Isaac Vazquez Lives

The Moors and the Christians are back at it in Oaxaca. Every morning, at 6:20, a church bell rings, and not just rings: BLANG BLANG BLANG BLANG BLANG BLANG twenty five times, then one time, then two times. It´s the Christians and there´s no goddam reason. It´s not 6AM and it´s not 6:30AM, it´s 6:20AM.

Immediately thereafter, somebody shoots off two or three cherry bombs, with a long whistle and a KA-BLAM! KA-BLAM! KA-BLAM! ´Plotnik figures this is the start of another Crusade and it´s the Moors shooting off the cherry bombs. They´re as pissed off about the church bells as The Great Plotnik and the Great Ducknik are. Just about the time Plot and Duck can get back to sleep the bells ring again. BLANG BLANG BLANG IT´S 6:30! WAKE UP! TIME FOR MASS! WAKE UP! Then whissssssssssssstle KA-BLAM! INFIDEL PIG DOGS! GOD IS GREAT! WE HAVE CHERRY BOMBS! KA-BLAM! KA-BLAM!

This goes on for over an hour. There is no point in trying to sleep, but Plot and Duck cover their heads with pillows and try anyway. BLANG BLANG BLANG HI! IT´S ME! CATHOLIC GOD! WAKE THE HEY UP! Whisssssssssstle KA-BLAM! KA-BLAM! KA-BLAM! YO! CRUSADER SWINE! YO MAMA EATS HOG! BLANG! KA-BLAM!

Fawgeddaboutit.



It´s well worth getting up for breakfast, though. Sofie, the cook, made nopales with eggs and quesillo cheese this morning, along with hot chocolate and a tortilla enfrijolada which seems to have something to do with beans inside the fried tortilla, after the plate of fresh mango, papaya, melon and pineapple. Screw the Moors and the Christians both. This is Good Eats for Plotnikkies Time.

Today, Duck and Plot rented a car...there´s a story here. Yesterday, they couldn´t decide how to see the places they wanted to see today, so they decided to go to lunch. Almost always, when Plot and Duck are stumped, they go to lunch.

After many red and yellow moles, they were walking down a little street and the heavens opened and poured down gatos y perros y ranas y culebras. The umbrellas were useless in so much rain, so they ran into the first open shop they saw, which turned out to be SI! RENTACAR! There was a young boy waiting who had forms and cars. It was destiny.



They picked up their -- little white something ---car this morning, along with their two new Basque/Spanish friends Inigo and Asun, and off they drove to Teotitlan Del Valle, the village of weavers.



Plot remembered the name of the man who, in 1965, had sold him his two fabulous zarapes many Plotnikkies have seen over the years in various houses and apartments -- the gray, black and white one with the eagle perched on the cactus, and the brown and gold patterned one. Before he left S.P. he took photos of the two zarapes. The weaver's name was Isaac Vasquez Garcia.



Well, Mr. Vazquez is still there. He welcomed Plot and Duck and Inigo and Asun into his home and workshop (perhaps it is unfair to say he knew a sure sale when he saw one). Did he really recognize the zarape photos that Plot showed him? Umm, maybe.

He then took an hour to go over, in detail, all the intricate steps involved in making a tapete, from spinning the wool into yarn to coloring it with natural materials, to designing the pattern to using the loom. Perhaps the most interesting part was how they acquire the color red: it comes from a tiny insect found on cactus paddles. Crushing it in his hand, it emits a reddish stain.



Adding a base material to it (lime), the red expands to a bright carmine.



If they want purple, they add some kind of salt.



The next thing the tourists knew, they were being shown a zillion carpets, hangings, runners, and even clothing. The whole family was here now, Mr. Vazquez (who offered Plottie an Old Friends Discount) and his wife with no thumb, and his two sons and two daughters in law and another old woman or two, each one flipping over new carpets as fast as they could.



Plot and Duck have shopped for carpets in Istanbul and in Cuzco, but the amazing thing was that in Teotitlan Del Valle each carpet truly was finer than the last. Mr. Vazquez is a master who, since Plot saw him in 1965, has shown his work in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and many other cities around the world, and the reason is he is a phenom.

They talked. They haggled. They came down a fraction on the price. Inigo and Asun bought a small runner and then she bought a reboso (a wrap to put over her shoulders), and now all the Vazquezes turned their energy towards poor overmatched Plotnik.

In Cuzco, they had seen a wall hanging they truly loved but had been too cheap to buy it, and have kicked themselves ever since. That Peruvian weaver must have channeled Isaac Vazquez because it wasn´t going to happen again today. Boy, it´s a pretty one.

Still, here is the tapete the Plotniks REALLY loved but could not afford:



They then beat it out of town, pausing to take a picture of Teotitlan del Valle's shuttered-up tourist office, along with it's fabulous motto.




Then the four drove to Ocotlan and San Bartolo de Coyotepec, two villages renowned for their art, and for lunch. Lunch was great and the black pottery in San Bartolo de Coyotepec was even better. Yes, a bit of that will be coming home too.

Now it´s 7:45PM and Duck just texted Plot from upstairs, which shows how relaxed she is. It´s time for more mole.