CHARMED I’M SURE

I finally took a dream trip last month, or rather, a trip I’d dreamed of for years. 5 1/2 years to be exact. When we first arrived here in late 2018 people I met started asking if I’d been to the charming city of San Cristóbal de Las Casas in the state of Chiapas…”You’ll love it!” They were right.

After all those years of longing to be there, wanting to tour with my dear friend Norma Schafer, tour guide extraordinaire (www.oaxacaculture.com), I finally made it this February. The book pictured below, purchased after meeting Norma in Durham, NC, in 2018 and before moving to Mexico, MAYA THREADS: A Woven History of Chiapas by Walter S. Morris Jr. and Carol Karasik, is what drew me to Chiapas, especially to Zinacantan where villagers are steeped in flowers both live and sewn and the colors change every year. But the city of San Cristóbal itself was a pleasant surprise.

Chiapas is the southernmost state in Mexico, bordered by Guatemala (as evidenced by the some of the textiles in San Cristóbal) and the states of Oaxaca, Veracruz, and Tabasco, as well as the Pacific Ocean. It is dominated by the Sierra Madre mountains and the plateaus of the Highlands. It is a state made almost entirely of forests, including the Lacondón rainforest in the east. Home to one of the largest indigenous populations (30%) in Mexico, more than half live in impoverished rural areas. The state provides a large share of the corn, beans, bananas, coffee, and cacao of Mexico. About one-fourth of the people speak Mayan dialects in this state of fourteen languages.

San Cristóbal is much more hip than I expected. And bigger – 209,500 population, with cosmopolitan restaurants as well as the “run of the mill” variety. It lies nestled in the mountains an hour from the small but modern Tuxtla Guitierrez airport where numerous hawkers announce taxi and shuttle rides to the city as you enter the building. A bit confusing if you’re new to the place, but luckily our leaders had informed us of transportation options ahead of time.

The ride in the crowded shuttle gave an open view of the picturesque landscape surrounding us and for me there was an air of excitement coming to this place I had so longed to see. Behind me in the van was a Mexican family. I noticed that the man was holding a bag from the “Feria Maestros del Arte “, a large “cream of the crop” craft sale held here in Chapala each November. So, in broken Spanish, I commented on it and told him I was touring with Norma Schafer. “Norma? Norma Schafer?” he replied with animation. Yes, he knew her. I would meet him formally a few days later.

After I arrived at our hotel, Norma, her friend Leslie, and I spent a few hours in the city the day before the tour began. We enjoyed the lovely boutique shops on the tourist street. Winding our way into the back of one, I made my first purchase which was not handmade at all – an alpaca poncho – but was something I’d been looking for. In the courtyard outside the shop, we found a group of women gathered around a large canvas and painting supplies. Nearby a Japanese woman sang and played the violin for the small crowd. Her husband stood at the edge of the courtyard enjoying the scene he had orchestrated. The mood was light and playful.

The mix of gringos (both European and North American), locals, and indigenous women and babies in their specific trajes (costumes), each identifying the village they hail from, was a thrill for me. The diversity was striking and unexpected. I enjoyed a scene at a bank near “Peace Plaza” of a young Mexican woman in her long wool skirt and straw summer hat holding a toddler on her back in her rebozo (long scarf), holding onto one of the child’s feet, and standing in an ATM stall with her mother (?) while both tried to figure out how to use the machine, with a little help from the cleaning man. Everywhere there were scenes that made me smile.

Norma’s business partner, Eric Chavez Santiago, weaver, teacher, translator, and all-around nice guy, was with us on this trip, along with his father, “Fe”, whom I know from Oaxaca. We also had the pleasure of traveling with Gaby Yaz, a local tour guide with what must be a photographic memory and a warm and charming personality!

Though what brought our group to “San Cris” and the surrounding area was an educational tour about local handmade textiles, we had plenty of opportunity to experience a broad sampling of its amazing restaurants: Belil, an open, airy space serving delicious earthy dishes; a classy tourist-street food court where Japanese food was our pick; Lebanese food from Malaak, tucked inside an Italian restaurant, was truly some of the most delicious food I have ever eaten. Gloria Sántiz Restaurant, run by the “Iron Chef” of Mexico, served picturesque gourmet delights, family style. Last but certainly not least, Tierra y Cielo (Earth and Sky) was the site of our grand finale dinner the night before departing, though several of us were still feeling the effects of food poisoning earlier in the week and had little appetite. The presentation and service were superb. But I must admit that some of it was a bit too complex for me and I preferred the simple tamales and roasted squash seeds served to us in the humble homes of the mountain villages. Oh, I can’t leave out the tiny little bar/restaurant on the tourist street near a few shops we wanted to visit, where a “classmate” and I were delighted to find THE best chicken soup I have ever had! It hit the spot on an unsettled tummy (the reason the two of us missed the day in Chenahlo).

Oh, the food!!!

Our local tour guide Gaby Yaz and Oaxaca weaver and teacher Eric Chavez Santiago opened our first day with a massive amount of information about, and I quote, “weaving and embroidery traditions, patterns and symbols, women and villages, history and culture” of  Chiapas, the Maya world. Afterward, we took a van to Centro Textiles Mundo Maya, a stunning museum of some of the finest trajes you can imagine. The gift shop (Sna Jolobil – The Weaver’s House) there is a bit high priced but certainly beautiful with a fine selection of items from the surrounding villages.

It was shocking to enter the Santo Domingo outdoor market after the elegance we’d just witnessed. Decades ago a priest OK’d a single vendor setting up shop outside the church and it hasn’t been the same since. It is surrounded now by tents full of…well, probably mostly cheap stuff from China?…and you have to pick your way through to get to the real stuff AND to find the incredible Baroque church. It was a maze you could get lost in. A piece of the culture. Like it or not.

We ate lunch at Belil Restaurante where we met Francisca…..an amazing young embroidery artist and primary breadwinner of her family of 4,* who joined us across the street at Casa Textil, the sight of design and production of simple Mexican styles woven mostly in rayon, giving them a superior drape and flow. (Most items in the surrounding villages are woven of cotton or wool.) Owner Ben is a young man from England who came to Guatemala to learn Spanish and then parked himself in San Cristóbal. He talked with us about his goals for the future of the shop where he employs several locals then we spent a while with Francisca and Letty trying to learn a few embroidery stitches.  

Lightweight upholstery fabric had been prepared for us with the goal of embroidering our own designs to be turned into lovely purses by Ben’s employees. I gave up early. I was too tired from health issues and the intensity of the experience. Ultimately a time crunch prevented the project from being accomplished, but we had fun trying. (Since returning home I’ve purchased embroidery supplies from our local Mexican market. I was somewhat skilled when I was young. We’ll see how it goes in my old age…now there’s an image.)

*(Francisca is a slight young Chiapan woman with a beautiful, but sad, face. Her husband was in the US for a while and when he returned he was assigned to a village cargo. This is basically a variety of “social work” positions that each male villager is expected to participate in for 1-3 years, depending on the position I believe. Just home after 2 years, having left Francisca with their 2 young children, he was assigned to a 1-year cargo. Without pay. No wonder she looked sad. With her embroidery, she is the sole breadwinner for her family of 4. Nothing would’ve stopped me from buying something from her.)

Next a visit to Na-Bolom, House of the Jaguar, purchased in San Cristóbal in 1950 by Danish explorer/archeologist Franz Blom and his Swiss wife, social anthropologist/photographer Gertrude “Trudy” Blom. Here they created a cultural and scientific center and a home base for expeditions that now serves as a museum, gift shop, and research center steeped in evidence of their explorations and photographs, including in the uncharted Lacandón jungle territory. 

And then there was Sergio Castro. Sergio is a well-known, revered “humanitarian healer”, a curandero if you will, who has spent most of his adult life offering healing to anyone who asks. During the years he has taught himself simple medical procedures like cleaning and dressing burns and wounds, but some of his techniques are probably more esoteric than we are used to. There was a line when we arrived and he was a few minutes late giving us a simple but extremely educational description of each traje, given to him by grateful clients over the many years he has served them. He charges…nothing. His subsistence comes from donations.

His time was limited so we wandered outside the clothing room, of the Museo de Trajes Regionales (Museum of Traditional Costume), after the presentation, to find 2-3 other small rooms crowded with gifts given to him by clients, including a deck of playing cards embroidered with silk. In the background, we heard the silence of a wailing child soften to a barely audible whimper under the touch of the curandero. Burns are common here, cocinas (kitchens) being what they are. Others were waiting. We moved on.

We spent day 4 in the city. Our first stop was at the home and studio of Alberto Lopez Gomez. Alberto is a 27-year-old man who has made a name for himself in Sweden and New York, as well as his native Mexico, by tweaking the styles just a bit, yet maintaining their integrity. “Cultural appropriation” (use of designs without giving credit to the originator) is somewhat of a topic in the textile world at this point so Norma asked Alberto to give his thoughts. “At least people know we exist,” he told us. All the same, he holds his designs close as part of his village (Aldama) identity.

Alberto’s studio

On the Tuesday before we left our local tour guide, Gaby Yaz, gave a clear, detailed presentation on the Zapatista Movement (EZLN) that became public in 1994 and continues to this day, though with profound changes. I won’t delve into it here but just know that the initial battle, accompanied by unforgettable images of renegades wearing balaclavas and carrying guns, was about regaining the indigenous people’s native land that the government had taken from them. Today they say “Our weapon is our voice” as they work to maintain hold of their land and support women’s and indigenous rights. Little shops of goods to support their cause exist all over the city as the Zapatistas live scattered throughout some of the mountain villages. Upon entering some of those villages we encountered their signs – black with a red star and others with a list of expected behaviors, ie, no drinking or driving over 20km/hr, etc. 

It was an amazing trip and I learned a lot about myself and how I travel now. I wear out easily and my balance is not good. I nearly fell twice on escalators trying to manage one rolling suitcase, one half-rolling suitcase, and a tote. Frightening. So on return, I will ask for help but I will never take 2 carry-ons again…I forgot that there are often tight bathroom stalls and stairs, including those on the plane, where I almost fell again. (I wrote this part early on in the trip. On Day 3 I took a tumble on a set of concrete steps leading down from a home we’d just visited while trying to keep someone else from falling. It didn’t hurt to have retired physician Cata with us and luckily we suffered only a little embarrassment and a few bruises.).

I also learned a lot about traveling with a group. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was a bit nervous, I guess. But this group was amazing. “This is a spiritual group,” Norma told me. “It’s not always like that.” It was true. We looked out for each other. It showed up in our respect for the artisans. It showed up when I fell. It showed up when half of us had food poisoning and the other half came to our doors with tea and bread and Coke asking what they could do to help. It showed up when I needed a front seat in the van to avoid motion sickness and one person after the other handed it off to me without question. We enjoyed each other. We connected.

I have to get stronger…I have to go back. There is so much to learn.

More to come! Stay tuned.