Xoxocotlan y Tapetes

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I'm not sure that I can even begin to cover the last three days, four cemetaries, and over 500 photographs. Perhaps the images will say what I cannot in words. I will do one entry per cemetary.
Dispite all indications that it was best to stay off the streets, we walked to the zocalo. There is not a bus in the city, but many 'colectivos', a kind of communal taxi, and gypsy trucks that load people onto their beds, so we walked to the zocalo. Banks have long lines of people waiting to get money, everything having been closed for the last four days, and many ATM's cashless. The PFP is in place, in large numbers, and almost all the graffiti now painted out. We got a cab on the south side of the zocalo, the friendly driver having worked in the states many times, including a stint in Springfield, Mass.! He got us, not without difficulty, to the older cemetary in Xoxocotlan, a very intimate space, that we later learned has not had anyone buried in it for 30 years, when new and much larger one was begun. We sat in the church for over two hours, watching a group of twenty men making 'tapetes', a carpet of moist sand that gets powdered pigments, glitter, flower blossoms and/or petals, seeds, and spices, sprinkled over it to create an image, usually traditional and religous in nature. More comtemporary ones are sculpted into a bas-relief, sometimes fairly deep, then colored. Stencils are used, or free-hand application. One woman talked to me at length about it, and other things. When the subject of fear, the current uprising, and difficulties came around, she said basically, "Why be afraid to go out and live your life, do what you want to do? When your name is next on the list, Death will know where to find you, no matter where you are, safe at home or elsewhere." The sand tapetes are also made when someone dies, and are kept for nine days, then swept up in a ritual, and brought to the cemetary, as these ones would be. We met later in the big cemetary, and she gave us a bit of a tour. Being quite far out of the way, we got an early ride back to the zocalo, and walked up the hill before dark.

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Photos

In the older cemetary
a grave adorned with flowers

Working on the sand-rugs
before the altar in the front of the church.

"Hey! Aqui Estoy"
A glittery tapete on a grave in the new Xoxocotlan cemetary.

Pan de Muerto
These ones had no orange, but were full of roasted anis seeds.

A modern tapete
with Zapotec imagery.

A grave
with altar