There is some disagreement about whether this park was called El Llano Park or Juaraz Park. Either way, it was a very nice park that dates back to the Spanish colonial days.

While touring the Historical Ethno-botanical Garden in Oaxaca, the tour guide (an interesting woman whose husband, incidentally, was the buyer at Jackalope in Santa Fe for about ten years) explained to us that Oaxaca owes almost all of its interesting history to the fact that it was essential during the colonial period. And it owes its importance as a colonial city almost entirely to cochineal, a small parasitic beetle that makes its home on cactus, mostly prickly pear.

Here’s a how-to page about using the insect to make red dye. And here’s a book review in the Washington Post that explains the historical significance of dye to a modern audience, who might not understand why wars would be fought and cultures subjugated in order to produce colored fabric.