REPORTAGE: un deseo de estrellas

Oaxaca, Mexico

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Oaxaca is the historic home of the Zapotec and Mixtec peoples, and contains more speakers of indigenous languages than any other Mexican state.

Oaxaca is a state with many social problems. The enclaves of the tourist centre of southern Mexico are surrounded by villages of misery sustained by money sent home by migrant workers. Mostly rural and inhabited by indigenous people, it is one of the poorest states in the country.

It is also a state of many conflicts: struggles for land rights, confrontations with despotic landlords, disputes over local administration, ethnic protests, actions for better prices for rural products and resistance to state authoritarianism.

One of the most powerful and important occasion that indigenous poeple have to show and strenghten their pride and traditions is during The Day of the Dead.

November first honors the souls of the departed childrens and infants and it’s called day of the little angels and all the adults are honored the following day. While religious gatherings and offers take place by the graves in the cemeteries around town, a more pagan celebration is held around town with many parades ending up in the Zocalo, the core of the old town. People dress up and while all this can remind of some of the most typical Halloween parades, the theme of the death is much stronger here shows a strong relationship with the traditions and ancestries of this land with traditions and rituals that go on for at least a week around the first day of november.