Meanwhile Back at the Ranch

This is a post I prepared when I came back from the mountain to Mazunte, but couldn't post for a number of technical difficulties. Is it ever too late though...? Anyway, here it is:

I was excited to come back to Mazunte and see all the changes I’d only heard stories about. There were supposedly a bunch of interesting volunteers with amazing skills, enriching life on the property. Some of them I’d already met at the construction site of the tire wall, making me want to hang out with them for a while. As things turned out, however, my last day on the tire-wall was also their last day in Mazunte. Though in the end they managed to stay half a day longer.

Iron Forge on the Road

Mark and Christophe, two guys from Switzerland, do amazing metalwork, making knives and jewelry from recycled scrap, as well as high quality steel, they acquire through trade with fellow artisans. To be able to make these objects on the road, they each travel with a small forge, anvil, tools, etc. I thought it would be an outrageous idea to take a forge on the road, but it seems like everything they need is small enough to be stashed in a compact kit, which can be transported in the van, or in Mark’s case on his motorcycle. Of course they still need charcoal to burn, and lots of it. That’s how they’ve been traveling for the past months through Canada, the US, and Mexico.

Showing me the knives he’s currently working on, Mark enthusiastically explained the various steps of making knives, the details of mixing steel for the various types of knives, depending on how hard it needs to be, and the way Damascus steel is made and how it is primarily appreciated for its beautiful layered look. Christophe on the other hand likes to experiment with the colors he gets from various ways of heating the steel and cooling it down. All in all, it seems to involve a great deal of work, but according to Mark, his blades are mostly sold by the time they are finished. As for the artistic jewelry made from pieces of rebar and other junk, he makes a lot more money with them, relative to the work he puts into it. But since he is dedicated to creating beautiful and good quality knives, he doesn’t mind the extra work on these sought-after blades.

Master of Puppets

Passionate, as they are about their metal work, neither of them wants to be so involved in it that it takes over their lives. Instead, they cultivate other passions, some of which are directly related to what Itínera is doing in Mazunte: Mark is a skillful puppeteer, not just in guiding their movements on strings, but in creating funny, expressive looking puppets. How convenient, as Julia and Manu had been planing a workshop for the children of Mazunte to make puppets out of recycled pet-bottles, cover them with paper-maché, paint them to give them personalities, and then let them perform in a spectacular story they make up together.

Mark’s arrival in Mazunte just happened to coincide with the day Itínera had the appointment with the school, to meet the kids and introduce them to this project. So of course he went along, and his puppeteering was a great success. Soon after, he gave a public introduction on a busy corner in Mazunte on how to move puppets on the string, which also drew a huge crowd.

Community Involvement

Since I’ve been gone, Itínera has also been busy on making themselves known among the locals of Mazunte. Despite their international fame, in the town they want to place their theater building they are still virtually unknown. For this reason Julia and Manu have been organizing theater workshops at the local school, where they are building the puppets with a class of 6th graders.

Apart from this workshop at the school, they just had an event at the library, where they played a human-size board game outside, with lots of theatrical challenges to pass before entering the building. This happened on my first day back from the mountain, so of course I came along, and even filmed the event for Julia. There was a small group of eight kids as well as adults, who enjoyed themselves immensely at putting their bodies together to make a multi-legged, beaked, winged monster, and similar tasks.

So step by step Mazunte should get to know Itínera as the theater they are, and stop confusing them with the circus. There are several circuses around the area, and Mazunte’s annual circus festival, which I just missed, as it happened during my last week on the mountain. Before soon, the story of this unique theater-company should be told, as they are gradually putting together the first fully self-sustaining theater in the world.

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch

Iron Forge on the Road

Master of Puppets

Community Involvement

Other Posts from the Mazunte Series: