As Oaxaca's Food Scene Booms, Restaurateurs Say Teacher Protests Imperil Business
A booming brass band greeted parishioners as they exited the historic Santo Domingo de Guzmán Catholic Church in Oaxaca City on a recent Friday afternoon. Street vendors hawking everything from roasted corn to textiles looked on as women emerged from the Baroque parish dressed in the style of the tehuanas, the women of Oaxaca's Isthmus of Tehuantepec celebrated in Mexican culture for their beauty, entrepreneurial know-how, and colorful blouses. (The fashion's most famous fan: the artist Frida Kahlo, whose mother was from the region.)
It was the southern Mexican state at its picturesque best, and befitting of Oaxaca City's colonial-era downtown, which got a "36 Hours In..." feature in earlier this spring. But surrounding this bucolic scene was a different story: It was teacher's strike season — the bane of Oaxaca's restaurateurs.
