Tag Archives: Mexico

Día de los Muertos

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Debbie says:

Hallowe’en doesn’t do much for me, but I am always moved by Día de los Muertos, which is today.

Día de los Muertos is celebrated throughout Mexico, in particular the Central and South regions. It is also celebrated by people of Mexican ancestry living in the United States and elsewhere. It grows out of All Saints’ Day, the Christian-calendar reason we celebrate Hallowe’en. During this holiday, which is more than one day long, families and friends gather to pray for and remember people who have died, and help support their spiritual journey.

Writing at Feministing, Barbara Sostaita reminds us that celebrating Día de Los Muertos is a political action.

Over 10,000 people have died since the 1990s trying to cross the Mexico-U.S. border as a result of inhumane and unjust government policies. Police brutality and violence claims the lives of Black people in this country every day. Puerto Rico’s Hurricane Maria death toll continues to rise. We may never know how many people state apathy killed, as the bodies of hurricane victims are being burned.

For immigrants and Latinx people viewed as disposable in the eyes of the state, Día de los Muertos — a traditional Mexican holiday that’s underway this week — is deeply political. The parades and parties, calaveras (skulls) and calacas (skeletons), altars and art that make up this holiday serve as a communion with the dead, a celebration of life, and an expression of cultural memory. …

This year, Mexico’s Day of the Dead parade is honoring earthquake victims. As you celebrate Día de los Muertos, remember this is an important day not only for Mexicans and Latinx in this country, but also for U.S. political history as a whole. 

The dead are always with us, but this year it feels like they are everywhere: shot at country music gatherings, run over by cars driven by angry men, unable to survive prison, killed for being black, being brown, being trans, being queer, being alive and not fitting the supremacist narrative that threatens to overtake us.

I’m not Mexican. I’m not gathering with my family or friends to pray for and remember those who have died. But the dead are in my heart, and in your heart. And the people gathering today to remember their loved ones and guide them are in my heart as well.

Vaya con dios.

SFMOMA: Photography Of Mexico

Laurie says:

I was just at SFMOMA’s Photography of Mexico exhibit.  The work ranges from the 1920’s to the present. The initial work is by visitors Edward Weston and Tina Modotti, who both photographed and taught there and were instrumental in the 20th century Mexican photography movement.  The post revolutionary period also funded work that was based in Mexican culture, so a strong Mexican photography movement developed. The majority of the photographers are Mexican. The photographers are a mix of fine art photographers, documentary photographers, revolutionary photographers and press photographers, frequently in the same career.  Women are well represented in the exhibition, a pleasant change from most historical photography exhibits.
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Lourdes Grobet

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The selection of more than 150 photographs showcases works by Lourdes Grobet, Manuel Carrillo, Graciela Iturbide, Elsa Medina, Pablo Ortiz Monasterio, Mariana Yampolsky, and many more, drawing from SFMOMA’s photography collection and a recent major gift from Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser.

The work is frequently formalist or ethnographic.  I was struck by the fact that none of it felt anthropological (something I’m very aware of after all my Women of Japan work) and was on the whole respectful.  It may have to do with the initial starting conditions.  There wasn’t a way to make three images representative, so these are just somewhat random personal choices.

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Mariana Yompalsky

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A group of about 20 small photographs at the beginning of the exhibition (gelatin and platinum prints), mostly by Modotti, really struck me.  They were as strong and realized as the larger images. Because my present project is small images, these were significant for me. Make sure to see them if you come to the show.

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Graciela Iturbide

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I’m familiar with 20th century Mexican photography, and this show is exceptional in the quality of the work and the curatorial choices. This is an excellent opportunity to see fine work and the historical flow of major photography movements, both the art and the politics.  If you’re in the Bay Area, check it out.