Mexico, the Land of Imagination
A 1938 photo and a sketchbook tell of a larger history
I was thrilled to find the small travel notebook that my mother had kept when she married my dad in 1938 and they honeymooned in Mexico. Most of her entries are colored pencil sketches with brief descriptions. I also have a tourist photo of them as newlyweds.
They were in their late 20’s, an actress and an artist, and the Mayor of Pittsburgh married them in February. I’ve always known they went to Mexico, and I knew their green Chevrolet coupe was named Chacmool after a pre-Columbian sculpture, but these were simple facts until I spent some time with my mother’s sketchbook.
The convent below appears to be the Ex-Convento de San Agustin, which became a library two years before my parents were there.
“Hot days,” my mother wrote, “ - thatched roof burning in the sun until chocolate colored.” Then, “Rain!”
Sometimes it’s hard to read her handwriting. I think this restaurant below is “Cocina Señora Maria’s Casa”.
Tucked in the pages of this book is a sketch on stationary from the Hotel “Biltmore” in the Plaza de la Republica (“the ‘frescoes’ by Tarazona in the hall are a wonder”). It looks like my father’s handwriting on the notepaper. I wonder if this was a kinetic sculpture they saw, and if it moved. Very Alexander Calder!
I have several things they brought home from Mexico. We serve grapes in this bowl.
The little kitchen scene is 3” high. One of the bowls on the wall is missing.
What was going on in Mexico in the 1930’s?
It wasn’t until just a few years ago that I learned many American artists traveled to Mexico in the 1920’s and ‘30’s. The revolution of 1910 had brought a decade of civil war until a new President, Álvaro Obregón, restored order in 1920. His administration created unity by celebrating native crafts and Mexican history.
In 1921 Obregón taxed the wealthy and sent a 5,000-object Exhibition of Popular Arts to Los Angeles. That display, and other outreach, advertised a new national identity made of the pure, simple, handmade life. Many Americans attracted to Mexico were eager to experience an artistic, spiritual alternative to the rootless isolation of modern urban industrial life.
When I first read about this a few years ago, I felt a little shocked that my own parents were among the “many American artists”.
But that’s how it feels to finally realize people don’t invent their lives from scratch. Still, you can take notes and sketch what you see along the way, and I’m glad my parents did.
Lovvve this. Now I have a glimpse of where you got your beauty and your creativity.
What a regal couple! Your history is so rich in special memories.