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We have scheduled quite a few special trips and visits throughout our four week stay. We will arrange buses for the trips to areas outside of Oaxaca City and count on you to walk or taxi to places within. It is often the custom to provide either a gratuity or, in some cases, food for a meal, when visiting indigenous communities who are extremely gracious in welcoming visitors. We estimate that the cost of all these activities will not exceed $300 per participant and will likely be much less if we are able to secure free buses from the one of the Universities or Colleges in Oaxaca. We will only know for sure when the time is upon us and we will be prepared with contingency plans especially re. transportation. There may be minor modifications to the following schedule of field trips and, if so, we will inform you.
Tuesday, July 13, 10:00-16:30 – Monte Albán and Mitla. With an en routei ntroduction to Monte Alban by Professor Spores, we will tour the famous archeological center of the Zapotec empire until about 12:00 noon. We will then travel to Mitla. Professor Spores will talk en route about Mitla and its significance to Mixtec culture. We will have lunch in Mitla and then tour the archeological site. We will begin our return to Oaxaca at 16:30.
Wednesday, July 14, 11:00-13:30 – Santo Domingo Cultural Center. Professor Spores will guide us through three parts of the archaeological collection at the museum — Pre-Classic, Classic, and Tomb 7.
Wednesday, July 14, 16:00-18:00 – Rufino Tamayo Museum of Prehispanic Art. Professor Spores will guide us in viewing the collection of pre-Columbian cultural heritage materials from the Rufino Tamayo collection.
Thursday, July 15, 10:00-19:30 – Teposcolula-Yucundaa (Professor Spores). Professor Spores will introduce Teposcolula-Yucundaa to us on the bus journey. When we arrive, we will visit archaeological sites, the active laboratory, and the new museum, plus the Casa de la Cacica (16th-c.), the Hospital de la Santa Vera Cruz of 1570, and possibly one or more church-monastery restoration projects. We will have lunch in Teposcolula.
Monday, July 19, 12:00-18:00 – San Miguel Tequistepec (Dr. van Doesburg). The excursion will include an introductory lecture by Dr. van Doesburg and a stop at Coixtlahuaca. We will have lunch in Tequistepec or Coixtlahuaca.
Tuesday, July 20, 12:00-18:00 – San Juan Teiticpac (Dr. van Doesburg). This excursion will have a focus on some outstanding frescoes that tie-in with the Codex Sierra and allow for a study of religious iconography that enables comparisons with Teposcolula (from last week). We will have lunch in Teiticpac.
Wednesday, July 21, 11:00-13:00 – Juridical Archive (Dr. van Doesburg). Emphasis will be on indigenous-language documents from the Spanish colonial period, and ways indigenous communities struggled to defend their lands and their “usos y costumbres” in the face of colonial impositions.
Wednesday, July 21, 16:00-17:00 – Burgoa Library MS Restoration Workshop with Dr. van Doesburg and María del Refugio Gutiérrez Rodríguez, manuscript restoration technician.
Thursday, July 22, 17:00-19:00 – Ethnobotanical Garden of Oaxaca
Maestro de Ávila will guide us through the famous ethnobotanical garden that he was instrumental in creating. The garden is located in the former Santo Domingo convent and . . . . .Admission is free
Making cochinil
Monday, July 26, 12:00-19:00 – Teotitlan del Valle (Professor Stephen). Our visit will include demonstrations of natural dye production, including cultivation, grinding, dying, spinning, etc., by Francisco (”Paco”) González Vicente and Petra Vicente, and will examine questions of cultural continuity and change over time. Excursion will also include a (no host) meal.
Tuesday, July 27, 11:00-15:00 – Maize in Mesoamerican Arts and Cultures (Marietta Bernstorff, Special Projects Curator). We will meet with representatives from a large collective of international and local, mestiza and indigenous women have created art around the theme of corn. We will tour at least one studio. We will then lunch (no-host) at Itanoni in the Colonia Reforma where all foods are prepared from organically, grown, small-crop “criollo” corn.
Tuesday, July 27, 17:00-19:00 – Museo Textil de Oaxaca, Mtro. Alejandro de Ávila will be our guide to this newly opened textile museum. Admission free.
Wednesday, July 28, 12:00-18:00 – San Bartolo Coyotepec. Professor Stephen will take us on a guided tour of Dona Rosa’s family’s pottery operation and then a visit to the Folk Arts Museum. Two themes will guide our inquiry — what elements in clay production represent cultural continuities and what represent change, and, what is the nature of women’s role in cultural production of this type. We will have a meal in or near Coyotepec.
Thursday, July 29, 10:00-15:00 – Arrazola. Introductory lecture en route by Professor Stephen about the production and cultural significance of carved wooden figures painted in bright colors — known as alebrijes — followed by visits to families that make these figures. Attention will be given to artistic innovation designed to appeal to the tourist market, and how a community (or communities) can take on new cultural identities associated with such products.
Thursday, July 29, 18:00-19:30 - Casa de la Mujer. We will meet with Luna MarAn, photographer and tutor for indigenous girls, who teaches them how to make their own cameras, document their own realities, print, and form a book of their photographs.
