Tag Archives: Mexico

Profiles: Mexico’s Great Artist, Francisco Toledo, Has Died (1940 – 2019)

From a Smithsonian Magazine online article:

Francisco Toledo - The Wanderer (1989)Though his paintings and sculptures sell all over the world for fabulous prices, he has not enriched himself. He lives simply, with his wife, Trine Ellitsgaard Lopez, an accomplished weaver, in a traditional house in the middle of Oaxaca, and has used his considerable profits to found art centers and museums, an ethnobotanical garden and at least three libraries.

jun2019_g03_franciscotoledoToledo, whose origins were obscure and inauspicious, was the son of a leatherworker—shoemaker and tanner. He was born in Mexico City, but the family soon after moved to their ancestral village near Juchitán de Zaragoza in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, nearer to Guatemala than to Mexico City—and being ethnically Zapotec, nearer culturally to the ancient pieties of the hinterland too.

His paintings became sought after for their singular beauty. His work resisted all classification and fashion. He was not attached to any movement, even when the art world was turbulent with abstraction and Minimalism and Color Field and Op Art. He elaborated his ancestral visions of masks and folk tales, haunted and highly colored landscapes, and eroticism that was both comic and gothic. “He intuits the timelessness of authenticity,” the Guatemalan art critic Luis Cardoza y Aragón wrote. In 1967, an enthusiastic Henry Miller—himself a watercolorist—wrote the text for a Toledo exhibition.

Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/what-makes-francisco-toledo-180972172/#OPyozLi0YzWgWjf4.99

Culinary Destinations: Mexico City Food Markets, “Great Food Everywhere”

From a CityLab.com online article:

Juana Lomeli at Jamaica Market. Clemente Dadoo LomeliThe city’s great unifier and appeal is its cuisine, especially the street-food: corner quesadillas, fast food tents outside of subway stops, stews served over hand-made tortillas, deep fried chicken tacos, tacos topped with rice served from street stands or a make-shift diner in the back of a van. In Mexico City, one can find great food everywhere at any price-point and at any time of day.

Among the hundreds of markets in Mexico, every person finds the one best attuned to their needs and desires. In 52 years, I have visited my markets hundreds, perhaps thousands of times. In that time, my father passed away, as did the fisherman from the now defunct El Barco in San Juan, and, recently, the woman, who sold me lush, grainy yellow morel mushrooms. When I told my daughter about her passing, she too felt a pang in her heart. She can crystalize her image from memory; the tight, white braids, the rebozo she used to lay out the mushrooms and the fact that if those mushrooms made their way into our supper, she knew exactly where they came from. I courteously called her “La señora” for so many years that I now question if I knew her name to begin with.

To read more: https://www.citylab.com/perspective/2019/08/mexico-city-travel-food-market-cuisine-taco-best-cdmx/597034/?utm_source=newsletter&silverid=%25%25RECIPIENT_ID%25%25&utm_campaign=citylab-daily-newsletter&utm_medium=email

New Travel Books: “Epic Bike Rides Of The Americas” From Lonely Planet (2019)

From inside the book as seen on Amazon.com:

Epic Bike Rides of the Americas Lonely Planet Finger Lakes Ride inside book

Epic Bike Rides of the Americas Lonely Planet coverThis definitive companion for cycling enthusiasts showcases 200 of North, Central and South America’s best and most celebrated routes, from epic adventures off the beaten path to shorter urban rides. Go bikepacking in Baja, road riding in Colombia, mountain biking in Canada and gravel riding in Pennsylvania.

Each ride is accompanied by stunning photos and a map and toolkit of practical details – where to start and finish, how to get there, where to stay and more – to help you plan the perfect trip. Suggestions for similar rides around the world are also included.

Rides in Canada include:

  • The Cabot Trail (Nova Scotia)
  • Whistler Bike Park (British Columbia)
  • The Whitehorse Trails (Yukon)
  • Banff to Whitefish (Alberta)

Rides in the USA include:

  • Mountain Biking in Moab (Utah)
  • Great Allegheny Passage
  • Colorado Beer Ride
  • Glacier National Park Loop (Montana)
  • The Covered Bridges of Vermont

Rides in Central America & Caribbean

  • The Baja Divide (Mexico)
  • Oaxaca to Zipolite (Mexico)
  • Cuba’s Southern Rollercoaster (Cuba)

Rides in South America include:

  • The Trans Ecuador Mountain Bike Route (Ecuador)
  • Mendoza Wine Ride (Argentina)
  • The Lagunas Route (Bolivia)
  • To the Tip of Patagonia (Argentina)
  • The Peru Divide

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=epic+bike+rides+of+the+americas&i=stripbooks&crid=191XU7O536M9Y&sprefix=Epic+Bike+Rides+of+the+%2Cstripbooks%2C192&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_23