BEFORE WE TELL YOU about some of what is going on this month, we have to mention something that isn't. ESPN's X Games Surf event - held on Zicatela for the past three years - has been scrubbed this year. ESPN wanted the world's top surfers, but they were already committed to bigger and more lucrative competitions on other continents. We hope ESPN gets its act together and is back next year.

JULY IS GUELAGUETZA month, Oaxaca City's premier cultural event which attracts tourists from all over the world. In its current incarnation, it's a dance festival in which dance troupes representing each region of the state perform to propitiate the gods of tourism. Still, it is very worth seeing. Another reason to be in Oaxaca during the Guelaguetza is the holiday spirit that permeates the city for the last two weeks of July. The city center is crammed with arts and crafts, food stalls and parades of Oaxacans in fabulous regalia.

Guelaguetza may be one, albeit rare, case in which global tourism fosters age-old traditions.
- - Warren Sharpe, editor

This Month in Puerto

Tuesday 15
Secretary's Day
We all know who really runs things. Felicidades to all of them, especially to our right hand, Dionicia García.

Monday 14 - Wed 16
Fiesta of Our Lady of Carmen
This saint's day is very important in the city of Oaxaca, where it marks the beginning of the famous Guelaguetza festival. Here on the coast, Nuestra Señora del Carmen is patron saint of Puerto's Colonia Libertad, Zapotalillo at Chacahua National Park and Candelaria, Pochutla.

Traditional saint's festivals include calendas, lively processions through the streets with brass bands, huge papier-mache puppets and candle-lit globes inviting participation in the festivities. There are fireworks displays and jaripeos (bull riding rodeo competitions), dances with live bands and sports events, including cockfights and horse races.

Friday 18
Anniversary of the Death of Benito Juárez
One of the colossal figures of Méxican history, Juárez died on this day in 1872. Flags are flown at half-mast.

Sunday 20 - Tue 22
Fiesta of Mary Magdalene
This is the feast day of the patron saint of Santa Maria Magdalena Tiltepec, close to Santos Reyes Nopala. This small Chatino village in the coffee-growing hill country is best known for the slow-fired pottery produced by the ladies of the village using techniques virtually unchanged in 2,000 years. They make simple pots, decorative figures and comales, the griddle used in Oaxacan cooking.

Monday 21, 28
"La Guelaguetza, Mondays on the Hill"
The sights and sounds, the flavors and colors of all the regions of the state create an amazing mosaic of history, culture and tradition in the Oaxacan capital.

Thursday 24 - Sat 26
Fiesta of Saint James
St. James (Santiago) the Apostle was the patron saint of the Spanish conquistadors, so it isn't surprising that numerous important settlements throughout the empire were named for him.

The image of Santiago is always depicted on horseback. The cult of St. James is particularly prevalent in many Afro-Mestizo communities. Pinotepa Nacional, Santiago Llano Grande, Collantes and in the center of Afro culture, Cuajinicuilapa, just across the state line in Guerrero and boasts the only museum in Mexico dedicated to black history and culture, there's a huge celebration.

The veneration of St. James is also an important ceremonial occasion for fiestas in San Juan Lachao, Santos Reyes Nopala and in the charming Chatino community of Yaitepec, near Juquila.

Monday 28
Monday on the Hill, San Pedro Tutútepec
This ancient settlement, which the invading Mixtecs founded as their capital on the coast (and about which we've written extensively ) holds its own Guelaguetza celebration. The townspeople climb the sacred Hill of the Birds (after which the town is named) to dance to their traditional music, Fandango de Varitas. There are also dancers and musicians from several other indigenous communities from the region who will participate.

The road to Villa Tutútepec is just beyond the town of Santa Rosa de Lima at about km 66 on the Coastal Highway towards Acapulco.

Aug. Monday 4, Tue 5
Annual Fair, Huaxpala
Huazpala, or San Andres Huazpaltepec, is an attractive Mixtec town that straddles the Coast Highway more or less midway between Jamiltepec and Pinotepa Nacional. This fiesta is in honor of Tata Ch'u, a black Jesus of Nazareth greatly revered by the Mixtecs of the coast.

According to legend, the figure of the black Christ, laboring under the weight of the cross, was found on the Lord's Rock, Piedra del Señor, a hill near the town's cemetery. August 5 is the anniversary of that discovery. There is a chapel on the hill, but the main statue of Tata Ch'u is housed in the town church, a handsome structure with magnificent carved wooden doors. An important Mixtec market town, its present Nahuatl name means Hill of the Lizards. You can count on traditional Mixtec dances, carnival rides and a giant bazaar, with vendors' stalls spilling out onto the coast highway.

Read this Month's Featured Articles:
Live Music
Getting Out of Town - Day Trips
Getting Out of Town - Guelaguetza