Customer Reviews

Oaxaca: The Spirit of Mexico

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Oaxaca: The Spirit Of Mexico is a heady, joyous celebration of Mexican life and culture. A vivid, coffee-table extravaganza packed cover to cover with gorgeous, full-color photographs taken by Judith Cooper Haden are embellished with insightful text commentary by Matthew Jaffe. Highly recommended reading for the armchair traveler, Oaxaca is a wondrous book brimming with festive spirit and a deep connection to Mexico's rich past and exciting future.

I purchased this book for a ten year old girl who is facinated with Oaxaca as I also am. I also purchased one for myself, it is a beautiful book and something wonderful to share with others. The illustrations are beautiful and very colorful, it depicts Oaxaca and their people as they truly are.

My first visit to Oaxaca, via overnight bus from Mexico City, got in at 6 AM...long story short, it was a little too early for people to be up and about in Oaxaca--too early to check in to my hotel, streets were empty and the air had a tiny mountainous chill, marketplace by the church had tables where the vendors were still asleep under them (also used for mid day siesta, a I later found out)...finally I sat in a tiny park and watched the sun baked dusty streets fill with brilliant life: literally. The few trees were astir with hummingbirds, swallows, butterflies, in swirling riotous clouds of life. The sun rose higher, and by 11, another Oaxaca day began, one I would learn had an almost otherworldly rhythm to it: siesta during the day's hottest hours, then a return to business, followed by the long, wonderful sunset and evening spectacle of the town's main plaza, the Zocalo. Oaxaca was complex, rich, filled with life. Poor in some ways but immensely strong, with a sense of histories and cultures far older than I could even imagine...and this book captures it all. The markets, the faces of young and old. Just an amazingly rich book, with stunning images. Worth every penny.