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David’s Tribute

Tuesday, December 5th, 2017

David wrote a beautiful tribute to his mom.

She left the last minutes of November 20
I imagine her walking beautiful and smiling accompanied by the revolutionaries of a century ago to glory
With a smile on her lips
A difficult and beautiful life
Of suffering and happiness
From You I learned to love Mexico
I remember as if it were yesterday when I went to the market we went through the Zocalo of Oaxaca
This city you chose to be our home
The cops raised the flag of Mexico on their flagpole
And you made us stop in the middle of the square
Respectfully, as she never did before, the image
At that time we still did not know that our flag was in the hands of traitors
That I would share with you many years later.
And you believed me and supported me unconditionally until the last day
All I owe her, what I am is a pale reflection of her dreams and her stories about my grandfather in Sola de Vega
Now I have your love and your advice
You left but you don’t leave me an orphan
I have a mother for the many lives like mine
See you soon mommy and tell us beautiful stories
Thank you so much mother Victoria Reyes Gopar

The Funeral Tepete

Tuesday, December 5th, 2017

On the 9th night of prayers for David’s mom, David and Gayo and another friend spent the afternoon building a sand tepete. After the prayers, the sand tepete, symbolizing the building of “a long and difficult life, is swept away quickly at the end.”

9th Night Friends

Tuesday, December 5th, 2017
David's mom died on November 20. The body was placed in a casket midst flowers and lit candles the first night and then was buried with a whole busload of people going to the cemetery. Then every night for 9 ... [Continue reading this entry]

A Hospitalization And Death

Tuesday, November 21st, 2017
The public hospital is like a jail! Once you go in you can’t come and go.  They demand a family member stay with the patient at all times.  He took night shift from his siblings and had to sleep on the ... [Continue reading this entry]

The Resistance Continues

Friday, November 10th, 2017

David is being watched even still and they still haven’t set aside his sentence. I have given him keys to my apt and offered my apt as a safe house.  They are just harassing him. Had to sign ... [Continue reading this entry]

Pluma Hidalgo Finca

Saturday, October 14th, 2017
On the way back to Oaxaca City, driving the coast road to Highway 175 (the "new road") we took the time to drive up to Pluma Hidalgo Finca in 2 feet of mud where David had worked for a year.  Workers ... [Continue reading this entry]

Earthquake Aftermath in Oaxaca

Friday, October 6th, 2017
Last weekend I caravanned with another car and a truck 7 hours to the Isthmus (to a tiny village near Santa Maria del Mar) on the Pacific Coast of Oaxaca State where 80% of the homes were down or condemned. ... [Continue reading this entry]

David Venegas

Tuesday, September 5th, 2017
David (dubbed El Alebrijey his companeros) is an agronomist and activist with the continuing "Movement" against corruption in Oaxaca that began again in 2006 with an uprising and the striking of 70,000 teachers. He is a charismatic natural born leader. In ... [Continue reading this entry]

Doug, Josh, Polly, Greg Visit Me In Oaxaca!

Thursday, August 24th, 2017
[gallery ids="4998,4999,5000,5001,5002,5003,5004"][gallery ids="4993,4992,4991,4990,4989,4988,4987,4986,4985,4984,4983,4982,4981,4980,4979,4978,4977,4976"] I'm in Oaxaca for 11 years and all three kids decide to come visit me at once! Doug arrived August 29th but of course he didn't tell the others! When they heard he was coming then they all decided ... [Continue reading this entry]

Solitude

Thursday, August 10th, 2017

Friends In Oaxaca

Wednesday, June 28th, 2017
Here in Oaxaca I think I know more local young ones than older ones.  Of course it helps that the younger locals often speak English even if just a little and between my Spanish and their English we do fine. ... [Continue reading this entry]

Why I Prefer Oaxaca

Wednesday, June 28th, 2017
We expats are finding what we did not find "at home." I retired in 2002, traveled for 5 years, went back "home" for 2 months and was bored to tears. Most of my friends had moved ... [Continue reading this entry]

Why I Host Strangers

Wednesday, May 3rd, 2017
I’m all for volunteering but I spent half my life doing it so I’m kind of od'd on it. Hosting through Couchsurfing and other hospitality sites is a kind of volunteering with my time and money but I get more ... [Continue reading this entry]

Hitchhikers Found Me!

Saturday, April 29th, 2017
[embed]https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10155105332632088&set=sug.516242087&type=1&theaterhttp://[/embed] Two Italians and a Pole. Anna and one of the Italians hitched a boat across the Atlantic! This is the 2nd I've had who did this. The first was a Brazilian.

An Expat’s View Of The Struggle In Oaxaca

Monday, June 27th, 2016
The government has (since the 1968 slaughter of students in Mexico City) hired “students” who sign up for university but don’t go to school to infiltrate and instigate trouble in order to turn the populace against theteachers. They are called ... [Continue reading this entry]

“The Battle Has Just Started!” Gustavo Esteva

Thursday, June 23rd, 2016
"The Battle Has Just Started": Activists Denounce Police Killings & Crackdowns on Teachers in Oaxaca | Democracy Now!. There are 21 blockades all of the state’s eight regions and they have cut off the movement of goods from Mexico City ... [Continue reading this entry]

Why Oaxaca Teachers Are Striking Again

Thursday, June 23rd, 2016
Information has been updated with 12 dead, 27 detained, at least 7 disappeared, 100 injured Laura Carlson of the Center for International Policy says that Oaxacan teachers are protesting not only teacher evaluations, but also the entirety of neoliberal reform under ... [Continue reading this entry]

OAXACA EN GUERRA

Thursday, June 23rd, 2016
OAXACA EN GUERRA OAXACA, Oax. 19 de junio de 2016. - YouTube. Teachers have been striking in Oaxaca for the last 34 years. This year. so far, 21 barricades have been set up by the teachers in all of the ... [Continue reading this entry]

An Expat Joke

Wednesday, July 15th, 2015
One night, David Ben Gurion dreams that he is dead. God says "you're David Ben Gurion! What can I do for you?" And Ben Gurion says "Show me heaven" and it's very dull. People standing on clouds, meditating, nothing going ... [Continue reading this entry]

REVOLT!

Tuesday, January 27th, 2015
Oscar Tanat is the brother of a friend of mine. And you thought Oaxaca was a picturesque little village with simple people! Ha!

The Ayotzinapa 43

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2014
[caption id="attachment_3524" align="aligncenter" width="710" caption="43 empty seats"][/caption] 43 Normalista (education) students have "disappeared" in Guerrero by narco gangs presumably with the knowledge of the government. Mexico is on fire and is calling ... [Continue reading this entry]

I’m In My Glory

Monday, November 24th, 2014
This past week, Ivan, my temporary Italian roomie, who has been living in Oaxaca many years but split with his girlfriend and lost his apartment cooked Pasta Bolognaise for me, Angie and her mom. Angie is the sister of Lumina, ... [Continue reading this entry]

Still Lovin Oaxaca

Thursday, October 9th, 2014

Am I Mexican? No I am Oaxacan!

Monday, September 22nd, 2014
I took a test on FB to see how Mexican I was. 100% Mexican? I guessed at half of them. Most of these questions have to do with northern Mexico or Mexicans who haven't been in the country for a ... [Continue reading this entry]

Facebook Is Not The Problem

Wednesday, September 17th, 2014
I love to follow former couchsurfers on Facebook. Paul is one of them. Everyone is complaining about the same thing and it's not Facebook. Facebook is not the problem he says. You are. Paul stayed with me a week in Oaxaca ... [Continue reading this entry]

All is Transformed

Thursday, September 11th, 2014
[caption id="attachment_3413" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Frank And Kids In The Zocalo"][/caption] For nearly 15 years Frank sat at the same table every day in front of a coffee shop in the zocalo...often making friends ... [Continue reading this entry]

Frank Died Last Night

Thursday, September 11th, 2014
He was "just" a friend...an eccentric friend...but a good friend with heart. For years he spent $70 a month living here. He sat at the same table in the same coffee shop in the Zocalo every single day ... [Continue reading this entry]

Expats Take Care

Monday, April 21st, 2014
Well, my friend Jayson Heckler who drove down to Oaxaca from the States to Oaxaca with me in 2010 was the next one. Fell and injured his leg and hip. Doc said to go home and stay down. He did. ... [Continue reading this entry]

In Oaxaca…Finally!

Saturday, March 8th, 2014
Ahhhh! No more alarms. No more packing and unpacking! No more late and cancelled flights.  And after four months on the road, I've got my own coffee pot and old friends in Oaxaca! Life is good! But I don't want to ... [Continue reading this entry]

Oregon Thailand Hong Kong 2013-14

Saturday, November 23rd, 2013
Need new crowns on implants I got last spring while in Bangkok. Need to see my son Josh and his lovely Significant Other, Polly, in Hong Kong. And spend some time down south in Krabi Thailand with my son Doug ... [Continue reading this entry]

Meanwhile In Oaxaca

Saturday, June 15th, 2013
My friends always remember my birthday because that is when the municipal police tried to clear out the striking teachers from the Zocalo in 2006. Every year they have a memorial walk to commemorate it. [caption id="attachment_2500" align="aligncenter" width="440" caption="June ... [Continue reading this entry]

Weather

Thursday, May 16th, 2013
Find more about Weather in Oaxaca, MX Find more about Weather  ... <a href=[Continue reading this entry]

Oaxaca Re-entry April 2013

Friday, April 19th, 2013
I arrived "home" April 19, 2013 after a 6 month RTW trip to Oregon, Thailand, Oman, Turkey, Oregon, Las Vegas and finally Oaxaca again. As I've recently said to friends, I'm getting too old for this shit! Figuring ... [Continue reading this entry]

A Birthday in Oaxaca

Friday, June 15th, 2012
[caption id="attachment_1822" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Richard, Lulu, Carlos and Lumina"][/caption] I'm counting my blessings that couchsurfing has given me this morning. I had the best birthday ever yesterday! A lovely couple (she from Uh ... [Continue reading this entry]

Oaxaca Teachers Strike Again

Sunday, June 3rd, 2012
For two weeks now, the teachers have constructed a planton in the Zocalo and in the surrounding streets. Tents abut each other and guy-wires (actually cord), holding up tarps to protect from the rain, extend in every direction...low enough so ... [Continue reading this entry]

A Mixe Wedding

Saturday, April 14th, 2012
[caption id="attachment_1737" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Open Fire Kitchen"][/caption] [Continue reading this entry]

An American Mother in Mexico

Saturday, April 14th, 2012
I often encounter locals in Mexico who are quite shocked to hear that I have three sons...one in the U.S. one in Hong Kong and one in Thailand part of the year. To make it worse my husband is in ... [Continue reading this entry]

Thanksgiving 2011

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011
I was invited to a wonderful Thanksgiving potluck...turkey, trimmings and all. Far more than any of us could eat in a week of course. Most of these young people ... [Continue reading this entry]

Oaxaca Resistance-2006

Monday, August 22nd, 2011
This comunique will not make much sense without the back story but it will give you a taste of the flavor of the struggle in the indigenous pueblos for autonomy that was promised by the Mexican government in 1945 and ... [Continue reading this entry]

Couchsurfing in Oaxaca

Thursday, July 21st, 2011
[gallery] The above photos are just a few of the 40 couchsurfers I have hosted over the last couple of years. I retired in 2002 and spent the next 5 years on the road...then chose Oaxaca as a home base. Since ... [Continue reading this entry]

A Brush With Evil

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011
Monday April 11 one of my American friends...a long time expat...went missing in Oaxaca sometime between 7:30am and noon. On thursday his body finally rose in the well outside his kitchen door. The motive appears to be theft but ... [Continue reading this entry]

Oaxaca on a Sunday

Sunday, March 27th, 2011
This Sunday morning there is the usual weekend Tai Chi group trying to generate some peace in the park across from my apartment while a birthday party on the edge of the park 50 yards away a very loud hard ... [Continue reading this entry]

San Andreas Paxtlan, Oaxaca MX

Thursday, March 10th, 2011
In 2006-7 I lived in an apartment on Calle Fiallo about 6 blocks south of the Zocalo in which I got to know the maid, Adelina, and her lively bright daughter Fernanda. Adelina is a great single mom and ... [Continue reading this entry]

Zicatela Beach and Colotepec, Puerto Escondido,Oaxaca

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011
Well, I haven't posted for quite awhile. Been on twitter and computer livestreams ever since the uprising in the MENA (Middle East North Africa) trying to make sense of it. Suffice it to say I am supporting the ... [Continue reading this entry]

Huayapam Oaxaca Baptism

Sunday, February 20th, 2011
Friends Mica and Bardo live in Huayapan, about 30 minutes from Oaxaca City on a good day. Mica's mom is raising two nephews whose parents are living and working in the States. So it came time for the baptism ... [Continue reading this entry]

Christmas 2010 Now I KNOW I Am In Mexico

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011
January 11th, 2010 December 23rd is the Fiesta of the Rabanos in the Zocalo. Huge radishes are grown just for the annual carving up into all manner of scenes, animals and whatever the imagination conjures up which are all on ... [Continue reading this entry]

Christmas In Oaxaca 2010

Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010
I will be spending this Christmas with four lovely couchsurfers who are staying with me and we will all be christmas orphans together. One, a part Lao guy born in Paris who has recently been living in Canada, who ... [Continue reading this entry]

End Of The PRI in Oaxaca

Saturday, December 4th, 2010
Upside Down World has an article by a local writer summarizing the end of the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party that ruled Mexico for 70 years) in Oaxaca and the inauguration of the new governor. The writer describes the ceremony on ... [Continue reading this entry]

To Oaxaca! Whew! Done!

Thursday, November 25th, 2010
I waited until the day we left for Queretaro to call and tell my friend Patsy (we go waaayyy back) that we had changed our itinerary and would be seeing her that evening. What fun! It had been ... [Continue reading this entry]

Self Censuring

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010
I moved to Oaxaca City in 2006 to find 70,000 of the state's teachers striking in the Centro. They had been striking every year for more than 20 years to gain a minimum of educational standards for a state ... [Continue reading this entry]