I have the author's blessing to reproduce this letter that was sent to her friends Sept. 8th. It provides a first hand view of the siutation there and has put her friends at ease. I hope this helps you, too. Memo Sorry I did not reprint the photos she sent, but they basically depict the streets near the zocalo. The walking street Alcala, now has cars on either side. Dear Friends of Oaxaca, I am emailing you because all of you have contacted me with concerns about the situation in Oaxaca. The photos I have attached I took this morning when I went on a walk from the zocalo up to the Pochote organic food market on Garcia Vigil, a distance of about 9 blocks. Alcala, Garcia Vigil and Cinco de Mayo ( where the Camino Real Hotel is ) comprise the heart of the Historic Center. These photos were taken at 9 am, so the foot traffic had not peaked yet. I have lived in Oaxaca for 20 years and still consider it one of the safest places on earth. Teotitlan del Valle, where Casa Sagrada, our guesthouse & retreat center is located is still one of the safest places on earth, totally unaffected by the situation - accept economically. There is no question that we are living historic moments in Oaxaca. Never did I think things would come to this but now that it has I am looking at everything with a new perspective. Here are some of my thoughts and my actions. My business is open and has been six days a week forever except on June 14th (the now famous teargas bombing fiasco). With the exception of some hotels, that due to a drastic drop in tourism have had to close - temporarily we hope, most businesses directed to tourism are open. I think restaurants are having an especially hard time since they deal in perishables and some have decided to close for a couple of weeks. Our store La Mano Magica, located smack dab in the centro historico is closing at 8 pm as usual. September is that slowest month historically and with this problem tourism is scant. Several restaurant owners have said that they would reopen beginning of October when typically the tourist influx rises. The municipal street sweepers are working hard and the streets generally look good except for certain blocks with clusters of rocks in the street. Again, it is testimony to the citizenry, that no rock-throwing, to speak of, has occurred since the isolated June 14th incidents. Vandals could have a free-for-all with the rocks and they aren’t; I only have bars over our windows and they are in good shape. I have attached a photo of the zocalo and it looked “just swepted” this morning. Everyone is wondering just what these barricades are all about. The barricades have been set up principally by the APPO at night to assure them security. They are afraid that the governor will send in his supposed thugs to oust them from the government offices and the radio stations they have taken over. In reality there have been only a few off these incidents and those were clustered around the 3rd week in August. During the day everybody walks through these streets, old ladies, moms with kids in strollers, etc. The barricades go up from about 9:30 pm to 6 am. Some neighborhoods groups have organized and also put up barricades as a form of controlling traffic during these vulnerable hours. I think their attitude is that only "uptonogooders" would be cruising the side streets so late in the night. You may have heard that they are burning tired at the barricades. That was true, really noxious stuff but as of last week the APPO and the Teacher’s radio stations announced that a consensus had been taken and there would be no more tire burning. Effectively tires are not being burned anymore. I feel that the graffiti is going the same way. It was apparently the APPO that graffitied Santo Domingo and this same organization took the initiative, with major group effort including students, to remove the writing. There was a article in Las Noticias newspaper -the more pro-APPO - on Sept. 7 commenting on the impending banning of graffiti on all buildings. I feel we are very close to repainting Oaxaca’s beautiful façades. My personal experience: La Mano Magica got graffitied 5 weeks ago and several days later we repainted a big part of the lower façade with the same color of ochre paint. We have never been hit by graffiti again. I feel our walls have been respected because the graffiti painters could tell that the owner of the building did the repainting, not the government that just covers up anti- Ullises Ruiz graffiti with any old color of paint. I will keep you posted on the progress. In my walkabout today saw only one broken window taped up and that was at Galería Arte de Oaxaca and it has been like that since the 14th of June. What is our life like on an average day? We are mostly living in on our house near the historic center of Oaxaca now as our son has gone back to school at La Salle in the north of the city. I drive him to school at 6:40 a.m. with no problem. One major street going north has been blocked by the APPO just past Blvd. Heroes de Chapultepec for several blocks, where one of the radio stations they have taken over is located. I take Amapolas street instead but then again I often took that street before APPO existed. Traffic can be more condensed than normal on certain legs of the Blvd. but all in all it flows. I drive out to Teotitlan del Valle ( 25 kms. southeast of the city ) just about everyday with no problem. One of the good things this construction-crazed governor has done is improve traffic flow especially along the historically bottlenecked Blvd. Chapultepec. We now have these "vueltas Inglesas" ( English turns) - expect no one who has ever been to England has seen the likes. The new turns give cheap thrills as you find yourself driving on the left-hand side of the road ( aha!! thus the English turn ) but let me tell you there are cars going all directions at the same time and traffic really moves. Interestingly, mass behavioral changes have also occurred in Oaxaca. I am reminded of a galloping herd of horses that all turn direction at the same time without ever crashing into each other. On some deep level the citizens of Oaxaca have adopted changes without any formal directives being given i.e.: one-way streets have become two-way streets or when traffic lights went out at one of the cities most convoluted roundabouts everyone adopted a continuous merge and traffic flowed better than ever. Oaxacans have acted with admirable civil responsibility in the near absence of police. I have seen citizens spontaneously take up traffic directing at a major intersection where the light has was not working. What makes this even more interesting is that everyone spontaneously decided to let this person direct and patiently waited their turn to move along. Gridlocks do occur but they always have - a pet peeve I have with local drivers. I walk about freely from early morning till after 9 pm and since I am in bed by 10 p.m. walking the streets late isn't an issue for me. It is true that Oaxaca is emptier that normal after say 9:30 pm and in part this has become a self-fulfilling prophecy: since there are so few tourists, there are fewer workers at stores, hotels and restaurants, and this adds up to fewer people in the streets at night and the few that might be out feel awfully lonely so they tend not to stay out. See what I mean? Our 14 year-old son, gets himself home from school, a 3 mile trek and has reported no problems. He is allowed to go out on his own; he just has to be home by 8 pm. Last night I was talking with a friend and we grumbled about what we feel has been a distorted perspective on the violence in Oaxaca she reminded me about what happened in New Orleans last year. In the absence of police, looters went on a rampage. What has happened in Oaxaca is insignificant compared to New Orleans. The doors of our gallery are open, just as ever, to the street and I have no security guard standing in front. To my knowledge that has been no aggression directed towards tourists. In fact the aggression and so-called violence has been very pinpointed. Visitors going about their normal activities should be fine. I wouldn’t make a point of taking close-up pictures of the barricades without asking permission just because those being photographed could misinterpret the motive behind the photo. But that isn’t much different from taking photos in the native markets. I will right more as thoughts come to me. My best regards from Oaxaca and in speaking for all Oaxaca we hope to see our friends again soon. Mary Jane Gagnier de Mendoza info@lamanomagica.com www.casasagrada.com <http://www.casasagrada.com/> www.lamanomagica.com <http://www.lamanomagica.com/>
