LA GUELAGUETZA

As published by JPlus by The Jakarta Post, December 2015

La Guelaguetza, one of the biggest festivals in Mexico

It’s worth visiting Oaxaca in July, when the city stages La Guelaguetza, one of the biggest festivals in Mexico.

La Guelaguetza takes its name from the Zapotec word for “the present”, which in a broad sense represents an attitude of sharing with neighbours, nature and life.

The pinnacle of the festival is the Lunes de Cerro, or Monday of the Hill, when there’s folk dancing, chanting and other rituals performed by people from throughout the state.

I watched the festivities at the modern Guelaguetza Auditorium, located above Fortin Hill close to the city centre.

While the most expensive tickets cost 1050 Mexican pesos (US$65), it’s also possible to enjoy Lunes de Cerro in the free seats, if you don’t mind sitting a little far from the action and are willing to arrive at least two hours in advance.

Most of the performances I saw were accompanied by chilena music, an Afro-Mexican fusion genre from coastal Oaxaca.

Men and women danced in pairs. Following each act, performers and organizers threw presents into the crowd, such as handicrafts, tortilla crackers, sweets and coffee.

Women dancers from the Tuxtepec region emerged carrying pineapples on their shoulders and dancing in line – and pitched bananas, oranges and pineapples into the crowd after the show.

Tuxtepec Women

I was blown away by an Aztec-Mixtec’s feather dance act, where eight men, each with about 25 kilograms of plumes tied to their heads, jumped and danced.

Feather Dance

There was also magic, as a blindfolded woman danced across the stage in search of a needle given to one member of the 11,000-or-so people in the audience. Of course, she succeeded in finding it and danced her way back to the stage with her eyes still eyes covered.

Women from Oaxaca city then emerged, dancing with huge flower baskets on their heads that held giant puppets inside, only to be joined by all the performers before the festivities ended with a fireworks party.

The Guelaguetza also involves various activities throughout the month. In 2015, the local government
invited native vendors to participate in street bazaars while museums conducted cultural workshops and exhibitions.

Wowrale!

Life has been different lately as new experiences dropped by. I moved from Jakarta to Mexico City. I have a new job, new boyfriend, new places visited, new language learned, and new friends that express "orale!" for many different reasons.

It is a magic word in Mexican Spanish language. Let me give some examples to explain the idea.

At San Marcos Festival, State of Aguascalientes

"Let's play football," I say. "Orale!" they say.
This means let's go.

"I bought a new dress for one dollar," I say. "Orale!" they say.
This means Oh my God!

"The traffic is unbearable," I say. "Orale!" they say.
This means I agree

There are many more Mexican slang I have learned since my arrival to this Northern American country. "Que padre!" is the Mexican expression of "Cool!", yet "padre" literally means father. Another expression of the same significance is "Que chido!".

"Mande!" is used when you do not hear clearly what someone is telling you. Not even other Spanish speakers would understand it. "Pardon me" is its English match.

Instead of the common Spanish word "trabajar", which means to work, Mexican love the word "chambear" more. Then it makes the noun addressed as "chamba" instead of "trabajo".

One of my sources to learn the slang is my Mexican roomie. When he is on the phone, he may repeat twenty "güey" in one minute call. This word means "dude". Then when he craves for beer, he would ask a glass of "chela" instead of widely-known Spanish "cerveza".

My favourite Mexican slang is "Aguas!", because it has the same message as in Indonesian "awas!", or "watch out" in English. The word "agua" in Spanish means water. This alerting expression rose in the Colonial era when the water drainage system was not well established. Therefore people used to throw dirty water from the balcony to the street, and to warn people who passed by, they shouted "aguas".

In my humble opinion, those slang words are what make Spanish language interesting, yet difficult to master. They reflects the culture, at some points education of one.

People with higher level of education in Mexico refuse to use such words, thus I would use standard Spanish to converse with important persons. Although I still sound like foreigner for lacking Mexican accent, I try to put some slang into my street conversation. I am glad that they do not judge me for trying too hard to blend in, contrarily they appreciate me of doing it and it often makes them laugh. Well, I don´t mind people laughing at me this way. After all it is always better to laugh than to frown.

Eradicating Corruption with Music

I met Mul and Rendi last year in a humble house which serves them as basecamp in Depok, just a little bit South out of Jakarta. It was an interview assignment for the mass media I worked at, to make a profile story of this community, or syndication.

They call themselves SIMPONI (Music Syndicate of Earth Dwellers). Gamulya, or Mul for short, acts as the leader or manager of the music group. Rendi Ahmad who also earned credit in a couple of Indonesian features film is one of the talents. The others are musicians with various music genres, including beatboxers. Together they promoted environmental awareness with music in 82 schools for 82 days. For this they received an appreciation from Indonesia's Record Museum (MURI).

Recently these musicians cum activists have been working on different project: anti-corruption, collaborating with Indonesian Corruption Watch. They grieve for the government of Indonesia, who are comfortable with corruption. "Saweran" or fundraising to construct a new building of Corruption Eradication Commission is one thing. They did what they know best, playing music while moved people come and go to donate.

In the meantime, they heard about international anti-corruption music video competition who had been calling musicians from all around the globe to submit their work. The best three videos will be invited to attend the 15th International Anti-Corruption Conference in Brazil. 

Mul does not bother winning, but he sees the power of social media. By making video the message could be spread out everywhere more attractively. The clip was produced low-budgetly by documentarian Dandhy D Laksono from WatchdoC Indonesia.

The song and music video "Vonis (Verdict)" was launched today, 1st of August, at Newseum Cafe Veteran Street Jakarta. As well there was a short discussion with the video's director and historian Bonny Triyana, who revealed that corruption in Indonesia has actually started ever since the country got its independency.

CDs comprising the song and video were sold for 50 thousand rupiah (five thousand will go to saweran) to fund "Indonesia Without Corruption Tour", a commemoration of the 9th anniversary of anti-corruption day on 9th December 2012. The group aim at 90 campuses in 9 provinces, hopefully not only in Java. Care to support the movement? You can contact @simponii at twitter or send e-mail to simponi10@gmail.com