Poetry and music mark the passing of two revered Mexican poets

Jose Emilio Pacheco and Juan Gelman both died this winter. Pacheco's last day made front page news in Mexican papers; the news of his death came through immediately on my cell phone.

Both Gelman and Pacheco wrote in many genres but because  poetry is the queen of the literary arts in Mexico, the commemoration consisted of poems read by local readers and the extra fillip of Ana Cervantes playing music by Bach and several Romantic composers.

Carlos Ulises Mata and Dra. Asuncion Rangel of the University of Guanajuato organized the well-attended event. At an earlier tribute, a lecture and the showing of two films based on Pacheco's novels
honored another side of his work.

Gelman, although an Argentine through and through,
left his country for political reasons, living in Europe and eventually Mexico City.

Both he and Pacheco were honored with the Cervantes Prize.
As well as the legacy of their literary work, both left a legacy of activism.

For more information on both men, go to Wikipedia (in Spanish). Their poetry is available on several internet sites.

US Weaver's Show in San Miguel de Allende Pays Tribute to her Mexican Teacher

This show of Elizabeth Starcevic's weavings, which opened in early February, will be up until the end of the month (only a few days more!), well-displayed in two adjoining rooms at the Bellas Artes. As well as being a tribute to Starcevic's maestro Felix Perez Juarez who died a year ago, the exhibit is a fascinating passage through this weaver's twenty five years at the loom.

The large hanging in black and white with the red accent is Starcevic's take on a Moroccan design  The image below it is a detail from a hanging for which Starcevic used African strip techniques. The prompt for the third weaving, one of nearly two dozen in the show, demonstrates the weaver's knack for making a contemporary visual statement based on a historical reality, in this case Charles Darwin's garden. Two of the three pieces shown are among my personal favorites, but visitors to the exhibit, will see many more motifs and techniques as well, including hangings with objects (think cigarette packs) attached.

As a friend said, turning from the black and white weaving to Starcevic, "I don't know why I like it but I do." He was grinning from ear to ear.

Elizabeth lives half the year in San Miguel and the other half in New York City. There the cultural powers-that-be recently chose one of her weavings for display in a NYC subway system passenger elevator.  In addition to Starcevic' daily weaving stint, she serves as President of the San Miguel chapter of PEN International, the worldwide organization promoting the literary arts and human rights.