May 13, 2007

Guanajuato is a mecca for arts and culture and painter José Chávez Morado plays a leading role.

Chavez Morado (1909-2002), who was born in Silao, Guanajuato, is considered part of the second generation of the Mexican School of Painting and is best known for his contributions to the Mexican Muralist movement.

The murals he painted on the roofs and walls of the stairwells at the Alhondiga de Granaditas museum reminded me in style of the murals by the more famous Mexican muralist, Jose Clemente Orozco that we had seen a few weeks before at the Instituto Cultural Cabanas in Guadalajara.

The two-story Alhóndiga de Granaditas, a former granary with a large courtyard in the middle, does a splendid job of depicting Mexico's history from Pre-Conquest to post Revolution, and we were content to spend an entire afternoon there, shaded from the blistering sun.

(April and May are the two hottest months of the year with temperatures in the low 30s; the rest of the year the climate is temperate.)

On the outside of the building there are hooks where the Spanish hung the severed heads of four of the leaders of the 1810 Mexican Independence movement - Hidalgo, Allende, Aldama and Jimenez - for 10 years.

Chavez Morado's works are also on display at the smaller and less popular Museo de Pueblo de Guanajuato, which is across the university law school.

In addition to a mural - Estipite Fracturado - there are two paintings: (1) La Marcha (1961), of two workers and (2) La Gran Tehuana (1963), of two peasant women. The pieces in museum were unremarkable overall but like so many cultural institutions in Mexico, just walking through the building - an 18th century colonial mansion - can be highly satiating.

Chavez Morado's wife, Olga Costa (1913-1993), was also a painter and on our last morning in Guanajuato, we stopped at the couple's former studio home on the edge of the city which is now the Museo Chavez and Olga Costa. Compared to his wife, Chavez Morado's paintings depict darker subjects, are more complex and contain broader strokes.

But Guanajuato's importance in the Mexican arts is not solely attributable to Chávez Morado and his wife.

Diego Rivera (1886 -1957) was born in Guanajuato and his childhood home on Calle Positos is now the Museo Y Casa Diego Rivera. It showcases many of the most famous painter in Mexico's early and more obscure works, as well as other better know pieces. I loved A Lady in Blue a painting he did in 1953 and which had a certain Warholian 32 Campbell's Soup Can quality.

Guanajuato offers more than just the fine arts, though. The University's Folklorico Ballet's "El Color en Movimiento" dance performance at El Teatro Principal introduced us to the traditional dances and elaborate costumes of several of Mexico's various regions. Our favourite was the Veracruz, where the men were dressed all in white and the Nayarit, where they carried large knives.

The cultural hold that Guanajuato had on us was so strong that we even delayed our departure a day so that we could see a ten-person Latin jazz band play at Teatro Juarez (and to see the inside of the theatre itself, which has the feel of a European opera house). The lead singer thrust his entire body into the performance and the bongo player had lightning quick hands.

And don't even get us started about the reasonable admission and ticket prices.

Key Facts & Figures:

-Alhondiga de Granaditas: $3.30/person
-Museo de Pueblo de Guanajuato: $0.50/person
-Museo Chavez and Olga Costa: $1.50/person
-Museo Y Casa Diego Rivera: $1.50/person
-Folklorico Ballet: $8/person
-Latin jazz concert: $10/person