Oaxaca (Dia de los Muertos)

(Mientras escribo esto, Bethra y yo estamos en el primer autobús de la mañana a la Ciudad de México. No tengo wi-fi, así que probablemente voy a publicar cuando lleguemos al hotel.)

I usually feel right at home in Oaxaca's vibrant ex-pat population, but this trip it was hard to not feel like an ugly American with the swarm of tourists who descend on the town for la Dia de los Muertos. I’ve been spending a lot of time with Bethra, so the last two days consisted of a lot of markets and eating, and we had to wade through the sea of people to get to our favorite food spots.

Friday, after the markets, we headed over to la Galeria Gorilla. Jason, from Gorilla Glass, played host for visitors from all over for this year's festivities. Many stayed at the Gorilla Glass factory, while a few of us bunked off-site at one of several hotels. I saw many of my good “traveling friends”: people from the body-modification industry and around who I only see a few times a year, but who I still consider friends—and several of them good friends. Bethra, (from Atlanta), Adam (from Brooklyn), Corey, Lysa (and Todd), and Andrea (from San Francisco and the Bay) Autumn Swisher and Shon (from Nomad in San Francisco), Kevin (from Phoenix), Jimmy Buddha (from Austin), Ron Garza and his wife Nakota (from Long Beach, California), and a few others I was meeting for the first time. While we waited, Corey, Meno, and Luna worked on the traditional alter in the courtyard in back of the gallery.

After dark, about ten of us followed Jason over to a group show (where he had a piece on display) in an amazing space that was basically a courtyard inside an abandoned, decaying building. After this, we headed back to la Galeria Gorilla for the performance scheduled for later that evening.

Around 8 p.m., we were led into the gallery for the evening’s performance: “Bridge of Mud and Feathers.” It was performance piece Japanese-American Shibari bondage practitioner and educator Midori and suspension artist Samar. In the small space, Midori, in Butoh-inspired costuming, adorned a rope-trussed Samar with flowers, and then Jimmy Buddha and Muffe, both gilded, attached red chord to Samar’s already-inserted hooks and suspended her off the floor. As she spun, Midori smeared ink over parts of her body, than pressed paper to her body, creating crude paper prints. It was quite beautiful.

 Afterward, Bethra and I headed over to the Panteon Antiguo.  It’s a cemetery fully-enclosed by a sort of mausoleum wall, and inside it’s a party as people visit graves and socialize, both in and out of costume. We’re both early risers, so we were in bed before midnight.

We visited the Gorilla Glass factory the next day for stories of the insane, all-night drunken march through the Oaxacan hills for the traditional celebration of mescal and food. Part of me wishes I could have seen it; part of me knows I wouldn't have survived it. It seemed like everyone else barely did.

(En el autobus, la pelicula “Spider-Man” in playing—en español—mientras Bethra y yo estamos viendo “Fuego” con Isabel Sarli en mi computadora. La turistas que estan detrás de nosotros estan dormiendo, y esta bien porque Sarli esta desnuda por mucha de la pelicula. Es un viaje estraño.)