Locations > Oaxaca
 
Oaxaca, some three-hundred miles south-east of Cuernavaca, was Lowry's personal "city of dreadful night" and contributed much to the fictional Quauhnahuac; in particular the original Farolito and the Soledad, the church "for those who have nobody with". Lowry went to Oaxaca in 1937 after Jan had left him spending time in sordid cantinas and in prison. When he returned in 1946, with Margerie, he was disappointed to find that it had lost all its threatening aspects.
 
Cantina & Farolito

 
Did she remember Oaxaca! The roses and the great tree, was that, the dust and the buses to Etla and Nochitlán – UTV, 48.

The giant ahuehuetl or cypress, believed to be dying (in fact, from a lack of water), at the village of Santa María de Tule on the road from Oaxaca to Mitla. Cortés is said to have dined beneath its branches on his way to Honduras in 1524.
 
"Did you ever go to the church for the bereavèd here," he asked suddenly, "where is the Virgin for those who have nobody with?" – UTV, 6.

The Iglesia de la Soledad, the Church of the Lonely, has been transposed to Quauhnahuac from Oaxaca; Lowry's favourite church, it figures significantly in Dark as the Grave as the place where Sigbjørn finds the peace and understanding which has eluded him, and which, by implication, has eluded the Consul.
 
Church & interior

... Oaxaca, and the nightly escape from the sleeping Hotel Francia, where Yvonne and he had once been happy, from the cheap room giving on the balcony high up... – UTV, 349.

The Hotel Francia, Calle 20 de Noviembre, Oaxaca.
 

Oaxaca's Post Office, where Yvonne's letters should have reached the Consul.

Image: Flickr user Worthing Wanderer.
"There seems to be something sinister about Parián."
"It's a very dull place actually. Of course it's the old capital of the state. Years ago there used to be a huge monastery there, I believe - rather like Oaxaca in that respect" – UTV, 115.

The monastery in Parián acts as the headquarters of the Unión Militar. In Oaxaca, today as in Lowry's day, the ancient monastery next to the Church of Santo Domingo acts as the headquarters of the military forces of Oaxaca.


A PARIÁN