Ritual and memory

Dia de los Muertos is rooted in the Mexican belief that there are three deaths. The first death is when the body ceases to function; when the heart stops, the gaze becomes hollow and the physical space we occupy becomes inconsequential. The second death comes when the body is lowered into the ground and returned to earth. The third death, the most definitive death, is when there is no one left to remember us. – Victor Landa

The Mexican… is familiar with death. (He) jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it. It is one of his favorite toys and his most steadfast love. – Octavio Paz

Neon Day of the Dead fashion

Mexican print and skulls to make The Day of The Dead a danceable affair – from the Holland Resort 2012 Collection.

Dia de Los Muertos – Enrico Martino

Chocolate!

A table lined with all the standard tools for preparing chocolate: a ceramic comal or griddle for roasting the beans, a metate or volcanic grinding table, a molcajete or mortar (upper right) for mixing the cocoa with other ingredients and a molinillo (lower left) used to produce the delicious foam that tops Mexican hot chocolate

The history of chocolate begins in Mesoamerica…

Chocolate residue found on 2,600 yr. old ceramic vessels

Etymologists trace the origin of the word “chocolate” to the Aztec word “xocoatl,” which referred to a bitter drink brewed from cacao beans. The Latin name for the cacao tree, Theobroma cacao, means “food of the gods.”Many modern historians have estimated that chocolate has been around for about 2000 years, but recent research suggests that it may be even older.

In the book The True History of Chocolate, authors Sophie and Michael Coe make a case that the earliest linguistic evidence of chocolate consumption stretches back three or even four millennia, to pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica such as the Olmec.

It’s hard to pin down exactly when chocolate was born, but it’s clear that it was cherished from the start. Cacao beans were a valuable commodity and used as currency by 600 AD.  Around this same time the first Maya cocoa plantations were established in the Yucatan.

Both the Mayans and Aztecs believed the cacao bean had magical, or even divine, properties, suitable for use in the most sacred rituals of birth, marriage and death. At royal banquets frothing chocolate was served in golden goblets with finely wrought gold or tortoise-shell spoons.

Hot Chocolate, Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta (Spain 1841-1920)

Sweetened chocolate didn’t appear until Europeans discovered the Americas and sampled the native cuisine. It didn’t suit the foreigners’ tastebuds at first –one described it in his writings as “a bitter drink for pigs” – but once mixed with honey or cane sugar, it quickly became popular throughout Spain.

By the 17th century, chocolate was a fashionable drink throughout Europe, believed to have nutritious, medicinal and even aphrodisiac properties (it’s rumored that Casanova was especially fond of the stuff).  But it remained largely a privilege of the rich until the invention of the steam engine made mass production possible in the late 1700s.

By 1868, a little company called Cadbury was marketing boxes of chocolate candies in England. Milk chocolate hit the market a few years later, pioneered by another name that may ring a bell – Nestle.

Read more about Cacao and Chocolate in Mesoamerica:  http://whp.uoregon.edu/mesoinstitute/?page_id=759

Related:

Every year since 1977, the small town of San Pedro Atocpan celebrates its most famous dish with a month long festival in October, the Feria del Mole, featuring dozens of types of mole.

Fantastic creatures parade through Mexico City

Saturday, October 22 at 12 noon
5th Annual Parade and Competition of
Monumental Alebrijes (Monumental Fantastic Creatures)

The parade will begin in the Zócalo and continue down 5 de Mayo, Juárez and Paseo de la Reforma avenues until reaching the Angel de la Independence Monument.

After the parade, competitor’s “creatures” will be on exhibit through Sunday, November 6 on the main sidewalks of Paseo de la Reforma, between the Angel de la Independencia monument and Diana Cazadora monument.

Watch portions of the parade here:

Stream videos at Ustream

Related: 

Information about alebrijes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alebrije

Humor: Day of the Dead debacle

Calavera de la Catrina ("La Catrina"), José Guadalupe Posada (1851-1913)

Hi, everyone!

The Mountain Room is gearing up for its Day of the Dead celebration on Friday. Please send in photos of loved ones for our altar. All parents are welcome to come by on Wednesday afternoon to help us make candles and decorate skulls.

Thanks!

Emily

What begins as a seemingly harmless celebration of Day of the Dead in an American pre-school takes some unusual turns as parents and children get involved.  Maria Semple, writing for the New Yorker, takes a humorous look at what can happen, chronicling events in this series of e-mails between a pre-school teacher and parents.

To read the article in the New Yorker’s humor section, Shouts and Murmurs, click here:  Day of the Dead or Halloween? : The New Yorker.

Information about: the graphic cartoon of José Guadalupe Posada:

Posada’s posters and political cartoons depicted members of every social class as calaveras (mischievous skeletons).  La Catrina, the “Calavera of the Female Dandy”, satirizes the life of the upper classes during the reign of Porfirio Diaz.  The humor of the device made his scathing political satire more acceptable.

Well-recognized and enjoyed in its day, Posada’s work gradually faded from popular memory until shortly after the Mexican Revolution.  In the 1920s his work was revived by French artist and art historian Jean Charlot and La Catrina, gaining iconic status as a symbol of uniquely Mexican art, was mass-produced for the public.  When Diego Rivera painted the mural Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda central, he painted himself as a boy holding hands with his depiction of Posada’s Catrina.

Today, José Guadalupe Posada’s work is synonymous with the lively Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico.

Related articles

• ‘Day of the Dead’ expanding in US (boston.com)

The Value of Ritual

Day of the Dead celebrations are more than a month away, but since this show opens October 1st  at the Last Rites Gallery in New York and is strongly influenced by Mexico’s festival I thought it post-worthy.

I’ve included excerpts from an interview with artist, Laurie Lipton, conducted by Arrested Motion.  (Arrested Motion - see my website list.)

Arrested Motion: Tell us about this new body of work for Last Rites. It seems that Day of the Dead imagery plays a large role in some of your paintings. What is it about the holiday that inspires you so much?

Lipton: I became fascinated by the contrast between the DAY OF THE DEAD festival in Mexico and my experience of my mother’s death. My parents were atheists. We had no ceremony, no goodbyes, no “closure”. I was left with Nothing… literally and metaphysically. Friends & family treated my mother’s death like an embarrassment. They awkwardly murmured Hallmark platitudes before slinking uneasily away. Death is as forbidden a topic in my culture as sex was in Victorian England. In Mexico, however, it is celebrated like a normal part of existence and not ignored. My trip to Mexico was an eye-opener and I decided to rebel against my society and create images inspired by the Day of the Dead.

Romance by Laura Lipton

Lipton Tea Laurie Lipton

Knitter by Laurie Lipton

Music by Laurie Lipton

Arrested Motion: I have read that you have read the bible and koran cover to cover, among many other religious books, yet your parents were atheists. Has this search for truth influenced your art making and have you come to a conclusion on the subject after all the research you have done?

Lipton: Of course my search has influenced my art because it influenced me. After many years of reading and following various disciplines, I have come to the conclusion that I know nothing. However… I still feel deep awe and reverence when contemplating the mystery and vastness of existence.

Laurie Lipton’s Website: http://www.laurielipton.com

What are your thoughts about Mexico’s Day of the Dead celebrations and Ms. Lipton’s adaptions/adoption of the Mexican tradition in her art?

Related articles

• The gloomy Art of Laurie Lipton (morfis.wordpress.com)  - this post includes more background on the artist and many more images of the artists’ work.

Mexican Independence Day Chiles en Nogada and video jam: Herb Alpert vs. Tres Delincuentes

This week I decided that I could only post to this blog if I discovered an original approach to the celebration and rich traditions of September 16, Mexican’s Independence Day, or bore my readers to death with redundancy.

Since I didn’t have a creative stroke of insight, I took a holiday, laid back and enjoyed the festivities.

Nonetheless, I couldn’t resist sharing a few Mexican treasures:  For the cuisine inclined, a link for Chiles en Nogada and Chiles en Nogada with fresh fruit. Chiles en Nogada is a classic for the festivities, in part, because this dish, “blistered, peeled poblano chiles filled with seasoned meat, fruit and nuts, smothered with a sauce of cream and walnuts, and garnished with pomegranate seeds” has all the colors of the Mexican flag. Click on either of these two links:  Cooking in Mexico.  Celebrating Mexican independence with chiles en nogada « Cooking in Mexico  for recipes.

Also, readers might enjoy these musical classics – thanks to BoingBoing for sharing - Los Tres Delincuentes/Three Delinquents and Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.  Remember the days?

 

Holidays are soon over for this blogger.  How was your weekend?

Graciela Iturbide : Mexican photographer

Iturbide Graciela : photographer | KROUTCHEV PLANET PHOTO.

I am sharing the link to KROUTCHEV PLANET PHOTO, an excellent blog featuring the world of photographers with occasional forays into painting and illustration.  September 5th’s post highlights Mexican photographer, Graciela Iturbide (Mexico City, 1942).  Kroutchev includes a short bibliography and a nice collection of Iturbide’s work and other links to information.  The largest collection of her work in the USA is in Texas, part of the Wittliff Collections.  At this site you can also find information about Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Lazaro Blanco and Yolanda Andrade.  http://www.thewittliffcollections.txstate.edu/collections/southwestern-mexican-photography.html

The link for Iturbide’s Official Website appears to be under construction but The J. Paul Getty Museum’s retrospective, The Goats Dance: Photographs by Graciela Iturbide shown in 2007-08 still serves as a resource, much of the information is still relevant and readers will find information about a number of her collections and series, individual photographs representative of these and links to videos. http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/iturbide/

In 2010, Iturbide received the Premio PHotoEspana Baume y Mercier/The Baume and Mercier PHotoEspana Prize, recognizing her professional trajectory of more than 40 years during which time she has distinguished herself as one of the fundamental figures in contemporary photography.

This past June, La Fabrica Editorial dedicated the first edition in the new collection of books, Album, to Iturbide, who is recognized by many as the most important photographer of Latin America. The editorial’s collection will unite short, chosen works, albums that function as short stories or novels of outstanding international artists.

No nay nadie/There is no one, Graciela Iturbide, is composed of 25 photographs of trips Iturbide made to India between 1997 and 2010.  The book also has an essay by Oscar Pujol, director of the Instituto Cervantes/Cervantes Institute in New Delhi, entitled Las aparencias enganan/Appearances decieve. The edition is limited to only 2000 copies.

Other books available with selections of her work:

• Eyes to Fly With: Portraits, Self Portraits and Other Photographers, Graciela Iturbide, with Alejandro Castellanos and Fabienne Bradu
• Graciala Iturbide: Juchitan de Las Mujeres 1979 – 1989, Mario Bellatin
• Graciela Iturbide: Juchitan, Judith Keller
• Graciela Iturbide, Images of the Spirit, Alfredo Lopez Austin, Graciala Iturbide and Roberto Tejada
• Graciela Iturbide (Phaidon 55S), Cuauhtemoc Medina

Speaking OF tongues…

Speaking of tongues, it looks like these have taken a beating!  Due to the ritual use of these masks, I am probably not too far off the mark.

Background information:

These Tigre/Jaguar masks are from Zitlala, Guerrero and are part of the ritual costume of the Holy Cross Feast Day celebrated in early May. Men from the different barrios/neighborhoods put on these masks and jaguar costumes to take part in fierce fighting competitions that involve beating each other over the head with knotted rope. The fighting is a crucial part in petitioning the deities for rain during the spring planting season.

Constructed of sturdy leather, the masks protect the wearer from injury. Painted green or yellow, the color identifies the neighborhood of the participant’s town.

The celebration combines Christian and pre-Columbian elements; offerings left in return for miracles or blessings from the gods are part of pre-hispanic ritual and the people adorn mountain, roadside and village crosses with flowers and various offerings of fruit, bread, poultry and other items. In Guerrero, this festival is closely tied to Tlaloc, the rain god.

Unfortunately, today, it is rare to find an exemplary Zitlala tiger mask; one produced and used in its rightful cultural/ethnic context; of good craftsmanship, age and patina; and, most importantly, one which was not created solely for sale. Over the last half-century (or more,) the violent Dance of the Green and Yellow Tigers attracted cultural anthropologists and ethnographers. As articles appeared in magazines and/or journals, the best of these remarkable masks, from Zitlala in Guerrero, were no doubt acquired by dealers and collectors long ago.

As is so often the case when an item meets with such strong interest, the market today, is inundated with Zitlala tiger replicas by the hundreds if not thousands – but the original craft has been altered, leather has been replaced by wood, and although these new masks are colorful and creative, they bear little resemblance to the older versions.

Tigre/Jaguar mask from the collection of the Museo de Arte Popular/Museum of Folk Art, Mexico City

Contemporary competitor in tigre/jaguar costume and mask with knotted rope whip

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Contemporary Tigre/Jaguar masks

BOOKS:

Mascaras: La Otra Cara de Mexico/Masks: The Other Face of Mexico by Victor Jose Moya Rubio. (This book is bilingual.)

Masks of Mexico: Tigers, Devils, and the Dance of Life by Barbara Mauldin