Matriarchal Project
Women of Tehuantepec Mexico 2005

Diary notes
By Simon Bird & Katerina Karaskova

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Tehuana Song in local Zapotec Language. 1:19 minutes. 199 KB

First impressions

On our way into town we saw women, big women riding motorized chariots ‘motor caros‘ ( 3 wheeled motor taxi ). They were driven by men, very puny men. The women were fully clad in traditional costume. Long flowing skirts and black tops embroidered with bright flowers. They appeared confident and powerful. It was 4pm the market was packing up, baskets of vegetables and maize were put onto motor caros as well.

We noted their destination ‘SanBlas‘.

History

It is said that the people of Tehuantepec are descendents of the once powerful Zapotec culture which existed here 1500 years ago, the ruins of a Zapotec temple pyramid still stands on a nearby mountain over looking the town.

So to the outsider it looked like women do all the work and business. They appeared educated and kept up with local gossip and politics, while the men slept. Hence the reason that this area is said to be a Matriarchal Culture.

The Market

The daily market spilled out onto surrounding streets and even the railway track. It is above the railway track that we saw men working away at sewing machines. They were working in dark rooms while outside in the colourful market below women laughed and joked.

One of the men who was neatly stitching up a length of flowery material told me that to be a Sasteria ( tailor ) was respected job.

Down in the market I spoke to a large woman wearing a purple and gold top and sky blue dress. She was selling flowers. She insisted that they were a poor family. Her two daughters were helping to bind flowers, but to me they all looked pretty well fed. She told me her husband was at home but didn‘t work in the fields.

She also said she lived in SanBlas a village connected to Tehuantepec, and asked if we had been there. The people are very friendly and speak Zapotec. From her descriptions it sounded poorer and more traditional than Tehuantepec. We said we would go there tomorrow.

Next we ventured upstairs in the main market building to find some food. We sat down and was served a giant portion of Mole e Pollo ( spicy chocolate sauce and chicken ). The cook a wholesome lady told us that here women mandar ( women rule ). She repeated this and thumped the table then laughed.

Frida Kahlo

The Tehuanas were once considered the most beautiful women in all Mexico. A claim many over sized Tehuanas of today still hang onto.

Frida Kahlo could have helped this fame along when she took to wearing their cloths. She liked the powerful floral designs of Tehuantepec, it seemed to compliment her socialist ideals. Her and Diego made many trips to Tehuantepec and according to locals even rented a house for 6 months along the railway track. Many of Frida’s self portraits picture her in traditional Tehuana dress.

Tehuana Festival Song in Zapotec Language. 1:30 minutes. 238 KB

The next day we followed the motor caros over a small hill heading south out of town. The centre of Tehuantepec had been noticeably influenced by Mexican/American development. Internet cafes and some small fast food joints. So we were looking forward to what we’d find in SanBlas apparently the strong hold of Matriarchal power.

SanBlas was a grid of mostly single story houses looking old and run down. There were a few shops and some street vendors selling tortias and chichas ( rice and fruit drinks ), but generally it was quite quiet. The odd group of kids livened things up and dogs made a bigger deal of our presence too than in Tehuantepec.

In the centre of the village next to a smelly central market, were four burnt out cars and a derelict council building.

Men standing nearby told us:

’ At the end of Jan. there was a demonstration by the opposing political party in San Blas, but it got out of hand. They ended up trying to burn the PRD council building down with the Dipua de local Oaxaca inside. She just escaped with her life.

‘Augustina Acerdo Gutierrez’ grew up in SanBlas and speaks the local Zapotec language fluently but the opposing party blames her for neglecting her own village. Although she does have a house here in SanBlas which she visits at weekend. Her constituency includes SanBlas, Tehuantepec, Salina Cruise and Jujitan. The whole Zapotec speaking area.’

On one street we saw drunken men slobbering around on the raised pavements. We sketched. Then women appeared and collected sacks of coal from a delivery lorry.

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Another view I choose to sketch was looking towards a dry hillside dotted with scrub and simple concrete houses. In the street some more drunken men staggered about outside a refrescaria ( bar ). Periodically a motor caro buzzed passed carrying women with baskets of maize over to the market in Tehuantepec.

On another visit to SanBlas, we ask a few people the question 'Are women stronger than men ?

‘Yes,’ said a Woman selling mango with salt and chilli.

She was saying yes to everything.

‘No men and women are equal, but women look after money,’ said a woman customer buying some mangos.

At the next street stall they laughed with one another and didn't reply.

‘Women look after the family, men go to work in the fields, women sell the vegetables at the market then keep the money,’ said a lady walking down the street. She continued. ‘yes it is a matriarchal society here, but the men think that it isn‘t.’

She looks up the street at a crowd of men sat on a raised pavements smoking cigarettes.

We said, ‘so women look after the money ?’

‘Yes this is true.’

‘So women have some control ?’

‘Yes sometimes but we cannot say that because there are problems in San Blas. Most families are very poor. Men get money to drink mescal. My husband is a motor caro driver, that is better than working in the fields but is hard.’

She didn't say there was a problem with domestic violence in SanBlas, but she was implying it by being reserved when she spoke her mind.

On our way back to Tehuantepec we see a man lying on a woman’s lap apparently exhausted. Had he worked himself to death in the fields ? A machete and a tomato were next to him. The woman had one hand on his head the other on his chest but was distracted looking away at some other women down the street. I sketched.

Tehuantepec men traditional guitar music. 3:51 minutes. 606 KB

We had gone to see the local political leader ‘Augustina Acerdo Gutierrez’ but we just missed her, she had returned to Oaxaca.

( 8 months later Katerina called back into Tehauntepec on her way to Mexico, but sadly she misses the Politition woman again. Here are a few other people she met on her breif visit.

Yesterday I went to see the fruit woman, she recognised me straight away and was very pleased. I think she is a very good example of an amancipated woman, she is 79 and says she looks so good because she never had to put up with a man. She never got married nor had children but brought up her neiphew and paid all his education. She said men loved her but she never wanted to get married because they are horrible alcoholics.

Another I met a Zapotec man who was an alcoholic, he was a really nice person. He said he is drinking because his wife has died and he is all alone in the house. Now he drinks from morning till evening. So not all male alcoholics are horrible. )

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Fiesta

In the early evening we went to a local fiesta. A large colourful plastic shelter with cut out paper streamers spanned the street. 2 lorries of bottled beer were parked either side with ice containers on the ground.

Women were one side and men the other and in the middle was a dance floor and a 5 piece brass band playing local fiesta/ballroom music.

An ice-cream seller tried to catch my eye, he didn’t seem to be getting much business since all the beer was free.

The women had made a special effort and found their most colourful dresses. Men wore jeans with a shirt but had added a dark blue scarf over his shoulders.

The women invited us for a beer, they sat around on deck chairs drinking quite a lot. leaving the bottles on the ground for the dogs to lick at.

Dancing we only saw women with other women doing swishy slow numbers while lifting their dresses to the music.

On the men’s side to be honest I felt more relaxed because I didn’t have to be polite every time we were handed a beer ( maybe not Katerina ). The men didn’t dance, partly because they were so drunk that they could hardly walk. A nearby wall was set aside as a toilet. Some men lay on the floor. It was quite disgusting but in my mind typically Mexican at the same time.

We sketched both sides and found that unlike the women, the men actually wanted to model for us. Then at about 7pm a fight broke out between the women and men. Something to do with one side drinking more than they should ? Shouting lasted another 30 minutes. After that the fiesta carried on normally.

Later women would walk over slowly and pick men up off the ground and take them home ( presumably husbands ).

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Policeman and Bar fight

This man had previously asked if I wanted to buy any marijuana or cocaine. When I said no, he then introduced himself as the local policeman and showed his identification card. Was this really the level of corruption in Mexico or just cheap Mexican joke ? I accepted a beer.

I asked the Policeman if this was a matriarchal society here.

‘Women mandar,’ I said

There was a hesitation, then a slow nodding of the head and an exchange of glances with his colleague.

‘Yes it is true,’ he said in a serious voice. Then they both laughed and we drank beer.

After the policemen left the bar a fight erupted. This women walked in and started yelling at a women sat on a stool. The barman saw it coming and rushed over but too late. The women were at each other throats kicking and shouting. Against these enormous women the barman appeared dwarfed and could do little to stop the action. A group of men shuffled their chair over to give them more space.

Local Artist / Historian

‘Does this matriarchal culture affect your Art?’ We asked him.

‘In SanBlas maybe over there the women are stronger that is the most traditional area, but they don't produce much art. In this area Artists make pictures about what they want. Many people who came to visit of course made pictures about the women. ie. Diego Rivero and sometimes a few local Artists. There are very few women painters, Women like to make the cloths more. Women in San Blas are quite unusual and can be quite aggressive and political active. The attack on Augustina’s life was because she had forgotten her roots and is only interested in her own political gains.’

‘Is Zapotec culture a matriarchal society in antiquity ?’

‘I don't know ?’ he said.

‘No this is not a matriarchal culture, men are in control. It is just because men work in the fields early then rest so women are the only ones that are seen around town,’ said the English Teacher confidently.

‘But women are very big and fat and men are small, that must account for something.’ We said.

‘yes but men are still stronger,’ he replied.

The English teacher was a local, but couldn’t speak the local Zapotec language.

Mistekia is a village near the mountains about 30 minutes from Tehuantepec. Diego Rivero had used this location as a backdrop for one of his famous murals about Zapotec culture. He depicted the Zapotec men as workers of the land and the women as sellers of maize and flowers. He painted the women in beautiful dresses and the men in plain white smocks both looking proud as his Marxist ideals would have liked. No clues pointed towards a matriarchal system.

We arrived in Mistekia at 6am hoping to find men working the field in age old tradition. What we found was a very well organised net work of concrete canals and tractor ploughed fields. No-one in white smocks A few of the old men wore a white shirt. Then men said they don’t go to work at 3am any longer and in fact had never done in there life time, but insisted other places they still do.

Mushers are gays, who are accepted by their Tehuantepec families. They are given the general tasks of women and most importantly they have the job of looking after the mother and father in old age, they will not be married off. Both women and men told us that a family would be pleased if one of their off spring turned out to be a Musher. This in staunchly Catholic Mexico where gays are looked down upon is quite an exception, because of this Tehuantepec has become something of a sanctuary for gays from surrounding towns.