oaxaca
Flor Amargo turns Oaxacan folk tune ‘La Sandunga’ into metal (videos)
Flor Amargo has amazing energy, and sings and plays piano like nobody we know. In this newish video, she burns through the traditional Oaxacan waltz La Sandunga with so much energy we’re afraid for the poor upright piano.
And check out what she does with La LLorona:
Mas…Flor Amargo turns Oaxacan folk tune ‘La Sandunga’ into metal (videos)
Feliz Frijol Friday: ¡Fuerza México! #FFF (toon)
Want to help? Famed DF rescue brigade TOPOS needs your dinero donation.
Mezcal: It’s not just for Mexicans anymore (NPR audio)
More and more Americans are getting into mezcal, and that’s good news for a new generation of artisanal farmers and producers.
In Oaxaca, the Zapotecs include a third gender: Muxes (video)
In the indigenous communities around the town of Juchitán de Zaragoza, Oaxaca, the world is not divided simply into males and females. The local Zapotec people have made room for a third category, they call Muxes – men who consider themselves women and live in a socially-sanctioned limbo between the two genders. [Video by Ivan Olita.]
Chicago to Mexico City: We stand with the teachers of Oaxaca (posters)
Chicago artist CHema Skandal! is standing with the teachers of Oaxaca and designed these posters in support. “OaxaCAN!” he notes. Multiforo Alicia — a DF cultural center — is printing and distributing them in Mexico City.
Mas…Chicago to Mexico City: We stand with the teachers of Oaxaca (posters)
Artisanal organic Oaxaca mezcal? Take my dinero please (video)
Alberto Martinez, an agave farmer and mezcal distiller in Oaxaca, makes his traditional liquor the old fashioned way. Nikki Vargas (photo) has the story.
In rural Mexico, where there’s a will, there’s a well (video)
A bomba de mecate is a rope pump for water wells. In San Miguel del Valle, Díaz Ordaz, Oaxaca, Mexico, you can build one if you know how. Maybe! 😉
Here’s how you do it, at least according to YouTube:
Mas…In rural Mexico, where there’s a will, there’s a well (video)
Oaxaca woman finds face of Jesus on homemade tortilla (video)
“A woman in southern Mexico decided to use a tortilla she had just made for spiritual, rather than physical, food after seeing the face of Jesus Christ looking back at her,” reports the Daily Mail:
Enedina Mendoza and her family make tortillas in the small Oaxacan town of Tlalixtac de Cabrera, and the baker that she [said] normally doesn’t even look at her creations.
However, instead of sending one tortilla off to become a blessed burrito, Mendoza took another glance and recognized the son of God.
Mas…Oaxaca woman finds face of Jesus on homemade tortilla (video)
Scientist’s quest to reproduce abuela’s mole recipe ends in failure
(PNS reporting from RIVERSIDE) After a decade-long quest to duplicate his Oaxacan abuela’s mole poblano recipe, UC Riverside food scientist Miguel Jimenez, 33, declared defeat Sunday.
Microbiologist Jimenez had hoped to identify the ingredients in the mysterious chocolate chile sauce his abuela puts on chicken.
“She won’t give anyone the recipe!” said Jimenez, as he kicked his chair and wiped away tears at UCR’s Chucheria Research Facility. “Abuelita just pinches my cheek and tells me to portarme bien and go to church more.”
Mas…Scientist’s quest to reproduce abuela’s mole recipe ends in failure
How does Wahaca in London make those authentic ‘steak’ tacos? (video)
Last week we featured a video visit to three of London’s top taquerias — including Wahaca in Covent Garden — and today we return to Ye Merrye Olde Mother Countrye to meet the chef who spells “Oaxaca” her own especial guey.
Thomasina “Tommi” Miers is the founder of England’s Wahaca Mexican restaurant chain and she knows exactly wa the hac she’s doing as she whips up carne asada (aka “Mexican steak”) tacos, a firme fresh salsa and charred cebollitas. Her recipe, she boasts, is “a real corker” and when she says “taco” it rhymes with “tobacco.”
Mas…How does Wahaca in London make those authentic ‘steak’ tacos? (video)
Taste testing London’s top three taquerias (video)
It’s hard to find decent Mexican food in London, but critic Richard Vines found three taquerias worth visiting in a report for Bloomberg TV. We were puzzled that the Limeys spell Oaxaca “Wahaca” but then we remembered that Brits are stupid with “foreign” terms — they pronounce “filet” like “fill-it,” for example. Food critic Vines does an exemplary job, however, with words like “molcajete.” PRO TIP FOR SEÑOR VINES: There is no such thing as “molcajete sauce.”
‘Undocumented’ family behind La Morada in the South Bronx (video)
Towards the end of the 20th Century, Natalia Mendez and Antonio Saavedra left their home, family and country behind to cross without papers into the U.S. Now they run a popular Oaxacan restaurant in the South Bronx, La Morada.
This is exactly the hard-working law-abiding, job-creating kind of family President Obama’s executive actions were designed to protect, but recent court decisions make their future uncertain. What can a poor pocho do?
La Morada has 4.5 stars on Yelp. See you there for dinner? We’ll be the ones scarfin’ down the mole!
Mas…‘Undocumented’ family behind La Morada in the South Bronx (video)
Magic mushroom tea time in San Jose Pacifico, Oaxaca, Mexico (videos)
In San Jose Pacifico, Oaxaca, Mexico, you can take tea and see. Magic mushroom tea, that is; psilocybin. [NSFW adult language and (legal) drug use.]
Mas…Magic mushroom tea time in San Jose Pacifico, Oaxaca, Mexico (videos)
Small-town Oaxaca mayor marries crocodile princess for fish (video)
Brides can often get a bit snappy on their big day – and one Mexican crocodile is no exception. She’s marrying the mayor of a Pacific coast fishing town in a traditional ceremony.
The fishermen of the town of San Pedro Huamelula, Oaxaca, believe the crocodile is a princess, and a wedding ritual will bring plenty of fish for them to catch along the Pacific coast. And then there’s the part when the mayor talks about the parade of “morenos” bearing croc statues.
South Carolina’s Live5 CBS reports:
Mas…Small-town Oaxaca mayor marries crocodile princess for fish (video)
If you think you worked hard today, watch these guys! (video)
Four guys with picks and shovels dig a water well in Oaxaca in this 2008 video. The temperature approached 100°, according to the uploader. It’s amazing to watch how hard these guys work, and the techniques they use to turn a hole in the ground into a working well.
Here’s what it says on YouTube:
Mas…If you think you worked hard today, watch these guys! (video)
Munchies in Oaxaca? This video tells you where to go!
Daniel Hernandez tells you where to go when you’re hungry in Oaxaca. [Video by Munchies TV]
The YouTube explains:
‘Mom, where do chiles come from?’ ‘From Oaxaca, mija!’
Chile peppers were first domesticated in the area now known as Oaxaca, in eastern Mexico, about 8000 years ago, according to scientists.
Central-east Mexico gave birth to the domesticated chili pepper — now the world’s most widely grown spice crop — reports an international team of researchers, led by a plant scientist at the University of California, Davis.
Results from the four-pronged investigation — based on linguistic and ecological evidence as well as the more traditional archaeological and genetic data — suggest a regional, rather than a geographically specific, birthplace for the domesticated chili pepper.
Prince Harry sure loves him some tamales oaxaceños! (video)
Prince Harry’s CNN interview about combat in Afghanistan is just gonna have to wait. One does not simply ignore the amplified call of the tamalero oaxaceño!
Rockin’ Los Angeles Oaxacan marching band style (video)
Click, watch and share for 91 seconds of pure musical joy! If you can, listen real loud and/or with headphones for the amazing live sound recording and KILLER tuba playing! (That’s actually a Sousaphone, a modified tuba that wraps around the player’s body and is specially-designed for marching bands.) This Oaxacan marching band heralded the opening of FIOB — Frente Indigena de Organizaciones Binacionales (Indigenous Front of Bi-national Organizations) — in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday. Sam Quiñones shot the video and has the story, via our friends at NewsTaco.com.
- And what about that chica on the bus bench? What is she thinking?