Guadelupe the Corn Dancer

Gouache painting by Mitzi Linn
Guadelupe is dancing the corn ears....mazorca....recently harvested here in the Oaxaca valley. Just the other day Tito´s family in Teotitlan went to their fields to bring in corn, which will be dried and then used to make tortillas and tlayudas for their meals. His sister Reina is giving cooking classes at their family home in Teotitlan now after working with other chefs. I hope she will make me some mole negro to bring back.
Pilgrims scurry about too, arriving with fireworks to celebrate the day of the Virgin of Guadelupe on Sunday. My painting is part of a series of Guadelupes dancing, ie making sacred, various things--here, the corn.
Today is the Virgin of Juquila´s day.....before becoming catholic, ie before the conquest, both were goddesses of the indigenous people here. Juquila specifically comes from Oaxaca.

Yesterday I said hello to Quetzalcoatl (the feathered serpent).......who is still seen near or in the church (and prehispanic temple) in Teotitlan--hidden in a figure of the Christ....One of Q.´s aspects is creativity...Ojala me ayuda!