More from the National Museum of Art

Here are more works from the National Museum of Art's exhibit on indigenous women...

"Aunt Anastasia"

by Mariana Yampolsky

undated

"Girl of the Taco"

by Rosa Rolanda

1947

"Madonna"

by Julio Castellanos

1932

"Woman from Tehuantepec with Watermelon"

by Olga Costa

1952

"Woman Combing"

by Gabriel Fernández Ledesma

1938

"Women Combing"

by Lola Cueto

1930

"The Ceiba Tree"

by Raúl Anguiano

1956

"Girls with a Cage"

by Agustín Lazo

1943

"Woman from the Mountains of Orizaba"

by José Justo Montiel

undated

"The Woman from Papantla"

by Luz Osorio

circa 1885

"The Harvest"

by Saturnino Herrán

1909

"Peasants"

by David Alfaro Siqueiros

1913

"Market"

by Lola Cueto

undated

Still to come... one more post of artwork from this exhibit.

 

The Indigenous Woman

My trip to the National Museum of Art last week was to see a special exhibit that I somehow missed the last time that I was there.  The show presents portrayals of the indigenous women of Mexico in paintings, sculptures and photographs.  The images presented are sometimes romanticized, and sometimes perpetuate stereotypes, but nevertheless is an interesting exhibit.  The works span the centuries from the colonial era to the 20th century.

"Malinche"

by Manuel Vilar

1852

Malinche was the native woman who served as the translator for the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés.  She was also his mistress and bore him a son.

"Indigenous Family"

by José de Ibarra

1725

"Indian and Spaniard Produce Mestizo"

circa 1720

This is one of the infamous "caste" paintings which catalogued the different racial mixtures of colonial Mexico.

"The Earth"

by María Izquierdo

1945

"The Flower of the Lake"

by Manuel Ocaranza

1871

"Interior of a Shack"

by Edouard Pingret

1853

"Jarabe Tapatío"

by María Rincón Gallardo

circa 1880

The "jarabe tapatío" is the dance which we refer to as the Mexican Hat Dance.

"Indigenous Woman with Baskets"

by Alfredo Ramos Martínez

undated

"The Wake"

by José María Jara

1889

"Woman with Pineapple"

by Ceferino Colinas

1950

"Day of the Dead"

by Rosa Rolando

circa 1945 -1950

"Women Harvesting"

by Ramón Alva de la Canal

1928

"Prenatal"

by Gabriel Fernández Ledesma

1945

"Monument to the Mother"

by Luis Ortiz Monasterio

1949

"Child Mother"

by David Alfaro Siqueiros

1956

More from this exhibit in the next post.

 

Making Music

It seems that there is always a special exhibit to see at one of Mexico City's many museums.  In fact, Thursday has almost become my "museum day" when I go to see something new.  Last Thursday I went downtown to see a show at the National Museum of Art that I had somehow missed before.  However, before I ever got there, I saw that there was a new exhibit at the Museum of Popular Arts.  It was a small but interesting display of items related to music... traditional instruments, art depicting musicians and dancers' costumes.

At the entrance there was a wall of stringed instruments.  The classical guitar was brought to Mexico by the Spanish, and is an integral part of Mexican music.

A "salterio" or psalter, an instrument similar to a zither

This guitar is made from the shell of an armadillo.

This guitar is decorated with the beadwork typical of the Huichol tribe of western Mexico.

A representation in painted wood of Mexico City's Plaza de Garibaldi, a favorite hangout of mariachi musicians.

I think the crank in the front makes the dancers go round and around.

An antique table organ

The costume of a "parachico", a dancer from the town of Chiapa de Corzo in the state of Chiapas.

The elaborate costume of a "chinelo", a traditional dancer from the state of Morelos

The costume of a "carnaval" dancer

The tiger costume of dancers from the state of Chiapas

The costume of the deer dance performed by the Yaqui tribe in the northern state of Sonora

This painting done on bark paper included a band of musicians.

A modern recreation of a "teponaztle", a wooden percussion instrument used for the Aztecs and Mayas.

A marimba from the state of Chiapas

A collection of drums

This painted, wooden drum is from the state of Tlaxcala.

A ceramic whistle in the shape of a bird

A papier mache figure of a skeleton playing the guitar

Strange but Interesting

Last weekend Alejandro and I saw a strange but interesting movie. But, then again, the subject matter of the film was quite unusual.  The movie was "The Testament of Ann Lee", and it deals with the founder of the religious group commonly known as the Shakers.

(image taken from the internet)

The Shakers were an offshoot of the Quaker church.  The group began in England under the leadership of Ann Lee in the late 18th century.  She and her followers moved to Massachusetts, and established numerous communities throughout New England and beyond.  They came to be called Shakers because their worship services were characterized by ecstatic shaking and dancing.  At their peak in the mid-19th century there may have been as many as 4000 followers.  The Shakers were rather progressive in that they believed in gender and racial equality. However, their faith also believed in absolute celibacy, so they depended on converts to maintain their numbers.  As of today, there are only three members of the sect remaining.  The subject was of special interest to me, since there was once a Shaker colony in Ohio at the location of the present-day Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights.

At times the movie was a bit slow, but the acting and direction were quite good.  The Shaker services included a lot of singing, and the movie included numerous songs, some of them genuine Shaker hymns as well as music written for the film.  Alejandro joked that the title should have been "Shakers - the Musical".

Teachers' Protest

When I told Alejandro that I was planning on going downtown yesterday, he advised that I shouldn't.  The CNTE, a militant teachers' union with a Marxist bent, was staging protests on Thursday and Friday.  Their demands are a 100% increase in salary and the abolition of the 2013 educational reform act which requires the testing of teachers.  They are opposed to the government expenditures for the World Cup games this summer at the expense of public sector salaries.  This union is known for its disruptive protests, and last May they occupied the main plaza of Mexico City and blocked major thoroughfares for days.

I took a look at the "Webcams de México" website to see what was going on downtown.   The teachers had set up tents in the Zócalo, although there were not as many during last year's protest.  There was no traffic along the Paseo de la Reforma, so the union had obviously blockaded that boulevard.  

However, looking at the other webcams, everything seemed normal.  I decided to go ahead and go downtown.  Because of the blockade on Reforma, the Metrobus along Insurgentes Avenue only went so far.  I got off and then took the subway.   I got off a couple of stops later and walked the rest of the way.  Granted, I didn't go anywhere near the Zócalo, but everything seemed perfectly normal.  I had planned to visit a special exhibit at one of the museums, and I had no problem.  If it were not for the disruption to public transportation, I would have never known that anything out of the ordinary was going on.

This afternoon, I took another look at the webcams.  There were still tents on the Zócalo, but fewer than yesterday.

 It would appear that traffic is once again flowing along the Paseo de la Reforma.

Even though I was a teacher (and even participated in a lengthy teachers' strike), their disruptive tactics and their Marxist ideology turn me off.  I can't muster much sympathy for these protesters.