by Shelby Morrow
And I mean, I probably should have expected the enchantment, almost everyone who knows even a little bit about me knows that I have kind of a thing for mountains; they're definitely my type. Let's just say it was an easy seduction, and the effort required to climb back into the van that would take me back down these beauts was a lot a lot a lot.
We spent this morning on the side of a mountain, at the Centro de las Artes de San Agustín. Let me tell you, this is an amazing place. CASA is funded by Francisco Toledo, an artist we haven't stopped hearing about since our arrival. Referred to often as "Maestro", Toledo is from Juchitán, Oaxaca, and his work is beautiful (http://www.franciscotoledo.net) and well known. Toledo, in effort to give back to the communities that raised him, taught him, and house him now, has a huge--gigantic, large, massive, etc--philanthropic and activist presence in Oaxaca. Besides CASA, Toledo has worked to establish the Instituto de Artes Gráficas de Oaxaca (IAGO; a graphic arts center and art library), the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca (MACO; the contemporary art museum in Oaxaca), the Patronato Pro-Defensa y Conservación del Patrimonio Cultural de Oaxaca (a cultural conservation organization), as well as several other libraries throughout the city.
So we drove up, all of us really excited about the mountains and the trees and the baby goats we were passing (that excitement might actually have just been me and Mariah, others were less enthused about the goats), already making plans about ditching the van and just living here. We parked and fell out of the van and immediately were all so taken with San Agustín. The town is beautiful and wonderful and magical; it felt like something out of a film--I don't know if I'd comprehended that places like San Agustín actually exist in the world until today.
CASA is an arts center, and it hosts exhibits as well as classes and workshops, and a library. It also hosts different artisans from all around to come and teach or work on commission--today we saw two Triqui women weaving on back strap looms. There was an exhibit on pinhole cameras, a showing of cameras made by artists in a workshop and then the photographs they'd made with them. As a photographer and as someone who's attempted pinhole before, holy moly were these images stunning. The work and effort put in to not only the images (which was a lot), but also the cameras themselves, was really amazing to me.
Right now, CASA also has stunning exhibits up by Sergio Hernández (http://www.sergiohernandez.com/sh/frames.php?lang=en).
We wandered around in awe for a little while, but we were really at CASA today to participate in a workshop of our own. In San Agustín, just a bit down the street from the art center, is a paper workshop.
Also funded by Toledo, this workshop specializes in handmade paper for various commissions and projects. We got to speak to the men and women who work with this product at every stage of production, from actually working with cotton and pochote and paper pulp, to folding the paper into boxes for a commission. It was fascinating to see a process like this handled by one group of people from start to finish. We had the chance to make our own paper, as well. Each of us made a sheet of natural cotton paper, all embellished a bit differently, and we'll get them next week. I, for one, am very excited to send some letters.
We spoke in reflection today about how wonderful it is to be a little bit out from under the STEM umbrella--Dr. Goldberg pointed out that CASA and the system it creates make it very clear that math and science are not the only ways toward progress; we found ourselves questioning that definition of progress. I am really excited about this idea, this possible path: that art, this rich representation of humanity, can push us forward in ways different than, but comparable to, these math and science forward marches.
We ate an amazing lunch after this workshop, and then made our first archaeological stop at a site in San Jose Mogote. San Jose Mogote is a really really important site in like, the way humanity has come to be humanity. It's possible that corn was, y'know, developed, here. It was an amazing experience for a lot of different reasons, but we spoke this evening as a group about the relationship between this site and the town that is built literally on top of it. This theme has followed us today, this idea of building on top of ourselves.
Yesterday, we saw a museum and language library that's built on top of old, ancient, foundations, and they show it off--there's a room with a hole in the floor that shows you the old stones. We toured churches and churches and churches, some of which are built on sites that are and have been important to many and various indigenous peoples. Today we saw one of the oldest archaeological sites in the world, and a significant portion of it is underneath a town. Francisco Toledo is creating new Oaxacan cultural centers based on the old myths. We build on top of ourselves.
Nothing is new, but most everything is beautiful.
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