Mexico

1992

My Life in Mayan Spirits

In April, I was staying in Mr. and Mrs. Talavera’s country house in Vista Hermosa, a small village in Chiapas, Mexico. On the first night, I was welcomed by insects. I got terribly itchy bites around my face and neck, which lasted for as long as 10 days). A good thing was nobody seemed to be afraid of my swelled red face. There was only a little store in the native community which carried just very basic food like canned fish, so I often had to commute to the closest city, San Cristobal de Las Casas by a local bus.

A house in Vista Hermosa, Mexico in 1992

The facade of the house in Vista Hermosa where I lived for four weeks in April, 1992

At the end of April, I took a fantastic trip to Lago de Montebello Lake district near Comitan, where there were hundreds of thousands of fireflies glowing at night. On the way back, I was caught by Mexican immigration at a road checkpoint near the border and had to spend a night in jail with Guatemalan people, apparently because I did not have a passport with me. Mr. Eduardo Talavera came to rescue me with my passport the next morning.

My painting studio in Vista Hermosa.

During a month-long stay in Vista Hermosa, I created four pieces of 90 cm x 90 cm and a piece of 90 cm x 180 cm watercolour paintings that depicted the stories of the fight with insects and house spirits. In May, I moved to Talavera’s home near the main mercado (local market) in San Cristobal de Las Casas. My life finally settled there and I picked up the rhythm of painting after May 20th; although I was interrupted by sunstroke twice from painting in the garden and from food poisoning from eating raw fish. I completed 22 paintings on July 2nd. Those series of works were later exhibited in my solo show at Richmond Art Gallery in Vancouver, Canada in1992.

When it was a good summer day, I painted on the balcony.

A Mayan housekeeper in the main house in San Cristobal de Las Casas.

I am adding one more story; when I was hiking on a trail between indigenous villages with two female students from the University of California, two Bandidos were waiting for us. One had a machete knife and the other had a gun. They took our Mexican pesos, cameras and my Leatherman tool but strangely, not U.S. dollars. We were released from the forest confinement and they ran away from the scene.

I rented the small house next to the family’s house. One room was a bedroom and the other one was my studio.

PROJECT

Painting in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Mexico, 1992 - cover

(2) Avenida Cinco de Mayo, 1992, water colour and crayon, 38″ x 38″

(3) Vista Hermosa Abril, 1992, water colour and crayon, 38″ x 38″

(4) Vista Hermosa, 1992, water colour and crayon, 38″ x 72 7/8″

(5-20) (5) El viaje de Mayo (6) Ojo de Agua, (7) Cuxtitali (8) La galeria de Maya (9) Nana, Tzucum y Grace (10) La familia de Talavera (11) Na Balon (12) Olmecs (13) El señor Eduardo Talavera (14) Olmeca nueva (15) Shiyabu (16) Doña Darya (17) Callejon Canada 2 (18) Felipe, el gato y el hombre purpura (19) Tzucum y Nana (20) Eduardo y la tumba del gato (21) Tapalapa ,1992, water colour and crayon, 72 7/8″ x 38″

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TRAVEL

https://freevectormaps.com/mexico/MX-EPS-02-0001?ref=atr

Route 1: San Cristobal de las casas > Palenque > La Palma > El naranja (Guatemala) > Flores (Guatemala) > Puerto Barrios (Guatemala) >　Punta Gorda (Belize) > Belize City (Belize) > Caye Caulker (Belize) > Chetumal > Palenque > Misol-Ha > San Cristobal de Las Casas

Route 2: San Cristobal de Las Casas > Palenque > Merida > Havana