'Infinitas Gracias'

'Repellent,' the Consul said, isn't Guanajuato the place they bury everyone standing up?" Under The Volcano

If you missed the recent Wellcome Foundation exhibition on Mexican Miracle Paintings then yu get a book of postcards of some of the exhibits from here.

Mexican votives are small paintings, usually executed on tin roof tiles or small plaques, depicting the moment of personal humility when an individual asks a saint for help and is delivered from disaster and sometimes death. 'Infinitas Gracias' will feature over 100 votive paintings drawn from five collections held by museums in and around Mexico City and two sanctuaries located in mining communities in the Bajío region to the north: the city of Guanajuato and the distant mountain town of Real de Catorce. Together with images, news reports, photographs, devotional artefacts, film and interviews, the exhibition will illustrate the depth of the votive tradition in Mexico.

Usually commissioned from local artists by the petitioner, votive paintings tell immediate and intensely personal stories, from domestic dramas to revolutionary violence, through which a markedly human history of communities and their culture can be read. The votives displayed in 'Infinitas Gracias' date from the 18th century to the present day. Over this period, thousands of small paintings came to line the walls of Mexican churches as gestures of thanksgiving, replacing powerful doctrine-driven images of the saints with personal and direct pleas for help. The votives are intimate records of the tumultuous dramas of everyday life - lightning strikes, gunfights, motor accidents, ill-health and false imprisonment - in which saintly intervention was believed to have led to survival and reprieve.

'Infinitas Gracias' will explore the reaction of individuals at the moment of crisis in which their strength of faith comes into play. The profound influence of these vernacular paintings, and the artists and individuals who painted them, can be seen in the work of such figures as Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, who were avid collectors. The contemporary legacy of the votive ritual will be present in the exhibition through a wall covered with modern-day offerings from one church in Guanajuato: a paper shower of letters, certificates, photographs, clothing and flowers, through which the tradition of votive offering continues today. The sanctuaries at Guanajuato and Real de Catorce remain centres of annual pilgrimage, attracting thousands of people to thank and celebrate their chosen saints.

A Serving Of Malcolm Lowry

Check out Scandal Park's images of Mexico


When I consider the books that have shaken me up, Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry is a certain clubhouse leader; not at all an original reaction, given the remarkable raw girth of the autobiographical novel.

The National Film Board of Canada produced a marvelous documentary on Malcolm Lowry in 1976. Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry was nominated for an Oscar.

The film is also a rich repository of images of Mexico. Watching it once again prompted me to revisit my own collection of Mexican photos and to post a few favorites.

Jorge Negrete - Yo Soy Mexicano

A further Mexican track played at last Friday's Lowry Lounge by Bryan Biggs.

Tom Lehrer – In Old Mexico

Here we have a tongue in cheek track from Tom Lehrer combined with an article above tempting US tourists south of the border in 1937. - read whole article here

Yet another track from the Lowry Lounge evening!




You can sing-a-long:

When it's fiesta time in Guadalajara,
Then I long to be back once again
In Old Mexico.
Where we lived for today,
Never giving a thought to tomara.
To the strumming of guitars,
In a hundred grubby bars
I would whisper "Te amo."

The mariachis would serenade,
And they would not shut up till they were paid.
We ate, we drank, and we were merry,
And we got typhoid and dysentery.

But best of all, we went to the Plaza de Toros.
Now whenever I start feeling morose,
I revive by recalling that scene.
And names like Belmonte, Dominguin, and Manolete,
If I live to a hundred and eighty,
I shall never forget what they mean.

(For there is surely nothing more beautiful in this
world than the sight of a lone man facing singlehandedly
a half a ton of angry pot roast!)

Out came the matador,
Who must have been potted or
Slightly insane, but who looked rather bored.
Then the picadors of course,
Each one on his horse,
I shouted "Ole!" ev'ry time one was gored.

I cheered at the bandilleros' display,
As they stuck the bull in their own clever way,
For I hadn't had so much fun since the day
My brother's dog Rover
Got run over.

(Rover was killed by a Pontiac. And it was done with
such grace and artistry that the witnesses awarded the
driver both ears and the tail - but I digress.)

The moment had come,
I swallowed my gum,
We knew there'd be blood on the sand pretty soon.
The crowd held its breath,
Hoping that death
Would brighten an otherwise dull afternoon.

At last, the matador did what we wanted him to.
He raised his sword and his aim was true.
In that moment of truth I suddenly knew
That someone had stolen my wallet.

Now it's fiesta time in Akron, Ohio,
But it's back to old Guadalajara I'm longing to go.
Far away from the strikes of the A.F. of L. and C.I.O.
How I wish I could get back
To the land of the wetback,
And forget the Alamo,
In Old Mexico. Ole!

Jorge Martínez García Under the Volcano and Other Works: Interpretaciones gráficas of the Literature of Malcolm Lowry

The above etching is called Espiritus del Mezcal - Spirit of the Mezcal (Lowry) by Jorge Martínez García. The etching featured in an exhibtion called: Jorge Martínez’ “Under the Volcano and Other Works: Interpretaciones gráficas of the Literature of Malcolm Lowry” held in Toronto during October 2007. The exhibition featured 33 new works, in progress since January 2006, that emerged from interpretive dialogues with, and inspired by the work of Malcolm Lowry.

Jorge Martínez lives and works in Valparaiso, Chile; he is a painter and printmaker, and also a professor fine arts and of philosophy.

Martínez was born in 1963 and grew up in Chile. He was schooled as an artist in Ecuador in the period from 1985 to 1991. Prior to his return to Chile and taking up teaching in the fine arts there, Martínez received his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy in Ecuador at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Ecuador in Quito and went on to become a professor of modern philosophy, the philosophy of aesthetics and the philosophy of religion at the Faculty of Theology of that university.

Mexico Book Club Review Of Under The Volcano

I can recommend Mexico Book Club for anyone interested in Mexican writing and art. John Simon has written a review of Under The Volcano on the site which contains the above etching by Jorge Martínez García.

Buster Keaton & The Ukulele

I came across the above video while researching 1920's and 1930's ukulele material. This classic jazz tune is performed by Tommy Mattiniero. The clip contains footage from Buster Keaton's "The College" (1927). This got me wondering whether Malc said anything about Buster. I discovered from a letter to Carol Brown, a friend from Caldy, that he had seen Buster's Go West in Cambridge while at the Leys, but though he enjoyed Brown Eyes the cow in the film, Lowry was not that impressed. Though I had to smile a the clip of Buster below which not only has a ukulele connection but the film is set in Mexico.

Buster Keaton attempts to serenade a senorita and discovers it's more trouble than it's worth. From the Columbia short "Pest from the West", 1939. It was produced by Jules White, the man behind the Three Stooges.