canastitas

Canastitas en Serie
related: folkart, canastas (baskets), local youtube: [|playlist] editing: [|Oaxaca]

Canastitas en Serie
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Ron's note: Wow! I watched this 1950s movie about a Gringo couple on a lovely holiday in Oaxaca that turns into a chance to exploit a rural Oaxacan basket weaver. The short movie is based on “Canastitas en serie”, a short story written by Bruno Traven, from the collection "Canasta de Cuentos Mexicanos."

The story: The couple return to the village to buy a larger order of baskets for a chocolate company. With the larger quantity, the cost goes up, not down. Why? The activity is not a full-time occupation but one that compliments other traditional livelihoods, including the raising of goats. If the family is to produce the baskets, then they have to subsidize his other forms of income. The foreigners return to

This was shot in the 50s or 60s and appears in a series of three videos on YouTube.

Highly recommended viewing for anyone visiting Oaxaca. It's a good example of what to do and what not to do as visitors.

For help interpreting the movie, thanks to Hugo Santiago, Carlos Topete and [|Shannon Young!]

Recommended Listening
http://www.radioteca.net/result.php?id=05090384

Elsewhere on the Web
http://www.culturatradicional.org/zarina/Cuentos/canastit.htm