The Singers

The sun has set but the clouds are blushing: an electric pink over the yawning valley. A late-summer powwow singing contest unfolds over three days in a high desert bowl.

51 North at the Numaga Indian Days Powwow. Video by Yoyoyo ItsHendo (Follow him for more!)

Bad Soul at the Numaga Indian Days Powwow in Hungry Valley, NV. Video by YoYoYo ItsHendo

Shiprock Agency at the Numaga Indian Days Powwow in Hungry Valley, NV. Video by YoYoYo ItsHendo

Little Bear at the Numaga Indian Days Powwow in Hungry Valley, NV. Video by YoYoYo ItsHendo

The Merry Monarchs

A 2 part series on the Western Monarch Butterfly Migration by Eleanor Qull.

Episode 1: COLLECTIVE KNOWLEDGE • Eleanor scours the internet for answers to her many questions. Results vary.

Episode 2: AUDIO TOUR • Eleanor creates a 6-part audio tour for the Western Monarchs, encouraging them on their annual migration. In the process, she creates several objects as souvenirs and offerings.

• STOP #1 RIVER FORK RANCH •

“…What are ways we can all take care of where we live? On a small level in terms of individual choices, but also like what we hope our community looks like and how our community functions and really, you know trying to collectively work together to make it like, as healthy of a place as possible.” - Lori Leanord

• STOP #2 MOUNTAIN TOP ROOST – SIERRA NEVADA •

We only see them when they are flapping around on the ground gathering nectar – which is highly calorically inefficient. When they migrate they travel higher – you may see them soaring alone or, less often now, in a spotted sparse cloud above you. I asked Dr. Chip Taylor about their limits who said “We don’t know how high they can actually go.” 

Above: Butterfly Backpack habitat: modeled by Theo, who also composed much of the music in this series.

• STOP #3 BUTTERFLY WING REPAIR STATION, FOOTHILLS WEST SIERRAS •

“I’m from Logar (Afghanistan) where it’s like kinda south of Kabul, the capital city. So we have 4 seasons. In Winter there are no butterflies but in springtime right where Winter ends, they come out and then each season has different butterflies. But the spring one was the ones we’d use for makeup. we’d all go for hunting. and I was so good at taking them. We’d hold them and then take their color and put in our eyes to do the makeup. And then the sharper your makeup was, the more strong you were to catch like more butterflies. And I was making sure that my makeup was like really good.” - Storai Stanazai

• STOP #4 GRAVEYARD •

Butterfly Gunbelt

Since ancient times the winged butterfly was a symbol for the human soul. In different cultural manifestations they were both the soul itself and the souls of the dead. — In Ancient Egypt “"the butterflies were presumably one of the pleasures that awaited the deceased in the afterlife, reflecting the Egyptian belief in the immortality of the human soul" [Manos-Jones] In Ancient Greece they were given the name “psyche” by Aristotle, the Greek word for soul.

The Aztecs believed that the happy dead in the form of beautiful butterflies would visit their relatives to assure them that all was well. These butterflies flew around the house and around bouquets of flowers which were carried by Aztec men of social rank. It was considered ill-mannered to smell a bouquet of flowers from the top. It should always be sniffed from the side, for the top was left for the souls to visit, where they could enjoy the fragrance thus reserved especially for them [Native-Cherry].

Native South Americans also integrated various Lepidoptera into their mythologies. To the Goajiro of Columbia, if a particular large, white moth is found in a bedroom it must not be mistreated for it is the spirit of an ancestor come to visit. If the moth becomes troublesome, it can be removed only with the greatest care or the spirit may take vengeance. Among the Aymara of Bolivia, a certain rare nocturnal moth was thought to be an omen of death.

• STOP #5 SPACE •

The orbs sent to “colonize” Mars could not have been completed without the Monarch butterfly. Vastly extending the scope of their migration, from North to  South, (Eastern Monarch), and North East to West, (Western Monarch), a new population emerged that added the Z axis to their historic migration.

• STOP #6 MONARCH SANCTUARY •

Eleanor Qull: "I read somewhere that the western monarchs have entered an extinction vortex. Um, do you think that's that's true?"
Chip Taylor: "It's absolutely not true…in the fall before this last one, they only had 1800 butterflies counted at all the overwintering sites. And there were a whole lot of articles saying, it's doomed. I thought the whole population was doomed.
"And they were much below the extinction threshold. I mean, there's no way 1,800 butterflies can sustain the population,  1800 butterflies, a lot of them die during the winter. Only about 45% of 'em are female. A lot of those would die. You'd come out of the winter with say, 400 female butterflies to reestablish the population. How could you possibly do that?
“And then that fall that followed that 247,000 monarchs were counted at the overwintering sites. There's no way that 400 surviving females could produce 247,000 butterflies. The problem here is that we didn't know where they were."
“...I mean, there are big gaps in what we know about what's going on in the west, especially in these winters now, because the winters now are so much warmer than they were in the past that it seems to be changing the behavior...”

When we take an accounting of everything we have lost, every animal one by one, and when we fix those direct causes, it’s like medieval medicine – treating each symptom as a distinct disease not a part of a whole.

•

Perhaps there is nothing I can personally do to support the migration and all the Rube Goldberg machines, cloaks, seed canons and shrieking at butterflies are counterproductive. But pilgrimages like this, celebrations, I like because they have a different purpose. My faith is tangible in the works I make – maybe (definitely) my works should pay more mind to efficiency or effectiveness – less rube Goldberg machines and costumes, more calling graveyards to plant milkweed, or connecting with other causes such as river restoration since monarchs tend to follow riparian corridors, or f—k it, calling members of congress, because maybe nothing we do accumulates to anything but at the same time the stunning paradox is that we are all necessary.

Special thanks to Tsippora Sidibé from Tant Que Je Serai Noir for lending her voice in Episode 1 (Collective Knowledge).

Featuring:

Dr. Chip Taylor • Monarch Watch

Laurie Leonard • River Fork Ranch

Storai Stanizai

CREATED ART PIECES:

  • Space ship render

  • Helicopter pad render

  • Resin butterflies

  • Little books

  • Scapular pouches

  • Gunbelt on butterfly

  • Butterfly backpack

Works Cited:

Inclusion images:

Research Gate  / Antenna 36(4): 239–246 • Elizabeth Denyer’s paintings of William Jones’ British butterflies… • 2012 Sonya Drimmer and R.I Vane-Wright

Monarch Joint Venture: nonprofit partnership • Migration – How do they do it? • 2014 Candy Sarikonda

PNAS Nexus • Phylogenomics reveals the evolutionary timing and pattern of butterflies and moths • 2019 Akito Y. Kawahara

The Nature Conservancy • Monarch Butterflies Bring Together Conservation and Culture between U.S. and Mexico: Preserving the monarch butterfly and its unique migration across North America protects a cultural icon • 2017

Nature 574 • Genome editing retraces the evolution of toxin resistance in the monarch butterfly • 2019 M. Karageorgi

Current Biology 14(2):155-8 • Polarized light helps monarch butterflies navigate • Steven M Reppert 2004

British Ecology Society • Behavioural resistance against a protozoan parasite in the monarch butterfly • Thierry Lefevre 2012

Pigment Cell and Melanoma Research (Journal) • Exploring the molecular basis of monarch butterfly color pattern variation • Marcus R Kronforst 2015

Ecology Letters Elevated • Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide reduce monarch tolerance and increase parasite virulence by altering the medicinal properties of milkweeds • Leslie E. Decker, Jacobus C. de Roode, Mark D. Hunter 2018

Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory • All about Butterflies • 2002 - 2023

WAFWA: Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies • Western Monarch Butterfly Conservation Plan 2019-2069 2019

Youtube – ibiology channel • Steven Reppert (UMass) Part 1: Neurobiology of Monarch Butterfly Migration: Migration Overview 2015 Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9fhf4D58L0&ab_channel=iBiology Part 2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEzP3KiqtmU&t=570s Full Article: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26473314/

Current Biology • Demytifying Monarch Butterfly Migration • Steven M Reppert and Jacobus C de Roode 2018

Journal of the Lepidopterist Society • Understanding and misunderstanding the migration of the monarch butterfly (Nymphalidae) in North AmericaL 1857 - 1995 • Lincoln P. Brower, Department of Zoology, University of Florida • March 1995

Wild Center • Monarch Butterfly Conservation: the challenges ahead • Dr Chip Taylor 2013

Missouri Prairie • Grow Native! Webinar: Monarch Population Trends, Conservation & Climate Change with Dr. Chip Taylor 2021

Maryland Nature, Bioserve, NHSM Lepidopterist Club • Butterflies in Space • Stefanie Countryman 2021

De Roode Lab, Emory University Butterfly Genomics: Emory Biologists show how monarchs fly differently, but meet up and mate • Carol Clark/ Study Author: Jaap de Roode 2020

The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation 2006-2023

Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation • The Bounciness of Butterflies • Emma Pelton, Elizabeth Crone, Cheryl Schultz 2021

The Atlantic • Scientists can now repaint butterfly wings • Ed Yong • 2017

The Atlantic • The Butterflies that hear with their wings • Ed Yong • 2018

Entymology Today • How butterflies pattern top and bottom wing surfaces differently • Viviane Callier • 2018

GLP: Genetic Literacy Project • Viewpoint: Could a GMO herbicide-resistant milkweed help save the Monarch butterfly? • Peter Laufer • 2022

The Atlantic • What America Lost When It Lost the Bison • Ed Yong • 2019 // Full article: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1913783116

NASA / Bioserve • Butterflies in Space • 2009

Journey North: Tracking Migrations and seasons • Monarch Butterflies: Male or Female?

Journey North: Tracking Migrations and seasons • Monarch Butterflies Life Cycle Dr. Karen Oberhauser

Phys.org / Associated Press • Misplaced monarchs: Clusters of butterflies stuck up north • Seth Borenstein • 2017

Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper • Western Monarch Biology: Monarch Life Cycle

NISE: National Informal STEM Education Network • Zoom into a Butterfly Wing • Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network, Exploratorium • 2009

Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation • Western Monarch Count Tallies over 330000 Butterflies • 2023

Monarch Waystations Soundmap • Monarch Waystation Soundmap • Alejandro Botijo • 2020-2022

The Nature Conservancy • Monarchs, Danaus plexippus (L.) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), of Central Nevada’s Carson Valley Area •Patricia F Neyman • 2018

Canterbury Tales • Geoffrey Chaucer • 1387 - 1400 (Book)

Library of the Philosophical Research Society, Los Angeles • Spirit of Butterflies: Myth, Magic and Art • Maraleen Manos-Jones • 2000 (Book)

Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches) Heinrich Kramer (Henricus Institor) 1487 (Book)

L’Estoire del Saint Graal (The Story of the Holy Grail) 1200-1250

Adirondack Almanack • Winged with Hope: Fixing broken monarch wings • Jackie Woodcock • 2020

RPPC: Producer of Factual Functional Fiction Red Planet Planning Commission / I Butterfly Cory McAbee

The Met: Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History; Essays •  Pilgrimage in Medieval Europe • Jean Sorabella • April 2011

Organizations with further Monarch Information:





Tags, Topics and Mentions: Butterfly, Monarch Butterflies, Butterfly Migration, Western Monarch Migration, Dr. Chip Taylor, Monarch Watch, Nature Conservancy, Genoa Nevada, River Fork Ranch, Jobs Peak, Sierra Nevada, Butterflies in Nevada, Cory Mcabee, I_Butterfly, Where is the Western Monarch Migration, questions for butterflies, butterflies for makeup, butterfly backpack habitat, helicopter pad for passing butterflies, butterfly gunbelt, how to build milkweed seed canon to spread large amounts of seed for butterflies, milkweed, sleepy transformation, WESTERN MONARCH

Howls Road

Emily Pratt takes the wheel. Down dark forest roads, through dust storms and gas stations; the Feather River sings softly in the canyon.

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featuring:

EMILY PRATT • HOWLS ROAD

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Tags, Topics, Mentions: touring musician, howls road, emily pratt, feather river, camp fire, the washoe zephyr, touring, toyota previa, music, live music, trans rights, transgender, queer rights, trans creators, reno nevada, las vegas nevada, maine, driving through hurricanes, banjo gift, gas station situation, the open road

Red Planet, Blue Planet

Cory Mcabee rides his bike from Maine to Florida, following the migration path of the Monarch Butterfly.

De-motivational speaking, improvised science lectures, human composting and green burial, martian colonization, bicycles, a controversial podcast episode and a recitation of Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan.

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Tags, Topics + Mentions: Cory Mcabee, Green Burial, Human Composting, I_Butterfly, Monarch Butterfly, Monarch Butterfly Migration, Music Journalism, the complex path of the butterfly, Small Star Seminar, Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, Red Planet, Blue Planet, Bicycle touring, Conservation cemeteries, conservation burial alliance,  Stingray Sam, Mars, Welcome to Mars

Lucha Libre

A ringside episode from Oaxaca, Mexico

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A light summer rain darkens the green stone walls of the old church, and I stand at its hip listening across the grey brick side street.

A 3 wheeled moto-taxi rounds the corner and slowly approaches. It has a flatbed on which sits a big rectangular billboard. The outside of the billboard is a collage of portraits of masked men posing in bright reds and blues and greens, and somewhere inside the billboard is a sound system.

The moto-taxi parks and the driver ducks past a fruit stand and a corner store selling cell phone sim card refills on his way inside. The sky is darkening, but you can still see the mountains’ silhouette north of the city.

Across from the church is Arena San Francisco: a blue stucco warehouse with a garage door big enough for a truck, which is exactly what the door is for because during the day Arena San Francisco is 1-floor parking garage. But stepping inside onto the slick tile floor, you wouldn’t know it tonight.

In the center of the concrete room is a full wresting ring. The ropes, flash yellow, red, blue and green. And above the ring, long parallel strings of matching colorful flags flitter in the florescent light.

The ring is 3-4 feet high, and sheathed in a sort of vinyl cover with sponsor logos, most notably a dentist’s office. And surrounding the ring on all 4 sides, are about a dozen rows of red aluminum folding chairs, ready for an audience.

The sonic billboard is still audible out on the street. Tonight, it says, Lucha Libre.

The state of Oaxaca is in south central Mexico and reaches from Mexico’s southern coast on the Pacific Ocean, up into the high mountains.

From those wooded mountains to the north you can see the capital — Oaxaca, or Oaxaca de Juarez. Benito Juarez, was president of Mexico from 1858 to 1872. He was from the state of Oaxaca and was ethnically Zapotec, the first indigenous president in all of North and South America, post colonization.

In Arena San Francisco, the warm-up fights have slipped past. The warm rain plus a delayed beer delivery, have kept the audience a bit subdued -- which I’d estimate at about 150 people. But toward the 3rd or 4th fight, that’s when things come alive. — The PA system begins to rumble and the crowd responds, whistling and chanting the names of the next Luchadors - a couple of local favorites, in a doubles match, 2 vs 2.

 

In Mexico, Lucha Libre is a national sport, and Oaxaca is one of its many centers.

Lucha Libre’s roots reach as far back as 1863: an untethered evolution of Greco-Roman wrestling…Lucha Libre means Free Fight, or freestyle fighting. Despite its 19th century starting point, its popular history is tied without give to the emergence of Television. In 1950’s Mexico the founder of the principle Mexican Wrestling League began broadcasting matches across the country.

Early wrestlers like El Santo, Blue Demon and Mil Máscaras captivated TV audiences with their showmanship, enigmatic costumes, and aerial wrestling moves, known as high-flying.

Lucha Libre is visually inseparable from its masks. They typically cover a wrestler’s full head with a zipper in the back, and in contemporary style are colorful and intricate. I’ve heard that the tradition of the fighter’s mask dates back to the Aztec, who arrived here as conquerors from the north in the 1400s.

The decorum surrounding the mask is perhaps best told through Lucha Libre’s most famous wrestler.

El Santo, The Saint, appeared for the first time on June 26th, 1942. His mask was simple: entirely silver, with steep tear-drop eyes. Though the man inside had wrestled for almost a decade under different names and personas, the character of El Santo became a singular image of Mexican pop-culture, appearing regularly on TV, in dozens of Films and the main character in a popular comic book. But for 40 years, El Santo never appeared out of his mask, even in private. His own crew didn’t know his face, as he would take separate flights to matches. The mask IS the wrestler. And to unmask a luchador is to kill an identity. Ego-death in the ring.

In 1984, El Santo appeared on Mexican television. He had retired 2 years previous, and in the middle of the interview without warning, he lifted his mask to reveal his face.

The man inside was Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta age 66. This was the only known unmasked appearance of El Santo, communicating a final goodbye. He died just one week later, and was buried in his silver mask.

El Santo

Standing by the sound board with the announcer Manuel, I tell him about a short story by Ivan Turgenev. It’s called “The Singers”, an old Russian tale of 2 men in a rural tavern who have a singing contest. When the first goes, he is technical and flashy, winning over many of the townsmen with lesser taste, by throwing his voice with virtuosic control. Some are so impressed that they call for the other singer to be disqualified to save his honor. But the second man, who starts a little shaky, ascends into song so moving, so emotional, that much of the audience tears up, and the narrator’s mind is taken far away to the sea, where a magnificent bird stares motionless toward the sunset. I ask Manuel if Lucha Libre is like this.

Manuel El Leon Hernandez: (translated to English) It has a lot to do with that. There are gladiators that are physically prepared that have spectacular moves, but definitely there is something that is very important, it’s basic. In Mexico we call it an angel, or to have an angel. This thing of having the best spirit is called having an angel. To have an angel is that a gladiator can connect with the people that the people like him, that they chant their name, that is extremely important…There are many factors involved but the angel is very important because it will determine the way in which people respond to a wrestler and ultimately that is what will transform them into idols at the end of the day.

Manuel El Leon Hernandez: (translated to English): These are ordinary people, they are normal people but in the moment they get dressed, that they were a multi-colored mask, a mask that represents a character… they become…well they practically become immortal when they are up in the ring.

Endeavor

Fil: Cómo te llamas?

Endeavor: (Translated to English) Endeavor is my ring name…In the ring, everything changes. The name comes from NASA, a space shuttle from the USA. Let’s put it this way: this is a space ship and it is called Endeavor.

Fil: Gotcha, and then, why the star?

Endeavor: (Translated to English) The star? From the universe. There are stars and everything in the sky, so that is why. And the wings because they are part of the spaceship.

Fil: ahh, and when you’re in the ring, you (are) in the sky.

Endeavor: (Translated to English) Yes. The flights that one performs can project on to them. So I think the name is related to flying. To being in the sky…the top.

Voicing by Mariana Porcel (Endeavor), Angélica Daza (Abagail Bautista), Juan Diego Beltran (Manuel El Leon Hernandez). Angélica and Juan Diego have a podcast called Pensamiento Espiral, which I cannot reccomend highly enough

Topics, Tags and Mentions: Lucha Libre, Oaxaca, Oaxaca Mexico, Lucha Libre en Oaxaca, Arena San Francisco, Endeavor, Fantasma Blanco Jr., Arcanos, Lazzer Man, Manuel El Leon Hernandez, Zapotec, Monte Alban, Sierra Del Norte Oaxaca, Binaural Audio, El Santo, Blue Demon, Mil Máscaras, Dios Nunca Muerte, Wrestling, NASA, The Top, The Universe, The Sky, Luchador, Luchadors de Oaxaca