San Andrés Tuxtla Regional Museum

Preview of the new museum soon to open in downtown San Andrés Tuxla near Catemaco.

Slideshow of 30 photos

Catemaco Road Monsters

Not far from beautiful downtown Catemaco, Veracruz, sits one of the oldest European towns in the Americas. Santiago Tuxtla occupies the valley below an ancient volcano, on whose sides numerous Olmec artifacts were discovered.

On a recent trip to the small town, we passed about 20 humongous motor homes slowly inching along the sinuous road curves in this region. Obviously they were heading for Catemaco. Noone in their right mind would travel the federal highway towards the Yucatan instead of the toll road.
But not one of these road monsters stopped at the regional Museum Tuxteco in Santiago Tuxtla.
This small museum contains samples of the most important archaeological finds in Los Tuxtlas, including the smallest and largest Olmec heads.

So much for cultural hedonism.

Don Gringo

In beautiful downtown Catemaco, I have finally joined the nobility. I now find myself among the ranks of Don Juan, Don Corleone, and Don Quixote.

Derived from the Latin "dominus", meaning master or owner, the shortened "Don" and "Doña" entered the Spanish mainstream as an address of respect for mostly noble folks. A few other international organizations have also usurped the title, namely the American Mafia, British university professors, and a few Christian religious orders (Dom).

A recently met Spaniard was visibly upset when he heard me addressed as "Don (plus first name)". Obviously I was not noble enough for him.

In Mexico usage of "Don" has degenerated to where nowadays most everybody is a "Don". It is only used in combination with a first name and generally reserved for somewhat older people and those with a little political or economic clout. So when I look for the shoeless peasant providing me with tree cuttings, I look for Don Jose, and when I speak to my older maid I call her Doña Maria.

The Spaniards, though, are stuck to applying "Don" to real blue blooded nobles and mailing addresses.

Ironically my name is neither Don nor am I a real gringo. I picked up the nickname when after someone addressed me as "Hey Gringo", I replied the equivalent of That is Don Gringo to you".

Catemaco Mañanitas

I recently paid a thousand pesos to waken my good buddy with a birthday Mañanita on his 65th birthday after 28 years in beautiful uptown Catemaco and he promply stayed asleep during the perfomance at 5 AM in the morning.

Las Mañanitas are sort of a love song and my good buddy certainly did not deserve that, especially when I used my car alarm and mariachi trumpets to remind him.

Nevertheless, across 1000`s of communities in Mexico people are daily awakend to the tunes of “Mañanitas” and live to tell about them.Mañanita Lyrics:

Estas son las mañanitas que cantaba el Rey Davidalas muchachas bonitas, se las cantamos aquí.
Despierta mi bien despierta, mira que ya amaneció,ya los pajarillos cantan la luna ya se metió.
Si el sereno de la esquina, me quisiera hacer favor.de apagar su linternita mientras que pasa mi amor.
Despierta mi bien despierta, mira que ya amaneció,ya los pajarillos cantanla luna ya se metió.
Ahora si, señor sereno, le agradezco su favor.encienda su linternitaque ya ha pasado mi amor.
Amapolita doradade los llanos de Tepic.si no estas enamorada, enamórate de mi.
Despierta mi bien despierta,mira que ya amaneció,ya los pajarillos cantanla luna ya se metió.

Catemaco Art

Most touristic places have a gallery or two stuck away in an alley or on a hill, but beautiful downtown Catemaco apparently prefers to serve its art with "Made in China" stickers.

The last known artist in Catemaco, a wonderful fellow named Hector, who made many of the molds for Nanciyaga, fled the city for Montepio more than a year ago.

I know art or beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, and my friend Art weighs more than 200 pounds. Nevertheless, Catemaco is dying for an art colony specializing in mysticism.

Ok, so they won´t sell anything to the mostly cheap tourists that come here. Yet, they would add a cultural dimension to beautiful downtown Catemaco that is missing at present.

If they can sell the above "thing" on the internet, then there is definitely some room for "art" in Catemaco. Now! Would you pay US 139.95 plus shipping for the above view? If not - how about US 39.99? (search for Catemaco in Google purchases).

Catemaco Women

Although rockets sparkle the sky on this International Day of Women in beautiful downtown Catemaco, Veracruz, the status of many women here is not much above the status of a favorite horse. Many Gringos, especially the older ones who seek shelter in Mexico from their incompetence in the USA, consider Mexican women LBFM´s (littlebrownfuckingmachines) based on their acquaintance with the result of the failure of Mexican women´s participation in their country`s economic and social development.

Women in Mexico gained the right to vote in federal elections in 1947. Civil rights for women in 2006, although included in various federal & state legislations are still lacking in judicial applications. Customary women´s rights in the rural areas of Mexico are similar to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan without the head dress.

Although laws exist to prohibit the applications, traditionally, women cannot inherit property, and in essence become chattel of their first born sons.

Only a few years ago, Mexican law acknowledged marital rape as a crime. Physical wife abuse is still one of the primary reasons for deployment of police forces in Mexico and Los Tuxtlas and usually still results in legal avoidance.

Child sale or trade still occurs, especially of female babies. But, fortunately, Mexico´s extreme effort to end the spiraling population curve has produced satisfying results in the decrease of that particularly nasty curve. Pre-natal and child care is barely above minimal international levels.

Psychologically, many Mexicans are dependent on ownership of their “tierra” as a fountain for their identity, especially among native peoples; and as a consequence, the Mexican government politically is obligated to retain rural people on their “tierra” and supports them via numerous hand outs, leaving mostly women holding the “so called farm”. In many cases it is the women of Catemaco who are heavily impacted by their men´s migration to greener pastures, both within Mexico and the USA, and they depend on their husband´s transmission of monies to stay alive, and , if not, “man” the hundreds of vendor stands for their survival.

On this day, the International Day of Women, aside from all women everywhere, I especially salute those women of Catemaco and Los Tuxtlas, who maintained their families, struggled within the ingrained Mexican bureaucracy and SURVIVED.

Conaculo

CONACULO
There´s a saying in Los Tuxtlas which loosely translates and sort of rhymes in Spanish: Santiago has the culture, San Andres has the money and Catemaco has the garbage. It stems from Catemaco´s long ago ownership of a major dumpsite for Los Tuxtlas.

Apparently CONACULTA, Mexico´s major government cultural agency, and its chain of national bookstores “Libros y Arte” still consider Los Tuxtlas on par with garbage.On a recent visit to Veracruz city, the closest place to Los Tuxtlas and Catemaco, the two had absolutely “nada” on either subject.What a shame! Especially after listening to speech after project after proposal to promote Tuxtlas tourism.

In Veracruz CONACULO is not alone, neither the largest bookstore chain in Mexico, “Libreria Cristal”, nor Veracruz´s alleged best book store “The Spynx” (espinge?, I can´t recall how the store spelled it), has anything available on Los Tuxtlas.
If you´re interested in Catemaco books, check the tuxtlas.com Books unfinished web section on that subject.