Oaxaca/Teotitlán del Valle: 35mm

Early in our stay in Oaxaca, México we came to understand that parades and fiestas are routine (but hardly monotonous) in the city. Revelers slowly walk the streets with firecrackers, brass bands, dancers, and larger-than-life puppets. During our time there, we witnessed fiestas celebrating el Día del Taxista, la Asunción de la Virgen María, and the 21st anniversary of a local pharmacy. Locals don’t even flinch at the firecrackers going off sporadically day and night. A dog trainer utilized the caravan of adorned taxis and their spectators as a distraction for his four charges (they maintained their “sit” command with ease).

On one of our days in Mexico, we traveled with a non-profit microfinancing organization to Teotitlán del Valle to deliver loans and learn about the female borrowers’ crafts and businesses. One of the women with whom we spoke makes tamales to sell in the puebla’s main market and is a skilled weaver of tapetes and alfombras. She and her husband are raising a bull on corn scraps to one day sell to pay for a major surgery for her 9-year-old son. While his mother explained her work, the boy snuck into the room behind us and placed a freshly-laid egg on their home altar to la Reina de México.