Feet why do I need them if I have wings to fly? Memories, intensive Spanish, the murals of Jalatlacol

The caption of the feature image translates as, “Feet why do I need them if I have wings to fly?” I really like that quote. It suggests that imagination is one of our greatest assets, and our path to creating our reality.

We were walking in some new to us areas the past two days. Among the things that struck me were telephone booths all over town, and the ancient jail pictured below, empty at the moment. There are so many young U.S. and euro youngsters walking about the city that I find myself wondering if they have even seen public phone booths in person. Or if they have seen any phone other than a cell phone, other than in q movie or tv show. Certainly the jail pictured below is different than what we are used to seeing.

We live on the outskirts of one of, if not the most, colorful barrios of the city of Oaxaca, Jalatlacol. Until the last two days we had ignored several streets in Jalatlacol. Today I photographed several murals in our neighborhood.  Perhaps not so easy to describe, but the murals of Oaxaca have a different feel for me than those of San Miguel de Allende.

I do not know, but it occurs to that the reason might be the influence of more than a dozen Native tribes/groups in the area. The art here is heavily influenced by pre-Spaniard inhabitants of this area of Mexico. Day of the Dead celebration type art is certainly prevalent here. However, that probably can’t be attributed to the ethnic groups solely. Though, Day of the Dead has been celebrated in Mexico for up to 5000 years, I am told by some natives that the art depicting skulls and skeletons is only a couple hundred years old. At any rate, I feel I am seeing many more skulls and skeletons in the murals of Oaxaca than I did in San Miguel.

It has been about a week since I have posted. For the most part I attribute that to a week of intensive Spanish classes. I met with Ivan from 9- noon daily. The idea was that we communicate in Spanish for the three hours. We were not quite able to totally eliminate using any English, but it is amazing how much can be conveyed with my beginner Spanish and pantomime.

In the past, starting in eighth grade, attempts to learn Spanish fell apart when I needed to learn verbs in more than present tense. The trend repeated in high school and again in college. Over 5 decades of visits to Mexico I did pick up some ability to use other verb tenses, but never enough to get a sense of the overall scheme of talking in any tense other than present. Over the course of 5 days I have been exposed to the rules of verb conjugation in several forms. It has been overwhelming, but it also gave me a basis for moving forward.

The three hours of intensive daily Spanish was coupled with about the same amount of time studying on my own, and that was enhanced by opportunities on the street to speak with natives. The process kept me busy. I did not feel as though I had anything to blog about. Right now I am overwhelmed a bit by all that was presented this past week, but I also am quite hopeful that a week of study, without classes will cement the lessons in my brain.

Next week, no classes, just studying. After that I am going to do group class for a week. Then we plan on 3 or 4 days at the beach in Huatulco, Oaxaca. That puts us close to March, and I am thinking I will do some more one on one study time. Whew, that a long winded explanation for why I have not written in a week! This coming week will give us the opportunity to do some exploration, and for more blogging. I am ending this post with a few more mural pictures.