I’m back from Oaxaca, and am very happy to be a part of the México Today team.  I thought I’d give you a rundown of the project.

The group consists of 24 writers – 8 Community Managers and 16 Contributors.  I’ve made a page with links to all the participants’ websites if you’d like to see who we all are and visit our sites.  It is a very diverse group – from professional food or travel writers, bloggers with focuses from bicultural and bilingual families, to adventure travelers and personal bloggers.  The idea behind having a group of American and Canadian bloggers writing about México is that people listen more readily to people from their own background.  Of the 24 writers, 11 live in México. Most of the group speaks Spanish, some at native level, and some more basic.  The one common denominator, though, is that we all love México.

At this time the México Today program is funded by the Méxican government.  The Executive Director, Jaime Diaz, told us that the group was started in October 2010 as a strategic plan for the Mexican Reputation Program.  The idea being to build a bridge between the reality and the perception of México in the US and Canada at the onset, and other countries in the future.  The core group is working to get the project running and then hopefully to transform it into a foundation so that funding won’t be subject to the political cycle.

We are all aware about the challenges facing México with regard to the drug war.  Those of us who live here in particular know what it’s like when the first thing people say to us when they hear we live in México is “but are you safe?”  I know we are all tired of defending México, especially against alarmist State Department memos and barely-researched news reports. In my opinion it is going to take a real concerted (and by that I mean US, Canada, and Mexico working together) effort to make inroads against the drug cartels.  I hope that can happen, but in whatever scenario we think of, change will not happen overnight.  In the meantime, there is a huge, wonderful country that is peaceful and so worth exploring.

I’ve agreed to write two articles per month.  They are fully my thoughts, experiences, and ideas.  No one is censoring me. The México Today project wants to rev up the amount being written about México. Hopefully people will join the conversation – commenting on posts, sharing on social media sites, and in general gathering together people who really care about México and want the best for her in the future.

I’ll try to keep you up to date on things that you’ll want to watch out for.  For example, the opening of Peter Greenberg’s Royal Tour – Mexico – a film profiling Felipe Calderon – will premiere on September 20 in New York and on September 21 in Los Angeles.  If you live in LA or NY, please go! We saw the trailer for the film, and it is going to be fantastic.  The crew spent two weeks here filming – you’ll see awesome footage of México and learn a lot about México’s president, too.

I know that every country faces hundreds of challenges.  If you look at the whole picture it can feel overwhelming – but chunk it up into bite sized pieces and it’s possible to work and make visible progress.  That’s how I look at this project – that it’s addressing something that has become more human-sized to me, and something I can actually help with.

Just because I might not actually be able to write a post without a picture or a video… At the top is a picture of one of Jacobo Angeles´s alebrije (story tomorrow), and below is a video of the Calenda on Saturday night.  Basically it is a street party with tequila, strange clown-y guys with carrot noses, huge paper mache puppets (monigotes), giant fireworks (castilla), etc.  It was so much fun – we left from our hotel and made our way to Casa Oaxaca, where we were having dinner.  The video really transmits the fun and craziness of the evening.  I would say that a hundred or more Oacacans accompanied all of us on the Mexico Today street party!

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Disclosure:  I am being compensated for my work in creating content as a Contributor for the México Today Program.  I was also invited to an all-expenses paid trip to Oaxaca as part of my role and for the launch of the program.  All stories, opinions and passion for all things México shared in my blog are completely my own.

This is the first sign we were part of something pretty big!

I headed out early in the morning on Friday to catch the plane to Mexico City. It was great to run into CancunCanuck in the airport in DF – chatting made the wait for our flight to Oaxaca pass quickly.  Imagine my surprise when we deplaned in Oaxaca and saw the sign above.  And a little further, inside the terminal, a marimba band!

After collecting luggage we were collected by Mexico Today folks and outside there was another marimba band!  Made us feel very special, I will say!

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Kelly with the marimba band outside the airport

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The hotel is beautiful – The Camino Real.  It is a former convent and all the walls are gorgeous thick stone blocks.  A few pictures, below:

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There should be a nun in a black habit scurrying away from us to make this picture complete.

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It was raining when I took this, water dripping off the eaves and running in a rill around the edge of the courtyard.

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Old stencils are showing here and there throughout the hotel

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After showering and resting (except I couldn’t stand to mess up the greeting to me written out in flower petals on my bed) we collected for a cocktail hour and to get to know each other.  We each introduced ourselves.  The blogger group is made up of a variety of writers – with topics ranging from travel, adventure, news, food, family, bilingual & bicultural, and a few personal bloggers (like me!)  We are a variety of ages and represent various regions of Mexico, too.

This first night, Friday, was all about getting to know each other and to have some fun.  After cocktails and a mescal tasting (this is Oaxaca, after all) we headed to the chapel of the former convent for a buffet dinner and the dances of the Guelaguetza.  Paul and I attended the show last year when we were here but our seats this time were VIP so I got some great photos for you.

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I wasn't even trying for an artsy shot, but I love this one.

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I adored this dancer, she has such a lovely smile

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Three of my favorite dancers at the finale.

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I am writing this on Sunday as most everyone is heading out.  Since I am staying for an extra day I am taking a break in my room to write and to go through my photos and video. I’ll be making a new photo gallery and will list the participants and more in my next post. (edited above with link to participant list)  It has been an amazing trip and I am so excited to be a part of this great project.  I think it will be fun to be back in the workplace again, too.

So stay tuned for more about the Mexico Today project.  Saturday was a packed day, full of amazing people and adventure, there is lots more to tell!

(disclosure: I am a paid contributor to Mexico Today)

I’m getting ready for my trip to Oaxaca on Friday, and I have to admit I am pretty excited.  It will be great to meet everyone but also to get to work on the plan for spreading the word about the México we all love.  The picture above is from our trip to Oaxaca last year.

It’s been frustrating for lots of us who live here and love it here to read and hear inflammatory news reports, many of which present information totally out of context. I’ve used this blog as my own forum for presenting the reality of my life in México partly so that people will read my words and see that there is another side of the story.  The Mexico Today project is just what is needed – I believe that all of our voices together will make a chorus that hopefully will be heard.

So to get ready to get back in the workplace, (!) I had to take a look at my wardrobe to try to come up with some new looks.  Mazatlán is not the greatest for shopping and since I usually only visit the US for a week in August I had to get creative.  But for a change it wasn’t me being creative…a friend was taking some things to her seamstress and I got to tag along.  I had two old, beloved shirts that were too worn out to wear.  I had one skirt that I liked a lot.

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I bought two meters of fabric for each item for probably around 600 pesos ($51.00 US) and a couple of weeks later we picked up our new clothes.  Four shirts and two new skirts for me!  $550 pesos ($47.00 US) for all of this, perfectly done, just as I wanted.  How about that?

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Not exactly business casual, more like hot and humid beachy casual!

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Then I thought that I’d better get a haircut so I headed to Tippy Toes, a new beauty salon in Centro.  The owner, Deb Rodriguez, is a talented and knowledgeable hairdresser and her salon is so fun – beach murals and surf decor of course, since they are a half block from the beach on Sixto Osuna.  They don’t open until July 4, but she has been training staff so a few of us lucky year-rounders have been getting pampered during the soft opening.  You may recognize Deb as the author of The Kabul Beauty School and   A Cup of Friendship.  She gave me a fabulous haircut, too!

I haven’t started packing yet, but the dogs seem to know something is up.  My office/craft room doubles as a guest bedroom and the dogs have been keeping a close eye on me lately.  Here are a couple pictures showing how they keep me company!

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Coco

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Henry

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