Felipe
Benitez Miranda
Alebrijes & Mexican Paintings
Mexican
artisan, Felipe Benitez Miranda, is a Náhuatl tlacuilo
(painter) living in the state of Guanajuato. The Náhuatl
culture, in an attempt to cling to its culture, has adapted and recreated
their ancestral pictographic heritage in amate - a bark on which
they paint beautifully intricate paintings called amates de historia
(amates that tell stories). Generally speaking, the amate
and its commercialization has become an outstanding economic means of
survival, reaching the point at which the amate boom has produced
a considerable amount of economic wealth. Felipe has abandoned amate
and replaced it with handcarved animals (alebrijes) in wood instead
of canvas for his incredible cultural depiction of rural Mexican life.
A 1990 census found
that nearly 1,200,000 Mexicans over the age of five years speak Náhuatl.
But numbers do little to elaborate on the impact that the Náhuatl
language and cultures have had on the Mexican culture. For instance, foods
such as chocolate, tortillas, and tacos, which are known throughout North
and South America were produced and consumed by Náhuatl-speakers
long before Columbus "discovered" the New World. And words such
as coyote and chocolate, which have been adopted by both the English and
Spanish languages are Náhuatl in their origin (derived
from koyotl and chokolatl, respectively). The Náhuatl-speaking
Aztecs and numerous other indigenous groups in Mexico, through years of
working with the environment in which they lived, gained crucial knowledge
and understanding of the plants, animals, mountains, rivers, and universe
that surrounded them. This knowledge has been preserved through oral tradition
and cultural customs and practices and still exists in indigenous communities
today. However, this knowledge is in danger of being lost as economic
and political forces encroach on indigenous communities, driving them
to abandon traditional knowledge for the new, the modern, and the scientific.
When you purchase
folkart from a native Mexican Indian such as Felipe, you are helping to
ensure that part of their culture continues.
Contact information: Av. Independencia #29 Col. San Rafael
San Miguel de Allenda, Guanajuato 415 111 0630 or 415 110 2082
Or contact Marianne Carlson at 01152 376 765 7485
or email mariannecarlson@gmail.com
(Our
thanks to Karen Henderson for the use of her photographs)
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