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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The year’s activities at Starr Interiors

by Susan­na Starr

Begin­ning a new year always gives us the chance to look at the past one. Ours at Starr Inte­ri­ors was a spe­cial one. We cel­e­brat­ed, all year long, our 40th anniver­sary. Where did the time go? Rather than try­ing to recon­struct the decades, our book com­mem­o­rat­ing the jour­ney was pub­lished and is now being dis­trib­uted. Reviews are still com­ing in and you’ll find the lat­est one below. I think it says it all.

There were a num­ber of events includ­ing the book sign­ing that took place in May at Starr Inte­ri­ors, in June at Moby Dick­ens in Taos and in Novem­ber at Barnes & Noble in Albu­querque NM. There were also mag­a­zine arti­cles and news­pa­per fea­ture sto­ries. All in all it was def­i­nite­ly a cel­e­bra­to­ry year.

Book signing and photo show room
Book sign­ing and pho­to show room

Many thanks are due to Leah Sobol for her job as gallery direc­tor. If every­one were to feel about their work as she does the world would be a bet­ter place. In addi­tion to her strong sense of respon­si­bil­i­ty and com­mit­ment, she main­tains the high­est stan­dard of keep­ing the gallery main­tained to pro­vide the kind of ele­gant pre­sen­ta­tion the rugs deserve. Not only is her abil­i­ty as a man­ag­er always in evi­dence, but her heart involve­ment is as well. She is there to make sure every­thing runs smooth­ly, helps clients with their needs and pro­vides indi­vid­ual con­sul­ta­tions to ensure that client’s unique needs are specif­i­cal­ly met. We are for­tu­nate indeed that our team includes her impor­tant and ongo­ing con­tri­bu­tion and concern.

Front cover
Front cov­er

Thanks to Susan Mont­gomery for the won­der­ful review of our new book, Our Inter­wo­ven Lives with the Zapotec Weavers: an Odyssey of the Heart . The review is pub­lished in entire­ty below. Susan’s web­site can be seen here.

 

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Two Cultures, One Spirit:  A Book Review

by Susan Montgomery

Our Inter­wo­ven Lives with the Zapotec Weavers is beau­ti­ful mem­oir of lives and fam­i­lies from com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent cul­tures that have inter­twined and enriched each oth­er for sev­er­al decades. The dif­fer­ences and par­al­lels are elo­quent­ly expressed by author, Susan­na Starr, and pho­tog­ra­ph­er, John Lamkin.

Susan­na writes about her life as an artist and gallery own­er in Taos, New Mex­i­co, but she pri­mar­i­ly focus­es on her deep con­nec­tions with Zapotec weavers in the small vil­lage of Teoti­t­lan del Valle locat­ed about 20 miles from the city of Oax­a­ca in the foothills of the Sier­ra Juarez moun­tains in Mex­i­co. The Zapotec peo­ple are the descen­dants of an ancient civ­i­liza­tion that is indige­nous to the Oax­a­ca region. In this remote vil­lage, many gen­er­a­tions of fam­i­lies have been pro­duc­ing intri­cate­ly designed, hand-woven rugs that are unique to their cre­ators and their locale. Their mate­ri­als come from the world they live in with wool pro­duced by local sheep and yarn made local­ly with dyed, vivid pig­ments. Each rug is a work of art, reflect­ing both tra­di­tion­al and more mod­ern, inno­v­a­tive designs.

After nav­i­gat­ing moun­tain­ous dirt roads to find this vil­lage in the 1970s, Susan­na Starr was so entranced with the weav­ing com­mu­ni­ty she found that she kept going back and even estab­lished her own sec­ond home in the area. She devel­oped a mutu­al­ly ben­e­fi­cial busi­ness rela­tion­ship with the Zapotec weavers, pur­chas­ing their rugs and tak­ing them back to Taos to sell in her shop. But her rela­tion­ship with the weavers became much more than business.

Susan­na shared in their lives as their fam­i­lies grew and adapt­ed to chang­ing times. The book is rough­ly divid­ed into her rela­tion­ships with three gen­er­a­tions of weavers—the par­ents (now grand­par­ents) who are about Susanna’s age, their chil­dren who grad­u­al­ly took over the weav­ing busi­ness from their par­ents, and now the grand­chil­dren, some of whom are becom­ing tal­ent­ed weavers them­selves and oth­ers who are spread­ing their wings as they pur­sue edu­ca­tion and careers.  But the beau­ty of this sto­ry is the close­ness of these fam­i­lies, because wher­ev­er these chil­dren go they retain the cul­tur­al val­ues and tra­di­tions of their com­mu­ni­ty. In spir­it and soul, they will always be part of their Zapotec vil­lage.  Through­out the book, Susan­na dis­cuss­es her own fam­i­ly and the dif­fer­ences and sim­i­lar­i­ties she sees as her chil­dren, like the Zapotec chil­dren, grow and move into adulthood. 

In many ways, this is a trav­el book because the read­er is trans­port­ed to a small Mex­i­can vil­lage and soon feels immersed in this warm and col­or­ful com­mu­ni­ty. It is a book about place, fam­i­ly, cul­ture, tra­di­tions, and hope for the future. We are intro­duced to mul­ti­ple gen­er­a­tions in sev­er­al fam­i­lies and we fin­ish the book feel­ing as if we know them and would love to meet them too.

John Lamkin’s col­or­ful, per­cep­tive pho­tos bring Susanna’s sto­ries visu­al­ly alive. We are able to not only see the beau­ti­ful rugs but to study the fas­ci­nat­ing faces of the weavers and their fam­i­lies as they grow up and grow old­er, cel­e­brat­ing both dai­ly life and the many tra­di­tion­al fes­ti­vals that are so much a part of their culture.

This is a book you will want to read and think about over time. It is a book that will be at home on your cof­fee table or on your bed­side night stand.  I know I would like to share this book with my fam­i­ly and friends, not only because of its unique sto­ry about cre­at­ing art through gen­er­a­tions but because it tells a sto­ry of how we are all more alike than we are dif­fer­ent, about how the spir­it in peo­ple can tran­scend cul­tures and gen­er­a­tions, and about how our cul­tur­al val­ues make us who we are.  It is so appro­pri­ate that the sub­ti­tle of this book is “An Odyssey of the Heart.”

This book can be pur­chased for approx­i­mate­ly $20 in paper­back or $30 hard­bound from Ama­zon or ordered from Cyn­thia at Palo­ma Blan­ca Press (PalomaBlanca.Cynthia@gmail.com). It is also avail­able through your local book­stores or any oth­er online bookstores.

Susan­na Starr is an entre­pre­neur, pho­tog­ra­ph­er, speak­er, artist, and own­er of Starr Inte­ri­ors in Taos.  She is also own­er, design­er and direc­tor of the acclaimed design­er weav­ing col­lec­tion, “Line of the Spir­it,” whose found­ing and devel­op­ment is described in her book.  Susanna’s arti­cles have appeared in many pub­li­ca­tions and she is a mem­ber of the Inter­na­tion­al Food, Wine & Trav­el Writ­ers Asso­ci­a­tion. Her web­site is www.SusannaStarr.com.

John Lamkin is an award-win­ning jour­nal­ist and pho­tog­ra­ph­er who is also based in Taos. He is a con­tribut­ing writer and pho­tog­ra­ph­er for many pub­li­ca­tions and a board mem­ber of the Inter­na­tion­al Food, Wine & Trav­el Writ­ers Asso­ci­a­tion. His web­site is www.TravelWritingAndPhotography.com.

Pho­tographs by John Lamkin.

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

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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 signing & photo show a great success

 

Book signing and photo show room
Book sign­ing and pho­to show room

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The pho­to show and book sign­ing were a great suc­cess. Many peo­ple attend­ed and many bought books. More infor­ma­tion about the book, “Our Inter­wo­ven Lives with the Zapotec Weavers: an Odyssey of the Heart” can be found on pre­vi­ous posts. If you’re in Taos, the book is for sale at the gallery.

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

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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.

Forty Years! And a visit to the weaving village

Starr's 40th

 

by Susan­na Starr

As I sit here in our home over­look­ing the Hon­do Val­ley  out­side of Taos, New Mex­i­co, with the back­drop of the San­gre de Cristos moun­tains alter­nate­ly shroud­ed in cloud cov­er, I real­ize that I’ve only been home from our annu­al three and a half month stay in Mex­i­co for a cou­ple of weeks.

Just lit­tle more than two weeks ago we were walk­ing the streets of the weav­ing vil­lage where I’ve been work­ing with the same weav­ing fam­i­lies for so many years. As always, it was won­der­ful being there, vis­it­ing with our old friends, who are real­ly the clos­est I have to extend­ed fam­i­ly, and see­ing all the changes in the year since our last visit.

This time John and I arrived with copies of our recent­ly pub­lished book “Our Inter­wo­ven Lives with the Zapotec Weavers: An Odyssey of the Heart” the beau­ti­ful mini-cof­fee table book that my part­ner, John Lamkin, and I col­lab­o­rat­ed on, with my sto­ry and his beau­ti­ful pho­to­graph­ic accompaniment.

 

Susanna shows the book to Eliseo & Maria Bautista
Susan­na shows the book to Eliseo & Maria Bautista

In this day of imme­di­ate elec­tron­ic com­mu­ni­ca­tion, it wasn’t quite the sur­prise we thought it would be since it had already made it’s advance announce­ment on Face­book. But not every­one had heard about it, espe­cial­ly not the Line of the Spir­it weavers. But every­one seemed to be delight­ed with it. Many of the pho­tos brought hap­py smiles of recog­ni­tion but most impor­tant­ly, it was that spe­cial shared feel­ing of know­ing each oth­er, our fam­i­lies and the vil­lage itself over these many years that was so meaningful.

Juan Luis & family
Juan Luis & family

This new book of ours tells the sto­ry not only of my forty years of work­ing with the Zapotec weavers in this vil­lage, but par­al­lels their lives with my own, of the three gen­er­a­tions I’ve been involved with, my own being the first gen­er­a­tion, the chil­dren who are now adults and run­ning the estab­lished busi­ness­es begun by their par­ents, as the sec­ond gen­er­a­tion. All of these fam­i­lies have been and always will be a sig­nif­i­cant part of my life.
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But it’s the third gen­er­a­tion that real­ly excites me, the gen­er­a­tion of my own grand­chil­dren. These younger peo­ple who have already start­ed in on careers of their own such as med­i­cine, or are now at uni­ver­si­ties study­ing engi­neer­ing and inter­na­tion­al com­merce or attend­ing high schools in Oax­a­ca prepar­ing them for unknown pur­suits, are astound­ing. Their grand­par­ents, my old­est friends, were the tran­si­tion­al age, the one that rep­re­sent­ed the shift from the tra­di­tion­al ways of their par­ents and grand­par­ents to being immersed in the con­tem­po­rary world that includ­ed me and a num­ber of oth­er “com­pradores” (buy­ers) like me.

Weavers and Compradores
Weavers and Compradores

They passed the torch to the next gen­er­a­tion who con­tin­ued to build their busi­ness­es and their homes and pro­vide new oppor­tu­ni­ties for advanced edu­ca­tion to their own chil­dren, often shut­tling them back and forth to spe­cial­ized schools in Oax­a­ca on a dai­ly basis, for years, to pro­vide them with the foun­da­tion for cre­at­ing an alter­na­tive to the weav­ing tra­di­tion they had grown up in, to give them oppor­tu­ni­ties to forge their own way and often bring back new skills to the community.

Although these “kids” look like teenagers any­where in the same kind of jeans, tee shirts and sneak­ers with the same cell phones, there is some­thing spe­cial about them. Although very much a part of the 21st cen­tu­ry, they are still deeply steeped in more than 5,000 years of Zapotec cul­ture and tra­di­tion. They have nev­er suf­fered the west­ern “angst” won­der­ing who they are or what their place is. They have always known what their place was and con­tin­ues to be. From the time of their arrival they have been embraced by the strong ties of fam­i­ly and com­mu­ni­ty. They prob­a­bly go through many of the same thoughts and feel­ings of con­tem­po­raries any­where, but they are not lost. They step out into the world joy­ful­ly. And……every one of them that I know is beau­ti­ful, male or female. Every one of them is infused with lov­ing­ness. I know I must be get­ting old when I look at them and feel the tears in my eyes!

Diego Montaño and one of his rugs
Diego Mon­taño and one of his rugs

But not all of these young peo­ple are going on to pur­sue new careers. Many of them have opt­ed to con­tin­ue in the weav­ing tra­di­tion, already being fine weavers in their own right. And many more look for­ward to work­ing at home on the looms that have defined the life of their vil­lage, enjoy­ing the famil­iar tra­di­tion they choose to con­tin­ue, adding new ideas and visions to those they’ve already been exposed to.

Over these past forty years, we’ve spent so much time in the excit­ing city of Oax­a­ca, rich in its cul­ture, vibrant in its col­ors and rich in its cook­ing tra­di­tion (Oax­a­can chefs are some of the most famous in Mex­i­co as well as some from the vil­lage who have received inter­na­tion­al recog­ni­tion) and excit­ing in its atmos­phere. It’s still the excit­ing city it’s always been. But, this time John and I stayed out in the vil­lage with our friends and I still bask in the glow of being there.

Rather than shut­tling back and forth from the city, we enjoyed the qui­et and inti­ma­cy of being in the vil­lage, of walk­ing out at night and say­ing hel­lo to the neigh­bors, of strolling down the main street and not­ing all the new con­struc­tion and remod­el­ing and upgrad­ing that seems to be tak­ing place on every oth­er cor­ner. Many of the old dirt roads have been paved, street lamps light the way and won­der­ful slo­gans urg­ing peo­ple toward think­ing about recy­cling, mutu­al respect for gen­der, women’s rights and oth­er social issues, are writ­ten with artis­tic accom­pa­ni­ments on the walls. The sense of com­mu­ni­ty is pervasive.

There’s so much more to tell about, but I’ll save it for the next install­ment. Right now I can only cel­e­brate still again the rich­ness that has been part of my life through my con­nec­tion with the weav­ing fam­i­lies of this vil­lage. The time has come for me to close this chap­ter of my life, at least the gallery part of it, Starr Inte­ri­ors. I’ve been pro­cess­ing this time for the past few years and now that it has become clear in my mind that the next step for me is to pass the torch to some­one else that will build upon my rela­tion­ship with the weavers, I feel con­tent­ed. I’m quite sure that the right per­son will appear who will weave their own rela­tion­ships into a mean­ing­ful part of their life, find­ing the coun­ter­part of run­ning the gallery in the equal­ly beau­ti­ful moun­tain town of Taos, New Mexico.

 

Arnulfo Mendoza

March 9, 2014

Arnulfo Mendoza
Arnul­fo Mendoza

Today is the day they are bury­ing Arnul­fo Men­doza in the ceme­tery in Teoti­t­lan del Valle, Oax­a­ca, Mex­i­co. I won’t be there, but I know many peo­ple will be there to pay their last respects to one of the most well- known and loved sons of the Zapotec vil­lage known for its many tal­ent­ed weavers. If he had been one of the old­er weavers, it would be sad, but Arnul­fo wasn’t one of them. He was only in his fifties and his prime of life. A tal­ent­ed weaver who brought the art of fine weav­ing up to a com­plete­ly new lev­el and a painter who cre­at­ed his own unique form of art, Arnul­fo was known way beyond the bound­aries of Oax­a­ca, Mex­i­co. It was shock­ing to hear of his pass­ing and he’ll be great­ly mourned by his fam­i­ly, his son, his moth­er, his many sis­ters and broth­ers and their fam­i­lies as well as his many friends. His pass­ing also will be a loss to the impor­tant Mex­i­can art com­mu­ni­ty as well as to all of us who knew and loved him.

I first met Arnul­fo almost four decades ago when we were vis­it­ing with his father, mas­ter weaver don Emil­iano Men­doza. We vis­it­ed with their fam­i­ly often and our con­nec­tion with them is one that I’ve always trea­sured. Grad­u­al­ly, we acquired weav­ings from don Emil­iano and from Arnul­fo, includ­ing fine tapes­tries based on his own orig­i­nal paint­ings. We remained friends for many years. He and his wife at the time, Mary Jane Gag­nier, came to vis­it us at our home on Lagu­na Bacalar as well as in Taos, New Mex­i­co and some years ago, Starr Inte­ri­ors spon­sored an exhi­bi­tion of his work with Mary Jane doing one of her talks. It was a spe­cial occa­sion. We were also guests at their incred­i­ble wed­ding and there short­ly after the arrival of their baby son, Gabriel.

It is with great sad­ness that I write this, some­thing I could nev­er envi­sion doing. When we return to the vil­lage in ear­ly April, there will be no more vis­its with him, but he will cer­tain­ly live on in my mem­o­ry and in my heart as well as in those of my chil­dren, whose friend he was also…..we loved you, Arnulfo…….

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Our Interwoven Lives with the Zapotec Weavers — The book

Susan­na Starr has cap­tured this lyri­cal and sen­ti­men­tal jour­ney from Taos to Oax­a­ca and back in her upcom­ing book enti­tled Our Inter­wo­ven Lives with the Zapotec Weavers: An Odyssey of the Heart.   It is part mem­oir, part pho­to­graph­ic jour­nal, part trib­ute to an ancient civilization’s sur­vival in the twen­ty-first cen­tu­ry, and com­plete­ly a must-read to those enchant­ed with the sto­ry of the Zapotec Indi­an peo­ple.  She will host a book  sign­ing on June 21, the high­light of a month-long pho­to exhi­bi­tion that kicks off the gallery’s anniver­sary celebration.” 

 OUR INTERWOVEN LIVES WITH THE ZAPOTEC WEAVERS

An Odyssey of the Heart

by Susan­na Starr

 with Pho­tographs by John Lamkin

Village Church atop Ancient Zapotec Temple Ruins
Vil­lage Church atop Ancient Zapotec Tem­ple Ruins

 The book is available right now through Starr Interiors!
A new mini-coffee table book — soft or hard cover 

Pages: 135
Price: $29.95 Hard­cov­er or $19.95 Softcover
Pub­lish­er: Palo­ma Blan­ca Press
Offi­cial Pub. Date: June 2014 (now avail­able through the gallery)

I hope this sto­ry serves as a reminder that busi­ness is not a neg­a­tive word. Trad­ing is as old as human his­to­ry, whether for goods or ser­vices. It does­n’t have to be exploita­tive nor imper­son­al to be suc­cess­ful. Rather, if it is infused with joy and hap­pi­ness, it can pro­vide a vital, impor­tant and enrich­ing aspect of our lives.
–  Susan­na Starr, Taos, NM

[See Excerpt Below.]

Advance Praise

A must read for any­one who wants to do well by doing good in the world . This improb­a­ble sto­ry about an Amer­i­can “hip­pie” and tra­di­tion­al weavers in the Oax­a­ca Val­ley of Mex­i­co will fire your Imag­i­na­tion and touch your heart. Susan­na Star­r’s life sto­ry proves that love, respect, learn­ing and suc­cess in busi­ness can go hand in hand.”–Judith Fein, Author of LIFE IS A TRIPThe Trans­for­ma­tive Mag­ic of Travel 

OUR INTERWOVEN LIVES WITH THE ZAPOTEC WEAVERS is a beau­ti­ful book, both the writ­ing and pho­tographs.  I own a Zapotec rug and appre­ci­ate the work of these artists. This book gives them cred­it where cred­it is long over­due.” –Tom Aage­son, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Glob­al Cen­ter for Cul­tur­al Entrepreneurship

 

One of life’s mem­o­rable intersections…

OUR INTERWOVEN LIVES WITH THE ZAPOTEC WEAVERS: An Odyssey of Heart cel­e­brates Amer­i­can entre­pre­neur and gallery own­er Susan­na Starr’s forty years of work­ing with the Zapotec weavers of the Oax­a­ca Val­ley in Mex­i­co. Starr  takes us back to the moment when she first nav­i­gat­ed dirt roads into the remote vil­lage of Teoti­t­lan in the 70s, and fell in Heart with the vibrant Zapotec hand-loomed weav­ings and the warmth of the weavers them­selves. She leads us on a three-gen­er­a­tional trek of mind and spir­it, as the Zapotec fam­i­lies and her own grow in par­al­lels of sym­bi­ot­ic pros­per­i­ty and mutu­al respect that reminds us that “busi­ness” does not have to be a neg­a­tive word.

Susan­na Starr is the own­er of Starr Inte­ri­ors in Taos, New Mex­i­co, which began as La Uni­ca Cosa in 1974, and fea­tures hand-dyed 100% wool rugs, wall hang­ings, and pil­lows tra­di­tion­al­ly dyed and loomed by the Zapotec weavers.

OUR INTERWOVEN LIVES WITH THE ZAPOTEC WEAVERS: An Odyssey of Heart reflects Starr’s phi­los­o­phy that busi­ness need not be kept sep­a­rate, but can be an inte­gral and mean­ing­ful part of every­day lives.

I hope this sto­ry serves as a reminder that busi­ness is not a neg­a­tive word,” says Starr. “Trad­ing is as old as human his­to­ry, whether for goods or ser­vices. It need not be exploita­tive or imper­son­al to be suc­cess­ful. Rather, if it is infused with joy and hap­pi­ness, it can pro­vide a vital, impor­tant and enrich­ing aspect of our lives.

The weav­ings have been pur­chased by numer­ous celebri­ties includ­ing Paul Simon, Sting and Diana Ross, and fea­tured in style mag­a­zines such as “Archi­tec­tur­al Digest.”

With Love it began…With Love it flourished…And with Love it continues.
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The book is due out in 2014, and fea­tures poignant pho­tographs by pho­to­jour­nal­ist John Lamkin.

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BOOK EXCERPT:  Introduction

For a long time I’ve been encour­aged to write about the years I’ve spent work­ing with the weavers of a small Zapotec Indi­an vil­lage high up in the moun­tains out­side of the city of Oax­a­ca, Mex­i­co. Not only have I had this encour­age­ment from fam­i­ly, friends and peo­ple I’ve dealt with through my weav­ing gallery in Taos, New Mex­i­co over the past forty years but, most impor­tant­ly, I’ve been encour­aged by the weavers themselves.

Now the time has come to tell that sto­ry. Far from being a sto­ry of run­ning a busi­ness of intro­duc­ing and sell­ing these weav­ings in the Unit­ed States, this is a sto­ry of the per­son­al inter­ac­tions that have tak­en place between me and the Zapotec peo­ple over the past four decades. The gallery that I’ve run dur­ing this time has sim­ply been a vehi­cle to pro­mote and dis­trib­ute this par­tic­u­lar art form. In the evo­lu­tion of the gallery and of the weav­ings in gen­er­al, as in any oth­er part of life, many changes have tak­en place. But, as in any oth­er endeav­or, some con­stants remain.

For me the most impor­tant of these con­stants is the deeply per­son­al con­nec­tion I’ve had with par­tic­u­lar weav­ing fam­i­lies as well as with the vil­lage as a whole. This con­nec­tion has encom­passed half of my life and the pas­sion remains. Obvi­ous­ly, this is a per­son­al nar­ra­tive, but it also tells the sto­ry of peo­ple work­ing togeth­er to pre­serve a cul­ture and to pro­mote a craft that has great impact not only on the indi­vid­ual weavers but on the whole vil­lage. The suc­cess I’ve enjoyed is mir­rored in the suc­cess of that vil­lage and the indi­vid­ual weavers with whom I’ve been connected.

The sto­ry begins with my first vis­it in 1974 dri­ving, with my part­ner Ramon, down a long, dirt road through a some­what hos­tile vil­lage whose peo­ple were resent­ful of the peo­ple of the neigh­bor­ing vil­lage and refused to give any help­ful direc­tions. But, con­tin­u­ing on, we even­tu­al­ly reached our des­ti­na­tion. We final­ly arrived in the small square that was the cen­ter of Teoti­t­lan del Valle.

The book is divid­ed by gen­er­a­tions. The first gen­er­a­tion deals with that arrival and my ini­tial intro­duc­tion to the weav­ings. It paints a pic­ture of the ear­ly years. There is a descrip­tion of my own life at that time and the involve­ment with the Zapotec Indi­ans of the vil­lage that was to become life chang­ing for me.

The sec­ond gen­er­a­tion is my work with the chil­dren of those ini­tial weavers, after hav­ing had a long rela­tion­ship with their par­ents. This is the same gen­er­a­tion as that of my own three chil­dren. All of these chil­dren are now grown and well into the mid­dle stage of their own lives. Although I am still very much con­nect­ed to the par­ents, most of my busi­ness deal­ings over the past two decades have been with this sec­ond gen­er­a­tion, chil­dren when I first knew them, and now asso­ciates in the busi­ness of buy­ing and col­lab­o­rat­ing on rug designs and purchases.

The third gen­er­a­tion, who are pri­mar­i­ly teenagers and young adults, is now just com­ing into its own. Once again, there’s the par­al­lel with my own fam­i­ly. In this sec­tion we look at the grand­chil­dren who have been raised in the weav­ing tra­di­tion but who have been afford­ed oppor­tu­ni­ties their own par­ents, and cer­tain­ly not their grand­par­ents, were unable to enjoy when they were of a sim­i­lar age.

In this time of instant com­mu­ni­ca­tions and cut­ting edge advances in the pro­mo­tion of prod­ucts, from smart phones to pur­chas­ing online, this nar­ra­tive illus­trates the fun­da­men­tal exchange, on a very per­son­al lev­el, of real peo­ple and the weav­ings they pro­duce com­plete­ly by hand. Each of the weav­ings I’ve ever han­dled is infused with spir­it. I know this to be a fact. It’s not only the spir­i­tu­al­i­ty of the peo­ple that per­me­ates all that they do, but also the authen­tic­i­ty with which they do it. Each weav­ing rep­re­sents part of someone’s life. No weav­ing machines or equip­ment of any kind are used, despite the avail­abil­i­ty of mech­a­nized looms and com­put­er­ized designs.

This is not to sug­gest that the vil­lage is back­ward or unaware of changes that have tak­en place in the mar­ket­place. Rather, they have cho­sen to incor­po­rate many aspects of our con­tem­po­rary world, while at the same time main­tain­ing the integri­ty of their tra­di­tion­al way of life. But this third gen­er­a­tion, as a result of the work and ded­i­ca­tion of their par­ents and grand­par­ents, has been afford­ed many more oppor­tu­ni­ties to make dif­fer­ent life choic­es. They have not only had the same expo­sure to the same things my own grand­chil­dren have, but they have also had edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties the pre­vi­ous gen­er­a­tions had been denied.

The weavers I first encoun­tered had only an ear­ly grade school edu­ca­tion in the vil­lage which was all that was avail­able to them at that time. This sec­ond gen­er­a­tion saw their chil­dren attend the new­ly built grammar/junior high school. The third gen­er­a­tion now has had access to high schools and uni­ver­si­ties. Weav­ing is still an option and a good choice for many of this youngest gen­er­a­tion but for some, as you will see, their lives are tak­ing dif­fer­ent direc­tions. Some things, how­ev­er, remain the same, among them the sanc­ti­ty of the fun­da­men­tal fam­i­ly unit and the con­tin­u­ing impor­tance of main­tain­ing their cul­tur­al heritage.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Susan­na Starr is an entre­pre­neur, pho­tog­ra­ph­er, speak­er, artist and trav­el writer. She is the own­er of Starr Inte­ri­ors in Taos, New Mex­i­co, which began as La Uni­ca Cosa in 1974, and fea­tures hand-dyed 100% wool rugs, wall hang­ings, and pil­lows tra­di­tion­al­ly dyed and loomed by the Zapotec weavers.  Susan­na has lived in North­ern New Mex­i­co for forty years, and has over twen­ty years expe­ri­ence in the hos­pi­tal­i­ty busi­ness as own­er of Ran­cho Encan­ta­do, an eco-resort and spa in Mex­i­co. Her degree in Phi­los­o­phy is from Stony Brook State Uni­ver­si­ty of New York, and she is IFWTWA Region­al Mem­ber­ship Coor­di­na­tor (RMC) for Riv­iera Maya & Oax­a­ca, Mex­i­co. Susan­na Starr is also the author of FIFTY AND BEYOND: New Begin­nings in Health and Well-Being pub­lished by Palo­ma Blan­ca. Her online arti­cles have appeared in numer­ous pub­li­ca­tions, includ­ing Soul of Trav­el Mag­a­zine, The Exam­in­er, and the award-win­ning trav­el jour­nal, Your Life Is a Trip.

About John Lamkin (Pho­to­jour­nal­ist):

John Lamkin is a free­lance trav­el jour­nal­ist and pho­tog­ra­ph­er based in Taos, New Mex­i­co (and lives part-time in Quin­tana Roo, Mex­i­co). He is a board mem­ber and Glob­al Mem­ber­ship Chair of Inter­na­tion­al Food, Wine & Trav­el Writ­ers Asso­ci­a­tion (IFWTWA). Lamkin attend­ed the San Fran­cis­co Art Insti­tute and found­ed San Fran­cis­co Cam­er­a­work. In addi­tion to food, wine and trav­el writ­ing, he has worn many hats in pub­lic rela­tions, copy writ­ing, tech­ni­cal writ­ing, and poet­ry writ­ing. He is the for­mer edi­tor of Cam­er­a­work Quar­ter­ly and Music of the Spheres Mag­a­zine, and a mem­ber of the North Amer­i­can Trav­el Jour­nal­ists Asso­ci­a­tion (NATJA). Lamkin is a con­tribut­ing writer for Lux­u­ry Latin Amer­i­ca, Lux­u­ry Avenue Mag­a­zine, Suite101, The Exam­in­er, Reuters Amer­i­ca, Your Life Is A Trip, Jet­set­ter, and he is also a colum­nist for The Syn­di­cat­ed News. He is flu­ent in Spanish. 

 

 

Title for our new Zapotec Weavers book

Juan Luis and family at the loom - weaving for Line of the Spirit™
Juan Luis and fam­i­ly at the loom

We have a ten­ta­tive title for the new book by Susan­na Starr, pho­tos by John Lamkin:
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with the Zapotec Weavers:
an odyssey of the heart