Life and Death in Zaachila, Zapotec capital

The town of Zaachila is renowned as the last capital of the ancient Zapotec people, after they left Monte Alban (in Zapotec: Dani Beedxe or Dani Baán) and the Mixtecos took it over. Zaachila is the namesake of Zaachila Yoo, a Zapotec ruler in the late 14th century. It is also the birthplace and hometown of Donaji, known as the "last Zapotec princess" and who is the subject of a star-crossed lovers legend between the Zapotec & the Mixtec peoples. Zaachila, as the capital of the Zapotec people, was also the home of Cosijoeza, Coquitao ("King" in Zapotec) and his son Cosijopii of the Zaachila empire. Cosijoeza fought the Mexica (aka Azteca) when they came to conquer and through an alliance with the Mixtec king Dzahuindand succeeded in expelling the Mexica, at least for a time, until a treaty was proposed by the Mexica and accepted. Both Cosijoeza and Cosijopii were alive when the Spaniards arrived in the valles centrales of what would someday be Oaxaca.

Today, Zaachila is still a cultural capital, if not an imperial one (although it does have two municipal governments, neither recognizes the validity of the other one)- with a wealth of dance, music, gastronomy with traditions that go back generation upon generation and Zaachila Zapotec is still spoken. Market day- Thursday- is one of these traditions and the reason we went to visit. This market is composed of the open air stalls known as tianguis. Not quite as large as Tlacolula but still plenty large!!! We tried a prehispanic maize-based food that we'd never even heard of -- called "nicuatole"

Eric with a hunk of nicualote at the Zaachila mercado

Nicuatole is a sweet gelatina made with maize (corn), sugar, and canela (cinnamon). There were two colors available-- the vendor shared a little piece of the "blanco" with us so we could taste it. Then we bought an "amarillo" one-- it comes in a plastic bowl that she upends, cuts into pieces, and puts into a plastic bag for us. I'm not sure that the red topping has any real flavor. Turns out that the "amarillo" has a very distinct smokey flavor, like the nieve leche quemada! Who knew? We just thought it was made with yellow maize as opposed to white!

Some views of the mercado/tianguis of Zaachila:

I'm always so obsessed with the way that the tarps that almost every vendor hangs over their stall is anchored...everyone has got their own color rope and they intertwine like the strands of a spiderweb. There are so many over-lapping tarps that it is like you are under a roof while strolling along the mercado. A couple of vendors were still putting up their tarps in this foto

lots of moles for sale as well

 We then walked over to the Zona Arqueologica which is in the middle of town, behind the small church (sacred ground, anyone? yes) on a hill called "el cerrito." It's a small site, with several un-excavated mounds but there are two tombs one can visit (two other tombs have apparentily also been excavated but are not open to the public, nor can you tell where they are, even). These are Zapotec tombs but also show some influence of Mixtec customs. The artefacts found in the tombs have been removed to Mexico City (speaking of cultural imperialism...) but the tombs themselves are cool to visit. Tomba #1 has some beautiful carvings/paintings on the wall of the tomb. The tomb belonged to Lord 9 Flowers, but 5 Flowers is also depicted as well as Coqui Bezelao, the Zapotec god of death.

Tomb #2 - here you can see the archeologist-reconstructed relief work (that's the bit with little rocks in the mortar) above the lintel leading into the tomb

And then there is some relief work that is original- really cool!

Eric down in the entrance to Tomb #1, that of Lord 9 Flowers. Here you can see that the lintel still retains the red used to paint it as does the background of the bas-relief above it- Very cool!

Two owls - creatures of night/death are on the interior of the tomb

This figure-- at the back of the tomb seems to be flying through the space, has a turtle shell on his back as well as representation of talking

the head of the god- notice still has traces of paint. Gorgeous! Just beautiful!!

The head and hand (which is holding copal incense) of Lord Nine Flowers. He was hard to get a foto of, given that he's at the back of a side wall. But I loved his face- so dignified and serious

A mound of earth over unexcavated tombs on site.

View of the church from the top of the mound in previous pic

view of the excavated tombs from the mound

From the entrance to the archeological site, Zaachila

After the archeological site, we headed back into present day via the church:

 

A reminder that Nov 1, 2 (Dia de Muertos) is coming...

And on that theme... We walked along the street that goes between the church and the panteon (cemetery) so naturally all the houses & businesses on this street have amazing muertos murals and street art! Here's a few, see fb album for more! 

quite a lot of demo/contstruction going on inside this wall

despite the fact that the mural is in decay (jaja), I loved the esqueleto opening the "shutters" of the "window"

skulls...or electrical meters?! SO.FREAKIN.AWESOME

this mural of muertitos baking pizzas in a wood fire oven blends into the cochera of a Neapolitan pizza place, see next foto.

Because life and death are inextricable in Mexico (well, they are everywhere, it's just that Mexican culture is very upfront about that!)