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City of Oaxaca
Oaxaca, the State Capital, declared Humanity’s
Cultural Patrimony by UNESCO, owes its fame to the beauty
and harmony of its architecture, the richness of its cultural
traditions, the wide variety of its typical foods, and its
soft temperate climate, spring-like throughout the year. Its
name comes from Huaxyácal (the apex of the guajes,
 a
variety of acacia, of Huaxín, guajes, and yacatl, summit).
The Aztecs applied the name to the summit where they built
a fortress in 1486. At arrival, the Spaniards founded, next
to the old fort, the new Villa de Antequera, and a few years
later, returned to the old Aztec fortress to erect, in the
same guaje summit, a city that, in 1529 would be founded,
built, and peopled as Villa de Oaxaca.
The Spaniards commissioned the city’s
design to one of the best town planners of the Empire, Alonso
Garcia Bravo, architect of Mexico City and Veracruz. Garcia
Bravo laid out the city with cord. He began with the creation
of a Plaza Central or Zócalo (Square), oriented by
the cardinal points, and established according to a simple
symbology: A Cathedral was built on one side of the square
(over the Aztec’s place for their dead), on the other
side, all municipal buildings, the basis for civil power.
Thus, it was thought, the square would irradiate throughout
the city, the balance between the terrestrial and the sacred,
the Church and the civil power.
The city flourished during the Viceroyalty.
It was taken by Morelos in 1812, and was under the General
Bazaine forces in 1864. It witnessed the birth of the guerrilla
uprising organized by Porfirio Diaz, State Governor. Aside
from these episodes, Oaxaca has lived away from military history.
The Spaniards designed it without walls, without defenses,
trusting that the Zócalo’s magic strength would
protect it from all evil. As in effect, it has done.
 The
Zócalo continues to be, besides one of the most beautiful
Central Squares in Mexico, the Life Center of Oaxaca. The
arcades that sustain the Palacio de Gobierno (Government Palace)
and the surrounding buildings house restaurants, terraces,
portals, and coffee-houses. People sit at the little tables,
deep in conversation, from very early in the morning under
the shade of enormous laurel trees from India. The conversation
can be accompanied, depending on the moment, by chocolate
for dunking, "café de olla" (coffee made
with cinnamon and cane sugar), Mezcal with lemon and Mezcal
worm salt, tequila, fruit juices, or excellent beer. It is
common to see "yerberos" [herb salespeople], "loteros"
[corncob salespeople], "sanadores" [healers], cricket
vendors, different types of artisans, or "pulsadores".
The herb person offers sweet basil, "estrella de mar",
and nutmeg. The healers mitigate insomnia with floripondio
and "pulsadores" cure fright and loss of the soul.
According to Elliot Weinberger, Octavio Paz´s English
translator, the Zócalo in Oaxaca is the perfect place
to do nothing at all.
In the middle of the Zócalo, between
the Palacio de Gobierno and the Cathedral, stands, surrounding
by laurels and bougainvillaea, the last European contribution
to the magical equilibrium of the square: a romantic little
kiosk where Tuesdays and Thursdays (sometimes on other days)
the State Government Band plays all type of music.
The Zócalo extends toward the Alameda,
and in the opposite direction, toward another smaller plaza.
The original symmetry is almost intact. The vacant spaces
have been occupied by a myriad of small stalls which offer
fantastic animas of brilliant colors, amaranth seeds, sesame
seed blocks, Spanish knives, cloth dyed with purple snails,
cocoa ground with sweet corn, garbanzo beans in honey, crickets
in guacamole, or fruit flavored sherbets.
 From
the Zócalo, the city proceeds in an orderly manner
on streets extremely clean of flowing traffic, animated by
the fantastic music of the traffic guards whistles. The main
street is closed to cars; it connects the Zócalo with
the Santo Domingo Temple and it known as "Andador Turistico"
(Tourist Boulevard). The Contemporary Art Museum is located
there, many of the old colonial houses, various galleries,
restaurants, and the most distinguished jewellery and handcraft
stores. At the end of the Tourist Boulevard stands the exceptional
Santo Domingo Temple, splendid example of Mexican baroque,
with its altarpiece covered in gold, its impressive interior
decoration, and the installations that include the State Regional
Art Museum.
The Oaxaca temples are the most lavish of Southern
Mexico. The image of the city’s patron saint, María
Santisima de la Soledad, at one time had a crown made of pure
gold, with 600 sparkling stones and diamonds. The Cathedral
has fourteen lateral chapels of unique beauty. Then, La Merced,
San Agustín, San Francisco, the church of the "Sangre
de Cristo" [Blood of Christ], San Felipe, Santa Monica,
and so many others that the city seems more like Salamanca,
such is the profusion. However, the similarity with the Castilian
capital ends with the numbers. In addition to singular Mexican
baroque interiors, we find the original facades, now trimmed
for fear of earthquakes, erected in green quarry stone. For
this reason, some have called Oaxaca the city of the green
temples and everyone admires the marbled effect acquired by
churches after a rainy afternoon, as soon as the sun appears
again.
 Mirror
of the State, the city’s museums have many of the most
valuable regional treasures, such as the jewels of the Tumba
7 (Seventh Tomb) of Monte Albán. It counts also with
the best representation of Oaxacan paintings, renown because
of the work of Rufino Tamayo, Rodolfo Morales, and Francisco
Toledo. Through its markets, exhibits and disseminates one
of the richest and varied art productions in Mexico.
Of all the markets in the capital city, maybe
the most famous is the "20 de Noviembre" [20 of
November], specializing in foods and much visited by Oaxacans
and capable of seducing, as the indigenous markets, just through
the different aromas. At the entrance, you will find "chicharrones",
"cecina", "tasajo" and "tripitas
secas". Then come the chocolate and bread vendors. All
the way to the end are the "barbacoas" [barbecue]
and eateries, where it is possible to enjoy a snack or a full
meal at anytime. Meals such as, "tasajo de hebras",
followed by eggs in sauce with epazote leaves, "enmoladas",
"bean chilaquiles", "quesillo", and to
finish, "frijolitos con hierba de conejo" and "chochollotes",
and a great cup of "atole blanco de granillo".
In the Benito Juárez Maza Market there
are also fruits, vegetables, sherbets and fresh juices, "huipiles",
skirts, embroidery, silks, "alebrijes", the fish
vendors that occupied an entire street, the fruit vendors
and the "quesillo" distributors, the Oaxacan cheese,
formed of delicious strings that wrapped round and round to
make a circular form. In the Abastos Market, there is everything
- fabrics from San Antonio, basket and figurines from Ocotlán,
sculptures from the Isthmus, jewellery from Mitla, pottery
from San Bartolo Coyotepec. It is located next to the Bus
Depot. There are many other markets Sanchez Pascua, Democracia,
la Rayita almost as many as there are churches.
 From
Oaxaca is very easy to travel to great cities with pre-Hispanic
wonders (Monte Albán, Mitla, Yagul, Lambityeco), Santa
María de Tule and its millenary tree, and the towns
where the magnificent former Dominican convents stand: Yanhuitlan,
Teposcolula, Coixtlahuaca, Tamazulapan, Tlacochahuaya, or
Tlacolula. A half-hour commercial flight connects the city
with the coast’s paradises - the Bays of Huatulco (Bahias
de Huatulco), "Puerto Escondido" [Hidden Port] and
on the new highway Mexico City is less than five hours away.
Oaxaca is the center of a state overflowing with attractions
that express everyone’s best, in its capital city. Beginning
with a magic square formed around the Zócalo, the Plaza
designed to last a lifetime and get to know the world, with
no more effort than choosing the right place at the right
distance, correct and balanced, of the Palacio de Gobierno
and the Cathedral.
*
The source of this information is the Oaxaca-Travel
website. We publish this information with the authorization
of Mr. Juan Antonio Ruiz W. producer of the Oaxaca-Travel
website.
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