May 5

today is cinco de mayo.
that is worth mentioning.

i'm not sure about the stamp...

Tina Modotti

Tina Modotti (1886 - 1942) was an Italian-born photographer. She started out acting in silent films, and soon moved to America, and later to Mexico. I think one of the funniest things I have read about her is that she often said her profession was men. She was married to a producer in America, whom she left when she began an affair with photographer Edward Weston. Weston's work is more widely known than Modotti's, but she is featured in several of his most famous works. She is also a subject in five of Diego Rivera's murals and Lupe Marin blamed Modotti's affair with Rivera for their split. Enough about her personal life....

Modotti was a member of the Mexican Communist Party and was politically active for many years. She joined the party in 1927 and her work took a sharp turn toward more socially and politically minded subject matter; many of her works appeared in the leftist journal El Machete. The second photograph I have included in this post is from that same year and is anything but understated.

Rivera's mural entitled The Distribution of Arms features Modotti (at right) along with Siqueiros and Frida Kahlo handing out weapons to Mexican revolutionaries. And Kenneth Rexroth said he was terrified of Modotti, but called her "the most interesting person in Mexico City." Quite a compliment.

José Sabogal

Peruvian artist José Sabogal (1888 - 1956) was one of Peru's premier indigenistas. Sabogal was of Spanish, rather than Indian descent, but that didn't stop him from becoming one of the most active artists promoting the life and culture of the indigenous peoples of Peru.

The work at left is called "Arquitecto Quechua." This page includes a brief bio and several of Sabogals' works.

Sabogal became involved in the indigenista movement and began considering himself an indigenista after a trip to Mexico in 1922, where he saw the impact of the murals of artists like Rivera, Siqueiros, and Tamayo. As a teacher, he urged his students to ignore the European movements like Fauvism and Cubism, and to focus on the methods and techniques native to their people. Sabogal was initially rejected for the indigenist themes that he was later celebrated for, and there are still those who reject his work. People like this think his work depicts the "proud and grand Inca instead of a depiction of the actual misery within which Indians lived."

No one tries to deny the huge influence he has had on Latin American art. Or art as a whole, for that matter.

Nicolas de Jesus

I am really into the work of Nicolas de Jesus. I was lucky enough to purchase a print of his in Mexico. Much of his work makes political statement about the US, while other is reflective or commentary on Mexican culture.
The image to the left is titled "Despierta America." Several other works in the same style are found here...

from zihua.net:
"Born December 6, 1960 in the indigenous Nahua region of Guerrero, Mexico. Nicolas de Jesus developed his art through his parents and his community. Painting on Amate (bark paper) is a local tradition in the village of Ameyaltepec where Nicolas is from. His work reflects the spectrum of his experiences from his origins in a traditional Mexican village to the problems of the Mexican migrant in the United States and his concern for preserving his cultural identity.
In an attempt to preserve his culture one theme that Nicolas de Jesus has exquisitely developed is that of Calaveras (skeletons). One of the oldest traditions in Mexico, which has indigenous roots, is the celebration of the "Day of the Dead". It is a tradition that goes back several centuries before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in 1519. It is a tradition found today in a few regions of Mexico that are characterized by a concentration of indigenous populations, such as the regions of the Balsas basin, which at present is Nahuatl-speaking community, here in this state of Guerrero.
The Day of the Dead is a collective manifestation, a celebration of death as an extension of life. Death motivates happiness when the deceased gets to his or her second stage of life(death), there the soul continues to live. The process of dying is considered part of a cycle (life-death) just like everything else in nature and not a lineal process as it is in the western world.
This tradition is presented through graphics and personal text by artist Nicolas de Jesus.

"The word death is not pronounced in New York, in Paris, in London, because it burns the lips. The Mexican, in contrast, is familiar with death, jokes about it , caresses it, sleeps with it,celebrates it; it is one of his favorite toys and his steadfast love. True, there is perhaps as much fear in his attitude as in the others, but at least death is not hidden away."
- OCTAVIO PAZ

Hable con Ella

Clip of Caetano Veloso singing "Cucurrucucú Paloma" from the Pedro Almodóvar film Hable con Ella. I'm not sure if he could possibly have a smoother voice... simply amazing. Also, this film won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in 2003, and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film.

Also, gives you something nice to listen to while you read my blog. You're welcome.

Mais Veloso

I like his website, full of clips, bio, photos, etc...

Caetano Veloso...

Here is an interview with Caetano Veloso by Christopher Dunn from 1996, it appeared in Transition.

The interview follows Dunn's book Brutality Garden, and is quite insightful. Dunn gives a brief biography of Veloso and Gilberto Gil before beginning the conversation. I found it very interesting to read Veloso's first hand account of the emergence of the Tropicalista Rebellion, and fascinating to hear that he refers to himself as "just a radio singer." Interesting coming from someone so influential in raising the question of what it means to be Brazilian, and then forcing the answer to change.