“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” George Bernard Shaw
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emember when you were a kid and you could just sit down and color a scene from your summer vacation without constantly worrying if it was any good? I’m not sure why we are encouraged to stop doing things unless we are great at them. I think when it comes to creativity we need to have a high threshold for mediocrity. As a secret writer I often try to do the mathhow many horrible short stories equals one I am not too embarrassed to let someone read? A lot! I am always awed when I see the early sketches of some great masterpiece. It is so much more interesting than letting the final product stand alone. Any great accomplishment has trial runs and failures as its foundation. I am so grateful to the people in my life who pursue artistic dreams; the writers, the painters, the actors and musicians who keep creating. As we kick off this high season, I look forward to seeing the events that will unfold. This past year we lost two people who did a great deal to propel the arts in Huatulco. One was artist Jim Spicka who, along with his wife Mary, organized an annual art show of local talent. We also lost my dear friend Carminia Magaña, founder of Amigos de la Musica and an early contributor at The Eye. Be sure to get to the Amigos de la Musica concert on November 15th. Without a doubt Huatulco is a wonderful place to vacation and live but the thing that gives it chispa are the people in our community who embrace the importance of artistic endeavors. A huge thank you to the writers and contributors of The Eye and to those who organize concerts, art shows and film screenings. Thank you to the artists and writers behind closed doors creating the masterpieces of tomorrow. This month our writers explore the arts, profiling wellknown artists like Francisco Toledo and local talents like Carolina Schwartz. Mexico is a wealth of talent and holds creativity in high regard as evidenced by its museums, festivals and public art. If you are resident or visitor seek out and support our community events. I also encourage you to create; paint, sing, write- don’t be discouraged by the failures- they mean you are on your way! See you next month,
Jane
Editor: Jane Bauer Copy Editor: Deborah Van Hoewyk Web Goddess: Erin Vig Writers: Jane Bauer, Julie Etra, Jan Chaiken, Marcia Chaiken, Brooke Gazer, MJ Kelly, Oscar Olivos, Jed Pitman, Carole Reedy, Alvin Starkman, Deborah Van Hoewyk, Kary Vannice Cover Vector: Victor Tongdee Photography/Art: Various Artists Distribution: Renee Biernacki, Maggie Winter Layout: Jane Bauer Opinions and words are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Eye. We welcome submissions and input. To get involved send us an email. TheEyeHuatulco@gmail.com Visit Us Online www.TheEyeHuatulco.com
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In This Issue Gilberto Bosques Saldívar and Refugee Immigration to Mexico By Julie Etra Page 6 Mexico's National Museum of Art By Brooke Gazer Page 8 The Art of Reading By Carole Reedy Page 12 Celebrity Entrepreneurship Impacts Oaxaca: Mezcal is Breaking Bad By Alvin Starkman, M.A., J.D. Page 16 Nature in Art By Jed Pitman Page 18 Francisco Toledo 1940 – 2019 By Julie Etra Page 22 Teatro Visión By Marcia Chaiken and Jan Chaiken Page 28 Camino Copalita By Jane Bauer Page 30 Carminia Magaña By MJ Kelly and Oscar Olivos Page 30 From Ancient Culture to Antique Kitsch: Mexican Feather Art By Deborah Van Hoewyk Page 34 Memoria de Luz By Kary Vannice Page 38 EDITORIAL PAGE 3
UPCOMING EVENTS PAGE 26 www.TheEyeHuatulco.com The Eye 4
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Gilberto Bosques Saldívar and Refugee Immigration to Mexico By Julie Etra
F
irst and foremost, I want to thank my friend and fellow The Eye writer Linda Kelley for introducing me to Clara Valdes Hernandez, an excellent educator who focuses on Mexican culture and history, rather than grammar and phraseology, in her Spanish classes for her Englishspeaking students. Without Linda and Clara, I would never have known about this remarkable, unrenowned, and underappreciated Mexican. As a homework assignment from Clara, we were to watch the 2010 documentary Visa al Paraíso. Directed by Lillian Lieberman, a Mexican of Jewish descent, this documentary tells the story of Bosques, a Mexican diplomat, who saved approximately 40,000 Jews and Spaniards from execution by the Third Reich and Francoist Spain by issuing them visas to Mexico. Bosques was born on July 20, 1892, in Chiautla de Tapia, Mexico, a mountain village in the state of Puebla. He died on July 4, 1995, in Mexico City at 102 years of age. Bosques was very active politically; at 17, he fought in the Mexican Revolution under the command of Aquiles Serdán (the first martyr/casualty of the Revolution), which began in Puebla. He was a staunch promoter of public education, a major tenet of the Mexican Revolution. Prior to becoming a career diplomat, he was a journalist and state legislator. In 1938 he oversaw the Mexican government's newspaper, El Nacional. Following the outbreak of WWII and the fall of the Spanish republic in 1939, Bosques was appointed Mexico's Consul General to Paris, France, by then President Lázaro Cárdenas. Bosques was originally mandated to protect Mexicans trapped in Spain; as the Nazi onslaught became more apparent, his mission was expanded to save as many people as possible fleeing the Nazi horror and the fall of Spain to the fascist dictator Francisco Franco Bahamondein (aka Franco) and grant them Mexican citizenship. Cárdenas supported the Spanish republic against the supporters of Franco, who included Hitler and Mussolini. On March 18, 1938, Cárdenas signed an order expropriating the assets of nearly all of the foreign oil companies operating in Mexico, which were mostly American. Being preoccupied with implementation of this order, among other complicated aspects of governance, Cárdenas mostly left Bosques to his own devices to carry out his government's wishes.
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On June 22, 1940, France fell to Germany, and the Vichy government was installed. The Vichy government, in collaboration with the Germans, began rounding up Jews and deporting them to concentration camps. Although Bosques initially fled, he returned to establish the Mexican consulate in Marseille. He rented a castle and summer camp to house the refugees and claimed under international law that the property constituted Mexican territory and was therefore immune from Vichy governance and its policies. The Mexican government provided shelter, food, medical treatment, and even entertainment. Bosques began issuing expedited visas to Jews, leaders of the Austrian and French Resistance, and Spaniards fleeing the fascist Franco regime. He exceeded instructions given to him by Cárdenas, as any refugee who approached him would get a letter from the Mexican consulate saying that he or she had a Mexican visa. Records are conflicting; some sources report that Bosques persuaded the Mexican government to send ships to the French coast to transport refugees to Mexico, but at the time Mexico had no ships and little revenue. Some refugees were sent to the French colonies in North Africa, mostly Casablanca, and from there took French ships to the island of Martinique in the Caribbean and then on to Mexico. In 1943, German forces invaded and occupied the compound, arresting refuges awaiting departure to Mexico. Bosques and his family, as well as 40 consular staff, were later arrested by the Gestapo and detained as prisoners in Germany for a year. They were released after the new Mexican President Manuel Ávila Camacho imprisoned German citizens in Mexico and then arranged a prisoner swap, and Bosques returned to Mexico. After the war, he served as the Mexican Ambassador to several countries, including Portugal, Finland, Sweden, and Cuba. His heroism was never recognized during his lifetime. Recognition began in 2003, when the City Hall of Vienna, together with the Mexican Embassy and the Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, dedicated a boulevard to Bosques. The "Promenade Gilberto Bosques" was inaugurated on June 4, 2003, with Bosques' daughters, Laura and Maria Teresa, in attendance. In 2007 a photographic exhibition in his honor was presented at the Jewish and Holocaust History Museum in the Condesa neighborhood in Mexico City; the exhibit traveled to Xalapa, Veracruz, in 2008; in that same year, the AntiDefamation League honored Bosques with its Courage to Care Award. In Visa al Paraíso, Ms. Liberman interviews 16 people, among them his daughter, people whom Bosques saved, and historians.
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Mexico's National Museum of Art By Brooke Gazer
M
exico City has numerous museums and galleries, so if you are passing through on your way to the coast, why not stop to explore this treasure-trove of art and culture? The centrally located Museo Nacional de Arte (National Museum of Art), now called MUNAL, can easily be incorporated into your itinerary. It's easy to spot, with an enormous equestrian statue of King Charles IV of Spain out in front. The permanent collection of over 3000 pieces takes you on a unique journey through Mexico's history of art. The staff do not speak much English, but with signage in both Spanish and English, you should have no trouble understanding the significance of each display. Second-Floor Exhibits The exhibit begins on the second floor with art of the sixteenthcentury colonial era. The collection has two main aspects. The first shows predominantly religious works that represent the adoption of the styles and subjects current in European painting, while the second aspect is the museum's collection of paintings done after the Mexican War of Independence (1810 – 21) that depict the creation of the Mexican state. Most of the religious works are by European painters (Flemish, Spanish, Italian) brought over to fill new Christian cathedrals and churches with religious paintings, murals, and screens. The first artist of Mexican descent who appears in MUNAL's collection is Luis Juárez (1585 – 1639), who emulated the work of Baltasar Echave de Orio, a Basque painter who had come to Mexico; Juárez's painting of Christ praying in the garden of Gethsemane (La oración en el huerto, no date) is considered one of his best works. The historical paintings range from scenes of pre-Hispanic life or Columbus and colonial activities, to portrayals of Mexican customs and ceremonies, along with early landscapes (volcanoes make several appearances). It is in this section that we begin to see more Mexican painters, and much of the work seeks to establish a Mexican identity, although still driven by European ideas and techniques.
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The most important element of this exhibit is that on Christmas Day of 1783, King Charles III of Spain issued a “Royal Card” establishing the first school dedicated to training artists in the Americas. Unfortunately, the Academy of the Noble Arts of San Carlos imported European teachers, who not only promoted styles and themes firmly established in Europe, they also gave preference to foreign born artists. First Floor Exhibits It was not until after the War of Independence that a true Mexican identity in painting began to develop; in the latter part of the nineteenth century, a unique style of landscapes was solidified. For me, this is where the work becomes interesting and these works can be found in the first floor. Eugenio Landesio (1810 – 79) was an Italian-born painter who significantly influenced Mexican art. He taught that a composition required two separate elements. The first comprised the location (sky, foliage, fields, water, buildings) The second equally important element included an episode or story. This usually involved groups of people to give the landscape a sense of scale, but it also provided a narrative interest. The Valley of Mexico from Tenayo Hill (1870) is a perfect example. A group of picnickers in the foreground provide perspective to the immensity of the plains and the mountains beyond. But the figures also provide another dimension, drawing you into an intimate family setting and portraying an historical place in time. Landesio's time at the Academy was short (1873 – 75), but he transformed the concept of landscape painting into a higher art form among Mexican artists. One of his promising pupils, José María Velasco, went on to become Mexico's foremost teacher of the next generation. He elevated Mexican landscape painting to international standing. Patio of the Ex-convent of San Agustín (1860) is a romantic depiction of everyday activity inside the ex-convent walls; women doing laundry communally, a horse being attached to pull a cart, and men carrying bundles. Later in the nineteenth century, technological advances sometimes appear in Velasco's work. The Metlac Ravine (1881) is a powerful illustration of a locomotive dissecting a pastoral landscape.
In the early part of the twentieth century (1910 – 21), Mexico suffered through a long and bloody revolution, basically a civil war that some estimates say claimed up to 3.5 million lives. During the aftermath, the Secretary of Public Education was tasked with reconstructing a national unity in a country that had been torn apart. To this end, he promoted Mexican modernism, a school of art that married Mexico's pre-Hispanic past and agricultural roots with developing industry. He encouraged scenes of everyday life and themes idealizing social justice; this type of art was intended to communicate the alma nacional (national soul). Many artists are part of Mexican modernism, including the internationally known muralists Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros, whose work tends to eclipse other modernist art and artists. While MUNAL has wonderful non-mural work by these three, it shows a much wider range of modernists. One fascinating artist is the shortlived Mexican-Swiss Saturnino Ferrán Guinchard (1887 – 1918), who was Diego Rivera's teacher at one point, and formed the Society of Mexican Painters and Sculptors with Orozco. Ferrán's work focused on purely Mexican themes, with special attention to painting indigenous peoples with strength, dignity, and beauty; his style of painting, however, still embodied European influences. Architecture This museum holds a wealth of art history, but the architecture is another reason to put it on your list of things to see. Constructed between 1904 – 1911, the exterior is a fine example of the Neoclassical period. This is characterized by a grandeur of scale, simplicity of geometric forms, and the dramatic use of columns. Over time, the building deteriorated but in 1982, the National Museum of Art was founded. By 2000, restoration of this palatial building was completed, along with upgrades in technology to preserve the art housed here.
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In contrast to the building's relatively austere exterior, the interior holds an eclectic mixture of styles. Entering, you are greeted with an elaborate pair of curving marble staircases encased in extravagantly cast bronze balusters; each is flanked with a bronze lion at the base, High above the stairs is a marble frieze with ornately carved wood inset with Rococo paintings. The Reception Hall and the Patio de los Leones are two highly decorated spaces where events, lectures, films, and concerts are regularly presented. Many of these are free. You can check their website below for details. Brooke Gazer operates Agua Azul la Villa, an ocean-view B&B in Huatulco. www.bbaguaazul.com
MUNAL – National Museum of Art Calle de Tacuba 8, Centro Histórico CDMX Hours: 10 am – 5:30 pm; Closed Mondays, December 25, January 1 Guided tours: 2 – 4 pm
Marina Park Plaza Chahue, Huatulco
Open daily 11am- 11pm Tel. 958 117 4502
www.munal.mx/en/visita Admission: $70 MXN General Admission $5 MXN photography permit $30 MXN video permit
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The Art of Reading “Art is too diffuse, too vital. It's always growing and changing.” Calvin Tomkins (New Yorker staffer and art critic) on the reason one cannot define art By Carole Reedy
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or whatever reasons you pick up a book – to allow your mind to wander, to gaze, daydream, laugh, cry, or seethe with anger or joy while ensconced in it – these are essential elements that make reading an art and imagination the vehicle. Today I present my top-ten reads of 2019, though not all were written during this year. The list is a mixture of fiction and nonfiction that will satisfy, I hope, the tastes of all readers of The Eye. The first two books on this list, Milkman and Say Nothing, are fiction and nonfiction respectively, each in its own way analyzing the history and effects of the “troubles” in Northern Ireland in the 1960s and beyond. Milkman: A Novel, by Anna Burns Burns, the first author from Northern Ireland to win the Booker Prize for Fiction (2018), captures the reader from the very start with her breakout novel, Milkman. Some readers and critics were put off by a style that does not give proper names to the characters, instead identifying them by their roles. For those who appreciate this technique, which contributes to the overall fear created in and for the reader, it is essential. Few readers will not be swept up in the descriptive, frightening, isolated landscape Burns creates. Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, by Patrick Radden Keefe One might call this a history of the “troubles,” but it is surely more than that. Not only are the sources complete, reliable, and varied, but the author portrays the main figures involved in a detailed, nonjudgmental manner, thus creating the ambiance and tension of the times. The structure of the research leads us to think we're reading a murder mystery and the pace is perfect for this rather long tome. To be honest, and a bit trite, you can't put it down! Say Nothing is a finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction. Berta Isla: A Novel, by Javier Marías My favorite author has written his best yet. I say this not because of any change of style or philosophy of the writer, but rather because of the plot. I found the story totally satisfying in every way, especially the end with its unexpected twist. Marías is a master of diversion and precise language and thus his writing always fascinates. Quichotte, by Salman Rushdie Yes, a modern-day Don Quixote, told by the master of story-telling. I laughed from beginning to end and, as always, was in awe of Rushdie's intricate take on the timeless legend and complex characters returned to life in this new century.
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Fleishman Is in Trouble: A Novel, by Taffy BrodesserAkner This debut novel, a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, surprises in myriad ways. Brodesser-Akner takes us on a journey that evolves and shifts as the chapters progress, allowing one's mind to form new ways of thinking about universal problems. It could be called a family saga of the 21st century, but it is rather a statement on the status of women. There There, by Tommy Orange You not need be of American Indian descent, or even from the US, to appreciate the insightful, vivid description of the plight of native Indians in the 21st century. My British and Mexican friends were equally surprised to find that this reads as a universal novel. The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary, by Simon Winchester I couldn't resist picking up this Winchester book about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary after the satisfying experience of reading his The Professor and the Madman (recently made into an excellent movie starring Sean Penn and Mel Gibson, both outstanding in their respective roles). This version of the story is more detailed with regard to the main character, James Murray, and his stamina over the years as he creates this most famous of world resources. The Library Book, by Susan Orlean A “must” not just for lovers of libraries, but for all readers. Every wonderful thing about libraries is explored and described in this book. In addition, there's a story line about a fire at the Los Angeles Library and its supposed perpetrator. I have loved reading Orlean ever since The Orchid Thief left me in awe of orchids and their explorers … and of her. The Overstory: A Novel, by Richard Powers I list this as one of my favorites not so much for my emotional attachment to the plot or characters, but because it was a compelling and different way to understand climate change and the importance of trees. There are quirky characters and a plot in this novel that get you through the lengthy discussion of trees and nature. It may sound clichéd, but I think it is a necessary read for our times.
Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society, by Daniel Barenboim and Edward W. Said Barenboim, the Argentinian-Israeli pianist, conductor, and music director, and Said, the Palestinian-American academic and literary/social critic, co-founded the WestEastern Divan Orchestra to bring together young Arab and Israeli musicians. Close friends, they conducted a Carnegie Hall Talk in 1999, of their thoughts about music, politics, and clture, from Wagner to Israel, Bayreuth, Beethoven, Dickens, and Toscanini, to name just a few. Olive Kitteridge lovers alert: As I finish this article, I eagerly await the new novel, Olive, Again: A Novel, by Elizabeth Strout, arriving any day now.
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Celebrity Entrepreneurship Impacts Oaxaca: Mezcal is Breaking Bad By Alvin Starkman, M.A., J.D.
I
t's not uncommon for movie and TV stars as well as famous musicians to pass through Oaxaca, either to the state capital to get a dose of culture, or to a Pacific beach resort such as Huatulco or Puerto Escondido for pure relaxation. Remember the 1950s and 60s when Acapulco was in its heyday, with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., John Wayne, Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley and Johnny Weissmuller? They made the resort town, and generated billions (millions at the time) for Mexico. So why is it that, after their 2018 visit to Oaxaca, Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston, stars of the Breaking Bad TV series, are receiving blowback from many of the mezcal pundits for having embarked upon creating their own brand of the agave distillate, Dos Hombres? Should we not be lauding Jesse and Mr. White for having drawn attention to Oaxaca and showcased mezcal to many who had previously not even heard of it, or our state? Well, judging from the online criticism by those who are purportedly in the know (that is the mezcal “experts,” geeks, aficionados and even some brand owners), celebrities who understand very little about mezcal have no business intruding on the secret mezcal society and lining their already golden pockets by feeding off the hardworking indigenous Oaxacans who produce the spirit. Certainly their objection would extend to George Clooney, Wayne Gretzky, Dan Aykroyd, and all the other stars who have entered the alcohol business. But should we not take a step back and more closely examine this case on its merits, prior to lumping them all together as bad actors? Let's do that. You're either living or vacationing in one of the poorest two states in all Mexico. Just look around you, a little closer than you might otherwise do. Oaxaca is culturally rich (perhaps why you're here), yet the underbelly is economically poor. We have agriculture, and we have tourism, both subject to financial peaks and valleys impacting the state's wellbeing. The former is subject to climate and international markets, and the latter to fear-mongering by foreign governments and journalists. The “mezcal boom” is increasingly driving the economy, with many visitors to the state arriving as if making a pilgrimage to learn about their new favorite spirit. Some travel to Oaxaca to start their own brands, still others to photograph (e.g., www.galleriaspike.com/oaxacan-mezcaleros) and to document for TV, the big screen, and podcasts (www.alasdairbaverstock.com/news/2019/5/20/mezcalthe-fine-line-between-tradition-and-profit). This means more revenue generated for lodgings, restaurants, crafts, tour companies, and the list goes on. Some of it inevitably filters down to folks at the lower rungs of the socio-economic scale. Yet much of the world still does not even know what mezcal is!
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Mezcal Educational Excursions of Oaxaca TM/MR While in the state capital, learn about this century's most coveted spirit by spending a day with recognized authority Alvin Starkman. Visit rural artisanal distilleries (palenques) using both ancestral clay pot and traditional copper stills. For novices and aficionados alike. Sample throughout your excursion with no obligation to buy.
www.mezcaleducationaltours.com mezcaleducationaltours@hotmail.com
Enter Breaking Bad. Some fans of the show, or even of the long gone Malcolm in the Middle or Seinfeld (remember recurring character Dr. Tim Whatley?), who until now have never even heard of the spirit, perhaps out of mere curiosity will pick up a bottle of Dos Hombres. Inevitably many will like it, perhaps for its relatively low percentage of alcohol (42% ABV), which may remind them of the tequilas or other spirits in that range, or for its nose, flavor and finish. Of those, many will continue to purchase it, others will then try other similar brands, yet others will have had their interest in mezcal piqued for the first time. And some will graduate to more “traditional” mezcals of a higher ABV, the agave distillates that the pundits regularly evaluate and critique. Cocktail bars will be hard-pressed not to stock Dos Hombres, even though their bartenders and mixologists may object due to little more than snobbism. After all, the anti-Hombres movement began the day Cranston and Paul unveiled their mezcal, without the experts even having sampled the spirit. And yet it's okay to mix margaritas and negronis with mezcals blended from different distilleries.
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In the end the imbibing public will rule, and Dos Hombres will be a staple on the shelves. And that will significantly contribute to the mezcal industry, and more significantly for the purpose of this thesis, to the economy of the state of Oaxaca. How can it not? Just as spirits aficionados have flocked to Oaxaca to seek other brands, spending their pesos as fast as they can get them out of their pockets, so too will they stampede, most for the first time, because of Dos Hombres. Remember Acapulco. My bias out in the open, I worked with Paul and Cranston for a couple of days last year, teaching them about the spirit and attempting to assist with brand development. However, I have not even sampled their final product - but that's irrelevant, because some will like it, others will not … just as happens with the brands gauged by the mezcal geeks. Put motivation out of your mind. We live in a capitalist society. Who are we to assume that their only reason for embarking upon their mezcal project is to earn money? And even if it is, so what? Should we not be as critical of silent (or not-so-silent) investors with purely financial interests in the traditional clayand copper-distilled brands we covet? Perhaps Paul and Cranston also have an altruistic motive for their business venture. Should we not look more to the positives of Dos Hombres for the state, the communities in which mezcal is produced, and the hard-working families who grow and cut the agave, then bake, crush, ferment and distill? If we keep mezcal as a secret society, rather than promote it for all, we hold back the amelioration of Oaxaca's economy. Alvin Starkman operates Mezcal Educational Excursions of Oaxaca (www.mezcaleducationaltours.com).
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Nature in Art By Jed Pitman
Art for me is about freedom. It's how I express outwardly what is inside me. It helps me connect with people I have not met but ones who I know I will meet in the future. My jewellery connects me to people in a profound way.
T
hese are the words of local artist and jewellery maker, Carolina Schwarz. I was perhaps not the best person to interview Carolina, as my own personal knowledge of anything artistic is several notches beneath zero. Drawing a stick man is as difficult for me as it was for Michelangelo when splashing some colour on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. In fact, when a former girlfriend of mine once mentioned the words “engagement” and “'ring,” I got her two front row seats at a boxing match. So, to put it mildly, myself and Carolina are antonyms. But to learn about art is something else, as Carolina was soon proving. “I started making jewellery 25 years ago, soon after arriving in Mexico from Argentina. When I was very young, I used to pick up anything, get a feel for it and make something from it with my hands. I realised that I had an inbuilt connection with minerals. I read books about minerals and the different energies they have and this is something I have carried through my life.” I nodded through this with a solid amount of incredulity. But she continued. “On arriving in this country, I used all the natural resources around me. I always paid attention to nature and its all-consuming beauty, so natural materials like shells and oxidized coins I found buried in the sand. I began to open my mind so I could connect further with nature and to then show other people its immense beauty.” “What? Sorry, please continue.” “Colours are of prime importance to me, the harmony between colour and different shapes and textures which I blend with my own passions, my soul, my emotions, my thoughts. But I also have the faith that when someone sees my work, they can have an inner feeling towards it, a unique and sometimes a very deep connection with it. When someone sees a piece of my jewellery, I want to make them think about nature and about their own inner complexities. I am not a person who follows fashion. I prefer to think about souls and so look to create pieces that break all concepts of fashion or style. It is what I call urban art, using Mexico as my inspiration.” Aaah, up pricked my ears. I, too, am not a follower of fashion. I still wear either platform boots or spats and enjoy dining on powdered egg. Perhaps there is some yang in my yin after all. By this stage, I notice that I am starting to doodle and I find it a doddle.
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Carolina is seemingly oblivious to my new artistic self as she said, “When I start on a new design, it is like the pieces talk to me and it is my job to create a harmony between each piece. It may be that I am aware of what I am going to create before I start, but more often than not, it all comes together as I work with my open mind. Some take a lot of time and concentration while for others it is like an explosion within me. I think of my creations as my sons and daughters. When they are finished and have been born into this world, I can see their personalities but what makes it so exciting is when a person sees a piece for the first time and adds their own personality to it. At the same time, I am still very interested in creating what I suppose has become my classic product, necklaces using healing stones.” These are something I know about and before too long, I am wearing several pieces. I learn about the importance of chakras in art and am soon telling my friends about nadis – sushumnas, idas and pingalas. And as I write this, I am on the phone to the Apostolic Palace. Apparently, Michelangelo's The Last Judgment needs a touch up. Carolina's shop is on Calle Chacah, 412, in La Crucecita. Her work can also be viewed on Facebook (“maicadesigns”), Instagram (“maicadesigns”) and Tripadvisor (“Maica Silver & Contemporary Bijoux”). Look for Maicadesigns.
Chiles&Chocolate Cooking Classes Huatulco, Oaxaca
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Morning Activities
Evening Activities
TUESDAY- Seafood -Seafood Fritter with Chipotle -Shrimp Tostadas -Citrus and Jicama Salad -Baked Fish in Hoja Santa leaf -Paloma Cocktail
TUESDAY- Frida’s Favoritesdishes inspired by Frida Kahlo -Huazontles in Green Sauce -Corn Pudding with Chiles in Cream -Chicken in Pipian -Zucchini Salad -Frida Cocktail
WEDNESDAY- Mama’s Kitchen -Black Mole- This is the most exquisite and complicated Mexican sauce. -Yellow Mole -served with Rice and Chicken -Handmade Tortillas -Mezcal Margarita THURSDAY- Pigs and Rum -Cochinita Pibil -Corn Cakes -Pickeled Onion and Habanero -Avocado Salsa -Nopal and Radish Salad -Horchata FRIDAY- Street Food -Red and Green Salsas -Pico de Gallo -Handmade Tortillas and Sopes -2 types of Taco Fillings -Zucchini and Cheese Empanadas -Jamaica Margaritas
FRIDAY- Village to Table Dinner Our 8-course dinner using local ingredients is a culinary experience not to be missed! *This is not a cooking class Chiles&Chocolate Cooking Classes offer delicious culinary and cultural experiences that explore Mexican cuisine. Our hands-on classes ensure you will leave prepared to recreate the dishes when you get home. · · · · · ·
Hands-on Instruction in English Recipe Manual Free Gift Bag Food and Drinks Included Transportation Included Morning pick-up is 9am Evening pick-up is 5pm
Cost: $85 USD per person Activities are 3-4 hours Zimatan, Huatulco
Tel. 958 105 1671
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Francisco Toledo 1940 – 2019 By Julie Etra
F
rancisco Toledo, was a Mexican painter, sculptor, graphic artist, philanthropist, environmentalist, humanitarian, and promoter of Mexican culture, particularly of Oaxaca, his home state. To a large degree, he relied on his roots for the source of his artistic inspirations. Although born in Mexico City, this exceptional artist considered himself a Zapotec native of Juchitán de Zaragoza, Oaxaca, and spent most of his childhood in the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz. His media varied, and included engravings, watercolor, and oil. Toledo showed talent at an early age, and as a fourth grader won a drawing contest with his portrait of Benito Juárez. At age 11, his parents, both bilingual but speaking Zapotec at home, sent him to junior high in Oaxaca City. Supportive of his early interest in the arts and indigenous cultures, at age 14 they approved an apprenticeship to the engraver and lithographer Arturo García Bustos, who himself had been a student of Frida Kahlo in Coyoacán, Mexico City. During much of his early adult life, Toledo studied and traveled extensively as part of his studies and career, before finally settling in Juchitán. His artwork drew in part on childhood experiences with his grandfather Benjamín, a shoemaker, from the Oaxacan town of Ixtepec, whom he would accompany through farmlands in search of plant resins while being told fantastic stories and local legends. Toledo's first show was in 1959 at the Galería Antonio Souza, Mexico City, followed by a show at the Fort Worth Art Center, Texas. Following these shows he received a scholarship to study in Paris with the engraver Stanley Hayter, one of the most important 20th-century printmakers. There he worked on refining his techniques and met the Oaxacan painter Rufino Tamayo. Shows followed in Paris and a year later in Toulouse, then the Tate Gallery in London, and in New York. He gained a reputation for artwork that expressed a mystical, mythical, and sacred sense of life. Upon returning to Mexico in 1965, he began to incorporate Western with indigenous art as he developed his particular style.
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He is said to have been influenced by the painters Albrecht Dürer, Paul Klee and Marc Chagall. In 1983 he published a book of engravings entitled The Beginning, and in that same year, he was asked by the publishing house Fondo de Cultura Económica to illustrate the mythical creatures Jose Luis Borges and Margarita Guerrero described in the Manual of Fantastic Zoology (1953, expanded until final edition in 1969). The book was published in 1984, the illustrations have been shown around the world since then, and a new edition was published by Artes de México y el mundo in 2013. “What I do is a mixture of things, but the pre-Hispanic world has been a source of inspiration,” Toledo once explained. “There are certain solutions that are decorative that come from pre-Hispanic art and at the same time there is much primitive art that is refined or simple but also very modern.” He used innovative materials, including sand and amate paper, the pre-Columbian paper made with crushed bark of the amate tree (Ficus insipida, a species of fig). He created images of insects, snakes, toads, iguanas, bats, which can be described as fantastic realism. Toledo was an artist, not a businessman, and had little interest in promoting and/or commercializing his work. Many pieces went to collectors who purchased them in advance. He was a man committed to the environment and social struggle, and even distributed books to prisoners. He dedicated his adult life to promoting Oaxacan culture and opposed the construction of a McDonald's in Oaxaca City as a perceived affront to it. He founded Ediciones Toledo, the Institute of Graphic Arts of Oaxaca (IAGO), the Museum of Contemporary Art of Oaxaca), the Alvarez Bravo Photographic Center, the El Pochote Cinema Club, the Oaxaca Paper Art Workshop, and the botanical garden of the former convent of Santo Domingo, one of the most extraordinary and beautiful ethnobotanical gardens I have ever explored. He also provided support for the protection of ecologically important areas such as the archeological site Monte Albán on the outskirts of Oaxaca City and the Papaloapan River, which flows from Oaxaca to Veracruz (papaloapan means “butterfly” in Nahuatl). Almost always disheveled and simply dressed, he became a symbol and expression of the deepest myths of preHispanic of Mexico. His daughter, Natalia Toledo Paz, is a well-known Mexican poet, writing both in Spanish and Zapotec, and has helped with the revival of the Zapotec language.
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MERMEJITA ECOLIVING Pristine Green Living 33 Eco Homes High quality living with a low carbon footprint! 33 two bedroom, 2 bath homes with covered porch 127 square meters each w/ natural pool in each house. Solar and Wind energy, communal aquaponics, water recycling and harvesting systems Bioclimatic architecture Organic Restaurant Yoga , Pool Our own Beach Front Access
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Upcoming Events Huatulco Recurring Events: English AA, Huatulco Wednesdays, Joe and Charlie Step Study, 7:15 pm Thursdays, meeting, 11:30 am Saturdays, meeting, 7:15 pm Plaza Oaxaca, Calle Flamboyant 310 2nd floor, La Crucecita, Info: Becky Wiles, b_wiles@yahoo.com Weekly Markets Pochutla Market- Every Monday Huatulco’s Organic Market Santa Cruz 8 am - 2 pm First and third Saturdays of the month Encuentro de Cocineros - Local cooks gather with sample dishes to raise money for local charities. Santa Cruz Park, 150 pesos Last Sunday of the month at 2 pm
Oaxaca City Recurring Events: Open AA Meetings (English) Members of all 12-step programs welcome Mondays and Thursdays, 7 pm Saturdays, 9 am 303B Rayon near corner of Fiallo Al-Anon (English) Tuesdays, 10:30 am 303B Rayon near corner of Fiallo Religious Services Holy Trinity Anglican Episcopal Church Sundays 10:30 am Crespo 211 (between Morelos and Matamoros) Liturgy followed by coffee hour. Information 951514-3799 Oaxaca Quaker Friends Saturdays, 10 am, Free. All are welcome. For more information and location, contact janynelyons@hotmail.com. Weekly Markets Zaachila Market, Every Thursday OcotlĂĄn Market, Every Friday Etla Market, Every Wednesday Tlacolula Market, Every Sunday
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Teatro Visión By Marcia Chaiken and Jan Chaiken
W
e recently moved from Ashland, Oregon, a city known world-wide for theater, to Saratoga, California, located in Silicon Valley, which is known world-wide for cutting-edge technology. We have been delighted to find that side-by-side with the internet giants, theater is thriving around here, from small experimental groups to large venue homes to touring Broadway productions. One special niche theater is Teatro Visión. Teatro Visión's performances are in the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose. San Jose has a population of nearly a million and was founded in the 18th century when California was still part of Mexico; its population is onethird Hispanic and the Mexican Heritage Plaza is located in a predominantly Chicano area. Teatro Visión is now part of the School of Arts and Culture, an independent nonprofit that provides classes in Mexican music and other arts to children and adults in the surrounding communities. It was founded as Teatro Huipil in 1984 by Women in Teatro, a network drawn from Chicano theaters around California. The theater, which seats 500 people in a very steep stadium formation, has to date produced over 60 plays – most in Spanish – attended cumulatively by an audience of over 150,000 people. Supratitles are provided in both English and Spanish. The ticket prices are extremely low, so virtually all community members can afford to attend. And the support of a multitude of government agencies, foundations, private corporations and individual donors allow the theater to continue top-notch programs including world premieres. Our introduction to Teatro Visión was at a production of a play in Spanish called Macario that had premiered 5 years ago and has been presented by popular demand in subsequent years. This musical is partly based on the novel by B. Traven, the pen name of a mysterious author who was foreign-born but lived in Mexico most of his life and died in Mexico City in 1969. He is the author of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and his novel Macario was named by the New York Times as the best short story of 1953. The play is also partly based on the 1960 film Macario, the first Mexican film nominated for an academy award. The novel and screenplay were heavily adapted for the stage by Evelina Fernández and Teatro Visión. The adaptation added badly needed color, humor, and wonderful music to the grim black-and-white film version. The Teatro Visión version is a charming rendition of the same story, retaining the intensity of the messages. The story takes place in two acts in colonial Mexico. Macario is an impoverished wood cutter whose family, his hard-working laundress wife and five children, are grateful for what they have but always hungry. Macario, who has been hungry from birth, is tantalized by a parade of roasted turkeys being prepared for the Day-of-the-Dead celebrations of the nobility. He yearns for a roasted turkey to devour by himself – a seemingly impossible dream.
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When he decides to stop eating entirely, his frantic wife, after being short-changed by one of her Spanish nobility clients, agonizes for a while and then steals a turkey, prepares it and presents it to Macario. Macario hides in a wood with the turkey and is first tempted to share it with a caballero, the devil in disguise, in exchange for money, and then by a pilgrim to save his soul. Finally when confronted by Death himself, Macario agrees to split it exactly in half, and they eat it at the same time. In return, Death gives Macario a gourd full of a potion, a drop of which can save gravely ill people from death as long as Macario observes Death standing at the foot of the bed. An appearance at the head of the bed means the person belongs to Death. At the beginning of the second act, Macario is under the tutelage of one the nobles and has become very wealthy by selling his services to families of the ill. Although some are claimed by Death, many are resuscitated and richly reward Macario and his noble sponsor. The family is no longer hungry, are well dressed and live in a huge mansion in which they are amusingly continually becoming lost. All is going well until the Inquisition hears about Macario. Macario, warned that they are coming, gives one vial of his secret potion to his wife to hide. The agents of the inquisition destroy the remaining containers of the liquid and proclaim Macario a fraud or a brujo – either of which has a death penalty performed in painful and public execution. They throw Macario in prison to be tortured until he confesses. After testing his knowledge of the fate of some apparently gravely ill people chosen for this examination, the Inquisitors determine he is not a fraud but a warlock. But just as they are about to execute him, the Viceroy's young son becomes very ill and the Viceroy summons Macario for a cure. He tells him that if he saves his son he will go free but if his son dies, so will Macario. Macario's wife bribes the guards to visit him and provides him with the last vial of curative liquid. Ready to save the child, Macario enters the bed chamber to find Death standing at the head of the bed. Macario tries to push Death to the foot of the bed and pleads with Death to allow him to save the child. But Death stands firm. Macario flees. Does Macario survive? Well, we're not going to tell you. You'll have to come to Teatro Visión during the next Day of the Dead season to see and hear for yourself. If you do, you'll experience truly emotional music and voices and you'll find yourself thinking you're back in Mexico. The language surrounding you will primarily be Spanish, many women are elegantly dressed in very high stiletto heel shoes, and the snacks being served at intermission are a reminder of what you find in Oaxaca. The night we attended, the production was followed by a gala featuring music, dancing and many traditional dishes. We can't promise you a gala at other performances, but we can promise you highly professional acting, choreography, and orchestration, wonderful sets and costumes, and a performance that will linger in your mind for a long time.
Open Daily 12:00 pm - 10:00 pm Located beside La Papaya in Chahue
Salt Available at CafĂŠ Juanita in Marina Chahue
Patio Time at Frida’s Giant Margaritas, Jugs of Sangria and the best caesars in town! Variety of Burgers, Tacos and Pitas Fried Cheese, fresh shrimp cocktails
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Camino Copalita By Jane Bauer
T
he Camino Copalita was one of the m o s t rewarding and challenging experiences I have ever had! A 6-day hike from San Juan Ozolotepec to Huatulco (about 80km). The terrain was hilly and rough but I was with an incredibly supportive group and knowledgeable guides. The group met at a cafÊ in Oaxaca City on a Sunday morning before embarking on the 6-hour drive into the heart of the mountains to the first community we would be visiting. The people of San Juan Ozolotepec were incredibly welcoming. Before dinner we stood in a circle and each person introduced themselves and said what their hopes were for this experience. I was so moved that I actually thought I might cry as I looked at the diversity of our group and the compassion we each carried with us. In a world that is consistent in its attempt to divide us, there was a certain magic in being welcomed by strangers under the vast night sky of the Oaxacan sierra, being offered food, shelter and friendship. The first day of hiking was like walking through a fairytale forest, blanketed in pine needles and cloud mist. The guides were patient and full of encouragement. The second day led us downhill past women planting corn on steep slopes- I’m sure we were quite a sight but they smiled and waved nonetheless. And so the days rolled on; some marked by a steep climb or river crossings. We arrived at camp and the women from the community would de preparing dinner. We would change our clothes, rest in hammocks and bask in the silence of nature. One day it rained and we trudged through the jungle, all of us soaking wet from a river crossing, the air thick with bugs as our lead guide cut through the bush with his machete. There were moments when I thought I would cry, not merely from tiredness, but from the feeling of smallness that is unavoidable when surrounded by the mountains. The last leg of the journey was done by raft down the Copalita river. The sun pounded down as we got closer to the ocean. When the rafts floated to the shore of the lagoon at Bocana we all stepped out and made our way to the ocean, letting the sea water wash over our blistered and tired feet. For more information about the group that organizes this trek and the wonderful work they are doing in education and reforestation: www.caminocopalita.com .
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Carminia Magaña By MJ Kelly and Oscar Olivos
C
arminia Magaña was born in Mexico City on October 28, 1939, to a family of Yucatecan origin; was one of three children, although her brother died as a child. Her father, a lawyer, was secretary in the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation. Her pedagogue mother was a precursor to the preschool education commissioned by President Adolfo López Mateos. She received all her education at the American School and obtained a degree in Art History at the University of the Americas. Her command of English and French, and ease in public relations, allowed her husband, who was an attache official for Pemex, to live and entertain in different cities, such as The Hague, Paris and New York. Carminia was a woman of vast culture, great intellect, and humor, and a lover of good food and drink. She was an epicentre of energy, laughter and love of life that she bestowed on all of us. She had three sons and one daughter, Roberto, Alberto, Héctor and unforgettable Ximena Osegueda, who died in 2011. Carminia generously supported her children in their pursuit of career and family. Together they created a paradise in La Javelina, with the intention of growing all indigenous species of plants in the Huatulco area. A list of Carminia's artistic endeavors and productions of worthy events would take pages, but the creation of of Amigos de la Musica in 2007 showed her true love of community and the arts. Carminia recruited more than 40 sponsors to contribute an annual fee of 1000 pesos and with that they could cover the expenses for the musical artists. Thus, four concerts a year were held at the Chahué marina, the golf course, and the hotels Castillo Huatulco, Barceló, Dreams and Camino Real Zaashila; at Camino Real, the concerts were held beside the sea, in an unparalleled atmosphere. The concerts were carefully prepared to the smallest detail by passionate volunteers. Currently, Amigos de la Musica remains alive with the coordination of new and original members who share the same vision. With only 6 months before she would have turned 80, Carminia passed away leaving many projects incomplete, such as a hostel for older travelers in La Javelina. Carminia Magaña was a facilitator of cultural projects and environments. As an artist herself, she loved the creative process and fostered that in so many artists, musicians, writers, dancers and intellectuals. Her home was always frequented by these artists and friends with whom she shared the intrigue of life and art. She often said, "I really do all this for me!” But we know she did it for all of us. To so many of us, she leaves a huge emptiness that can never be filled by anyone else. She loved nothing more than to intermingle her children, grandchildren and friends together with lavish meals and much laughter and banter. As we ponder life and death, we will hear her laughter and smile at the beauty that surrounds us. We will always hold dear her memory in our hearts knowing full well that the world is and we are better for having loved her.
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• 12 House Units • 19 Cabin Units • Lots of 350 m2 and 560 m2 • Three hectares • 15 amenities • More than 6,000 m2 of green areas. • One entry and exit access • Security and 24/7 surveillance Exterior Amenities • 725 m jogging route • Park • Childish games • Parking for 32 cars
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From Ancient Culture to Antique Kitsch: Mexican Feather Art By Deborah Van Hoewyk
I
f you had been lucky enough to be museum hopping in Mexico City a while back (2011), you would have encountered a two-museum exhibit that marked the rebirth of an ancient Mexican art. Alas: El vuelo de las imágenes del mundo indigena (Wings: The flight of images from the indigenous world) took place at the famous National Museum of Anthropology and History and the somewhat less visited National Museum of Art (Museo Nacional de Arte, now known as MUNAL – see article elsewhere in this issue). The exhibit was followed in 2016 by a book of 33 essays exploring the creative interaction between the new and old worlds, as seen in … FEATHERS (Images Take Flight: Feather Art in Mexico and Europe, 1400 – 1700). Plumaria – a Fragile Art The work shown was plumaria (sometimes plumeria), or featherwork, which combines art and craft to produce textiles, ceremonial costumes, mosaics made of tiny bits of feathers, and decorative objects, both sacred and profane. For three centuries (about 1400 to 1700), plumaria was considered high art. The fragility of feathers, however, means very few examples survive of all the work – headdresses, shields (chimalli), cloaks, wall hangings, banners, screens, decorative and funerary objects – so coveted by the Aztecs before the conquest and by the conqueror Hernán Cortés, who sent any number of pieces back to Europe, more about that later. After the conquest, the Catholic rulers of New Spain convinced the feather artists to produce Christian work – altar pieces, priestly garments, wall hangings, you name it, adorned with images of Mary, Jesus, saints, and sacred stories. The exhibition came out of years of international collaboration by art scholars and historians from the U.S. and Italy working with the National Museum of Anthropology and MUNAL. Italian art historian Alessandra Russo, Ph.D., who teaches at Columbia University, first saw photos of Mexican featherwork in 1994 and started reading up on it. Her curiosity led her to Gerhard Wolf, Ph.D., Director of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence, where there is a major piece of Christian feather art sent from Mexico, and Diana Fane, Ph.D., the Andrew W. Mellon Curator Emerita for Arts of the Americas. This heavily credentialed crew approached the Getty Foundation for support, and in 2002 the Foundation awarded them nearly $200,000 to prepare the exhibition.
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The money also supported research into conservation of feather art – feathers are fragile, bugs love to eat them, daylight fades them, they lose their iridescence; if it's too dry, they get brittle and collapse, if it's too humid, they get moldy and rot. And don't forget those damn bugs! The exhibit and book have prompted more interest in featherwork. A 2014 documentary by Jaime Kuri Aiza, El Penacho de Moctezuma, plumaria del México antiguo (Montezuma's Headdress: Featherwork of Ancient Mexico), won an Ariel (Mexico's Oscar) for best short documentary; you can see great closeups of featherwork (www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaI48sA_XGs) in the 75-minute film, which also won the Scientific and Cultural Reporting prize at Mexico's 2014 National Journalism Awards. In 2016, UNAM (Mexico's national university) added a postgraduate art history course on Plumaria de México, arte y tecnología (Featherwork of Mexico, art and technology), and there have been lectures and conferences in various universities since then. Even better, the conservation research sponsored by the Getty Foundation may well make future exhibitions more likely – and, just possibly, bring a Mexican treasure home, more about that later as well. The Amantecas When he wrote to his king (Charles I of Spain, and Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire to boot) to describe Tenochtitlán (now Mexico City), the place he would conquer in the years 1519-25, Cortés said it was “as big as Seville or Cordoba. The main streets are very wide and very straight; some of these are on the land, but the rest and all the smaller ones are half on land, half canals where they paddle their canoes.”
Feathers, he reported, could be bought in a great marketplace, most probably the one in neighboring Tlatelolco, an adjacent island to the north of T e n o c h t i t l á n . According to Cortés, 60,000 people shopped there every day. Perhaps the most prized feathers were those of the resplendent quetzal, native to Central America, but the market sold feathers, mostly imported, of many colorful tropical birds – cotinga, hummingbird, emerald toucanet, troupial, macaw, troupial, and parrot feathers. Feathers were exceedingly valuable, and so were used to pay the tributes demanded by ancient rulers. Feathers were measured by the handful – one codex lists three tributes of “eight thousand little handfuls of rich turquoise feathers,” “rich red feathers” and “rich green feathers.” Since a bird the size of a parrot yields somewhere between seven and eight handfuls, perhaps the decline of feather art was in the cards from the beginning. A tribute of 8000 feathers would kill 1000 birrds. There were severe penalties for those who dared to wear feathers when not entitled to do so. Before the conquest (1519-25), plumaria was created throughout Mexico, but the most renowned feather artists were the amantecas, men of the Amantla neighborhood in Tenochtitlán. There were also tecpan amantecas, feather artists who “made it” – they worked in the royal palace where they had their birds kept right on hand in cages; there were so many, it apparently took a crew of 300 to care for the aviaries.
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The city had about 70 independently organized neighborhoods, some of which, like Amantla, were organized as calpulli, or artisan guilds (“amanteca” also includes weavers and painters). Gold- and silversmiths lived and worked in a neighborhood called Yopico, fishermen were found in Hitznahua, the merchants in Pochtlan, and the pulque producers in Tlamatzinco. Calpulli had members of the noble classes; they provided the costly materials for artisan creations – for the amantecas, it was the brilliant feathers. We know from the Florentine Codex (c. 1577), Father Bernardino de Sahagún's encyclopedia of “the things of New Spain,” that dimensional pieces like headdresses or wristlets were made by tying the feathers to a base with agave cord. The feather mosaics, called “feather painting” by the Spanish, were a more exacting craft, involving very small pieces of feathers from multiple kinds of birds pasted down on paper with a glue made from orchid bulbs, and backed with a layer of amate, or paper made from pounded tree bark. El Penacho (The Headdress) of Moctezuma II For a brief while after Cortés arrived, landing in Vercruz and moving on to Tenochtitlán, all was well. Moctezuma II entertained the Spanish, gifts were exchanged, etc., etc. before things went downhill. It is possible that one of those gifts from Moctezuma II to Cortés was an imperial headdress made of glowing green quetzal feathers. Given its fragility, only two examples of pre-conquest feather art remain in Mexico itself, and the headdress is not one of them. Whether or not Moctezuma actually gifted the headdress to Cortés, or ever wore it himself, is debatable. In any event, off it went to Europe, possibly in a group of gifts known to have been sent over to Cortes upon his arrival in Veracruz, then dispatched to Spain as proof of success. The headdress is now displayed in the Museum of Ethnology in Vienna, Austria. It had been discovered in 1878 by Ferdinand von Hochstetter, a geologist, explorer, and the newly appointed director of the then-new museum, who was wandering the countryside looking for exhibits. In a dusty drawer in Ambras Castle in Innsbruck, Hochstetter came upon something the castle inventory had listed as both an “Indian Apron” and “Moorish hat.” Hochstetter decided it wasn't wearable, so it must be a battle flag, carried into combat on a pole. It is primarily made of hundreds of emerald-green tailfeathers of the resplendent quetzal, but in the center is a feather mosaic of red, blue, and green body feathers from the quetzal and other birds, with sewn-on gold ornaments. The whole thing is supported by tying each feather to a wicker frame with agave thread. It took the work of an anthropologist, the American Zelia Nuttall, to determine that it was a headdress. When she published her findings in the very first issue of Harvard's Peabody Museum Papers (1887), no one believed her, of course. Not until she showed up in Paris at the 1888 International Congress of Americanists wearing a mock-up of the headdress was it acknowledged that, yes, indeed, it could be a preHispanic headdress. There is a reproduction of the headdress in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, made in 1940 and actually more vivid than the original. Over the last 30-odd years, Mexico and Austria have been wrangling over repatriation of the original. The Austrian argument is that it is too fragile to withstand the vibrations of an air journey back to the New World, unless it traveled in a special case in a humongous airplane (nearly ten times the size of the Concorde), it wouldn't make it. So there it sits in Austria.
Continued on page 36
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In the Service of the Church As soon as the Conquest was complete, the Spanish decided that feather art should be converted to Christian purposes, and the amantecas were set to “painting” religious works in feathers to adorn altars, the walls of cathedrals, and the bodies of priests. Arguably the oldest surviving piece of Mexican feather art (certainly the oldest colonial mosaic with Christian imagery), the Mass of Saint Gregory is currently being shown at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue in New York. The inscription indicates that Father Pedro de Gante, who had established a school to train amantecas in the subtleties of producing Christian images and themes, commissioned the piece from then-governor Diego de Alvarado Huinitzin (ironically both nephew and son-in-law to Moctezuma II); it was completed in 1539 as a gift to Pope Paul III. Paul had recently (1537) issued a papal bull declaring that the indigenous peoples were rational human beings with souls and should not be enslaved. The mosaic is based on a European engraving, now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, showing Pope Gregory I (540 – 604) celebrating the Eucharist. Christ, bearing the wounds of crucifixion, floats above him to represent transubstantiation – the wafer has become the body of Christ.
Feathers Fall to Earth As the amantecas who had been able to turn their craft from indigenous motifs to Christian art began to die off, feather art likewise declined, partly because European art had moved to focus on developments in oil painting, especially for religious images, and because interest in indigenous arts waned as exploration and exotica gave way to settlement and economic exploitation of the New World.
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Featherwork became more varied and popularized, e.g., feathered fans for the ladies, family insignia such as crests and shields, and a few depictions of historical events. By the 1700s, feather art was produced by non-indigenous artists, and was combined with areas of oil painting for the faces, paper borders instead of gold, etc. By the 1800s, feather art had just about disappeared except in some areas of Michoacán, where the explorer and scientist Alexander von Humboldt (1769 – 1859) bought an image of Our Lady of Health in Pátzcuaro made of hummingbird and other kinds of feathers, with Mary's face and hands painted in oil. Now referred to as The Feather Madonna, it resides in the Ethnological Museum of the Staatliche Museum of Berlin. By the 20th century, what had been a magnificent mixture of art and craft had descended into an amusing handcraft; the supply of exotic, brilliant feathers was long gone, and featherwork was done with dyed chicken plumage. Although several artists have tried to revive the art, the lack of feathers has proved an insuperable obstacle. At midcentury, though, if you wandered on Avenida Juárez and Calle Madero in Mexico City, you could find curiosidades mexicanas (Mexican curiosities) using feathers. In carved wooden frames, most often on black backgrounds, exotic birds that never lived have been created with dyed poultry feathers, their strange trees painted with equally unreal colors. These proved popular souvenirs for tourists – my pair was purchased in an antique shop in Scarborough, Maine, and any eBay search for “Mexican folk art feathercraft” turns up a seemingly unlimited supply. On average, you'll be spending about $10 apiece on eBay, although one made in 1972 showing multiple birds sitting near a pond, surrounded by vaguely Japanese flowers, would run you $50.00, plus $17.83 for shipping within the continental U.S.
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Memoria de Luz By Kary Vannice On September 7, 2019, two years after an 8.2 magnitude earthquake struck southern Mexico, a community action group in Huatulco, Colectivo Tilcoatle, honored those affected with a photography exhibition entitled Memoria de Luz (Memory of Light). The exhibition featured 15 local photographers who captured the physical and emotional devastation that followed in the nearby isthmus de Tehuantepec. Sponsored by local businesses and funded by the Secretaría de las Culturas y Artes de Oaxaca, it was a true collaboration from grassroots all the way up to the highest levels of state government. The exhibition was held at the home of the colectivo, Casa Tilcoatle, in La Crucecita. The photos documented the looks and gestures of panic of the residents of Juchitán, Xadani, Tehuantepec, Unión Hidalgo and Ixtaltepec two years ago. This exhibition invites us on a journey of image and nostalgia commemorating the devastating earthquake. The photos were accompanied by personal accounts and poems written by those who survived the quake and its aftermath. The exhibit as a whole told a story of wreckage, rubble and remains. But it also told the story of ambivalence, arrogance and neglect on the part of government agencies, construction companies and foundations. To help paint the picture of Memoria de Luz, here is a translation of the text that accompanied a selection of photos that were graciously shared with The Eye by the Colectivo. Promotional Description: Who pressed the shutter at 11:49 at night, that September 7, 2017? Who walked stumbling during that eternity when the whole earth was cracked, the walls cracked, the roofs collapsed, the dogs howled tirelessly and the souls of the Juchitecos flew out of their homes to take refuge in some infinity where it never trembles? But no, there was no such refuge from the gods. The dust reigned for who knows how long, before the debris could be seen, before hearing plaintive moans of those beaten by some powerful hand that violently moved our branches, before hearing the tears crying for the dead under tiles, bricks and timbers. People do not forget the rumble that came beneath the earth. We do not forget the terrible noise of fallen objects. We do not forget the looks and the gesture of panic that lived among us for many days, in Juchitán, in Xadani, Tehuantepec, Unión Hidalgo or Ixtaltepec. Between the pain, between the fallen walls, between the broken houses, next to the demolishing machines and their giant shovels, the photographers, perhaps with their right index finger trembling, shot, in a difficult exercise to capture the nightmare that now brings the memory together with the images of those days. Memory of light (Memoria de Luz) that does not forget the time of the disaster. Jorge Magariño Santa María Xadani, August 2019.
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