A Visit to the Delta

Last week I have finally, the opportunity to know the zone of the state of Mississippi called the Delta. It is a very vast area between the Mississippi and the Yazoo river and technically is not a delta because is not the mouth of the Mississippi river. For centuries the region was the center of agricultural farms dedicated to the cotton, sugar cane, rice, tobacco and indigo, a very appreciated plant used to dye fabrics, but which production process was highly dangerous for humans and the enviroment. Now you could see the catfish farms with big pools to the different levels of growing.

Sometimes is like watching a movie or reading a book about the south, the images you see look timeless. Is really shocking to see the differences between the little towns in the Delta and Oxford, they are very poor places, is not surprising the blues was born here, the vast and lonely fields inspired this kind of mood and the struggles of mostly black people lives in which poverty and hardship were ever present defining a sad rhythm with melancolic lyrics.

We visited the Blues Museum and later Groun Zero, one of the places the actor Morgan Freeman has in the area, the place is so pictoresque with all the walls cover by the names of the visitors trough the years. They have catfish of course and I tried the green fried tomatoes, I really love the film with the same name and always want to taste, they are so good. A good band played blues, soul and rock and we danced and enjoyed the hospitality of the people.