Oaxaca & The Joy of Shopping

I believe that you regret what you didn't buy, much more that what you did. Take home one of those knick knacks from among the shelves and it acquires a new dimension, it becomes a true treasure in its alien environment. Our guide is meant to open your eyes to some of these potential treasures.
Read on:

Textiles

Elaborately woven and embroidered clothing is worn on a daily basis, not just on ceremonial occasions. (Although with the intrusion of the wider world, there are fewer communities where the younger women adopt traditional dress.)

Best known is the huipil, a sleeveless tunic made from three pieces of cloth. Oaxacan weavers still use cotton and wool yarn dyed with animal based colorants. Cochineal, or Carmine, made from the tiny dactylopius coccus insect that feeds on the nopal cactus, was the most valuable product, after precious metals, shipped by the Spanish to Europe. And no wonder: it takes 70,000 of the insects (only the females are used) to make a pound of dry cochineal. What the Spaniards saw amazed them. The Old World had never seen a dye of such a rich redness and fullness, and so colorfast, so stable and so impervious to change. Cochineal became the most guarded secret of the Spanish Empire.

In the Mixtec villages of the Oaxacan coast, weavers also use cotton dyed with Purpura patula pansa, a species of sea-snail, picked off the rocks of our coastline at low tide during the winter months. When the dyers squeeze or blow on the these mollusks, they give off a foamy secretion which is rubbed onto skeins of raw cotton. The snails are put back on the rocks afterwards, which explains why this precious resource has not been exhausted after so many centuries.

Shell-dyed purple cotton is combined with indigo-blue cotton and red silk, preferably dyed with cochineal to fashion the pozahuanco, the mauve and purple striped wraparound skirt typical of the region.

The woven cloth for blouses and huipiles is intricately embroidered, each culture and, in many cases each village, using different design motifs and symbols - - flowers, animals, geometric patterns - - to set them apart, to express their identity. Perhaps the most spectacular of all are the fiesta outfits worn by the handsome Zapotec women of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a riot of colors, textures, velvets and satins.

Also look for intricately embroidered peasant blouses with elaborate beadwork (chiquira); The woolen rugs and wall hangings from Teotitlan del Valle are also highly prized by visitors and collectors. Also of note are the simple woven-cotton bedspreads, table cloths, place mats and tortilla warmers, all of which can make a splendid gift.

Ceramics

Today Mexico remains a land of potters. Entire villages are engaged in producing ceramic products both decorative and utilitarian. San Bartolo Coyotepec is famous for the black and brilliant sheen of its pottery, a result of overnight firing in a kiln that starves the oxygen from the clay turning the natural red iron oxide to black. Friction polishing brings out the distinctive black metallic luster. Atzompa is another of the great traditional pottery villages of Oaxaca.with its distinctive motif: a semi-transparent green glaze using copper oxide over a tan clay. Ocotlan is home to the famed Aguilar sisters who create colorful and whimsical figurines and scenes: islands populated by mermaids; colorfully garbed market ladies; monkeys and religious icons.

In the villages of San Marcos Tlapazola and Santa María Tavehua the families produce heavy red and orange terracotta ware.

Closer to home the ladies of Santa María Magdelana Tiltepec, near Nopala, continue a thousand plus year tradition of producing low-fired, unglazed pottery: cooking pots, vases, simple decorative figurines and the comal, the clay griddles so essential to Oaxacan cooking.

Also: look for the famous, multicolored Talavera ceramics from Puebla.

Wood

Here on the Oaxaca coast carvers still make animal masks and figurines, especially of jaguars, a creature that has always possessed powerful metaphysical significance. Also common are devil masks and effigies of pink-faced white men. These are based on the ceremonial trappings used in traditional dances for occasions such as the Day of the Dead, Carnaval and Easter Week. You'll also find carved angels, devils (many, like some of the masks, using real teeth and horns) and the ubiquitous skeleton figures. These skeleton images are called calaveras or "skulls". And they are seen everywhere, from the political cartoons on the opinion pages of the newspapers to children's toys and games. Far from being solemn or morbid, the Day of the Dead celebrations, with which these symbols are associated, are highly festive in tone. They celebrate the continuity of life and strengthen the links to the past.

Other wooden implements you' might consider are children's toys- - spinning tops and trucks, combs, spoons, bookmarks, letter openers, back scratchers and chocolate whisks.

Furniture

You can often see these grandmothers in the market at Jamiltepec, a hollowed gourd perched on their heads.

Candelaria Loxicha also produces a distinctive style of furniture fashioned from woody vines.

Jewelry

Oaxaca is also famed for its fine filigree jewelry, particularly popular in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Slender gold wire is formed into elaborate designs and inset with pearls, coral and stone to produce stunning bracelets, earrings, pendants and chains.

There's lots of silver to choose from, most all of it from the Guerrero town of Taxco. You'll find handsome amber, mostly from from Chiapas and a plethora of fine chiquira beads and shell costume pieces. But please note: You may be offered jewelry made from red or black coral, normally in the form of beads. You are urged not to buy any such merchandise, as part of a movement by environmentalists to halt the degradation of the fragile reefs off the Oaxacan coast.

A Taste of Oaxaca

Moles (pronounced "moe-lay") comes from molli in the language of the Aztecs, Nahuatl, and means sauce or stew. There are seven moles that originated in Oaxaca. Most common are the delicious rich red and black mole, dry packaged they don't need refrigeration and are widely available in local stores.

Oaxaca's delicious mountain grown, organic coffees are also easily transportable (Try Finca de las Nieves). Great gifts also are the two classic flavors that originated in Mexico, for which the world is eternally grateful: Chocolate and vanilla. Oaxaca's drinking chocolate is among the most prized in all of Mexico.

Those chile-and-garlic loaded peanuts and the sweet peanut and sesame seed bars called palenquetas were a big hit as gifts.

Mescal, Oaxaca's fiery spirit distilled from the maguey or agave, is a great ice-breaker at family gatherings back home, to which I can also attest. There all kinds are available, including the liqueur-like creams, cremas, with flavors ranging from coffee and coco to kiwi and passion fruit; Goes down easily, but it packs a punch!