Remembering Those First Few Weeks

My Early Days In Oaxaca Are Forever Etched In My Memory

“Caged Power” — Image by Author

These past few weeks in the quiet and solitude of San Felipe del Agua, have provided ample opportunity to reflect on, and remember my first few weeks in Oaxaca de Juarez.

In many ways those first few weeks seem a world away. I am grateful for the hundreds of images I made during those early weeks. They provide a record, a map, and a reminder, of what I was seeing, and what I was feeling.

From the moment of my arrival, I instinctively knew on a deep level, I had finally arrived home.

The image above is one of the earliest. This view caught my attention in the first few days of walking in my new neighborhood. It is on a wall outside of the Mercado IV Centenario. And only a few blocks from where I was living. I walked past this wall countless times over the next months.

This bank of electric meters in a cage intrigued me every time I walked past it. “Caged Power” seems an apt metaphor. Although I never once saw the sliding doors closed and locked.

Power as a metaphor, has continued to fascinate me in my adopted home of Oaxaca. Signs of this essential element of life are everywhere in this city.