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In this podcast we use art as a platform to examine stories about Mexico’s past and present. Each episode examines some famous works of art through the perspectives of a Mexican national, a Chicano, and a White American. Through these “new voices" we explore and rethink many of the stories we’ve been told about Mexico – and the United States – and its relevance to American contemporary life. Our podcast is co-hosted and produced by Ross Chambless, with insight and commentary from Susan Vogel ...
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Episode 20: From Neither Here Nor There ("Ni De Aqui Ni De Alla")
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30:17
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Life in Utah can be hard for Latinos where the majority of the population is White. Latinos in Utah sometimes experience subtle and overt racism and discrimination. At the same time, Mexican Americans can also feel like outsiders when they travel to Mexico. In this episode we examine this dichotomy, and also explore the work of Linda Vallejo, a Chi…
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The term “cholo” generally carries a negative connotation. It refers to a Mexican American gangster. But the fashion, the tattoos, the Old English graffiti writing style, the lowriders, and the music of “cholo culture” is popular beyond the negative stigma and stereotypes. In this episode Luis, Xris, and Jorge discuss what cholo culture means from …
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Artistic expression has remained central to exploring and defining the Chicano identity since the beginnings of the Chicano Movement of the late 1960s. In many ways, being Chicano is about standing up for social equality, resisting discrimination, honoring one's Latino/a and indigenous heritage, and defying negative portrayals of Mexican-American c…
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The Tlatelolco Massacre that occurred just before Mexico City hosted the 1968 Olympic Games was part of the Mexican government's so-called “Dirty War.” The event helped to trigger new forms of political art and artistic expressionism in Mexico that vented the frustrations of the surviving generation. While there were some government efforts to reco…
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Episode 16: The Mexican Miracle and La Raptura
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The post WWII period – also coined “the Mexican Miracle” – was a prosperous time for some Mexicans, but not for everyone. While urban Mexicans enjoyed new affluence and growth, farmers and indigenous peoples struggled to make ends meet. But this cultural renaissance didn’t last long before young Mexicans challenged older norms and ideas about artis…
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In 1932, David Siqueiros was asked to paint a romantic vision of Mexico on a wall in Los Angeles. He instead flipped the metaphorical bird at American imperialism and its history of subjugating indigenous peoples. That ultimately got him deported, and his mural was whitewashed from public view - until recently. The reemergence of América Tropical, …
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Mexican Muralist Diego Rivera’s most controversial painting was first commissioned by, and later destroyed by the Rockefellers in New York City in the early 1930s. Prominent American capitalists could not tolerate Rivera’s audacious and highly-political effort to immortalize renowned Communists as part of his ambitious project. Nonetheless, Rivera …
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The Mexican Mural Movement inspired Diego Rivera to paint epic frescoes of the world as he saw it. He spent countless hours detailing provocative allegories of unjust social and economic inequities he saw and deplored in Mexico. As he tackled the task of painting his beloved country’s thorny history, his Communist beliefs and his womanizing stirred…
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The Mexican Muralist Movement began as an effort to unite Mexico after the divisive Revolution and create a new national identity. One of the most notable muralists was José Clemente Orozco whose paintings were vivid and intense. He sought to show the horrors of the fighting, and the sacrifices Mexicans made for a new country.https://www.artesmexut…
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The Mexican Revolution was complicated, confusing and tragic. The fighting began when the 35-year-long regime of Porfirio Díaz failed to reach a solution for presidential succession. This political crisis gave rise to an uprising among poor indigenous farmers and competing elites. The nearly decade-long civil war involved American citizens more tha…
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Mexican people and their indigenous ancestors have, more than a few times in history, been made to feel like foreigners in their own land. It happened to the Aztecs. It happened to the Kickapoo. And it’s happening now to Dreamers. In this episode we examine this common experience, and how it can illuminate the divisive immigration debate that stems…
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Cinco de Mayo is often misunderstood by Americans as Mexico’s 4th of July or Independence Day. It’s not. In fact, Cinco de Mayo might be a bigger deal in the U.S. than it is in Mexico.https://www.artesmexut.org/part9By Artes de Mexico en Utah
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Mexico and the United States tend to remember their 1847 conflict, and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo very differently. More than 500 thousand square miles of land - which became California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming - became American property. To this day, generally speaking, Mexicans still consider the …
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Every country has its own origin story. Mexico is no different. Just as the United States was born from a war for independence from Great Britain, Mexico, or “New Spain,” also fought and won (sort of), its own war for independence from Spain. This episode explores how Mexican artists Juan O’Gorman and Román Sagredo captured key moments of Mexico's …
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The Caste system that the Spanish imposed centuries ago still influences Mexicans today. Images of skin color have always mattered. While the "Las Castas" paintings were intended to create social order, the appearance of the Virgin Mary with brown skin helped the Europeans to control indigenous people and convert them to Catholicism. Nonetheless, m…
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Mexican people today still grapple with the fusion of cultures that resulted from the Spanish Conquest. While the storied romance between Cortez and Malinche, the Aztec woman who served as the Spanish General's translator and lover, remains controversial, many Mexican artists have explored the violent and emotional interpenetration of the Europeans…
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The Spanish arrival in Mexico forever shaped what Mexico would become, and who Mexican people are. Diego Rivera famously tried to summarize the conquest in a single mural. He portrayed a brutal European power that spread disease, enslaved the indigenous people, but who also gave birth to a new race of people.https://www.artesmexut.org/part4…
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Episode 3: Coatlicue - The Serpent-Skirted Goddess
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The ancient Aztec idol Coatlicue was buried by the Spanish conquerors, only to be later discovered, but reburied, and later recovered again. Why? Was it because she was so mysterious and terrifying? Possibly. Yet, today the Aztec goddess represents a profound combination of feminism and power.https://www.artesmexut.org/part3…
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The Aztec people who built the ancient city of Tenochtitlan – now Mexico City – proved themselves a highly competent and advanced civilization. Diego Rivera’s mural that imagines the ancient city at its peak, evokes wonder and pride by Mexican people about who the Aztecs were, and what else they could have achieved.https://www.artesmexut.org/part2…
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Episode 1: Cosmovision and Human Sacrifice
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16:40
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Early Mesoamerican cultures like the Mayans, the Olmecs, and later the Aztecs remain shrouded in mystery. The Spanish who arrived in the 1500's apparently tried their best to bury and erase these mysteries further. But what’s been discovered indicates they were highly advanced civilizations that were intensely engaged with the cosmos and their livi…
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This is a podcast about Mexico, and its art and its history. If you give it a chance, it's going to take you places you didn’t expect. It will change you. It is going to make you to question the history we’ve been taught about ourselves as Americans. And it’s going to challenge the history you think you may know about Mexico – if you know anything …
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