Oaxaca is my favorite city in Mexico. I have spent hours walking the narrow streets, people watching, haunting the galleries and museums, praying in the cathedral and sketching the water fountains and gardens. The ancient traditions can be seen in the parades and fiestas that fill the calendar. Especially important is the Day of The Dead. The venerable are brought to life as in the Disney rendition COCO, a sweet story of a young boy trying to bridge the gap between old and new, life and death.
This year has brought to my alter of memories my dear friend Suze, artist Fili and now a most unexpected guest Leslie Jordan. What a shocker! I guess none of us knows when our time is up.
Enjoy this 2017 blog from Casa Colibrí (House of the Hummingbird) on Day of the Day events in Oaxaca.
When Día de Muertos approaches, the panaderías (bakeries) work overtime to fill their shelves and counters with Pan de Muertos — an egg based bread, sometimes elaborately decorated, but always with a cabecita (also known as a muñeca), a little painted flour dough head, at the top.
The most intricately decorated bread comes from Mitla. For a few years, Mitla held a Pan de Muertos fair and competition, with prizes for decoration. Alas, because their bread is in such demand, the feria was halted two years ago as the bakers put a priority on attending to their customers needs — this is their livelihood, after all!
However, the small pueblo, Villa Díaz Ordaz picked up the slack and last year began holding a Festival del Pan de Muertos. The village is off the beaten path and the festival hasn’t yet drawn much in the way of tourism, but it’s a…
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the adventures of dos tortas 
I was in Puerto Penasco for Día de los Muertos. There, the bread isn’t painted at all. A simple round bread with four “bones”, one on each side, and a dollop on top to symbolize tears for the departed.
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Bread not painted here either. Same shape as you describe. I never knew why. Thanks for the explanation.
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