Mexico City is Number One on the New York Times recommended travel destinations. CDMX has it all, they say, and I agree. This is probably the tenth time I’ve been here in the last two years for the art history study tour I organize, Looking for Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.
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Pablo O’Higgins self-portrait, and portrait of his wife Maria in background
I always stay in the Centro Historico around the Zocalo where it is safe, pedestrian friendly, filled with art and archeology treasures and amazing restaurants with innovative menus. First-time visitors say they join me on this study tour as an orientation to one of the biggest cities in the world.
O’Higgins mural at Abelardo Rodriguez Market
Important and well-known CDMX destinations are the Diego Rivera murals in the Palacio Nacional and Bellas Artes. Few dig deeper into the murals at the Secretariat de Educacion Publico (SEP) and the Mercado Abelardo Rodriguez.
Figure, Pablo O’Higgins mural, Abelardo Rodriguez Market
The Rivera murals at SEP were among his first after returning from European art study for over ten years. These were painted between 1923 and 1928. Now famous, Rivera attracted a cadre of student assistants to sketch and paint.
Detail, mural sketch, with Francisco I. Madero and Miguel Hidalgo
One of these was Pablo O’Higgins, a 20-year old Utah-born American artist who was attracted to the ideals of the Mexican Revolution and migrated to Mexico City in 1924 where he became a student of Diego Rivera.
O’Higgins painted wood cabinet fronts for the Emiliano Zapata School
We search out O’Higgins frescoes at the Abelardo Rodriguez market. They are well-hidden in a not-so-easy-to-access patio in a colonial building next to the market. Rivera was offered a commission to paint the murals in this then new city market built in 1934. Too busy with other work, he proposed that his students do the project and agreed to supervise it.
O’Higgins was also a printmaker and co-founder of Taller de Graphica Popular, an artists’ print collective that created sociopolitical art to renounce fascism and imperialism. Mexico has a deep relationship with the graphic arts and it’s alive and well in both Mexico City and Oaxaca, today.
There are four large O’Higgins mural panels in this area that deserve attention, which is why it is included in our art history study tour. As a disciple of Rivera, O’Higgins learned from the master’s style and then created his own. Rivera said if he ever had a son, he wanted him to be like Pablo O’Higgins.
Mural detail, An Open Press, Abelardo Rodriguez Market
Today, while visiting the Museo Mural de Diego Rivera that holds the fresco Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda, we were surprised with a special exhibition of Pablo O’Higgins’ work there, too. The second floor of the exhibition features a commentary about his work by art historians, fellow artists, and his wife Maria.
O’Higgins mural sketch
As one of Rivera’s top disciples, it’s fitting that O’Higgins is recognized with an exhibition in the Rivera mural museum. Perhaps the government will find a way to begin preserving his murals and those of the other students’ work at the market and other locations around the city.
Mural over arched doorway, Abelardo Rodriguez Market, corn and huitlacoche
Who painted at the Abelardo Rodriguez Market?
- Pablo O’Higgins
- Marion Greenwood
- Grace Greenwood Ames
- Isamu Noguchi
- Antonio Pujol
- Angel Bracho
- Pedro Rendon
- Ramon Alva Guadarrama
- Raul Gamboa
Market fresco themes were health, nutrition, quality organic food produced by labor recognized for their contributions to physical well-being, fair compensation and working conditions.
Ringing the Bells: San Miguel Arcangel Church, San Miguel del Valle, Oaxaca
San Miguel del Valle, Oaxaca, calls to me. Perhaps because it is hidden — escondido — beyond Santa Ana del Valle and Diaz Ordaz, tucked into the fold of the foothills leading to the Sierra Juarez on the way to the eco-tourism center of Cuajilomoyas.
Stepping up into the church patio
Illuminated Saint Michael on the altar
There are dazzling, artful aprons there that talented women embroider with birds, flowers, animals, and plants in a cascade of color. Wearable art! It is all from their imagination. There is no design that shows up twice. You can find them from this distinctive dress each Sunday at the Tlacolula Market, a 15-minute trip from the village.
Welcome to San Miguel Arcangel
Merry modeling an artful apron
I went back last week with my young friend Lupita. She rarely leaves Teotitlan del Valle and its a big world out there along the Pan American Highway MEX 190. We were lucky. When we arrived, the gates to the church patio were open to me for the first time. This was my fourth visit in recent weeks.
Watch the video!
Inside, I said hello to the man who was doing his church volunteer service. I asked him if we could step up to the altar and then enter an anteroom where there were reliquaries and antique treasures from centuries past. He welcomed us. Invited us in, told us to take our time.
Antonio Miguel invites into the anteroom for a look around
Ancient frescoes were painted on lime plastered walls. Deeply carved wood embellished Zegache-style mirrors. A broken clay figure perched under a gilded miniature pergola. Priestly robes hung in a glass case. It was a feeling of old, mystical, medieval. Without restoration, the space felt even more sacred.
Hand painted frescoes of saints adorn walls
Clay figure perched under gilded pergola
I explained to Lupita that it was her people, the Zapotecs, who were conscripted to become stone masons, wood carvers and painters, doing the labor to decorate these buildings of the new religion after the conquest. This was like being inside a fortress, sturdy, solid, everlasting.
Frame of the antique organ
Ascending through the turret, a rest stop for a view
Antonio asked if we wanted to see the antique organ from the same era as the one in Tlacochahuaya. We would have to climb the narrow winding stairs up the turret to the second floor. He went first. The organ was a wood frame with no musical parts. It must have been splendid once.
From the organ balcony, looking into the sanctuary
Lupita makes her way down steep stone steps. I follow her.
He kept looking at his watch. I have to go ring the bells, he said. It’s noon. So we scaled another round of steps to the top of the bell tower, greeted with spectacular views.
Rope bell is suspended with twisted cowhide
Zapotec symbols decorate church support beams
Antonio rang the bells announcing to the entire village it was twelve o’clock. Then he gave me an interview. He lived in Pomona, California, working as a landscaper for 10 years. He is happy to be home in his village!
An inscription, from 1560?
The Virgin of Guadalupe is everywhere, the patron saint of Mexico
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Posted in Cultural Commentary, Oaxaca Mexico art and culture, Travel & Tourism
Tagged bell tower, campanario, frescoes, San Miguel Arcangel church, San Miguel del Valle