Friday, February 10, 2012

Oaxaca -- Religious Iconography

Church room, Mitla, Oaxaca, Mexico.  2007.
(Click images to make bigger)

Perhaps because I'm a skeptical agnostic I'm fascinated by religious iconography, and I find myself photographing it wherever I go.  Mexico is fantastic for this.  Catholicism, with all of its symbols, is strong, and signs of it are everywhere.  In 2007 I spent a week visiting Oaxaca, in southern Mexico.  I just heard on the radio today, that there are travel warnings for Americans in place again for much of Northern Mexico, but that Oaxaca is considered relatively safe from the violence of the drug wars, along with some of the Mexican resort destinations.  If you haven't been to Oaxaca, put it on your list.  The city itself is a thriving center for the arts, with a huge number of high quality galleries, and good restaurants to go with them.  The surrounding countryside is dotted with interesting villages centered around gorgeous old cathedrals, and there are opportunities to hike through spectacular mountainous terrain and deep limestone gorges.  Plus, they make mescal in this part of Mexico.  If you didn't know, tequila is a small subset of mescal, and aficionados can offer mescal tastings that will leave you not caring whether the last one you tried was any good or not.  But getting back to religious icons--I'll post up a few images from the Oaxaca area, and perhaps add images from other countries from time to time since I have so many of them.

Cathedral at Mitla, outside of Oaxaca.

Calendar

Cathedral at Mitla.

Graffiti in the City of Oaxaca.

Crosses, City of Oaxaca.

Window display, City of Oaxaca.

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