I was travelling for a month around Oaxaca and Chiapas together with Pati, a wonderful woman I connected with immediately - she was my age, quit her job due to the same reasons like me and started to discover Mexico for an unlimited time - so we were actually on the same mission. The light-heartedness I was feeling when we were just wandering around was unbelievable...good times, fucking good times!
Anyways, in Oaxaca we were fortunate enough to meet Valeriano, an incredibly talented xylographer who introduced us into the art of carving the woodcut and also invited us to his home. Just observing him and his dedicated spirit while being in the middle of his creative process gave me peace! He was literally working the whole day and then in the evening he went outside to the city center to sell some of his paintings - of course, we were accompanying him because if you have the opportunity to spend some time with a true artist, you better don't miss out on it - they have stories to tell that are definitely worth being told. Vale has also Mixe roots, that are indigineous people of Mexico inhabiting the Eastern highlands of Oaxaca. To me personally, fascinating as fuck are two things: first, that as the first member of his family he left his village in order to pursue his dream, that is to become an artist, and he succeeded! Second, the fact that he speaks the Mixe language fluently and that he genuinely cares about preserving that language what he mainly does with his unique art. Unity in diversity and diversity in unity! However, Vale shared a lot and because Pati was keen to try out new things we had the idea to let her record her first podcast (in Spanish of course) and here it is - a little bit different than the others but I love it and Valeriano's story in general! Disfruta :)
