Xxxicana’s Weblog

To all my concerned friends, family, and readers: Thanks to fervent prayers to ALL the Mexican deities (Christian, Aztec, Mayan, et al.) and the Sopa de Pollo, I have recovered from my short illness. I’m sure it was the soup that did it — chicken soup in any culture/language has been proven to be a powerful curative (plus, a little jalapeno never hurts).

For today’s excursion, I visited el Museo Nacional de Arte . . . now, I figured (and my guide book stated) that ALL the great Mexican Artists are represented — some even that I wanted to see (Dr. Atl, Diego Rivera, J. C. Orozco (although I actually HATE his vision), etc.) — including Frida. The museum is an ornate neo-classical monument to the Mexican nation. Ah, life must be so much easier when one buys into a nationalistic discourse that only provides the thinest gauze of populism to veil the racist foundations of modern Mexico. Need proof? Here’s a quaint painting by Diego Rivera:

What does this small piece tell us? Art historians analyze the use of space to decipher art and in this piece we see one girl seated in the superior position, denoted by her higher placement, apparently teaching the inferior to read? Superior = Espanola/Blanca/ white/lettered and Inferior = India/brown/illiterate.

Dear readers, please bear with me regarding my cynicism (and my tilted photos). The irony of being Mexican-American — is that we are neither — and so view both the US and Mexico through the lens of “not-belongedness.” We are uncomfortable in our relations to both the old and the new since both reject us. The upside is the ability to see through the duplicity of nationalism and racist discourse (ok, some of us try at least).

Back to Frida: can you believe it? The National Museum of Art has no art by Frida Kahlo!!! Que lastima! (what a shame). But, the museum store did have a ton of cheap Frida trinkets to sell the the beguiled. Nevertheless, I saw just truly great art by so many different people (even a Picasso). I was also inspired by a collection of portraits of a single woman who was considered a “muse” in the early 20th century — which got me thinking about the positionality of being subject/object — oops, sorry, I’m getting too post-structuralist here. Anyway, here are a few of the masterpieces to be seen at this museum:

Diego Rivera’s cubist masterpiece: Zapatista Landscape:

Self portrait by Siquieros (who, by the way attempted to assassinate Trotsky – he was a Stalinist)

Jose Clemente Orozco: The small nation (I think Orozco REALLY HATED WOMEN)

Dr. Atl (really, the promoter of Mexicanidad in Mexican Art:

and a religious piece that just has to be dedicated to those suffering migraines (if you can’t tell, she has a nail sticking out of her forehead): Santa Rita de Casia:

There are a lot of great things about Mexico, not the least of which is its beer. I’m posting and having a Negra Modelo to recuperate from a long day of museum hopping in Coyoacan. I took the metro south, walked and walked and walked — and not in my most sensible shoes (semi-sensible). In my defense, the women of Mexico City are like those of NY or LA — very fashionable — and I didn’t want to look like a total schlub. Anyway, back to Coyoacan. Here’s a photo of the front of Frida’s house, aptly named Casa Azul. I couldn’t take photos inside, but there were some very interesting new things. But, you’ll have to read my book to find out!

Then I was off to see Trotsky’s house. As you may know, Diego Rivera sponsored Trotsky when he was running from Stalin. Frida had an affair with the venerable Revolutionary, but it was ended when Natalia (his wife) caught wind. Oh, Frida was probably tired of the old guy by then anyway. After the affair was over, Frida painted one of her more seductive portraits for Trotsky.

Trotsky’s house is pretty fascinating — he was living in fear that Stalin would have him assassinated (not without reason). The house he lived in at the time of his death is a couple of blocks from the Casa Azul. it has gun turrets, a heavy wall, and Trotsky’s bedroom and office have heavy steel doors.

Today I visited two museums: Modern Art and the Rufino Tamayo Museum. I wanted to check out the Museum of Modern Art because it is the home of the “The Two Fridas.”

Unfortunately, this painting is on tour 😦

But, there was a new exhibit of Remedios Varo, which was WAY COOL. Here’s a photo of one of her paintings. This one is titled “Useless Science or the Alchemist.” I love this painting.

The quality of my photo isn’t very good since I couldn’t use a flash (of course). But you get the picture . . . (haha, little pun). If you aren’t familiar with Varo, she was a Spaniard, moved to Paris, fled due to the Nazis to Mexico in 1941 until her death in 1963. Unlike Frida Kahlo, Varo admitted that her work was influenced by the surrealists. Her work has a fantastical aspect to it that still resonates today.

I also visited the Rufino Tamayo Museum — very cool interior, but they wouldn’t let me take photos (boo). The exhibits were very unusual — very recent works that were quite interesting, but, you had to have been there — one of them was by an artist that worked in the 70s with things such as toilet paper, shit, urine, blood, trash. He hated the “institutional” art world and its focus on expensive materials that he and Third World people couldn’t/can’t afford. Very political, and entirely ephemeral. He filmed some of his works and had photos taken since you literally had to have been there.
After lunch, I walked over to the Anthropology museum — it’s the Disneyland of Mesoamerican Archaeology. Before I got there I stopped to watch the voladores . . . here’s a photo:

This is an ancient ritual of the Totonac that combines the 5 directions (north, south, east, west, center) and the calendar (4 men make 13 spirals down = 52 weeks of the year).

It is a misnomer that the peoples of the Americas didn’t invent the wheel (I heard this ALL the time growing up) — which always makes it sound like Indigenous people were too stupid to have done so. This is actually false, there are a number of examples of the wheel in Indigenous America — the volador tower is one example of the concept. The difference is, of course, that in the Americas there was no practical use for the wheel for transport (no oxen, horses, mules).

I also observed a group of “Aztec” dancers . . . . yes, the copal was real, the chingchings were real, but the drummer was wearing jeans under his costume! I guess he was too shy to show his legs. The dancers were all pretty young –probably just getting started . . . but they danced well.