The Eye Beach, Village + Urban Living in Oaxaca January, 2020 Issue 94 FREE Year of the Rat Marina Chahue, Huatulco Tel. 958 105 1671 Cel. 958 100 7339 “Everybody in America is so money-hungry. Closed Mondays It's like a rat race and even when you win you're still a freaking rat.” Mike Tyson elcome to 2020! I hope that you have had a debaucherous holiday season filled with cocktails and friends, and that you are ready to settle into what is sure to be a much needed collective existential crisis.W You probably want to stop reading right now and order another margarita. I was attempting to write something inspirational for my first editorial of this decade, but everything was coming out kind of dire and pessimistic. If you are a regular reader then you know our January issue's theme has Wednesday- Sunday followed the Chinese New Year for the past few seasons. Always met with a groan at first by our writers – 5pm- 6pm “Chickens? what can we say about chickens?” – a lot apparently, and this year's 'Rat' has been no different. 2x1 Cocktails Rats are easy to dislike, having come to mean traitors or snitches. Partly this is due to their bad reputation as www.cafejuanitamexico.com filthy and deadly creatures, and also because rats will flee sinking ships and collapsing houses, giving the impression of abandonment. My father was an animal behavior psychologist who often had to go to his university office on the weekends to feed the rats and run them through a maze because, while they are easy to Editor: Jane Bauer dislike, rats are the top choice for experimentation due to Copy Editor: Deborah Van Hoewyk their anatomical, physiological, and genetic similarity to humans. In fact, rats have a counterpart to every known Web Goddess: Erin Vig human gene associated with disease. A 2013 study also showed that rats – and not their mouse colleagues – were Writers: Susan Birkenshaw, Julie Etra, Jan capable of exhibiting the full range of Alzheimer's brain Chaiken, Marcia Chaiken, Caryl Delaney, changes. Brooke Gazer, Randy Jackson, Alvin Starkman, Kary Vannice As I write this, it was announced that the bad boy up north has been impeached, but one has to wonder if anything will change or if it will even stick. I am amazed Cover Image: Bonzami Emmanuelle at the number of business people I know who say he is all right and don't appear to have an issue with the erosion Photography/Art: of human rights as long as the economy is doing well. Various Artists Who are we and what are our values when, as a culture, we find justification for immigration detention camps Distribution: Renee Biernacki, Maggie Winter lining the border of one of our world's most powerful nations. Layout: Jane Bauer Every day you make decisions that ultimately say Opinions and words are those of the authors and something about who you are, from your purchases, do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The your food choices, your comments on social media, even Eye. which media you choose to ingest. So who are you and what do your actions illustrate about your values? We welcome submissions and input. Let's be better than rats this year! To get involved send us an email. [email protected] See you next month, Visit Us Online Jane www.TheEyeHuatulco.com The Eye 3 In This Issue A Rat Is Not “Just a Rat” By Julie Etra Page 6 It's Not a Rat! By Brooke Gazer Page 8 Blues on the Beach By Brooke Gazer Page 12 The Year of the Rat – from the Beginning By Susan Birkenshaw Page 16 A New Partner for Un Nuevo Amanecer By Brooke Gazer Page 18 La Rubia Negra: The Erotic Art of Gerardo Navarro By Alvin Starkman, M.A., J.D. Page 22 The Rat Pack in Mexico By Marcia Chaiken and Jan Chaiken Page 28 No Rats in Alberta? Pretty Much Nope! By Randy Jackson Page 30 Rupert, Resonance & Rats By Kary Vannice Page 34 3 Kings round the World By Caryl Delaney Page 38 EDITORIAL PAGE 3 UPCOMING EVENTS PAGE 26 www.TheEyeHuatulco.com The Eye 4 Chiles&Chocolate Cooking Classes Huatulco, Oaxaca The best way to learn about a culture is through its food. www.HuatulcoCookingClasses.com Morning Activities Evening Activities TUESDAY- Seafood TUESDAY- Frida’s Favorites- -Seafood Fritter with Chipotle dishes inspired by Frida Kahlo -Shrimp Tostadas -Huauzontles in Green Sauce -Tomato and Jicama Salad -Corn Pudding with Chiles in Cream -Baked Fish in Hoja Santa leaf -Chicken in Pipian -Paloma Cocktail -Zucchini Salad -Frida Cocktail WEDNESDAY- Mama’s Kitchen -Black Mole- This is the most exquisite and complicated FRIDAY- Village to Table Dinner Mexican sauce. Our 8-course dinner using local ingredients is a culinary -Yellow Mole experience not to be missed! -served with Rice and Chicken *This is not a cooking class -Handmade Tortillas -Mezcal Margarita Chiles&Chocolate Cooking Classes offer delicious culinary and cultural experiences that THURSDAY- Pigs and Rum explore Mexican cuisine. Our hands-on classes -Cochinita Pibil ensure you will leave prepared to recreate the -Corn Cakes dishes when you get home. -Pickeled Onion and Habanero -Avocado Salsa · Hands-on -Nopal and Radish Salad · Instruction in English -Horchata · Recipe Manual · Free Gift Bag FRIDAY- Street Food · Food and Drinks Included -Red and Green Salsas Transportation Included -Pico de Gallo · Morning pick-up is 9am -Handmade Tortillas and Sopes Evening pick-up is 5pm -2 types of Taco Fillings -Huitlacoche Empanadas -Jamaica Margaritas Cost: $85 USD per person Activities are 3-4 hours Zimatan, Huatulco Tel. 958 105 1671 Cel. 958 100 7339 [email protected] chileschocolatehuatulco www.HuatulcoCookingClasses.com A Rat Is Not “Just a Rat” By Julie Etra K, here is your primer on rats – perhaps more than As for whether Christopher Columbus brought rats to the you would ever like to know. There are a lot more Caribbean – he beached on both Hispaniola and Cuba on both rats than the rat with the deservedly “bad rat” rap, the first and second of his four voyages – we do not know. the Norway rat, Rattus norvegicus, hence the Documentation confirms that Columbus and his men went common name. It is also known as the brown rat, ashore in Bariay Bay on the northeast coast of Cuba when he tOhe sewer rat, the wharf rat, the Hanover rat, and the landed on October 28, 1492. There were no docks and it is Norwegian rat. (White lab rats are a product of selective unknown what, i.e., rats, may have accompanied them ashore. breeding of the Norway rat for the specific purpose of research.) The first voyage was relatively small with the three ships (La Niña, La Pinta, and La Santa María) and only 90 sailors. In The other common rat in temperate climates (including contrast, the second voyage included 17 ships and deserts) is various species of the woodrat, or pack rat, Neotoma. approximately 1500 sailors, making land in what is now Puerto There are well over a dozen species of this genus, considered a Rico; stowaways may have been more likely that time. We know “good” rat. that Cortés arrived with horses, as his expedition was one of conquest and colonization, which he and his men That Bad Rat accomplished with the help of horses. Over the 15th and 16th It is thought that the Norway rat centuries, the Spaniards brought pigs, chickens, and wheat, originated in China and Mongolia; it now among other goods (this trade was known as the Columbian enjoys worldwide distribution, with the Exchange, since goods went in both directions). exception of the Arctic, Antarctic, and the province of Alberta, Canada (see Urban Rats article elsewhere in this issue). From In Mexico City, according to exterminators, there are currently northern Asia, they most likely migrated between nine and 18 rats for each of the over 21 million people to southeast Asia, Siberia, and Japan. living in greater Mexico City. Even with the low estimate, that is They did not appear in Europe until the 1500s. a scary 189 million rats! New York City has suffered for three centuries from sewer rat populations that occasionally explode Norway rats are nocturnal and have almost hairless tails that – the New York Times recently reported a 38% increase in are shorter than their bodies; they have short ears. Females complaints, measured by 17,353 calls to the rat hotline in the have 12 nipples and they reproduce year around, ovulating first nine months of 2019. New York has tried rodent birth spontaneously. Females can be sexually active immediately control, dry ice and even a ban on eating in the subway, with after giving birth. Litters range from two to 22 offspring, with few noticeable results. The city is now trying a new “high tech” gestation between 21-24 days, and the young are weaned in rat trap: a bucket, vinegar, and drowning. The vinegar is about 28 days. In summary they reproduce like crazy. Adding supposed to prevent the rats from rotting too fast, and to keep to their adaptability and reproductive success, they are the bucket of dead rodents from stinking too much, according omnivorous and opportunistic eaters, consuming just about to its maker, Rap Trap Inc. “ICK” is all I have to say, and until everything. Although they can swim, they cannot climb out of a humans and their crumbs disappear, the Norway rats will bucket (see below). They are smart and have an acute sense of continue to live with us.