Most importantly, what is your dog's name? So true all you cited of the comparisons. I do feel for the dogs as guard dogs here and yet, I know it's a cultural difference. I am secretly talking and feeding carrots and kibble to the dogs on the next roof from me in La Noria. They are confined to the hot roof and sit amongst dog poop for at least a month before it's cleaned up. They have little shade, no people company and are confined to the roof to bark at any and all passerbys. I feel honored that they know my voice and whistle so have ceased barking at me when I am on the street. I go nowhere in Oaxaca without carrying a bag of dog food so that I can give the strays a momentary of pleasure. I will keep on loving all animals regardless of what culture I am surrounded by. "Dogs are people too."
We named our two dogs Tigre and Loo! Tigre came with that name and we decided not to change it, and Loo’s full name is “Loohvana,” which is the Indigenous name for our town, but we call him Loo for short. We feel very fortunate to have found them, they’re really incredible.
So glad you all found one another. There are many street dogs in the villages that would love homes. Fortunately there are a few groups working on sterilization
Thank you for this insight! I am planning to move to Oaxaca in the next year or so from Baltimore. Though the noise might annoy me a little, are streets cleaner than NY or Bmore? I’m also considering San Miguel. My visit this summer will give me more insight. Thank you!
hey, that’s exciting! In general yes, it actually really surprised us how sparklingly clean Oaxaca is. There are definitely neighborhoods with trash problems, but in most of the villages we’ve visited we’ve noticed how little trash there is, and thee are large parts of the city that are also quite clean.
Great post. I fully agree with all your observations, and am doing plenty of my own notes for future writing while here in Mexico. I emigrated out of the US in 2015, to Canada, for all the same reasons and more, and just became a Canadian citizen earlier this year. Of course, some problems are not that different there (opioid epidemic), but the overall education, social and safety and health nets are in a far better place. I’m sort of settled nowadays in a more functionally-neutral (if boring) country to reengage with travelling and being in more humane and adventurous places like MX, and I really think there’s something special about Oaxaca, as I already wrote, and want to keep returning here. Would also like to travel around Chiapas and other places in the future, I think despite a place like Mexico’s problems and annoyances (water!! Noise!!), there is a deep humanity and presence in people and their interactions I think that are largely missing in basically all to most of the developed world at this point, but compared to the extremes of dysfunctions in America it is especially galling—it’s hard to say what the culture or root for most people is at this point beyond consumerism and acquisition of power and status to the degree it’s available, even Mexicans here I’ve talked with who have lived there and profited from it said it’s a much more stressful place to live overall.
Most importantly, what is your dog's name? So true all you cited of the comparisons. I do feel for the dogs as guard dogs here and yet, I know it's a cultural difference. I am secretly talking and feeding carrots and kibble to the dogs on the next roof from me in La Noria. They are confined to the hot roof and sit amongst dog poop for at least a month before it's cleaned up. They have little shade, no people company and are confined to the roof to bark at any and all passerbys. I feel honored that they know my voice and whistle so have ceased barking at me when I am on the street. I go nowhere in Oaxaca without carrying a bag of dog food so that I can give the strays a momentary of pleasure. I will keep on loving all animals regardless of what culture I am surrounded by. "Dogs are people too."
We named our two dogs Tigre and Loo! Tigre came with that name and we decided not to change it, and Loo’s full name is “Loohvana,” which is the Indigenous name for our town, but we call him Loo for short. We feel very fortunate to have found them, they’re really incredible.
So glad you all found one another. There are many street dogs in the villages that would love homes. Fortunately there are a few groups working on sterilization
for free (donations) to keep the numbers down.
Keep up the suburb writing.
Thank you for this insight! I am planning to move to Oaxaca in the next year or so from Baltimore. Though the noise might annoy me a little, are streets cleaner than NY or Bmore? I’m also considering San Miguel. My visit this summer will give me more insight. Thank you!
hey, that’s exciting! In general yes, it actually really surprised us how sparklingly clean Oaxaca is. There are definitely neighborhoods with trash problems, but in most of the villages we’ve visited we’ve noticed how little trash there is, and thee are large parts of the city that are also quite clean.
Great post. I fully agree with all your observations, and am doing plenty of my own notes for future writing while here in Mexico. I emigrated out of the US in 2015, to Canada, for all the same reasons and more, and just became a Canadian citizen earlier this year. Of course, some problems are not that different there (opioid epidemic), but the overall education, social and safety and health nets are in a far better place. I’m sort of settled nowadays in a more functionally-neutral (if boring) country to reengage with travelling and being in more humane and adventurous places like MX, and I really think there’s something special about Oaxaca, as I already wrote, and want to keep returning here. Would also like to travel around Chiapas and other places in the future, I think despite a place like Mexico’s problems and annoyances (water!! Noise!!), there is a deep humanity and presence in people and their interactions I think that are largely missing in basically all to most of the developed world at this point, but compared to the extremes of dysfunctions in America it is especially galling—it’s hard to say what the culture or root for most people is at this point beyond consumerism and acquisition of power and status to the degree it’s available, even Mexicans here I’ve talked with who have lived there and profited from it said it’s a much more stressful place to live overall.