By Fabiola VA
“We welcome the death with a celebratory smile”. One of the most visible Mexican traditions is “The Day of the Dead”, cataloged by UNESCO since 2008 as Intangible Heritage of Humanity. The way of honor death is unique, reflected as a big feast to share with the ones that are no longer with us in a colorful way, with typical food, candles, marigold flowers, decorated sweet skulls, elements loaded with meaning for the family that remember them when preparing their dishes and gathering their most precious objects. One of the most loved and celebrated dates for mexicans who are waiting for this day to come to dress as mexican catrín and catrina.
This year we wanted to approach it through art. It’s interesting to see how this tradition has crossed borders that lead to other cities around the world to carry out activities around it, cities such as Chicago, in the north of the USA, a place that has a latino influence and, as usual a room of the National Museum of Mexican Art is used to memorialize this date, and for this year a mural was made. To do this, two Mexican visual artists were invited, we refer to Janín Garcín and Dolores Navarro (Yuda). At Galería 7C´s we talked to Janín about his experience making it and how important it is for Mexicans to spread their culture through their traditions.
PARTICULAR MEANING OF THE DAY OF THE DEAD
It is an important date, I think it is the most anticipated of the year, “it seems very beautiful the way that in Mexico we pay tribute to death and memory”, Janín says. All of the colors, landscapes, flavors, textures that we can see in every place of the country. Is amazing and without a doubt an inspiration for the people who make art. For muralists this tradition is the starting point for letting creativity flow, but above all, think about the message you want to convey once the work is presented. They have a speech that is reflected in their lines that entails a certain responsibility when representing their country through their work, they are in charge of capturing the words in drawings.
EXPLANATION OF THE “GUIDE” MURAL
“Inside the mural, what Dolores Navarro “Yuda” and I wanted to talk about was the journey of death and the vision of our ancestors. For those of us born in Mexico, not even death saves us from folklore”.
Mexicans have a particular form of it, just as Octavio Paz said in the Labyrinth of Solitude “The Mexican’s indifference to death is nourished by his indifference to life”, to laugh at what scares us the most, as It can be death, the Mexican has a unique relationship with it and it is part of his identity.
This work represents a flowery darkness, a colorful pantheism, a fantasy of custom, an imagery with deep meaning. These insistent traits seek a better communion with those who yearn. They aim to universalize a voice, where ancient myths constantly suggest that the dead live, and that they live in celebration of cosmic time. In the face of the mercilessness of death, this ephemeral mural acts as an icon of hope. This is how Janín defines this collaboration, as a canvas that tells a story.
The artists define the work as a way of reflecting on the present life and the one that comes after, as if they were connected to meet on the Day of the Dead and could share ideas.
Every year the Museum of Mexican Art Chicago makes a mural to welcome the “Day of the Dead” exhibition, this year Dolores and Janin were invited to capture the mural. It was very important for the exhibition that women were the ones who made it this year. Their mural is the beginning of the exhibition entitled “Day of the Dead, Living Presence” by reminding us that the people we lost in this last year due to the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria are still with us, as well as the women who have disappeared due to gender violence with the exhibition of 18 local artists from Mexico as well as Mexican artists who are no longer in this world and that will be offered to them a tribute with a sample of the objects they liked the most.
THEMES PRESENT IN THE VISUAL WORK
“Dolores Navarro and I were inspired by ancient and contemporary Mexico, by the Huasteca Potosina, the Xantolo and the legend of the ‘xoloitzcuintle'”.
This festivity has its origins in Pre-Hispanic Mexico in Mesoamerica by having a “cult of death” hence there existed for the Náhuatl culture the god Xolotl (in charge of taking the dead to the afterlife) this place of the dead was the Mictlantecuhtli, and a way to reach it, the Mictlán in which it was believed that the dead transcended to different planes. However, it was transformed during the Spanish conquest, in which the altar began to be made as we know it today and people were buried in cemeteries.
In this way the Xoloitzcuintle was created, as guardian of spirits and guide of souls through the path to the city of the dead (hairless dog created from a splinter of the bone of life and given to men as something sacred). The Huastec tradition of “Xantolo” is also taken up, celebrating the dead with dances, masks and altars in the houses that open the doors so that they can be visited.
IMPORTANCE OF SPREADING MEXICO’S CULTURAL IDENTITY ABROAD
This is how Janín defines it when describing the importance of sharing your culture with others. To be able to capture our traditions in another country, “create a connection with people who cannot return to our lands.” This museum is very important for the Mexican community in Chicago, and for us it is a great honor, something very valuable for our artistic careers, that this place has our work, we never thought that painting on the street would take us to such incredible places, or that we could cross borders doing murals.
“We are very proud of where we come from, of our roots, and talking about them in such faraway places is something very important, because Mexico is a beautiful place.”
