This month’s cover is a digital photo of papier-mâché chili peppers taken in Ajijic. These strings of papier-mâché items are known as ristras and are just one of several Mexican paper, art forms. Typically, ristras are fruit, vegetables, garlic, birds and other animals. Paper crafts have a long history in this country. Everywhere you look there are paper articles […]
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Preparations are in full swing in Aguascalientes for the traditional Feria Nacional de San Marcos, a three-week spring fiesta the city of natural hot springs is best known for. About seven million revelers are expected to descend upon this central colonial city between April 17 and May 9, for the festival that promises to entertain […]
Continue ReadingArtists from the Ajijic-Chapala-Riberas area of Jalisco joined together June 6, 2003 to meet one another, renew collaborations and celebrate the upcoming rainy season at the new Kimball Gallery in Chapala. Organizer Jacqueline Stewart called the event the ” Fiesta de las Chicharras” to honor the locusts that herald the rainy season in this part of […]
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The Naked Stage, Ajijic’s biting and sexy new minimalist theatre, has another successful reading sceduled for November — Rabbit Hole. Winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for drama, the play premiered as a film this past September (2010) at the Toronto Film Festival starring Nicole Kidman. Its next performance will be Psychopathia Sexualis by John Patrick Shanley, directed by […]
Continue ReadingDid you know that one of the highest, most elegant and sumptuous arts of pre-Conquest Mexico was arteplumaria, the art of feather painting? Used to decorate headdresses, standards, staffs, lances, fans, bracelets, and sandals, arteplumaria was also employed to cover every one of the pre-Cortez ceremonial shields ever recovered or recorded. This rare type of ornamentation was […]
Continue ReadingA gourd is a member of the squash family. Grown in corn fields here between the stalks, they are harvested and stored in a bodega to dry. Indigenous people used the casings as practical implements like plates, bowls and water vessels. Here in Ajijic at Avant Gourd Gallery, they are lovingly carved, painted, decorated and transformed into […]
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Cogan’s Reviews Here’s a most unusual collection of photographs and MexConnect is delighted to bring them to you. They are all, despite the title, photos taken in San Miguel de Allende where photographer Carol Stein visited last year. All of them exhibit odd and striking views of the town as well as the unusual abstract approach that […]
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Located just east of Zacatecas city, Guadalupe’s palm-fringed Jardín Juárez has the special charm found in so many Mexican towns. Here vendors sell the local crafts that this colonial town, founded in 1578, is famous for – including tooled leather belts and soft, pliant jackets along with large carved rustic furniture and wall hangings, newly woven […]
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Habiendo estudiado arte en una escuela oficial, Rivera viajó a Europa, estableciendose en París, donde conoció a las principales figuras de la época, incluyendo a muchos del llamado movimiento cubista. En 1922 Rivera comenzó su trabajo sobre La Creación, uno de los murales para los que fue comisionado en la Escuela Nacional Preparatoria y que revivió […]
Continue ReadingFor centuries Indians have been leaving offerings of votive bowls and clay figurines in Lake Chapala for the deities of the waters. Today the Huichol Indians of Jalisco and Nayarit continue the tradition. But their story has a peculiar twist. One person’s mythology is another person’s religion. The Huichols have a vast store of both. […]
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