FROM THE EDITOR:

MUCH TO THE DELIGHT of some and the dismay of others, President Calderón has announced federal financing of the autopista that will directly connect Puerto Escondido with Oaxaca, bringing the travel time for the 177 km from here to there to under 2 hours.

The project will be massive - tunnels through mountains, bridges spanning valleys and roadways that will (hopefully) survive summer floods. The announced completion date is for 2010. Part of the project will be the widening of the coastal highway (200) so that it will be four lanes from Puerto to Huatlulco instead of the current two lanes. (Pay attention if you're thinking of buying property near the highway.) Calderón says he wants to see the Oaxacan coast develop along the lines of Acapulco, Ixtapa, and the Riviera Maya as major international tourist destinations.

One hopes there will be some planning so that we don't become a resort area surrounded by shanty towns and urban misery as has happened in other resorts.
- - Warren Sharpe, editor

DEAR READER: The information in our calendar is as accurate as we could determine at press time. You can confirm times and dates of events at the offices of El Sol de la Costa or at Gina's Tourist Information Booth on the Adoquín

Thursday 10
Anniversary of the Death of Emiliano Zapata
Lured into a treacherous ambush by Col. Jesús M. Guajardo in Chinameca, Morelos on April 10, 1919, the hero of the Mexican Revolution died with ten of his followers.

Time has not diminished the appeal of Zapata, nor the power of his political message. Flags are flown at half mast on public buildings.

Thursday 10 - Sun 13
1,651st Anniversary of the Founding of Villa Tutútepec
At the time of the Spanish conquest, the Oaxacan coastal region had long been under the control of a Mixtec dynasty based in Tutútepec. The town was founded by Mixtec invaders in 357 A.C.

Villa Tutútepec de Melchor Ocampo celebrates this long history of continuous population with special events this week.
For more on Villa Tutútepec, see our story.

Here's a partial program:

Thursday 10
10 a.m. Exhibition of Local Crafts
6 p.m. Folkloric Program including groups from Tutútepec, El Ciruelo, Jamiltepec, Trova Errante, Huamela, San Antonio and San Pedro Mixtepec.

Friday 11
10 a.m. Opening of the Agricultural, Cattle and Environmental Expo
6 p.m. Folkloric Program including groups from Juchitan, Putla de Guerrero, Recital of Indigenous Poetry, Ayutla de los Libres, Nopala, Pochutla and Cuenta Cuentos.

Saturday 12
7 a.m. Mass
8 a.m. Breakfast
10 a.m Civic Ceremony
10 a.m. Agricultural, Cattle and Environmental Expo, Expo Artesenal, Exhibition of Local Crafts
2 p.m. Lunch for participants
2 p.m. Journalism Conference at the town museum
6 p.m. Closing of the Expos
6 p.m. Folkloric Program including groups from Arab Dance, Zimatlán, Juquila, Pinotepa, Tehuantepec, Tutútepec.

Sunday 13
6 p.m. Jaripeo Rodeo

Tuesday 22
Anniversary of the Mexican Conquest
Two years after the discovery of Mexico and 27 years after the discovery of America, Capt. Hernán Cortés disembarked on Good Friday, 1519, near what was to become Veracruz, to launch the Spanish Conquest of Mexico. The expedition was comprised of 11 ships carrying 500 soldiers, two crossbowmen, 13 musketeers, 18 horses, 14 artillery pieces, 109 sailors and 200 Indian guides and bearers. Cortes called the place Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, "Rich Town of the True Cross," founding the first European town in Mexico.

Wednesday 30
Children's Day
A special day devoted to children was established in Mexico in 1924, after the Geneva Declaration on the Rights of Children was issued calling on all the nations of the world to protect and cherish the young. It's a day to give gifts and candy to the rugrats. In Puerto, a special program for the town's kids will take place on Sunday April 29 starting at 5:30 p.m. on the City Hall Esplanade.

Thursday May 1
Labor Day
May Day is a national holiday: banks, some businesses and government offices will be closed.

Saturday May 3
Day of the Holy Cross
Bricklayer's Day
It's not an official holiday, but it might as well be. Why the Fiesta to honor the sacred symbol of the Christian faith and the day to salute bricklayers and building laborers coincide is unknown. But, they have become irrevocable linked. Anybody involved in construction will be in fiesta mode, after placing flower and ribbon-bedecked crosses at their construction sites.

The devout observe the day, of course, but the cross has deep symbolic roots in indigenous culture, often associated with sources of water, the essence of life. Families, friends and neighbors will gather today to eat tamales and drink some cold beers to honor the occasion. The Holy Cross is occasion for the annual fair in many communities, including Barra de Colotepec and the Santa Cruz colonias in Chila, San Pedro Mixtepec and Rio Grande, for example, and it's especially important in Santa Cruz Huatulco.

Huatulco's Legend of the Holy Cross: The resort city to the south once was the major port for trade between New Spain and Peru, but because of its vulnerability to attacks by English pirates, the Spanish destroyed and abandoned the port in 1616.

(Settlements were moved inland, which explains why so many municipalities here are administered from towns virtually unknown to the tourists who visit Oaxaca's glorious beaches - - San Pedro Mixtepec, Colotepec and, of course Sante María Huatulco.)

The name Huatulco comes from Quauhtlelco, a Nahuatl name that means "place where wood is worshipped" (from cuauhtli - timber; telosa - to bow; and co - place). The legend has it that when the Spaniards first arrived there they were astonished to find the Indians praying before a cross. They were told that long ago, an old, bearded white man came from the sea and presented the cross and told them to revere it. For the Catholic church, this mysterious visitor was the apostle Saint Thomas, but there are obvious similarities here to the prehispanic legends of the Plumed Serpent, Quetzalcoatl or Kulkan, the bringer of culture and wisdom for the Toltecs and the Maya. The cross is said to have even withstood those pirates attacks, including Thomas Cavendish's attempts to burn it and pull it down with his ship as he sailed out of the bay in 1587.

In 1612, Bishop Juan de Cervantes brought part of the cross to the cathedral in Oaxaca. From this piece he fashioned a copy of the original, which can be seen today in the church the pleasant town of Santa Maria Huatulco. Other fragments are said to be kept in the cathedral of Puebla and in the Vatican.

Read this Month's Featured Articles:
Tutupec
Ocho Venado, Eco-Tourism Corridor