The life and work of the Zapotec artist Francisco Toledo, who died September 5, were celebrated by an obituary in the Independent last week. According to Harrison Smith, who wrote the article, Toledo was a leading Mexican painter, sculptor, photographer, engraver, and tapestry designer. He also was a passionate defender… Continue reading…
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the President of Mexico, showed his admiration for the great Zapotec statesman Benito Juarez on July 18 by honoring the Mexican hero on the 147th anniversary of his death. According to a Mexican news story, it was the first time in 113 years since that had… Continue reading…
A news story in August 2016 indicated that the world-famous Guelaguetza festival of the Zapotec had become so commercialized and made for tourists that the Zapotec themselves were forming alternatives. Called “People’s Guelaguetza” festivals, the alternatives also celebrate in a party atmosphere the Zapotec tradition of sharing and giving but… Continue reading…
A news story in August 2016 indicated that the world-famous Guelaguetza festival of the Zapotec had become so commercialized and made for tourists that the Zapotec themselves were forming alternatives. Called “People’s Guelaguetza” festivals, the alternatives also celebrate in a party atmosphere the Zapotec tradition of sharing and giving but… Continue reading…
A news report from December 2010 explained that about 30 years earlier, the Zapotec municipality of Ixtlán de Juárez had gained the right from the Mexican government to manage its forest resources themselves. Before then, outside interests had exploited the forests for their resources without much thought for the future…. Continue reading…
Commercial firms in Mexico had refused requests from Zapotec villages in the mountains of Oaxaca to provide cell phone service, so one of them decided to do it themselves. An article in New York magazine on November 1 describes the struggles of a Zapotec community in the northern part of… Continue reading…
Commercial firms in Mexico had refused requests from Zapotec villages in the mountains of Oaxaca to provide cell phone service, so one of them decided to do it themselves. An article in New York magazine on November 1 describes the struggles of a Zapotec community in the northern part of… Continue reading…
The U.S. government prevented two celebrated Zapotec artists from attending the closing reception last week for their murals, displayed for a year in the central rotunda of the Los Angeles Public Library. The Los Angeles Times reported last Wednesday that artists Dario Canul and Cosijoesa Cernas, from the Zapotec street… Continue reading…
The well-known Zapotec rug weaver Pastora Gutierrez Reyes made the news again last week, this time in a New York Times feature. Ms. Gutierrez, a leader for women’s rights in the town of Teotitlán del Valle, in Mexico’s Oaxaca State, was described in Lynn Stephen’s book Zapotec Women (2005) and… Continue reading…
A Zapotec physicist who was originally from Juchitán, Oaxaca, is planning to translate Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, an essential work of western science, into his native language. According to an article in Mexico News Daily, Feliciano Carrasco Regalado is confident that his translation will be useful. In… Continue reading…
