Final Reflection by Diego

Reflections 1/23/11

It’s been 5 months since Lynda, Raquel, and myself traveled to the Yucatan and visited the ancient Mayan sites of Tulum, Cobá, Uxmal, Chichen Itza, and Palenque and explored the cities and towns of Tulum, Merida and Puerto Progreso, and Villahermosa. My stated purpose for going was to soak in the imagery and grandeur of the Mayan architecture and immerse myself in Mexican culture and have the experience inform the new work I would create for the Winter Dance Concert. Another, more personal, reason for going was to have the chance to connect and explore the Mexican-part of my Mexican-American heritage.
Five months later the obvious questions are: how has the experience manifested itself today? What were the benefits of going with two colleagues whose disciplines and mediums differed from my own? How did viewing the sites with my colleagues alter my own perception? How will the experience manifest in the new work I am just now beginning to create? How did the trip change me?
Starting with the creation of the new dance first, I made a short draft of two of the planned sections and presented it at the Dance in De Mille concert in December. This helped me figure out what might and might not work for the piece as whole. Since the beginning of this new term, I have had a week and half of rehearsals and have completed three out of a planned 5.5 sections (I say 5.5 because I envision the final, “.5” section to be more of a short “epilogue” lasting no longer than a minute).
I rarely know what a new dance is going to be about. I have found that it is best to allow a project to reveal itself to me. When I have entered into a project certain of what it will be about, I am invariably met with frustration because the piece begins to demand ideas and steps that veer from what I had planned. It has always been the case that these new ideas are better than what I had planned and when I have resisted the impulse to follow these new ideas, the piece has suffered for it. So now I trust that the preparation I do prior to the start of rehearsals will inform the work on the sub-conscious level in unexpected ways and present my voice in a more organic and authentic manner.
What this work is revealing to me is that at its core is an exploration of the notion of “hybridity”. Two of the songs used in the score are by the Mexican- American band, Los Lobos, whose music contains a variety of elements from the Mexican and American origins of the band members. Contemporary composer Eric Schwartz, a Jewish-American from New York, has composed the other parts of the score in collaboration with musician and improvisor John Wilson. The choreography comes from me, a Chicano, a Mexican-American hybrid. I am creating a vocabulary that is synthesizing images gathered from my trip and transposing this vocabulary onto my students who are of diverse backgrounds, mostly White and African-American. Further, these images were gathered and viewed alongside colleagues who were very different from myself. The way I viewed the archeological sites was inherently different from the way I would have viewed them if I were by myself. Can I describe the differences? No. I only know that my experience was affected and altered because of their presence.
The trip has had a lasting effect on me, and yet, I am unable to describe the effect. The new dance is not about the Maya. It is not a recreation of the fantastic images and mythos of the Maya. Does it contain references to what I saw? Yes. There is the idea of a lost voice from the past. There are references to the Temple of a Thousand Warriors at Chichen Itza. There are steps created out of student improvisations on the rules of the Meso-American ball game. There are references to the crazy traffic of Merida and Villahermosa. Yes, there are specific inspirations for the dance, some of which just came out of my subconscious and didn’t reveal themselves until I stepped back to look at what I’ve created thus far.
So the work is proceeding and one of the reasons for the trip, inspiring a new work, has been fulfilled. The other reason, exploring the Mexican side of my heritage also has been fulfilled. My interest in that part of my heritage has been renewed, I have continued my studies of Spanish, and the fact has been asserted that despite my tenuous connection to the culture there, I am not a part of it.
My last word is this. The Yucatan is a magical place and my short immersion has had a lasting imprint on me that will continue to inform my life and made me want to immerse myself again. I will go back sooner than later. Diego

The final blog from the trip by me (Diego). The next one will be the final reflection. See you then.

Villahermosa 8/19/10

Today we returned the car to the rental agency and then took a taxi back into town. We wanted to go to the Anthropological museum. Our taxi driver didn’t actually know the exact location and when we got to the general area he stopped and got out and asked people who were on the street where it was. We eventually found it, but discovered that it was closed for renovations. Que lastima! We asked the driver if he would take us to El Parque de “La Venta,” which doubles as a small zoo and an outdoor museum centered on the Olmecs and the giant stone heads and alters they left in and around Villahermosa. Villahermosa was inhabited by the Olmecs 2500 years ago and the site where much of their archeological remains were found, is a park named La Venta. We happened to be present for feeding time in the zoo section. The 20-foot crocodile gets fed six whole chickens every few weeks. The coyotes get some steaks of beef. The keepers had a hard time corralling the Caracol cat.

Today I tried some food from street vendors, neither of which I liked. Elote and some kind of unsweetened iced drink. Elote is simply corn kernals with condiments added. I had squeezed lime juice, a little hard cheese, salt, and some chile added. Kind of bland. The drink was horchata, I think, which is a kind of rice milk drink, although it’s my understanding that other grains can be used also. Maybe if it was sweetened I would have enjoyed it more. Dinner was at a kind of taco joint only they served a kind tostada. Afterwards we got some ice cream and went to the main square and people watched before hailing a cab to go back to the hotel and pack for our departure. Diego

Finally posting the final blogs, five months later. Better now than never :-)

Palenque 8/18/2010

The drive to Palenque was two hours. We chose to not use a guide this time because there is a museum at the entrance of the grounds and felt the information in there would serve us just as well. The site itself is fairly contained consisting of three main groupings, the tombs and royal palace, the ball court and northern area and the upper, sacred, religious area. The difference here, are the presence of young teenage guides alongside the adult ones. I observed these boys in action and they were quite knowledgeable.

Palenque is still magical, even with the “upgrades” put in place since the last time I was here in the mid 80’s. Back then it seemed “wilder.” One arrived on a bus from Villahermosa after driving through a tiny little town with dirt roads. One walked through the rainforest and then suddenly emerged into an open area tucked up against these mountains from which the ancient buildings seemed to emerge from.

Now the little town, also named Palenque, is a bustling place with well-paved roads. From there the drive is another 10 kilometers to the site. Along this road are a handful of high-end resort hotels and spas as well as a hostel and even a campsite. Upon arrival at a little guardhouse, one pays the requisite parking fee. A little further up is an area for the tour buses to park and the museum, along with two little, site-sanctioned shops. From here one can walk up or drive further up the road to the entrance, which is what we did. In keeping with the incredible entrepreneurial spirit of Mexico, there are guys hanging out who take on the “responsibility” of directing drivers into parking spaces and then expect a tip for their “services.” They’ll clean your windshields for another fee. This was actually something I noticed on our trip to Puerto Progreso. Mario actually did tip the “parking attendant,” although there, parking was a serious issue and a little help in finding a spot was welcome. In Palenque parking was not an issue. We didn’t tip.

Forgot to mention an unsettling thing during our trip. Outside of Tulum, Merida, and Villahermosa there were highway checkpoints manned by soldiers with big machine guns hanging from shoulder straps. I’m assuming that this is a response to the narco-violence that is so prevalent in Mexico these days, particularly in the northern area. The thing is it seems pretty unclear what they are looking for. We never got stopped. It was probably pretty easy to mark us as tourists. But I never saw any car stopped, nor did I witness the soldiers asking drivers for information. Diego

Thursday, Our last day

Well, on Wednesday evening I sat and wrote and wrote and wrote, catching up on what we had done and my thoughts about it. However, a storm disrupted the power signal and the post was lost. I tried this morning in the computer room at the hotel and there was no connection to the internet. So much for not bringing my computer. Diego brought his and he is able to connect at all times. I will, therefore, wait until I get home where I can write about what I had written before and add additional information. Our journey has been a remarkable one, and I still have much to share. Until then, Lynda

8/17/10 - Merida to Villahermosa

We walked around Merida a little this morning before driving to the airport. At the gate a couple disembarked from the arriving flight. Raquel had left her seat and the woman asked, first in Spanish and then seeing we were from the states in English if it was available to set her belongings in for a moment. We explained that that would be fine. I asked her where she was from. She was fully bilingual with hardly any accent in either language, most likely Mexican, Mexican-American, or Chicana. She replied that she was originally from Los Angeles and her husband was from Merida and they had been living in Merida permanently since the late 80’s. Given that I also grew up in Los Angeles, we started talking. She even knew the neighborhood where I had lived! The world is indeed a small place.

Just a side note. I met an American doctor who was currently living and working in Merida and on our first night we met a man who spent half his time in Merida and half in NY, NY. He didn’t mention whether he was American or Mexican. Merida is a popular place.

Villahermosa reminds me of Louisiana. It's got a lot of swampy water surrounding it and is pretty hot. This hotel is not like the others. It's one of those modern international business class hotels with 6-8 levels. Across from us is a Holiday Inn :-( Also the hotel is located in a new, expensive area far from the historic center of town. We took a taxi to the zocolo where the locals hang out and had a dinner of tacos. At the zocolo there's a big pedestrian mall and lots of these taco joints that have the meat set up on a vertical spit similar to gyro meat. These were some great tacos! The strange thing is that, at least on a Tuesday night, Villahermosa turns in early. We were told that restaurants start to close around 7 or 8pm. This is not Merida! We got a local taxi back to the hotel and the driver, who had lived here for 42 years, was very amiable and talkative and was patient with my Spanish.

Chichen Itza 8/16/10 - Memory and Economics

Chichen Itza was not as I remembered from the previous two times I had visited, the last time over 20 years ago as a teenager traveling with my father and the time before that when I was 8, traveling with my parents. Both times there was a mystery about the place, a feeling of spinning back a thousand years with each step up the main pyramid.

Due to the number of visitors and an effort to protect the site for posterity, one can no longer climb up any of the structures, or peer at the red jaguar with jade eyes in a chamber deep inside the ‘Castle’ pyramid , or wander between the columns at the foot of the Temple of a Thousand Warriors. Further, the place is like an economic circus. There are hundreds of local vendors on the grounds selling their wares for way more than they are worth. Even our guide, José, who I enjoyed and liked, participated in the economic machine. Near the end of our tour at the famous ball court, we were joined by two young local girls, aged 12 and 16(?) dressed in traditional ‘hipils.’ Prompted by José, the girls sang us a song in Mayan and then in Spanish told us the meaning of the song, a simple child’s song. After this they asked if we would like to buy one of the little stitched handkerchiefs that were neatly folded over their arms. Asked how much, they responded 20 pesos; they were maybe worth 10. I wasn’t going to haggle with a 12 year old, although she probably would have kicked my butt in that barter!

José obviously knew many of the vendors. It seems that the guides are near the top of the economic structure of Chichen Itza. One building had a group of men nearby and when we got close to them, José gestured, choosing one to hold and display a notebook of photographs for him while he explained cultural aspects of the Mayan using the various photos in the notebook as reference. While I didn’t see an exchange of money at the time, I’m sure that the man received some kind of tip from José later.

Further, the site is carefully landscaped with raised pathways that lead to and from the different groupings of buildings as well as in and out of the site. There are also hotels that surround the area and one of which is directly adjacent to the grounds.

What did impress me was the fact that great effort has gone into restoring the structures as much as possible. Two sides of the main pyramid, called the El Castillo, are completely restored, but the other two are only partially restored. The view that the world sees in reproductions are the two famous sides that together create the shadow of a serpent’s body that connects to the sculpted serpent head at the foot of the steps after ‘crawling’ down on the solstice.

Archeologists have also dug into the great plaza in front of the pyramid to purposefully reveal the layers of foundation the Mayans built for the pyramid and the great plaza. A lot of stones from the various sites, including Chichen Itza, were removed to use in the building of local churches and cathedrals. The archeologists do not use new stones to complete restorations if they cannot locate the original. They simply leave those parts unfinished.

Despite the circus feel of Chichen Itza and the contrast to my admittedly fuzzy memory, it is still an impressive place. The scientific, mathematical, architectural, artistic, and political achievements are immediately apparent by the just the simple existence of the buildings.

Diego

Adiós Mérida, hola Villahermosa

Hola gente,

Hoy fue nuestro último día en Mérida ya que nuestro vuelo a Villahermosa salía a las dos y diez de la tarde. Como sólo teníamos muy poquitas horas antes de ir para el aeropuerto, decidimos madrugar y aprovechar la mañana para visitar el centro histórico de la ciudad. Paseamos por las calles entorno al Zócalo, visitamos la catedral (la más antigua de México, levantada entre los años 1562 y 1597), el Palacio de Gobierno y la Pinacoteca del estado Juan Gamboa Guzmán.

Como información básica, sólo deciros que Mérida, es conocida como la "Ciudad Blanca", fue fundada en 1542 por Francisco de Montejo y tiene más de 700,000 habitantes.

Por otra parte, contaros que nos ha encantado la comida yucateca de Mérida, que no es picante como la comida mexicana. Algunos platos típicos son la cochinita o pollo al pibil y la sopa de lima. Una planta que se utiliza mucho en la comida yucateca, por influencia de la cultura maya es la chaya, que es una hoja con muchas propiedades curativas y proporciona muchísimos beneficios al organismo... Hay cremas de chaya, bebidas zumos con chaya, sopas, etc. Aquí tenéis un enlace con más información sobre esta hoja curativa y otro sobre la gastronomía yucateca:

http://thematrix.sureste.com/cityview/merida1/articulos/chaya.htm

http://thematrix.sureste.com/cityview/merida1/articulos/cocinayu.htm


Bueno, mañana vamos a visitar la ciudad de Palenque. Es casi la una de la noche! muy buenas noche, gente!

Hasta la próxima.....

Raquel