Pineapple Jenny

Tuxtepec is a pineapple producing town. And they use the pineapple in a lot of their iconography - although the name really meas Rabbit Hill in Mixtec.
But the pineapples do grow to enormous proportions here. And they use them as props in the most popular and famous local dance they have, the "Flor de Piña."
I'll post pictures of the Flor de Piña later, for right now, here I am in front of the university with out very own small pineapple mascot. And here I am downtown with a bigger specimen.

UNPA pineapple

The token pineapple in front of the gates of la UNPA.
Who will get to eat it, I wonder?

Tuxtepec Piña Lady

When you cross the Papaloapan River coming into Tuxtepec from the direction of the UNPA, at the first major intersection you find the Piña Lady. They recently repainted her - which makes me think that they repaint her every year. Before they repainted her, she looked pretty Anglo - now she's darker, but still not as brown as the real people here.
There ARE still women who dress like this, but you don't see too many of them and they are mostly old women.
I see one most mornings walking to the Tux Van to come to work. She is always walking towards me on the sidewalk, dressed in her traditional costume and wearing no shoes - but with remarkably clean feet. I'm in awe. I wear shoes and my feet get filthy.