. Drought and lack of arable land, combined with raids by the Apache led to the demise of cotton cultivation in the area.

Columbus found cotton growing in the Bahama Islands in 1492, and by 1500, cotton was known generally throughout the world. In the United States cotton is said to have been planted in Florida in 1556 and in Virginia in 1607. By 1616, colonists were growing cotton along the James River in Virginia.

Cotton’s Cousin – the Lovely Hibiscus

Cotton is closely related to hibiscus and they both reside in the mallow family, Malvaceae, which also includes the common hollyhock (Alcea rosea), globe mallows (Sphaeralcea), and checker mallows (Sidalcea).

Hibiscus plants are tropical ornamental shrubs, common around Huatulco, and one of my favorites, given all its varieties and showy flowers. Hibiscus is not native to Mexico, with India and Africa the disputed origins. However, we do have a beautiful native with sealed petals, Malvaviscus arboreus, found along trails and the forest edge. According to a 2007 article in the Boletín de la Sociedad Botánica de México (Bulletin of the Botanical Society of Mexico), the Malvaceae family comprises 2.7% of all species in the Huatulco National Park, with 11 genera and 18 species. (You can learn more from Diagnóstico de los Recursos Naturales de la Bahía y Micro-cuenca de Cacaluta (Assessment of the Natural Resources of the Bay and Micro-Basin of the Cacaluta River), available at the UMAR bookstore for 258 pesos).

The Malvaceae family also includes Hibiscus sabdariffa, aka flor de jamaica, whose fragrant and sticky calices are steeped to make the delicious beverage, agua de jamaica; this plant, however, is native to Africa, having found its way through trade routes to the West Indies and on to the tropics of Mexico and Central America.

Much to my irritation, hibiscus is also a favorite food of iguanas, and in my stubbornness, I continue to replant them and try to protect the younger plants, usually to no avail. I sometimes catch the athletic reptiles devouring the flowers and tender shoots. Our friend Juan just laughs at me, gestures, and points at his stomach, indicating that they make a fine stew and medicinal soup, at least the black and white iguanas.

Mexican Cotton Today

Today, all cotton is obtained from four domesticated species; of these, the Mexican highland cotton (G. hirsutum) comprises 90% of world production. Countless traditional Mexican clothes – way more than calzon de manta – and fabrics are woven from cotton. It is also used in the production of rope/twine, paper, banknotes, cooking oil, packaging, cosmetics, hammocks, and even livestock feed.

Cotton production in Mexico occurs primarily in the border states of Baja California, Chihuahua, Sonora, Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and the centrally located Durango. Cotton requires both water and some fertilizer, along with a warm climate and full sun – these northern Mexico states provide ideal growing conditions. In 2021 approximately 164,000 hectares were under production, with the primary market being the U.S., followed by El Salvador.

In terms of world production, India and China vie for producing the most cotton worldwide, with India in the lead for the moment, followed by the U.S., Brazil, and Australia. In the 2018-19 growing season, Mexico was the world’s 9th-largest producer, but as Mexico has outlawed genetically modified (GM) cotton seed and the herbicide glyphosate, it has dropped back to 13th in worldwide cotton production. Press reports indicate that some Chihuahuan cotton farmers are looking for alternative crops, because non-GM cotton seeds don’t produce well enough to be profitable.

Mexican Cotton for Your Home

For excellent quality hand-woven cotton tablecloths, napkins, bedspreads, etc., you can look in any number of weaving shops in La Crucecita, mostly in the south end of town – for example, Casa Textil Escobar is located on the corner of Cocotillo and Bugambilia, while Textil Arte Huatulco is closer to the central square, at Flamboyan 116.