Guanajuato-born Artist Feted for her First Book

The Museo Dieguino proved to be a perfect place to honor Isaura Izquierdo's first illustrated book, Manisa y las alas magicas / Manisa and the Magic Wings. 

Among my favorites

Isaura's collage illustrations were on view in the galleries at each end of the museum, with many Guanajuatenses joining Isaura and Martha Romero, the author, in the  large interior space, including her proud artist mother Loreta. Her equally proud father, the artist Raul Izquierdo, besides being up-to-date by congratulating  her on Facebook, was on hand for the presentation of the book a few days later   

Serious business for the illustrator, a pleasure for her audience

"A good beginning"

The book illustrations showed Isaura's imaginative perspectives as well as her patient dexterity in shaping the wings from doilies. After finishing at the University of Guanajuato, Isaura studied illustration at the San Carlos Museum in Mexico City.

Guanajuato Viejo in its Final Days at the Alhondiga

Anyone who has lived in Guanajuato a while, knows how disruptive street repairs can be, but did you ever stop to think of the Teatro Juarez as a construction site? Or that before the days of buses, Guanajuato had a horse-drawn trolley up Pastita and another to Cata?

Note that the benches in the Jardin have hardly changed 

The exhibit, Guanajuato Viejo, with Alejandro, a specialist who knows his Guanajuato history, on hand to answer questions, will be at the Alhondiga the rest of this week and possibly through April 5. The final segment will be up later this spring.

Mexican museography is impressive!

Maybe getting home from the train station then was easier than getting in from the camionera today

                   

Guanajuato Byways: Equinox Celebration at Orduna, Comonfort Pyramid Site

Twenty eight Amigos de la Alhondiga Museum left our city before sunrise so we would be in time for the Spring Equinox ceremony on March 21. What a day! Those who were awake saw the sun come up. By the time we reached the Casa de Cultura in Comonfort, we were in full sunlight.

Ceremony of an Otomi community that mainly speaks Spanish

In the patio, we could see the traditional stone metates and other utensils for which the region is famous. Then by bus to the bottom of the hill once topped by a pyramid.

On the long, steep climb, we were accompanied by staff members from the Casa de Cultura and three city policemen.

A time to rest and wait for the formal greeting

                                                 Nearly to the top, we listened to the formal greeting. For me this was the first summit of the day because in the way he spoke to us, he could have been from an Oregon tribe. You could say it was a confirmation of what I had shown in my dissertation -- even when the original language is not used, the structure and themes can and do remain constant. Besides that, the way this man spoke to us was a powerful demonstration of the culture shared by descendants of the first people in North and Mesoamerica.

Any remains of the pyramid are protected by concrete but it is still a popular destination throughout the year. There, the shaman, in modern clothing, spoke to us of being the original people, then explained that with Spanish blood too, his people had blood from the Romans, Visigoths and more running through them too.

Shaman with his staff  and the effigy attached to the cross

Afterward, we took in (literally) a long Mexican comida at a restaurant in what used to be an elegant marketplace in the center of Comonfort and then did some quick crafts shopping on our way out of the city..

Healthy appetites afterward. oiled by tequila 

I plan to return, spending more time in its plazas, going into the city museum, learning more about the region's agricultural history. Maybe I'll eat pizza prepared in a wood-fired oven in the cafe part of the restaurant, buy more pottery and go to one of the city's two active markets. Our state is definitely more than our capital city suggests . . .

Two Stars of Expressive Dance Shine at the Cervantes

Susanne Linke was born in Berlin, Lola Lince in Guadalajara. Where their paths first crossed I don't know but last night Lince performed The Human Animal, a dance the two choreographers created jointly.A rapt, predominantly young, audience turned out for the premiere event at the Cervantes Theater.

The photos above come from the internet. The one of Lola, a FONCA beneficiary whose house-studio overlooks Guanajuato, is fairly recent; the one of Susanne was taken some years ago.

What a pleasure to see Linke's easy grace as she came up to the stage to share in the applause and receive a bouquet. Lince's part of the evening was the strenuous one -- for over an hour she danced the animal part of humankind.

With both sound and light playing important roles in the evening, kudos also go to bouquet-less Cesar "Chacho" Guerra, the lighting designer and Marcos Garcia, the music designer

Bottom line: Contemporary dance lovers, keep your eye out for the next Lola Lince evening. She is our living cultural treasure. We are fortunate she chose Guanajuato.

Guanajuato Arts: Last Days for Japanese Prints Exhibit at the Diego Rivera

Hurry on over to the Diego Rivera house if you have time for this marvelous, varied exhibit of contemporary Japanese printmaking. Ends Sunday the 9th. Below are several examples to but I imagine you'll find your own favorites.

                                         The first print, a favorite of mine, is entitled "Musician's Son".:

"Musician's Son," a favorite of mine

I hope you can see past the reflections to "Transformation".

A whimsical new take on Master of Masters Hokosai

A Cozy, Colorful Room for Children in the Diego Rivera House

     Thanks to Mexico's Federal Government and the Guanajuato State Institute of Culture plus the work of several dedicated young local artists and their teacher, children now visit this breathtaking reading room where colorful wall designs surround the books. The books themselves, many of them from other countries by way of translations done in Spain, are breathtaking too.         The Sala de Lectura is mainly visited by school groups and children coming with parents (although the hours don't make the second option easy). You don't need to be with a child or a neighbor's child to take a peek here, Monday-Thursday, 9-2. More about this innovative project will be posted at.MEXIGUANA..

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.

Powerful FIC exhibit:: Danos colaterales at Museo de Pueblo

This multifaceted exhibit was made up of sections with a double thread running through them, either assaults on identity.or other forms of cruelty. The last photo shows one panel of a two sided screen portraying the glory of Tenochtitlan and the Spaniards' slaughter of the inhabitants. A powerful work (not shown) was the stark photo of a drowned kitten taken by Claudia Reyes..The photos by the German photographer Walter Reuter, who loved his new country , provided a brief respite from the other works shown.

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Refugee Reuter left his bitterness behind in the Old World, grateful that Mexico provided a haven

                                         At the entrance to the exhibit, a seemingly innocuous set of seven blankets had covered corpses of Mexicans who died violent deaths.
The wooden sculpture we saw next resonated frighteningly with Amat Escalante's film Heli.

Above and below two prints in a series by Nahum B. Zenil

Rogelio Pereda's double-edged photo of a man-turned-woman after serving in the US military.

One panel from Gustavo Monroy's powerful New Screen after the Spanish Conquest. 

Museum tour: a way tto see Posada's work without making a trip to Aguascalientes

The meeting point is at 6pm at the galeria across from El Midi in Casa Cuatro. I'm sure the tour will head to the Museo del Pueblo which is hosting four exhibits in Jose Guadalupe Posada's honor.

                                                Satirist Posada not one to strive for political correctness

Did you know that the printmaker lived in Leon for more than ten years until the flood of 1888 washed out the taller where he worked, leading him to move to Mexico City. Undoubtedly the perfect place for graphic social commentary well understood by the many Mexicans of the time who could not read.

I don't know how long the exhibits will be at the museums.Recommended for art buffs, graphic art buffs and history buffs.

Sherrie Posternak's Day of the Dead exhibit at the Dieguino

Sherrie's exhibit opened at the Museo  Dieguino (between the Teatro Juarez and the Hotel San Diego) Friday night, her third exhibit in Guanajuato this year. Creating in many forms, this versatile artist offered her viewers many ways of seeing the interplay between life and death.  What could have been a better setting than the subterranean museum? The artist, who dressed as a calaca that would have done Posada proud, explained that her  family recollections and  her own sense of Mexican culture mix in this varied exhibit made from the intertwined threads of life and death.

Life:sepeating the marriage ritual seven times

Death: Sherrie dcarries out her theme 

Dia de los Muertos Feria de Artesanias 31 de oct - 3 de nov

Craftepeople from out of town and local craftspeople showed their wares.at this four-day fair. According to the calendar I have, there may be a repeat from 15-18 of November (around the Day of the Revolution), followed by a Christmas Fair 20-30 of December.Norma - all in the building near the city offices in Plaza de la Paz.

This time, Lilia Fernandea, who taught humanities at the prepa for many years, was showing her hand painted and hand enbrudered rebozos:

Weavers, metalworkers, papier mache craftsman came too, several from San Miguel de Allende. Visitors to the exhibits could pick up cards for heading to the display rooms on a later visit.

Women from the Santa Rosa Cooperative brought their mermaladas (I bought quince) and sweet liqueurs. A smaller fair than usual but I hope worthwhile for both sellers and buyers.