I’m a huge fan of the creative Google doodles, especially when they’ve got cultural significance. Today, the 125th anniversary of Diego Rivera’s birthday, the Google doodle teaches you a little about him! Check out the video.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up3YYl5LJX0[/youtube]
Want to read more from The Other Side of The Tortilla about Diego Rivera?
Today marks the 107th anniversary of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo’s birthday. She was born in Mexico City on July 6, 1907. I’ve written many times about Frida Kahlo, visited the Museo Frida Kahlo—also known as La Casa Azul—in Mexico City, and admired Frida’s work in books, museums around the world and online. To say I am a fan of Frida Kahlo is probably an understatement. I try to visit La Casa Azul each time I visit Mexico City and explore the streets of Coyoacán, where she once walked too.
On one of my recent visits, my father-in-law took a photo of me in front of La Casa Azul, which I’ve printed and framed to have a little piece of Frida at home. If you’ve never been to the museum, you can take a virtual visit online of the Museo Frida Kahlo.
I’ve been traveling to Mexico City—affectionately known as Chilangolandia—several times a year for the better part of a decade to visit my husband’s family, and it never ceases to amaze me. From the world-class museums and interesting historic landmarks to the variety of culinary experiences, ranging from street food to haute cuisine, I have a serious love affair with this city that is home to more than 21 million people (including the metro area). You can see and experience everything from fancy, modern skyscrapers to old-school open air markets. At times it can feel like a major metropolis, but at the drop of a hat, you may find yourself in a neighborhood that feels less like the city and more like a pueblo. It’s a diverse city with so much culture and history to explore.
Everything about the place calls my name, and each snapshot I take while visiting is a permanent memory embedded in my mind and heart. It’s strange, but when I’m away, I sometimes feel homesick for this magical place although it’s not where I was born and raised. Having spent so much time there, though, it has become like my second hometown. Recently, I discovered an app called Waterlogue that blew me away with its ability to turn my photos into stunning watercolor painted images. I started sorting through some of my favorite travel photos from Mexico City as well as other places in Mexico that I’ve visited, and have become addicted to turning my photos into works of art. Here are 10 photos I’ve taken in Mexico City over the years that I’ve turned into watercolor images.
In December 2012 during a visit to Mexico City for the holidays, I had a chance to once again visit La Casa Azul, the home of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, which is now the Museo Frida Kahlo. I visited specifically to see a new exhibit called “Las apariencias engañan: los vestidos de Frida Kahlo” (which runs through January 31, 2014 and is a must-see exhibit for any serious Frida fan).
In the museum, there are several displays of Frida Kahlo’s personal journals, filled with artwork between the pages of her thoughts. There’s a famous quote of Frida’s from one of her personal journals which reads: “Pies para qué los quiero si tengo alas pa’ volar.”
It means: “Feet, what do I need them for if I have wings to fly.” As I flew over Ciudad Universitaria in early January on my way back home to Chicago, I snapped this photo of one of my favorite views of the city and added the words.
It’s no secret that I’m addicted to Instagram. Therefore, it should come as no big surprise that I found a way to show off some of my favorite photos from The Other Side of The Tortilla, my travels in Mexico and other assorted Mexico-related things I’ve found here in Chicago. I’ve been loving the #ThrowbackThursday (or #tbt) hashtag where people post photo memories on Instagram and Twitter and I’ve been playing along when I remember on Thursdays, but I want to make it a more consistent thing.
While trying to figure out some more fun ways to use my Instagram feed, I was super excited to discover Casetagram, a service that lets you create a smartphone case with your Instagram photos. I created this Tortilla-themed phone case for my iPhone and I can’t wait for it to arrive! Some of the places I included photos of from travels to Mexico (from top to bottom): Diego Rivera’s studio in San Angel, a doorway in San Miguel de Allende, the bugambilias I fell in love with at Hacienda Galindo and last, but not least, El Ángel de la Independencia in Mexico City.
Then, of course, I also included some favorite foods, such as guacamole, tacos al pastor, flor de calabaza, buñuelos, conchas, pozole and molletes. I wished there were more spaces to put more of my favorite things and places, but I guess I might just have to make another one!
The tiles on the wall at the Museo Dolores Olmedo read: “By the example of my mother, professor Maria Patiño Suarez, widow of Olmedo, who always told me: ‘Share all you have with those around you.’ I leave this house with all my collections of art, the product of my life’s work, so the people of Mexico can enjoy it.” —Dolores Olmedo Patiño
Last year on a visit to Mexico City during the holidays, I spent a special day with friends exploring a few places I had never been before. Thanks to the abundance of cultural activities the city has to offer, there’s always something new to discover. I was thrilled to hear that the Museo Dolores Olmedo was on the itinerary they planned since I’m a big Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera fan.
Dolores Olmedo Patiño, also known to many as Doña Lola, was an aggressive collector and patron of the arts and is still revered today as one of the biggest individual benefactors and promoters of Mexican art and culture. At age 17, she met Diego Rivera by chance in an elevator at the Ministry of Public Education when he was still working on the murals there (that can still be seen today), and he ended up asking her to model for him. According to the museum, she modeled in nearly 30 nude sketches and then was the subject of other later paintings by Rivera. After separating from her husband, British journalist Howard Phillips (whom she married in 1935), the well-to-do single Olmedo made a career as a partner in a construction materials firm in the late 1940s. In the mid-1950s, she reconnected with Rivera and eventually became his benefactor, caretaker and eventually, executor of his estate and that of Frida Kahlo.
In the early 1960s Olmedo acquired Hacienda La Noria, a 16th-century Spanish colonial hacienda located in Xochimilco (a neighborhood in the south of Mexico City). At the time she acquired the property, it was a shell of its original state and so she set out on a mission to restore and preserve the hacienda. In the late 1980s, Olmedo announced plans to convert her hacienda into a museum, which opened in September 1994. Olmedo passed away in 2002 but her legacy still lives on in this charming museum she left behind for all to admire just as intended.
A few years ago on a trip to Mexico City, I had the pleasure of working with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) to document photos of the campus for a UNESCO project. If you’re not familiar with UNAM, the university is the oldest in the Americas (it was founded in 1551) and its main campus (Ciudad Universitaria) is recognized as a World Heritage site by UNESCO. This is definitely a cool place to visit if you travel to Mexico City.
One of my favorite things about the campus is the amount of public art incorporated into both the buildings and open spaces. And I especially love the murals created by some of Mexico’s most famous artists.
During my visit, I got to spend some time up close to one of the murals that I’d only before ever seen in photographs—“El Pueblo a la Universidad y la Universidad al Pueblo” by David Alfaro Siqueiros on the side of the Torre de Rectoría….
I snapped this photo of the Estadio Olímpico while zipping through C.U. (Ciudad Universitaria, the main campus of UNAM) on my last visit to Mexico City. The stadium opened in 1952 and was also used for the 1968 Olympic games. The mural on the outside of the stadium as pictured here, titled “La Universidad, la Familia y el Deporte en México,” was created by the famous Mexican artist Diego Rivera. The stadium is one of our favorite places, especially because it’s the home of the Pumas—our favorite soccer team. Read more about the history of the stadium in Spanish on UNAM’s website.
Today marks the 104th anniversary of the birthday of my favorite Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo!If you’re not familiar with Frida’s life, work, or the famous Casa Azul, you can read more about them on the Museo Frida Kahlo website (in English). And if you’re ever visiting Mexico City, Casa Azul is one of the places you absolutely must visit.
It’s a magical place where you can feel her presence in just about every room and in the garden as well.
At the time I last visited Casa Azul, a stunning and thought-provoking private collection of photographs of Frida, Diego and their family and friends, entitled “Frida Kahlo: Sus Fotos,” was on display and many of the photographs were taken by Frida herself. It was an incredibly interesting glimpse into her life and how things looked from her point of view. You can read more about the photo exhibition, which ran through December 2010, on the museum’s website (in Spanish).…
[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/15416696[/vimeo]
I still remember the first time I saw tunas growing wild – José and I were visiting Mexico City one warm week at the end of the summer several years ago. One afternoon we were bored, so my suegra suggested that José take me on an official tour of Ciudad Universitaria. Also referred to as CU, it is home to the main campus of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (la UNAM or in English, the National Autonomous University of Mexico), the largest university in Latin America and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2007.
This year on September 22, UNAM celebrated 100 years since its founding as the National University of Mexico as it was conceptualized by Secretary and Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, Justo Sierra, and inaugurated in 1910 by President Porfirio Díaz. The university is also the successor to the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico, founded by Spanish Royal Decree in 1551 – technically making UNAM one of the oldest universities in the Americas.
On the campus grounds, besides the historic buildings designed by some of Mexico’s most well-known architects, murals and sculptures by famous Mexican artists, an Olympic stadium that has hosted a Summer Olympic Games (1968) and a World Cup (1986), and an impressive number of students, faculty and staff, there exists a serene, green space that is as close to the original land’s flora and fauna as it might have grown freely during the height of the Aztec empire….
Today, July 6, marks the 103rd birthday of one of Mexico’s most famous female artists of all time: Frida Kahlo. Born in Mexico City in 1907, this talented woman is also one of the most influential artists of Latin American descent of the twentieth century. Frida, who became well-known in her teenage years, would later marry another famous Mexican artist, Diego Rivera – who was also 21 years her senior.
I know I haven’t posted lately, mostly due to technical glitches that have prevented me from moving my site over to a self-hosted space and implementing a new design to make your experience at The Other Side of The Tortilla a much richer one. But I couldn’t let dear Frida’s birthday pass without any kind of fanfare.
You see, to me, Frida is much more than just a painter. Among many other things, Frida was also a cook. On my last trip to Mexico City, I visited a local bookstore where I scored a copy of a book I’d been trying to find for more than a year, to no avail. After I was elated to find not one, but several, copies of the book I had been coveting for so long, I began perusing the shelves for other books that I’d undoubtedly be unable to find at home in the U.S. or on Amazon. I spotted a navy blue spine in the stack that said “Las fiestas de Frida y Diego” – and given my curiosity and lack of a schedule to be anywhere any time soon, I sat down among the stacks of books and paged through what was to become one of my favorite cookbooks. I sat there paging through it, soaking up the images and the stories for more than a half hour.
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Guayabas en sancocho, also known as guayabas en almíbar, is a delicious dessert of guavas stewed in a cinnamon and piloncillo syrup.
I love the smell of ripe Mexican guavas. Their creamy white flesh and tropical fragrance are simply intoxicating. They remind me of this one particular little stall that sells fruits at the Mercado Coyoacán where my mother-in-law likes to shop. Whenever I visit Mexico City, I’m always eager to tag along with my suegra when she needs to grab something from the mercado because I love walking among the vendor stalls discovering new things.
José also likes the smell of guayabas–but for a different reason. You see, as a big brother, José has always dabbled in a serious form of sibling rivalry. My cuñada, on the other hand, can’t stand the smell or taste of guayabas. The smell actually makes her wretch. A few years ago when we were visiting around Christmastime, we bought a big bag of guayabas for making ponche navideño. I’m sure you can guess what happened next.
RELATED RECIPE: Ponche navideño…
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