The Masks Of Mexico (Part 2)
The coming of the Spaniards in 1519 drastically altered the political and religious life of pre-Hispanic America. Cortes, with the help of his mercenaries and priests, decimated the ruling elite and wiped out the existing theocracy, but try as they might, they could not destroy the people's love and need for ritual.
read moreJose Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera - The Murals
The art and attitudes of the two great Mexican muralists, Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco could not be more different. Rivera was a classicist, Orozco an expressionist. Rivera was optimistic, Or...
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The legacy of Agustin Victor Casasola (Photographer 1874 - 1938)
Agustín Victor Casasola was not a painter or a poet or one of the many intellectuals or revolutionaries during the early decades of the twentieth century who consciously strove to forge a Mexican identity. Yet, as witness and recorder of those tumultuous years, his influence was as great and may prove to be more lasting.
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Saturnino Herran: A Bright Light Too Soon Extinguished
At least ten years before the "Big Three" - Rivera, Orozco, Siqueiros - came into their own as world-renown muralists, a lone painter was setting the groundwork. His name was Saturnino Herran. He was t...
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Mexican lithographer Jose Guadalupe Posada: Past and present
In one month, on November 2, it will be "El Dia de los Muertos" (the Day of the Dead), and Jose Guadalupe Posada, or Don Lupe as he was known to his friends, a poor but prolific printm...
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Did You Know? Popular children's chorus features cockroaches and pot smoking
La Cucaracha (The Cockroach), one of Mexico's best known corridos, is a comic, satirical song, with infinite possibilities for creative verses. Versions of La Cucaracha have been performed by countless bands and musicians, including Louis Armstrong, Bill Haley & His Comets, Doug Sahm
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Did You Know? Cinco de Mayo is more widely celebrated in USA than Mexico
Of the many battles fought on Mexican soil in the nineteenth century, only one— the Battle of Puebla, fought on May 5, 1862— has given rise to a Mexican national holiday.
Why this one? The main re...
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Did You Know? Quetzal Dancers in Puebla, Mexico
The Quetzal Dance is one of the most colorful folkloric dances anywhere in the country. It is also thought to be one of the most ancient. Both the dance and the spectacular headdresses worn b...
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Did you know? Mexico's Nobel Prize nominee and music revolutionary
A Mexican who tried to revolutionize the world of classical music was once nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics.
In 1950, Julián Carrillo was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics. The nominat...
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Did You Know? Famous artists pioneer art community in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
A young couple who became famous artists pioneered the San Miguel de Allende foreign community.
San Miguel de Allende's vibrant art and music scene is deservedly famous. Among the early pioneers respo...
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Did You Know? Artists in Mexico with disabilities
Several famous Mexican artists had serious physical disabilities.
Three Mexican artists, whose very different works are admired annually by thousands, and who were born in successive decades of the ni...
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Did You Know? The centenary of the birth of artist Juan O'Gorman
Juan O'Gorman was born on July 6, 1905, in Coyoacán, Mexico City. His father, Cecil Crawford O'Gorman, was a mining engineer and artist of Irish origin; his mother was Mexican. Juan was educated at th...
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Did You Know? Some national symbols in Mexico are not what they seem
This month, Mexico celebrates her birthday, the anniversary of her independence from Spain. On the evening of September 15, the annual El Grito ceremony is held in town plazas all across the cou...
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Uncovering Tonala's history at the National Ceramic Museum
Dating back to pre-Hispanic times, the nahual is a shape shifter who switches between human and animal forms and is often characterized as a shaman.
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Evoking The Ancient Maya: Murals Of Otoniel Baruck Sala
Maya-themed murals, which fuse shards of this ancient culture with elements of fantasy, are Sala's current focus.
Costa Real
Click on photos for la...
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Diego, Frida And The Mexican School
Awarded
June, 1999
Mexico City in the 1920s stood on the threshold of a new era. Although the country had won its independence from Spain in 1821, i...
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Pulp Fiction
Moralistic, prejudiced, racist, misogynist, manipulative, sexist, daring, exciting, critical, sarcastic and passionate - these are just a few adjectives that commonly describe Mexico's most widely-read...
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Mexico's Pyramid Power - Chichen Itza, El Tajin and Teotihuacan
Consider El Tajin's famous pyramid of the Niches, built by inheritors of the Olmec culture. Thousands of small stone blocks came together just so, like a Chinese block puzzle, to produce a structure th...
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Arteplumaria - the Mexican art of feather painting
Did you know that one of the highest, most elegant and sumptuous arts of pre-Conquest Mexico was arteplumaria, the art of feather painting? Used to decorate headdresses, standards, staffs, lances,...
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"El Grito" (the Cry)
The Declaration of Independence of the United States eloquently states in its introductory paragraph: "When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the political b...
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Diego Rivera's monumental stairway mural in Mexico's National Palace, Mexico City, D.F. (1)
The center arch of the wall contains the Mexican eagle holding a serpent that showed the end of the Aztecs' migration. Included on the current Mexican flag, the eagle also represents a resurgent Mexico...
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Lake Chapala through the ages, an anthology of travellers' tales
There is something for everybody in Tony Burton's, Lake Chapala through the ages. Whether you are fascinated by the early history of the place where you now live or visit (or would like to visit), or whether you are interested in early accounts of the natural history of the region, or of the lake itself.
read moreMexico's comparative arts through the ages
The following comparative time line provides an orientation to the roots, elements and development of the rich artistic heritage of Mexico.
The time line presentation allows for a sense of movement a...
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The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire by C. M. Mayo
Gods, Gachupines and Gringos: A People's History of Mexico by Richard Grabman
Gods, Gachupines and Gringos no more resembles the typical "history of Mexico" book than a rushing river resembles a dried-up arroyo. I was reading the book at the Lake Chapala Society in Ajijic this morning when a couple of buddies joined me. I told them about the book, and read them a few of the passages above as a little sampler. When I finished I looked up. They responded in unison, "Where can I buy a copy?"
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