Textile Museum, Oaxaca

The beautiful San Pablo, which houses the Mueso de Textiles de Oaxaca, is one of the most beautiful buildings in the city.  The Harp Helu foundation funded the restoration and renovation of this former monastery in the heart of the city.  It is now useful, beautiful and a gathering place for education and a place of tranquility. Today, I saw the current exhibit in the Textile Museum...all about caracol, cochineal y indigo.  Dyeing cloth and thread with conch, the little white insect that lives on the nopal cactus and indigo.  A beautiful exhibit, with video interviews of the people producing the dyes, from planting the indigo seeds to scampering over slick rocks to collect the tiny conch.

This huipil especially appeals to me.  I love the way the selvedge of the heavy, muslin-like fabric is covered with a satin stitch on the outside, and below the intricate weaving, the selvedge is turned inside.  The purple and red are cotton threads dyed with  caracol and cochineal.

 This detail photo (above) is the intricate embroidery, from Quezaltenango (Chela), Quatemala.  The work is done with cotton thread, dyed in the isthmus of Oaxaca using caracol.

I love this part of the exhibit!  The nopales con cochineal, hung against the beautiful red color of the tiny white insects.

We wandered across the street when we left the Museo de Textiles, into an exhibit of posters, maps and scale models of the planned work on las Canteras, the rock quarry.  The famous green stones of many of the colonial-ear buildings were quarried from right here in the city.  Well, at the time, it was outside the city!  Today, it's a huge park, with small polluted lakes.  We like to walk over there Sunday mornings, when it's quiet, but the park is nothing to write home about.  The houses and apartments on the high ridge above the quarry have spectacular views, facing west, of the central valley.  The park itself, however, could be another jewel in the city. The plans look like that dream is going to happen.  New, beautifully designed buildings at the north end, for exhibitions and archives, music and gallery spaces, and lots of open areas.  Spaces for music and gathering, walking and small exhibitions.  Really pretty!  We were impressed with the models.  Even the men's bano is beautiful:  organ-pipe cactus placed just where the men can look at them!

When I asked Jesus, who was attending the small model and exhibit, about funding, he told me the Governor is making it possible, with some help from the Federal government and the most-generous Harp Helu Foundation.  When I reacted with surprise at the news that the Oaxacan governor had a major hand in this project, he quietly said, "yes, there is no money for the people, but there is money for this project".  No water, sewer, electricity, schools or health care in the pueblos, but money for a nice, giant part in the city. Of course, Oaxaca is a World UNESCO site.  It will indeed be an asset to the city, however, it seems to me to be misplaced funding.  But, as the grafitti on the walls in the city proclaim, there is a thief running the place.  And what value is the opinion of one gringa?  Nada!

I love the Textile Musesum, and I'm going to love the new park. Next year.