OSCAR MARTÍNEZ GALINDO
Until we understand that we are nature, Oscar the painter, Oscar the writer, Oscar the
sculptor— that is only ego. That is the way society and people see me. But I am water, I am wind, I am Earth, I am fire.
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We met with Oscar Martínez Galindo in Lachatao deep in the Sierra Norte mountain range. An artist and anthropologist by profession he spent his life searching for a sacred site he discovered in ancient scripture at a young age, El Cerro del Jaguar, Hill of the Jaguar. Decades later, language led him here and ended his search. Translated from local spoken Zapoteco 'Lachi' signifies heart and 'Tao' signifies sacred. In its original pronunciation you would say Lachitao, the sacred heart of Oaxaca.
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The existence of these sacred spaces, of their physical, semantic and phonetic power reverberating spiritual ripples from our ancestors, unveils something powerful about the age-old connection between our species and the natural equilibrium of an environment we all take part in. The idea that we are all connected is only recently being scientifically accepted in quantum physics and we can watch Netflix series aimed at showing us how every life form on Earth, microorganisms and giants, participate in the fragile continuation of flourishing ecosystems in perfect harmony.
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Since discovering the Cerro del Jaguar Oscar teaches rituals there with the generation's aged and youth in an effort to revive and strengthen a natural respect for the Earth using ancestral traditions. In his home and community art studio we sat down with him in hours of conversation on his knowledge of ancestral wisdom, concepts of time, elevating connections between us and object, life and death, and his perspective on our role as humans facing a world of politics and advancements.
Photos & Video by Dalí Nelio.
For English scroll to the bottom of the page.
El pasado es definido como un estado que previamente existió, algo que no existe más. ¿Tu les hablas a tus ancestros como si fuesen del pasado, o para ti aún existen en el presente?
En este tiempo tenemos la necesidad de recobrar nuestro pasado y entender que no existiríamos sin este. Esta comunidad le ha apostado a recuperar sus rituales como lo hicieron los abuelos, se esta recuperando la sabiduría de ir a los cerros de adoración y postrarse. Como señal de respeto a la madre tierra. Por qué ese es el vínculo más poderoso que tenemos.
Con cada caminata que hacemos con personas que vienen de fuera mostramos esta herencia cultural, que es un legado. Si nosotros insistimos en postrarnos, en hablarle, llevarles ofrendas a la montaña como una gran madre y tener gratitud por lo que comemos, ya que no viene de las fábricas, viene de una actitud humana de siembra. El ir a la montaña, el ir a agradecerle por el viento que recibimos, por el agua que tenemos, no es el pasado, es el presente, y nosotros podemos transmitir a la gente de afuera , quién es la más interesada en recuperar una verdad que nosotros tenemos.
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Es importante comenzar a pensar de una manera diferente, lo que consideramos el pasado fue el futuro, y lo que viene como futuro es el pasado. Si recuperamos nuestro pasado, si logramos que este pasado este vivo, debemos enseñar la secuencia oral de aprendizaje a nuestras hijas e hijos y así logren comprender la idea del tiempo no tiempo, por que el tiempo y el horario es de los blancos.
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Generaciones de conocimientos se pierden cuando creemos que tenemos que renunciar a nuestra conexión ancestral para vivir en un mundo tecnológico. ¿Que piensas sobre esto?
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La mayor parte de las civilizaciones del mundo están viviendo un simulacro, en realidad el tiempo y el espacio es relativo, el estrés y todas las enfermedades psicosomáticas se deben a esa falta de realidad en su vida. Cuando el hombre se desprende de la naturaleza ya no es el, si no es un número determinado en una civilización, en una ciudad, en una empresa, ya no se conforma con ser humano, ya es parte de una maquinaria social implícita en la política en la economía, en todo.
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Esa base cultural es principalmente que tengas el tiempo necesario para ser feliz, y no es dinero, no son posesiones por que el día que moramos, no hay camión de mudanzas, que nos lleve todo lo que acumulamos de manera material. Lo único que tenemos nosotros de valor son nuestros propios recuerdos y en el último aliento de vida, ahí estará presente el recuerdo que tú quieras llevarte, tener para ti, por eso es importante el vivir cada instante, cada segundo, como si fuese el último de tu vida.
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Hay algo que no nos han enseñado, y es el hecho de que cuando salimos del vientre cada día es uno menos, nacimos para morir. De alguna forma los abuelos tenían presente la trascendencia, no solo contemplar la vida, si no también la muerte, día a día.
Nadie con certeza sabe como es, todo es un reflejo de la sociedad en la que vivimos, te ves como te ven o te ven como te ves, pero en realidad muchos humanos no tienen esa definición de quien es, por que no se conocen, eres el reflejo. Naciste en un determinado lugar y tiempo, eres mexicano, peruano o estadounidense, todos somos seres de luz y con tiempo si tienes la capacidad te puedes llegar a conocer, pero si vives en este simulacro de vida tienes que ser ingeniero, arquitecto, tienes que ser alguien, pero ¿por qué ser alguien?, si ya lo eres, desde el momento que naciste.
Eres un prodigio de la vida, de ti depende todo lo que entra y sale. Esta perdida de identidad ha hecho que vulnerable a la gente, tú eres esclavo, tu eres indígena, etc., te clasifican desde que naces. Tiene que ver mucho esta visión del mundo que aprendimos, una de las cosas más importantes de este tiempo, es el darnos la oportunidad de des-aprender.
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Muchos políticos y empresarios estudiaron en Harvard y el día de hoy son ladrones, sin embargo la gente de aquí que no asistió a una universidad, es honrada, humilde, tienen una gran riqueza cultural, se comprometen a cuidar los ríos, a cuidar su pueblo y mantenerlo limpio, nada de esto tiene que ver con la riqueza de los banco, ¿quién es rico y quien es pobre finalmente?.
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Tenemos que valorar los conceptos y definiciones, ¿a caso es rico aquel que tiene una casa enorme con piscina y cerco eléctrico para que nadie se acerque?, o esta gente la cual su casa son ríos de agua limpia.
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¿Cómo podemos generar un cambio colectivo que inspire a más conectividad con nuestros origines?
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Lo más importante es definir tu identidad, saber quien eres, comenzar con uno mismo nunca hacer las cosas por un sueldo o por compromiso, si no por convicción. Por que de esta manera haces las cosas por que te gusta, incluso forma parte de tu formación, también tiene que ver mucho en tu entorno. Comienza con tu casa, con tu familia, compañeros, amigos, pareja, tu casa tiene que ser un símbolo.
Debemos darle valor a lo que nos pertenece a lo que nos es más útil, a lo que es más necesario que lo que no es nuestro. Algunas veces nos empeñamos en copiar al gringo, al europeo. Que tu casa sea el receptáculo para recibir, para crear abundancia, para dar. Hemos crecido en este mundo capitalista donde pensamos en términos de economía, hay que trabajar mucho para tener dinero, tenemos que pensar como los abuelos lo hacían en abundancia, tenemos que observar como un árbol tiene la capacidad de dar todo el tiempo y este no se limita a dar a una abeja, a una hormiga o a una oruga, el árbol da parejo y en abundancia. Entre más damos más tenemos.
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El rico no es el que tiene mucho es el que da mucho, y es lo que nuestros abuelos hacían. Tu puedes llegar a una casa aquí y siempre te van a dar el mejor café, el mejor pan o la mejor conversación, el secreto es siempre pensar en el otro.
Muchas personas viven con la falsa promesa de la modernidad. Creyendo que esta les dará todo, ellos renuncian a la conexión de su esencia y se definen así mismos como humanos separados de la tierra. ¿Cómo te encuentras correspondiente al medio ambiente?
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Es importante entender que un tiempo antes de los españoles, teníamos un tipo de economía diferente, el dinero a movido conciencias, ha movido al mundo, eso es lo que nos ha hecho cambiar todo. El pasado siempre ha estado ahí, solo que nos hemos olvidado y hoy tenemos que recuperar la memoria, hoy nadie tiene tiempo, somos demasiado intolerantes.
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English.
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The past is defined as a state that previously existed, something that no longer exists. Do you speak of your ancestors as if they are in the past, or for you do they exist in the present?
Right now we have the need to recover our past and understand that we would not exist without it. This community is recovering its equinoctial rituals, like the grandfathers did. It is recovering the wisdom of going to the hills in reverence and being exposed. As a sign of respect for mother earth, because that is the most powerful link we have.
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With every walk that we do with people who come from abroad, we show this cultural heritage, which is a legacy. We insist on exposing ourselves, talking to nature, bringing offerings to the mountains like a great mother and having gratitude for what we eat since our food does not come from the factories, it comes from a human labor of sowing. Going to the mountain, going to thank her for the wind we receive, for the water we have. It is not the past, it is the present, and we can transmit this to outsiders who are interested in recovering a truth that we have.
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It is important to start thinking in a different way, what we consider the past was the future, and what comes as the future is the past. If we recover our past, if we make this past alive, we must teach the oral sequence of learning to our daughters and sons and this way they can understand this idea of time without time, because time and schedule come from the whites.
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Generations of knowledge are lost when we believe we need to renunciate our ancestral connection to live in the technological world. How do you sustain this connection in your modern lifestyle?
Most of the world's civilizations are living a way of life that is not the real life. In reality time and space are relative, stress and all psychosomatic illnesses are due to that lack of reality in their lives. When man detaches himself from nature he is no longer he. If he is not a certain number in a civilization, in a city, in a company, he is no longer satisfied with being human because he is already part of a social machinery implicit in politics and the economy, in everything.
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An important cultural base is mainly that you have the necessary time to be happy. Money does not define this, neither do possessions because the day we leave, there is no moving truck that will take away everything we accumulate in a material way. The only thing that we have of value are our own memories and in the last breath of life, there will be the memory that you want to take with you, to have for you. That is why it is important to live every moment, every second, as if it were the last of your life.
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There is something that we have not been taught. It is the fact that when we leave the womb, each day is one less. We were born to die. Somehow, the ancestors had transcendence in mind. Not only contemplating life, but also death, day by day. No one knows for sure what death is, everything is a reflection of the society in which we live. You see how the society sees you, or the society sees you as you see. But in reality many humans do not have a definition of who they are, because they do not know each other, they are only the reflection. You were born in a certain place and time, you are Mexican, Peruvian or American. But we are all beings of light and with time, if you have the capacity, you can get to know yourself. But if you live in this imagined reflection of life you have to be an engineer, an architect, you have to be someone. But why be someone, if you already are, from the moment you were born.
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You are a prodigy of life, everything that comes and goes depends on you. This loss of identity has made you vulnerable to people, you are a slave, you are indigenous, etc., they classify you since the day you are born. This vision of the world that we learned has a lot to do with this. One of the most important things of this time is to give ourselves the opportunity to unlearn.
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Many politicians and businessmen studied at Harvard and today they are thieves. However, the people in this town who did not attend a university, they are honest, humble, have great cultural wealth. They commit to care for the rivers, to care for their people and keep it clean. None of this has to do with the bank's wealth. Who is rich and who is finally poor? We have to value concepts and definitions, is someone rich if they have a huge house with a pool and an electric fence so that no one comes near? Or are they rich if their homes are rivers of clean water like this community?
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How can we make a collective change to inspire more connectivity to our origins?
The most important thing is to define your identity, know who you are, start with yourself, never do things for a salary or commitment if not out of conviction. Because this way you do things because you like it, it even becomes part of your habits. It also has a lot to do with your environment. Start with your house, with your family, colleagues, friends, partner, your center has to be a symbol. We must give value to what belongs to us, to what is most useful to us, to what is more necessary, more than to what is not ours.
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Sometimes we try to copy the gringo, the European. But may your home be the receptacle to receive, to create abundance, to give. We have grown in this capitalist world where we think in terms of the economy, we have to work hard to have money. But instead we have to think of how the ancestors did it in abundance. We have to observe how a tree has the ability to give all the time, how this giving is not limited to a bee or an ant or a caterpillar, the tree gives evenly and in abundance. The more we give the more we have.
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The rich man is not the one who has a lot, it is the one who gives a lot and this is what our ancestors did. You can go to a home here and they will always give you the best coffee, the best bread or the best conversation. The secret is to always think of the other.
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Many people live with a false promise of modernity. Believing modernity is going to give them everything, they renounce connection to their essence and define themselves as a human separate from the earth. How do you find yourself belonging to the environment?
It is important to understand that before the Spanish, we had a different type of economy. Money has moved consciences, it has moved the world. That is what has made us change everything. The past has always been there, only we have forgotten and today we have to recover our memory. Today nobody has time, we are too intolerant.
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