Topic: mexican-american

[erik]

Plus it is enjoyable, and refreshing - except where we see the dark side of the culture.

How can we look at anything without seeing its all sides? To see things, is to see them as they are and never close one's eyes in the face of darkness or pretend it is not there.

To play with culture and let oneself be absorbed, means being absorbed by the dark side of culture of interest as well - otherwise it is not letting oneself being absorbed.

I see such an exercise as requiring quite a bit of guts - to let myself be absorbed by the darkness of other culture and not submit to it.

[nichi]

Mexican-influenced architecture and design.

[nichi]

[nichi]

Contemporary Ernesto Hernandez Olmos

[nichi]

Diego Rivera









Frida Kahlo

[nichi]

Day of the Dead
El dia de los Muertos

From Wikipedia:
The Day of the Dead (El Día de los Muertos in Spanish) is a holiday celebrated mainly in Mexico and by people of Mexican heritage (and others) living in the United States and Canada. The celebration occurs on the 1st and 2nd of November, in connection with the Catholic holy days of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day which take place on those days. Traditions include building private altars honoring the deceased, and using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed. Observance of the holiday in Mexican-American communities in the United States has become more important and widespread as the community grows numerically and economically. Mexican-style Day of the Dead festivities have spread around the world, including to Europe and New Zealand.

Scholars trace the origins of the modern holiday to indigenous observances dating back thousands of years, and to an Aztec festival dedicated to a goddess called Mictecacihuatl (known in English as "The Lady of the Dead").
























(I love all the skeletons, puppets, and humour apparent therein!)

[nichi]

About the last few posts:

I picked things which catch my eye in a pleasing way.

The colors used in Mexican design and ceramics are vibrant and alive! The style in the houses I would call open and airy: in California, it's easy to see why this style works, with the beautiful (and sometimes perilously hot) weather they have. It's a desert-oasis culture.

On the other hand, there's a baroque sense of architecture as well, from the colonial period, in the big cities like Mexico City.












We don't see too much of the baroque in the US exteriors, but inside the houses ... altars abound. 

[nichi]

Mexican Kitsch

[nichi]

WHO OWES WHOM?
by Margot Pepper

And what if we interrupted
the blue phosphorescent faces
that calmly assess our fate?

What if we stripped the presses of
their convenient projections,
voicing instead our own objections
to the national debt:

We cannot pay
because our cobble-stone streets,
flanked by the twice repossessed
temples to our future,
appear now like war zones:
bombed out,
abandoned like the dreams
hunger consumes.

We cannot pay
because malnutrition is engraved
in the ancient faces
of our children;
carved into the knotted driftwood backs
of our campesinos
who mush relinquish our food
to the world's table.

We will not pay the debt
because half our wealth
is hoarded by hands
as smooth and white
as the teeth of bankers,
las guardias blancas,
la Casa Blanca,
el banco mundial blanco,
though the skin at times may look brown.


We will not pay one increment more
than the blood and tears
shed like ticker-tape
in the miscarried revolutions
creditors aborted.

For how are we to repay a debt that is owed us?

All that land pried from the fingers of our dead
like artifacts to be sold to private collectors.

All those wares ripped like flesh
from the ribs of our hungry.

All that land on which we die
like ants in a poison rain when we till it;
like cockroaches when we trespass.

All those riches all that blood all that sweat.

How are we to repay a debt owed us?

©2006 Margot “Pimienta” Peppern

[nichi]

!Hola!





Quinceanara -- Sweet 15 Birthday celebration for girls
























Elena Cantina



Cesar Chavez






Quetzal



Frida Kahlo

[nichi]

[nichi]

[Angela]

Love these costumes! 

[Nick]

I was actually going to make a long post, but deleted it by accident. Besides you guys are covering things very well. I lived in Mexico with my pops for 2 years, and Honduras for 8 months. Will post about Honduras later if no one gets to it first, it is my favorite of the two. Still Mexican's and Hondurans, and I would surmise that Hispanics that were born and raised in a Hispanic culture all have this in common. It always seemed to me that they have a deeper experience of there emotions. A deeper feeling life. We Americans think think think (and never do our thought make it anywhere anyway), but down there they feel so much more. One religion is very important to them, rare it was for us to go into a house down there and not see a religious image on the wall. Two they dance, this seems really important. I've known a few white men that could dance, and the dances are different, but the peoples I have seen dance with the strongest feeling have rarely ( I think once.) been white. Don't mean to sound racist, there is no hate intended in what I am saying, god I can't dance. I have seen African Americans, and Hispanics and others, but it seems most white men have lost this beautiful gift. Some even dance well, but from my own limited observations it feels more like technique than feeling. In Mexico they have got it. This also makes there woman, again in my opinion, more interesting and lively. Sometimes even the air feels more alive and I think the spirit that moves them to dance places a part in that feeling in the air. Three I noticed, quite disturbing in my opinion, that they love their soap opera's like none other I have seen. Not saying soap opera's help them have a strong feeling life, I am simply referencing it as an example of how they love this cultural sharing of feeling and emotion. Four, and always a mixed blessing, in a way that is also mixed, they consider family to be very important, they have bigger families, and all these emotions are entrenched in that family structure. Five, it seems to me, that much of their food is sensual food, food for the passions, spicy, hot food etc. I'm sure there is more but that is enough for now. Six, and this may or may not matter for their feeling, but it seems to me that their language itself is much more rhythmic. Think of our English, so bulky it seems, there is little flow between words. Amor de dios es muy importante. Or, Love of God is very important. Which one sounds more rhythmic, the English may sound easier cause it is what you are used to, but that doesn't make it more smooooth. Is it possible that the rhythm of the language reflects and or effects the heart of the people who speak it as well as the mind? Maybe a smooth language equals a more passionate emotional life. Think of the German language and how clunky it is, think of the Italians, French, and think then of the Hindu and Sanskrit. Definitely a language like Sanskrit says something about the people using it. 

This was one of the best things I learned about their culture. It seems very intrinsic to understanding them. There is more I know, and there is more I wish I had learned, but later.

Te Amo   

[tangerine dream]

Is it possible that the rhythm of the language reflects and or effects the heart of the people who speak it as well as the mind? Maybe a smooth language equals a more passionate emotional life. Think of the German language and how clunky it is, think of the Italians, French, and think then of the Hindu and Sanskrit. Definitely a language like Sanskrit says something about the people using it. 



Te Amo   

This is very interesting Nicholas.  It kinda fits with what we've been talking about lately about healing sounds, doesn't it. 
Language is sounds...