Oaxaca Street Art I: 40 taxis

44 aves

mosquero cardenal

capulinero gris

tórtola colilgara

paloma aliblanca

paloma doméstica

gorrión doméstico

garza nívea

zanate mayor

fringílido mexicano

zorzal dorsirrufo

zorzal petirrojo

zorzal negro

cuitlacoche piquicurvo

zopilote negro

saltapared barranquero

salapared continental gorjicafé

pato de collar

luis grande

semillero collarejo

rascador oaxaqueño

rascador ojirojo (hybrid)

rascador collarejo

rascador hibrido

carpintero collarejo

saltapalos pechiblanco

carcara común

picaflor vientre-canelo

colibrí-serrano gorjiazul

fandanguero morado

junco ojilumbre

lanio americano

pavito aliblanco

paro mexicano

chipe rojo

aguililla colirroja

chara pechigris

chara azuleja

chara copetona

colibrí orejiblanco

mosquero barranqueño

cenzonte norteño

sastrecillo

garrapatero piquiliso

dominico dorsioscuro

Ayotzinapa
y el abrazo ausente

Cauca, we hardly knew ye

 

After he introduced us to the plants;

after hiking us up to the mirador, where he told about the macaws of the river valley, how they mate for life, and glide up and down the canyon each day, like an emerald river in the air, and about the serial widow who consolidated mine- and slaveholdings across the region through the 16^th century;

after a delicate explanation of what was once a spindle in the hands of the indigenous maiden in bas relief on the plaza de Chinquinquirá in Santa Fe, and had become something else at the hand of some merry vandals, determined to rewrite the story with a rasp file;

after leading us over on this hundred-year-old suspension bridge; and introducing us to its polymath engineer, “amigo de Edison;”

Gonzalo looked back with us across the rio Cauca and laid out how this was the zero point for the impending reservoir slated for damming over the next couple years. Largest hydroelectric project in the history of Colombia, hundreds of families displaced, and, of course, an entire greenwashing booster campaign, big international hotels promised to go in at the Puente de Occidente, and a “zona ecologica” along the 50-mile banks, where they say a million trees will be planted. Like funeral flowers lined up along both sides of the body.

Also: Hydropower will be generated for export.
To the US. By transoceanic cable. No fooling.

detalles:

Environmental Justice Atlas: Hidroituango

2014 overviews from Colombia Support Network, el Espectador, & Colombia Reports

Rios Vivos movement

Antioquia

From what I've seen, the thing to do here, in leading into any discussion of Colombia, is to open with great big gestures toward magical realism. Whether it’s Anthony Bourdain, or Narcos, or even Colombia’s own Ministry of Tourism, so often, Colombia = magical realism : CO : MR: co : mr : co : mr … (bulletproof generals, yellow butterflies, feral hippos, and so on).

Though these can sometimes be tiresome, reductive, and silly, it’s probably necessary on some level. And it’s a lot more desirable, I think, than other go-to distortions, like Colombia=cocaine for yanqui nostrils, Colombia=guerillas & paramilitaries, etc. It can also make for a delightful pastime on long bus rides, imagining yourself a writer for a middlebrow travel magazine:

Passing slow traffic along precarious highways through Andean cloud forests has its roots in magical realism. Mary full of grace, we truckers and mechanics ask your protection.

Men with tattoo guns, ink kits, and iphones coming to a neighborhood near you are today’s main purveyors of magical realism. Por que te quiero, te pinto.

In the imposition of the four gospels on the New World lies the absolute origin of magical realism. And our Lord did juggle the bread.

A desire to reckon the heartbreaking beauty of life and being with the absurdities and horrors of the violence these entail… (OK, maybe that one does have something to do with magical realism).

Sausages, having absorbed all the green-spectrum particles and waves of the Cordillera Central, now infuse our bodily humours with magical realism.

Alright. I know, that’s enough.

Actually, aside from coming up with fake hooks for the alumni magazine, we were there on other errands too.

More photos here and here.

aves de Colombia (March 25-April 5)

great kiskadee

yellow warbler

cattle egret

snowy egret

green heron

barefaced ibis

clay colored thrush

great thrush

crested oropendola

colombian chachalaca

white-collared swift

yellow-headed caracara

bicolored wren

black crested jay

green jay

ruddy ground dove

rock pigeon

eared dove

black vulture

turkey vulture

palm tanager

blue-gray tanager

bay-headed tanager

flame-rumped tanager

lemon-rumped tanager

crimson-backed tanager

apical flycatcher

vermillion flycatcher

eastern kingbird

tropical kingbird

variegated flycatcher

riverside tyrant

smooth-billed ani

white-capped dipper

saffron finch

bat falcon

crimson-crested woodpecker

red-crowned woodpecker

southern lapwing

scarlet-fronted parakeet

thick-billed euphonia

bananaquit

black-and-white seedeater

late-throated whitestart

rufus-collared sparrow

emerald toucanet

rufous motmot

blue-and-white swallow

grosbeaks are back