Oaxacan culture to be celebrated in Arts Center exhibit

By: CANDICE REED - For the North County Times | Saturday, April 2, 2005 8:58 PM PST ∞

SAN MARCOS ---- There's more to many of the men and women who toil in the fields of North County than the jobs they do. They come from a rich and ancient culture that will be celebrated in a new exhibit starting Saturday called "Medicina Mixteca" at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.

The exhibit, which will showcase the proud people of Oaxaca, Mexico, will be open during a free family festival from 1 to 4 p.m. featuring Oaxacan food, entertainment and cultural exploration. The exhibit is open to the public free of charge and will include traditional music, food and dance as well as children's activities.

Two Cal State San Marcos professors ---- Bonnie Bade, a medical anthropologist and Deborah Small of the visual arts department ----� have spent more than 15 years studying and documenting the medicinal and cultural practices of the Mixtec people ---- people descended from the Mesoamerican Indian people of southern Mexico whose civilization was overthrown by the Aztecs in the 16th century.

"We took a lot of joy working with members of the Oaxacan communities in both Mexico and California to research and document the traditional medicinal concepts and practices of the indigenous people of Oaxaca, Mexico," said Bade.

"They have a beautiful history and people should realize that they are more than just local farm workers."

Bade said that there are at least 100,000 indigenous Mixtec Indians who have relocated to California from Mexico as migrant workers and more than 25,000 live and work in San Diego County.

"They brought so many of their traditional medicinal practices with them, such as the sweat bath, the use of medicinal plants, and ritual healing," she said. "Part of the reason for this exhibit is to illuminate and capture them doing their activities while trying to show how unique they are."

The exhibit focuses on all aspects of Mixtec medicine, including diagnostic methods, medical treatments, the medicinal practitioner, and features photographs that Small took on her many trips to Mexico as well as in gardens, migrant camps and people's homes.

"This is a large-scale exhibit where we show plants that are still being used today in medicine," Small said. "We have so many moving and wonderful images which will show off the colorful past of these great people."

The project is based on ethnographic research conducted in collaboration with Don Primo Dominguez, a Mixtec healer from Juxtlahuaca, Oaxaca. The exhibition is also sponsored by CSUSM students, local Oaxacan families and organized Oaxacan groups, including the North County-based Coalition of Indigenous Oaxacan Communities and the Indigenous Binational Organizations.

The family festival is co-hosted by the Arts Center, the Escondido Children's Museum, COCIO and Center ARTES at CSUSM. The exhibit will be on display until July 5.

For more information, call (800) 988-4253.�