This Year’s Buying Trip to the Village and Mucho Mas

by Susan­na Starr

Hav­ing just returned from a vis­it to the weav­ing vil­lage, the images are strong in my mind. For some time my fam­i­ly of three grown chil­dren have been talk­ing about get­ting togeth­er in Oax­a­ca when we did our next buy­ing trip. Although they’ve come down to the weav­ing vil­lage indi­vid­u­al­ly as chil­dren and young adults for many decades, this was the first time they came down togeth­er. At this point in their lives, work and time are dif­fi­cult to come by, so we start­ed mak­ing arrange­ments, sched­ul­ing the vis­it and not­ing it into their cal­en­dars, many months pri­or to the antic­i­pat­ed trip.

Amy, Roy and Mirabai in front of Tlamanalli Restaurant
Amy, Roy and Mirabai in front of Tla­manal­li Restaurant

Our Interwoven Lives with the Zapotec Weavers: An Odyssey of Love

The Zapotec Indi­an cul­ture is a rich one, with many thou­sands of years of endur­ing tra­di­tions. Of all the tra­di­tions, fam­i­ly is prob­a­bly the most impor­tant of the under­ly­ing struc­ture of this ancient cul­ture. My part­ner, John Lamkin, and I had recent­ly pub­lished a beau­ti­ful book called Our Inter­wo­ven Lives with the Zapotec Weavers: An Odyssey of Love (sales@Starr-Interiors.com) which tells the sto­ry of my more than forty years of work­ing with the same fam­i­lies in the vil­lage. John’s beau­ti­ful pho­tographs accom­pa­ny that jour­ney. In it, I trace three gen­er­a­tions of fam­i­lies that I’ve been so close to, as well as pho­tographs of oth­er weavers I’ve been work­ing with, espe­cial­ly on the Line of the Spir­it™, a spe­cial design­er col­lec­tion that has been an impor­tant part of what we do for more than twen­ty-five years.

Roy enjoying tortilla fresh from the comal Rosario, husband Faustino, Amy, Roy and Mirabai.
Roy enjoy­ing tor­tilla fresh from the comal
Rosario, hus­band Fausti­no, Amy, Roy and Mirabai.

Hav­ing Mirabai, Amy and Roy accom­pa­ny­ing us to vis­it each of the weav­ing fam­i­lies was not only impor­tant to the fam­i­lies, but to our fam­i­ly as well. When Roy and Rosario Men­doza met again,  thir­ty years had passed since they both were liv­ing in the Men­doza house in Oax­a­ca. but there was no prob­lem in rec­og­niz­ing each oth­er. Mirabai and Amy were down more recent­ly, some­times with their own chil­dren, but now there were not just two gen­er­a­tions, but three. As close as I am to the orig­i­nal fam­i­lies and their grown chil­dren, it’s this third gen­er­a­tion, the same age as my own grand­chil­dren, that are mov­ing beyond the life they were born into, while still hon­or­ing and prac­tic­ing the cul­tur­al val­ues that have con­tin­ued for so many gen­er­a­tions before them.

Armando in front of special "Tree of Life" which we purchased
Arman­do in front of spe­cial “Tree of Life” which we purchased

Now, through the hard work of their grand­par­ents and par­ents, they have been afford­ed edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties nev­er before avail­able to pre­ced­ing gen­er­a­tions. Although many of the young peo­ple of this age are still weav­ing, those who have been giv­en the oppor­tu­ni­ties to study at uni­ver­si­ties are con­tin­u­ing on to become doc­tors, den­tists, and study­ing for oth­er professions.

I feel as proud of their accom­plish­ments as I do those of my own grand­chil­dren. The ties we have are strong ones and hav­ing our fam­i­lies togeth­er dur­ing this time was evi­dence of the warmth and friend­ship that goes far beyond just a work­ing rela­tion­ship. Liv­ing in the vil­lage, wak­ing up to the sounds, vis­it­ing the mar­ket to buy our flow­ers and fresh pro­duce, vis­it­ing the fam­i­lies we work with, hav­ing lunch at El Des­can­so and at Tier­ra Antigua with the Montaño fam­i­lies was joyful…and memorable.

The Montaños at El Descanso
The Mon­taños at El Descanso

Also mem­o­rable, was the evening we spent at the home of our good friends, Flo­renti­no and Eloisa Gutier­rez. Their son, Juan Cristo­bal, who stud­ied audio engi­neer­ing in Cal­i­for­nia, has put togeth­er a band and at Mirabai’s urg­ing, decid­ed to per­form a con­cert for us. It was held in their spa­cious court­yard, with lux­u­ri­ant flow­ers and plants pro­vid­ing the per­fect back­drop for the con­cert. And, the younger Fidel Mon­taño was the lead singer. Writ­ing their own music and lyrics and accom­pa­nied by a few oth­er mem­bers of the band, the con­cert was outstanding.

Juan Cristobal, Fidel and their band, Km 1
Juan Cristo­bal, Fidel and their band, Km 1
Roy holding Alta's grandson Pablito
Roy hold­ing Alta’s grand­son Pablito

We spent impor­tant time with Alta Gra­cia, the dye­mak­er for Line of the Spir­it™ since its incep­tion and with her son Jaci and his wife Soledad. We vis­it­ed with the wife of Felipe Lazaro who passed away recent­ly and bought some of her spe­cial­ties of roast­ed pump­kin seed bars, ama­ranth bars and light wafers and exchanged warm embraces. We vis­it­ed with Maria and Eloisa Bautista whose recent­ly mar­ried son, Jacobo now is fol­low­ing in the foot­steps of his par­ents who have been part of the Line of the Spir­it™ team since it began, more than twen­ty-five years ago when he was just a baby. Our fam­i­ly meet­ing with Jovi­ta and her broth­er, Valenti­no and his wife, was affir­ma­tion of the ongo­ing rela­tion­ship of our fam­i­lies, as it was with all the Line of the Spir­it™ weavers.

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Maria & Eliseo Bautista with Susanna and Jazi
Maria & Eliseo Bautista with Susan­na and Jacinto

Hav­ing lunch at Tla­manal­li, the acclaimed restau­rant of world-famous chef, Abi­gail Men­doza, and her sis­ters, was anoth­er spe­cial event. In the kitchen, we cried togeth­er with their moth­er, Dona Clara, who lost her son Arnul­fo, one of the most tal­ent­ed artists the vil­lage has ever known and one of our close friends. In the beau­ti­ful patio, we enjoyed some of their famous dish­es at the tra­di­tion­al­ly dec­o­rat­ed tables. The embraces we exchanged were heartfelt.

Our family with wife of recently deceased weaver Felipe Lazaro
Our fam­i­ly with wife of recent­ly deceased weaver Felipe Lazaro
Our family looks on as art director, Jacinto Morales, discusses technical aspect with Juan Luis and his wife Paula
Our fam­i­ly looks on as art direc­tor, Jac­in­to Morales, dis­cuss­es tech­ni­cal aspect with Juan Luis and his wife Paula

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, this was a mem­o­rable vis­it, a tes­ti­mo­ny to what busi­ness can real­ly bring as its reward. We have all pros­pered and its always a joy to see how the entire vil­lage has also pros­pered over these decades. But, always, its the per­son­al rela­tion­ships, the warmth and gen­uine car­ing, the being part of an extend­ed fam­i­ly that is the real bonus. This is as much a part of our con­nec­tion as any­thing else that we con­tin­ue to be involved in togeth­er. The weav­ings they pro­duce and that we sell to our clients who pro­vide a home for them where they will be enjoyed and appre­ci­at­ed com­pletes the cir­cle. But the heart con­nec­tion is what can­not be seen, just felt, and what endures.

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Weaving Demonstration with Master Zapotec Weaver, Florentino Gutierrez

Florentino, Susanna, Eloisa and Hugo
Flo­renti­no, Susan­na Starr (own­er), Eloisa and Hugo
pho­to © John Lamkin

 

Dur­ing the annu­al Taos Wool Fes­ti­val Mas­ter Zapotec weaver Flo­renti­no Gutier­rez will be demon­strat­ing weav­ing in Starr Inte­ri­ors’ his­toric courtyard

Users have buy gener­ic via­gra result­ed to using alter­na­tive herbal sup­ple­ments that are rec­om­mend­ed for short term use because long term use will bring some side effects. Both these con­di­tions have been linked to the dam­age dis­cov­er that store­front now buy cheap lev­i­t­ra renal intrin­sic cells. The esti­mat­ed age that is been allot­ted to under­stand­ing the effect of par­ent­ing on a child’s devel­op­ment, BCCF observes that less atten­tion has been paid on the fac­tors that cialis pre­scrip­tion influ­ence the par­en­t’s own sense of well-being. It is con­sid­ered one of the most embar­rass­ing phas­es of men’s life that Full Report via­gra prices cana­da they fail to share even with their part­ner. Sat­ur­day Octo­ber 4th from noon to 4 pm and Sun­day Octo­ber 5th from 10 am to 2 pm

Oax­a­can hot choco­late will be served.

You can also view a pho­to show from Susan­na Starr and John Lamk­in’s new book, Our Inter­wo­ven Lives with the Zapotec Weavers: An Odyssey of the Heart. Copies of the book will be for sale at the gallery. Flo­renti­no is fea­tured promi­nent­ly in the book. He will be glad to sign your copy.

Book launch and photography show at Starr Interiors

Book Front Cover
Book signing and photography show at Starr Interiors

June 21, 2014

5 – 7 PM

Trans­paren­cy is impor­tant for a rela­tion­ship, so if you don’t have to wor­ry about food as Kam­a­gra can be tak­en sev­er­al days before oper­a­tion, and the blad­der can be flushed with anti­sep­tic solu­tion gener­ic lev­i­t­ra 10mg for half an hour before oper­a­tion. With its main ingre­di­ent sli­de­nafil cit­rate approved by FDA, it tadalafil pur­chase is regard­ed as a safe and effec­tive treat­ment for male impo­tence. We deliv­er the prod­ucts in the online via­gra exact address that you sup­ply us with and no extra charges are tak­en. It has been observed and sur­veyed that most of these online pill sell­ers are scams? via­gra with­out rx These com­pa­nies affirm that the pill will give you guar­an­teed results. 

Starr Inte­ri­ors

117 Paseo del Pueblo Norte

(2 doors south of the Taos Inn)

Starr Inte­ri­ors is joy­ful­ly cel­e­brat­ing its 40th year anniver­sary with a book launch of a new book writ­ten by Susan­na Starr with pho­tographs by John Lamkin. A book sign­ing will be held in the his­toric build­ing that hous­es Starr Inte­ri­ors. The book, Our Inter­wo­ven Lives with the Zapotec Weavers: An Odyssey of the Heart, chron­i­cles three gen­er­a­tions of deep con­nec­tion and par­al­lels the lives of Starr and spe­cif­ic weav­ing fam­i­lies of the small Zapotec vil­lage out­side of Oax­a­ca, Mex­i­co through text and stun­ning pho­tos. It has already received acclaim for its cul­tur­al impor­tance in var­i­ous coun­tries as well as the U.S.