It's good for the soul. It's good for the local economy. It helps preserve
Oaxaca's native traditions. And it can make some folks back home very, very
happy.

I believe that you regret what you didn't buy, much more that what you did.
Take home one of those knick knacks from among the shelves and it acquires a
new dimension, it becomes a true treasure in its alien environment.
Our guide is meant to open your eyes to some of these potential treasures.

Read on:

Textiles

THE OAXACAN PEOPLE have a 2500 year history as master weavers. The links to
this ancient tradition are best seen today in the clothing of Indigenous
women. Most Indian communities retain a particular style of dress, with
variations to distinguish different villages within a region.

Elaborately woven and embroidered clothing is worn on a daily basis, not
just on ceremonial occasions. (Although with the intrusion of the wider
world, there are fewer communities where the younger women adopt traditional
dress.)

Best known is the huipil, a sleeveless tunic made from three pieces of
cloth. Oaxacan weavers still use cotton and wool yarn dyed with animal based
colorants. Cochineal, or Carmine, made from the tiny dactylopius coccus
insect that feeds on the nopal cactus, was the most valuable product, after
precious metals, shipped by the Spanish to Europe. And no wonder: it takes
70,000 of the insects (only the females are used) to make a pound of dry
cochineal. What the Spaniards saw amazed them. The Old World had never seen
a dye of such a rich redness and fullness, and so colorfast, so stable and
so impervious to change. Cochineal became the most guarded secret of the
Spanish Empire.

In the Mixtec villages of the Oaxacan coast, weavers also use cotton dyed
with Purpura patula pansa, a species of sea-snail,
picked off the rocks of our coastline at low tide during the winter months. When the dyers squeeze
or blow on the these mollusks, they give off a foamy secretion which is
rubbed onto skeins of raw cotton. The snails are put back on the rocks
afterwards, which explains why this precious resource has not been exhausted
after so many centuries.

Shell-dyed purple cotton is combined with indigo-blue cotton and red silk,
preferably dyed with cochineal to fashion the pozahuanco, the mauve and
purple striped wraparound skirt typical of the region.

The woven cloth for blouses and huipiles is intricately embroidered, each
culture and, in many cases each village, using different design motifs and
symbols - - flowers, animals, geometric patterns - - to set them apart, to
express their identity. Perhaps the most spectacular of all are the fiesta
outfits worn by the handsome Zapotec women of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a
riot of colors, textures, velvets and satins.

Also look for intricately embroidered peasant blouses with elaborate
beadwork (chiquira); The woolen rugs and wall hangings from Teotitlan del
Valle are also highly prized by visitors and collectors. Also of note are
the simple woven-cotton bedspreads, table cloths, place mats and tortilla
warmers, all of which can make a splendid gift.

Ceramics

The art of pottery goes back thousands of years in the New World. with an
astonishing range of creative skills and artistry. In the West, clay has
often been considered somehow inferior as a medium of artistic expression,
many believe that pottery-making was the greatest of all pre-Colombian
crafts.

Today Mexico remains a land of potters. Entire villages are engaged in
producing ceramic products both decorative and utilitarian. San Bartolo
Coyotepec is famous for the black and brilliant sheen of its pottery, a
result of overnight firing in a kiln that starves the oxygen from the clay
turning the natural red iron oxide to black. Friction polishing brings out
the distinctive black metallic luster. Atzompa is another of the great
traditional pottery villages of Oaxaca.with its distinctive motif: a
semi-transparent green glaze using copper oxide over a tan clay. Ocotlan is
home to the famed Aguilar sisters who create colorful and whimsical
figurines and scenes: islands populated by mermaids; colorfully garbed
market ladies; monkeys and religious icons.

In the villages of San Marcos Tlapazola and Santa María Tavehua the families
produce heavy red and orange terracotta ware.

Closer to home the ladies of Santa María Magdelana Tiltepec, near Nopala,
continue a thousand plus year tradition of producing low-fired, unglazed
pottery: cooking pots, vases, simple decorative figurines and the comal, the
clay griddles so essential to Oaxacan cooking.

Also: look for the famous, multicolored Talavera ceramics from Puebla.

Wood

In the 1960's artists in two villages in the Central Valley of Oaxaca, San
Martin Tilcajete and Arrazola Xoxocotlán, began carving and painting
whimsical and fantastic animals and bizarre other-worldly creatures from
copal wood. Copal is a soft, aromatic wood whose sap produces a resin that
has been burned in incense braziers since time immemorial. These alebrijes,
as they are called, proved highly popular and today are in demand as
souvenirs for visitors and represent one of the state's biggest exports to
the international market.

Here on the Oaxaca coast carvers still make animal masks and figurines,
especially of jaguars, a creature that has always possessed powerful
metaphysical significance. Also common are devil masks and effigies of
pink-faced white men. These are based on the ceremonial trappings used in
traditional dances for occasions such as the Day of the Dead, Carnaval and
Easter Week. You'll also find carved angels, devils (many, like some of the
masks, using real teeth and horns) and the ubiquitous skeleton figures.
These skeleton images are called calaveras or "skulls". And they are seen
everywhere, from the political cartoons on the opinion pages of the
newspapers to children's toys and games. Far from being solemn or morbid,
the Day of the Dead celebrations, with which these symbols are associated,
are highly festive in tone. They celebrate the continuity of life and
strengthen the links to the past.

Other wooden implements you' might consider are children's toys- - spinning
tops and trucks, combs, spoons, bookmarks, letter openers, back scratchers
and chocolate whisks.

Furniture

Santa Catarina Mechoacan specializes in the manufacture of wood and
woven-string chairs, tables and other furniture, common in many of our local
homes and restaurants. It's an attractive, well-tended town. Don't be
surprised to see women-of- a-certain-age unabashedly topless in and around
their homes and the furniture workshops. Among the Mixtec of the coast, once
a women is beyond child-bearing years, this is her right. She may cover
herself with a shawl, should she choose. In many of these towns local
priests have made it a point to end this practice, but in Mechoacan, the
abuelitas still let it all hang out.

You can often see these grandmothers in the market at Jamiltepec, a hollowed
gourd perched on their heads.

Candelaria Loxicha also produces a distinctive style of furniture fashioned
from woody vines.

Jewelry

The Mixtecs of Oaxaca were among the most accomplished jewelers of the
ancient Americas. The exquisite gold work found in the tombs of Monte Alban
is now housed in the Santo Domingo Cultural Center in the city of Oaxaca.
Reproductions of these magnificent pieces can be found in finer jewelry
stores.

Oaxaca is also famed for its fine filigree jewelry, particularly popular in
the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Slender gold wire is formed into elaborate
designs and inset with pearls, coral and stone to produce stunning
bracelets, earrings, pendants and chains.

There's lots of silver to choose from, most all of it from the Guerrero town
of Taxco. You'll find handsome amber, mostly from from Chiapas and a
plethora of fine chiquira beads and shell costume pieces. But please note:
You may be offered jewelry made from red or black coral, normally in the
form of beads. You are urged not to buy any such merchandise, as part of a
movement by environmentalists to halt the degradation of the fragile reefs
off the Oaxacan coast.

A Taste of Oaxaca

Probably not practical to consider taking home tamales or sopes, more's the
pity. But here are some suggestions on how to capture the taste of Oaxaca to
delight your friends and family:

Moles (pronounced "moe-lay") comes from molli in the language of the Aztecs,
Nahuatl, and means sauce or stew. There are seven moles that originated in
Oaxaca. Most common are the delicious rich red and black mole, dry packaged
they don't need refrigeration and are widely available in local stores.

Oaxaca's delicious mountain grown, organic coffees are also easily
transportable (Try Finca de las Nieves). Great gifts also are the two
classic flavors that originated in Mexico, for which the world is eternally
grateful: Chocolate and vanilla. Oaxaca's drinking chocolate is among the
most prized in all of Mexico.

Those chile-and-garlic loaded peanuts and the sweet peanut and sesame
seed bars called palenquetas were a big hit as gifts.

Mescal, Oaxaca's fiery spirit distilled from the maguey or agave, is a great
ice-breaker at family gatherings back home, to which I can also attest.
There all kinds are available, including the liqueur-like creams, cremas,
with flavors ranging from coffee and coco to kiwi and passion fruit; Goes
down easily, but it packs a punch!