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ART FOR PLANTS
OAXACA'S ETNO-BOTANICAL GARDEN
by Julie Pecheur
AS ALWAYS, FRANCISCO TOLEDO took on the challenge of protecting Oaxaca’s unique cultural and natural heritage.
Once again, the city’s most prominent artist and benefactor helped organize the printing and sale of 20 artists’ portfolios to help the Etno-Botanical Garden. Each portfolio contains one drypoint by Mr. Toledo himself, a text in ancient Mixtec entitled El nudo del tiempo or The Knot of Time, translated into Spanish by the garden’s director, Alejandro de Avila, and five heliogravures by the famous Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide. (Heliogravure is a 19th century technique used to reproduce photographs in books.)
In less than 2 weeks of sales, the limited edition of the portfolios costing $3,500 US each, and ten artist’s proofs printed by the University of Tampa, Florida, also for sale, had already garnered $45,000 US for the garden.
According to Mr. Avila, the money raised helped collect new plants, propagate endangered species in the nursery, develop the garden’s landscape, and expand public services such as guided tours, workshops, seminars and its two libraries. Since the garden collects already mature plants, the costs of bringing them in are particularly high. “Because we want the garden to be extremely attractive and educational, we are not planting seeds that will be full-grown twenty years from now,” explained Mr. Avila after receiving the first check from the sales.
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In order to demonstrate the relationship between the vegetation and the traditions of Oaxaca, the garden only brings together plants that are relevant to the region’s culture. The plants are not only used for food, medicine, perfume, and fibers, but also as a source of aesthetic inspiration and intellectual stimulation for the people.
Mr. Toledo’s interest in El Jardín dates from its very beginning. From 1876 to 1994, what is now the Centro Cultural de Santo Domingo, comprising the Museum and ex-monastery, belonged to the Mexican army. But in 1994, the Oaxacan civil society, led by the artist, petitioned then-President Carlos Salinas for the ouster of the military. After further pressure from Mr. Toledo’s newly formed organization, Pro-Oax, dedicated to the conservation of Oaxaca’s heritage, two projects for the site – a five-star hotel and a parking lot – were later abandoned. The army left behind heaps of concrete, rubble, shooting targets and rusty equipment on the 2.3 hectares (slightly less than 6 acres) of land. But Mr. Avila, determined to see his project succeed, was ready and the landscaping work finally began in 1997.
Today, behind the imposing walls surrounding what used to be the orchards of the monastery, the garden shelters over 1,300 varieties of plants. Mr. Avila’s next goal is to gather 700 more, to encompass about a fifth or a sixth of the state of Oaxaca’s total flora, one of most diversified in the country. The garden employs about 40 people, including two dozen gardeners.
Thanks to money raised by the sale of the portfolios and other donations, a small greenhouse will be built to house the plants that cannot adapt to the city’s semi-arid climate.
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The Etno-Botanical Garden (photo at right) is located within Santo Domingo (the entrance is on the Reforma side). English guided tours are offered Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 11am and at 4pm. A donation of $50 pesos per person is expected.
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