Culture

  • Octavio Paz (1914 – 1998) Mexican poet and writer. Winner of the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and the 1990 Nobel Prize in Literature. To explore his take on Mexican history you might read El Laberinto de la Soledad (The Labyrinth of Solitude). (1950). [Describes the history of the Mexican people from colonial to recent times explaining the complexities of Mexico, its culture and its relationship and conflicts mostly with US]
  • Carlos Fuentes. (1928 – 2012). Mexican novelist & essayist. Winner of the 1987 Miguel de Cervantes Prize. His his best-known works include The Death of Artemio Cruz (1962), Terra Nostra (1975), and Christopher Unborn (1987).
  • Juan Rulfo (1917 – 1986) Mexican writer and photographer. Known especially for his novel Pedro Páramo (1955) and his collection of short stories, El Llano en llamas (The Plain in Flames). (1953) describing his upbringing in the State of Jalisco.

You might also consider reading Gary Jenning’s historical novel Aztec (1980) about the Aztecs during the time of Spanish conquest.

Painting

The history of Mexico has been marked by numerous important social, political and economic events; these have spurred the creation of a great artistic heritage – the history of modern Mexican painting goes back to the legacy that the Spanish conquest brought with it, thus founding New Spain in what is now Mexico.

José Clemente Ángel Orozco Flores (1883-1949) Orozco’s style is a mixture of conventional, Renaissance-period compositions and modeling, emotionally expressive, modernist abstraction, typically dark, ominous palettes, and forms and iconography deriving from the country’s indigenous, pre-colonial, pre-European art. Most important art: The Trench (1926), Prometheus (1930), The Epic of American Civilization (1932-34).

Diego Rivera (1886-1957). Inspired by the political ideals of the Mexican Revolution (1910-20) and the Russian Revolution, Rivera wanted to make art that reflected the lives of the working class and native peoples of Mexico. Most important art: Creation (1922–23), Man, Controller of the Universe (Man in the Time Machine) (1934), Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park (1947–48).

David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896-1974) He technique, composition and political ideology. Informed by revolutionary Marxist ideology. Over the course of five decades, he integrated avant-garde styles and techniques with traditional iconography and local histories. He, like Rivera, firmly believed that technology was a means to a better world and he sought to combine traditions of painting with modern political activism. Most important art: The Elements (1922-24), Tropical America (1932), Cuauhtemoc’s Torment (1951), The March of Humanity (1965-71).

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954). She was considered one of Mexico’s greatest artists who began painting mostly self-portraits after she was severely injured in a bus accident. Kahlo later became politically active and married fellow communist artist Diego Rivera in 1929. Most important art: Henry Ford Hospital (1932), The Two Fridas (1939), The Broken Column (1944), The Wounded Deer (1946).

José María Velasco y Gómez (1840-1912). His scenes of the Mexican landscape are a visual source for environmental historians, since they show the Valley of Mexico before its degradation in the twentieth century, with air pollution and urban sprawl. Most impostant art: The Mexico City Alameda (1866), The Valley of Mexico Seen from the Tenayo Hill (1870), Flora and Fauna from the Miocene Cenozoic Period. Evolution of Continental Life on Earth (unknown year).

José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913). Posada was a Mexican illustrator known for his satirical and politically acute calaveras. Deriving from the Spanish word for ‘skulls’, these calaveras were illustrations featuring skeletons which would, after Posada’s death, become closely associated with the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).

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