Siqueiros: Biography of a Revolutionary Artist is a fascinating read for anyone looking for a great story with fascinating characters. It’s also an enlightening read for anyone interested in Mexican history, and a must read for anyone who has moved to Mexico and calls it home. To understand the heart of the Mexican people is to […]
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New World Women is a native women artisan group in Tecalpulco, Guerrero who decided to form a production cooperative. These skilled artisans are the original designers and producers, creating beautiful jewelry. Theirs is a cottage industry with a goal of perpetuating the region’s craft tradition and creating a source of work that can keep their […]
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The year was 1966. America was mired in an unwinnable and unconscionable war. The Civil Rights movement was about to burst on the scene after generations of festering below the surface of White consciousness. And all over the so-called free world, a restless energy was growing among the youth that was to become a formidable […]
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Available from Amazon Books: Paperback or Kindle The United States and Mexico struggled through volatile years of suffering and carnage to become unified nations. Michael Hogan’s thoroughly researched and passionately written Abraham Lincoln and Mexico is a thought-provoking read that covers part of that struggle from 1822, when Americans settlers first arrived on Mexican territory, to 1867, when […]
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(Part 1) 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. The […]
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“While we are alive, we cannot escape from masks or names. We are inseparable from our fictions – our features.” Octavio Paz When I arrived in Mexico City in 1967, the first unexpected delight to catch my attention was the incredible array of masks that popped up everywhere in the city. Some stared at me […]
Continue ReadingAt 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 the first Mexican artist to envision the concept of a totally Mexican art. And he laid the foundation for the development […]
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Drawn by the intrigue of all-night vigils in cemeteries and life-size skeletons propped jauntily in shop windows, tourists flock to Oaxaca and other points in Mexico for Day of the Dead. During the last week in October, voyeurs come to observe and to photograph the “picturesque” practices of “quaint” indigenous Mexicans. The idea of reunions […]
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A long time ago, before the Spaniards came and changed everything, the people of the Mexican highlands cultivated maguey plants. Like the people, the magueys are native to the cool, dry, high elevation climate. The plants grew well and were useful for many things. Today, the various varieties of these agaves are sometimes called “century […]
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In art as in life, Diego Rivera was a man constantly in rebellion. At 16, he left the prestigious San Carlos Academy in Mexico City in protest against the academy’s emphasis on representational art. He became an avid Marxist but outraged the Stalinist regime in the Soviet Union by welcoming Trotsky to Mexico. Rivera shocked […]
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