This is the title page of a book, published in 1869, called “Mexico y Sus Alrededores,” or “Mexico and its Surroundings.” The book includes illustrations by C. Castro, G. Rodriguez and J. Campillo. The book contains a number of fantastic images. For instance, check out this 1875 map of Mexico City: Or Castro’s aerial lithograph of Mexico City: Or there’s this lush image of the Palacio de Iturbide, a building I have peered into many times (in the Centro Historico […]
Los Cabos Dispatch
editor’s note: I was delighted to receive the following missive from our old friends Steve and Jo Knight, whom I met at Tenacatita when I was just a kid. Steve and Jo are seasoned Mexico travelers and now work in the travel business themselves–they are proprietors of an excellent, low key campground/cabin rental/eco-conscious swamp tour business, Okefenokee Pastimes, located at the entrance to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia. I highly recommend their place if you should ever find […]
Historical Photo of the Week: Tina Modotti by Edward Weston
Nude, Mexico by Edward Weston photo from Getty Museum Archive According to an interesting post at the Getty Museum Archive, Edward Weston shot this photo on a Mexico City rooftop in 1924. He was on the roof to shoot clouds, but got distracted by his lover, Tina Modotti, sunbathing. Another piece to the fascinating puzzle of Modotti’s storied life. Tina Modotti was born in Italy in 1896. As a child, she worked in a silk factory. At sixteen, she followed […]
Daniel Rueffert Exhibit
For those of you in the SMA area, one of my favorite artists is having an exhibit in Mineral de Pozos on March 30. Daniel writes: “Plein air refers to paintings done on location in one shot. (That’s my definition as others sometimes work on them later in the studio). Impressionism is the word they use to describe the method. They are created in an hour, more or less, as the sun scoots across the sky lengthening and shortening shadows […]
Baja by Mule–Pointers from the Baja Mule Diva
editor’s note: The tireless David “el Codo” Eidell recruited Baja mule diva Teddi Montes to write this fantastic article for us. Big thanks to Codo, Tedi, and to Trudi Angell for the photos. by Teddi Montes If you’ve never been on a mule, and want the adventure of a lifetime, just once experience a trip into the Sierra San Francisco and see what it’s all about. You can go in for just a one to two nighter, or you can […]
Putting Faces on Statistics
Recommended read: The New York Times reports on a community art project in Ecatepec, Mexico. The project consists of giant photo murals of victims of cartel crime: “The Murrieta Foundation gave photography classes to young people from rough neighborhoods and recruited crime victims as their subjects. “Victim” was defined broadly. Along with those who had witnessed murders firsthand, lost relatives or been the victims of violent crime, the category included drug addicts, the girlfriends of criminals and an old man […]
Folkloric angels dressed in Jaguar skins? We’re in!
By Felisa Churpa Rosa Rogers One of our longtime favorite websites, ColonialMexico.com, does a monthly feature on colonial Mexican artwork. This month’s article discusses el barocco Poblano. The photographs of an amazingly gaudy “folk baroque” church are well worth your time, provided, of course, that you are the sort of person who enjoys pictures of minute folkloric angels dressed in Jaguar skins.