Casa de Benito Juarez

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Friends,

Today (wednesday) has been a regular day. As usual I arrive at the Instituto Cultural Oaxaca to greet students at about 830am before their language classes which begin at 9am sharp. After that I trek a few blocks to a local market where I purchas fruit (usually bananas) and yogurt and also pan dulce which is my breakfast. This afternoon I left the school at about 12:30 and headed downtown to do a little walkabout. Downtown I ran into Martha Sorensen who is the director of Service Learning at SFCC. She and I had coffee together and talked about some of the exciting adventures she's done. For example, yesterday she went into a small village in the mountains at an elevation of 10,000 feet (about the elevation of Sandia Peak) and met with some curanderas (folk healers) to see how they've maintained the traditions of many years for healing and curing people and animals naturally. I believe she also met with a partera (midwife) and learned about her talents as well.

After coffee, we trekked to her school, a newer language school in the downtown area and I was given a tour by the institute's director. After that Martha and I parted ways and I headed west to the CASA DE JUAREZ museum. Although the museum in nothing spectacular, it is a modest yet beautifully restored house where Benito Juarez's benefactor (Father Antonio Salanueva) took in Juarez as a small boy. The priest, not unlike Padre Jose Antonio Martinez of New Mexico fame in addition to being a priest also printed books and was a bookbinder. In the CASA DE JUAREZ; one is able to see the rooms decorated in 19th Century furnishings which depict life of that epoch. For those of you who don´t know, Benito Juarez was born of a Zapotec Indian family who later became governor of Oaxaca State and eventually the President of The Republic of Mexico and is often compared to the Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln. Juarez's ties to the USA come from his being exiled to Cuba and eventually to New Orleans where he learned democratic values while plotting his rise to the presidency.

For people interested in learning of Don Benito Juarez there is plenty of information available online, as well as at your local library as there are numerous biographies written about Oaxaca´s native son.

Well, that is about it for now. I hope to add new entries to my blog in the coming days. We will be touring the outskirts of Oaxaca City during the weekend including a Sunday trip to MONTE ALBAN.

Take care,

JUAN

P.S. The teacher´s strike continues in the zocalo (plaza) of Oaxaca but rumor has it the end is coming very soon. Speaking of rumors and the coming of the end...rumor has it there was a small earthquake two mornings ago registered in Oaxaca. I didn´t feel anything but a woman from Rhode Island at our institute claims she was awaken to a small tremor and that the floor at her small hotel buckled. Oaxaca is no stranger to earthquakes and even the Santo Domingo church has noticible scars from past earthquakes that have damaged its facade.

Ciao.

JUAN

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Photos

don Benito Juarez
Here is the great emanicipator mexicano

Casa Benito Juarez
Here is the facade of the modest Casa Benito Juarez