Chavela Vargas Singer (visit: www.revealingmexico.com)

REVEALING
MEXICO
“I didn’t choose Mexico. Mexico called to me as
it calls to all the foreigners living here. It calls us
because it wants something; it needs new blood,
new ideas that it receives from abroad. Mexico
stands out among all the countries in Latin
America for it’s way of being: it quivers.”
Chavela Vargas
Singer
(visit: www.revealingmexico.com)
Presented by
Basketball court in La Villa de Etla
Oaxaca, 2005
REVEALING
MEXICO
“Play Mariachis, sing,
So that the whole world can hear your voice…
Borders, why are there borders,
If in my music there is love?
And with this message nobody could ever
Put up a border, only God himself.”
Sunrise over the city of Durango
Durango, 2008
José Guillermo Salazar
Mariachi – playing “Play Mariachis, Sing” by Leo Dan
(visit: www.revealingmexico.com)
Presented by
REVEALING
MEXICO
“It is impossible to overstate the dramatic
impact of the conquest. There probably
does not exist in history any encounter more
dramatic than the sudden and completely
unexpected clash of two such great cultures
– each unaware of the other’s existence –
as occurred in the Spanish conquest of the
Mexica.”
Upon the sacred lake in the remote Lacandón community of Naha
Chiapas, 2005
Susanne Steines
in the book Revealing Mexico
(visit: www.revealingmexico.com)
Presented by
REVEALING
MEXICO
“Legendary is the brightness in the laughing eyes
of almost all Mexicans – the brightness that is
more than a spark. It is the brightness on a sea
of golden light that pours out over all who return
the smile.”
Susanne Steines
in the book Revealing Mexico
(visit: www.revealingmexico.com)
School girl and friend in the small village of San Sebastián Abasolo
Oaxaca, 2001
Presented by
REVEALING
MEXICO
“The people of Mexico are a treasure. There is
no other like them. Anywhere in the country, you
will be invited to share a meal even if it is the very
first time your host has laid eyes on you. They say,
‘We are poor, but we can add a little more water
to the beans.’ That is Mexico.”
A girl in the entrance to her home in Pico de Oro
Chiapas, 2005
Enrique Krauze
Historian
(visit: www.revealingmexico.com)
Presented by
REVEALING
MEXICO
“Despite its history as a colony, Mexico is very
culturally resilient. It amalgamates, accepts, resemanticizes things. We appropriate things, we
integrate and amalgamate them, and in this way
we create a palimpsest.”
Betsabeé Romero
Artist
(visit: www.revealingmexico.com)
Prayer service near the indigenous Zapotec town of Tlacochahuaya
Oaxaca, 2004
Presented by
REVEALING
MEXICO
“Over a course of many thousands of years one
of the world’s great civilizations came to being in
Mexico. Perhaps it was in fact a dream: a world
created of an awareness of an other reality.”
Susanne Steines
in the book Revealing Mexico
(visit: www.revealingmexico.com)
Zapotec iconography at the archeological site of Mitla
Oaxaca, 2006
Presented by
REVEALING
MEXICO
“With its resources, its scenic beauty, its
attraction for tourists, the diligence of its
inhabitants, and its world-renowned folk artistry,
Mexico could attain a substantially higher
standard of living. Contrary to the image of
the lazy Mexican resting under the cactus tree,
Mexican immigrants to the U.S. are known for
their hard work.”
In Playa Tijuana, two men gaze across the border toward the city of San Diego
Baja California, 2008
Susanne Steines
in the book Revealing Mexico
(visit: www.revealingmexico.com)
Presented by
REVEALING
MEXICO
“Mexican thought tradition assumes that
knowledge of a separate reality is accessible
in unconscious areas of the human soul or
brain and needs only to be activated in each
individual.”
Susanne Steines
in the book Revealing Mexico
(visit: www.revealingmexico.com)
Mazatlán local water taxi to Isla de la Piedra
Sinaloa, 2008
Presented by
REVEALING
MEXICO
“I believe that Mexicans don’t know they’re
sitting on the shoulders of giants, that they have
profoundly powerful roots they can feel not
only pride for, but also use to nourish them,
strengthen their actions and what they seek.”
Víctor Sánchez
Author and Anthropologist of Toltec wisdom
(visit: www.revealingmexico.com)
Basalt warrior telamon of the ancient Toltec at the archeological site of Tula
Hidalgo, 2008
Presented by
REVEALING
MEXICO
“Mexico’s independence was bloodier and longer
than most. This was due to the fact that Mexico
was extremely important not only to Spain but
also to Great Britain and France, because all the
world’s wars and foreign trade depended on
Mexican silver.”
A field near Ixtapaluca with snow-covered volcanos in the distance
Estado de México, 2008
Josefina Zoraida Vázquez
Historian
(visit: www.revealingmexico.com)
Presented by
REVEALING
MEXICO
“I adopted Mexico with my kids, and I’m going to
be here forever. I’ve created all kinds of excuses
not to leave. I’m afraid I’ll die somewhere else,
you know? Something happens to you in Mexico.
An old proverb goes something like this, ‘He
upon whose heart the dust of Mexico has lain will
find no peace in any other land.’”
Outside the Ex-Convent of San Gabriel in Cholula
Puebla, 2008
Lane Simmons
U.S. expatriate and father of two adopted Mexican children
(visit: www.revealingmexico.com)
Presented by
REVEALING
MEXICO
“I like Mexico. The country is very, very
interesting. I had been commissioned to paint
a mural about the Mayas – the Chamulas. The
mural is called The Magic World of the Maya. The
experience in San Cristóbal was fascinating.”
Leonora Carrington
Surrealist Artist and Novelist
(visit: www.revealingmexico.com)
Leonora Carrington in her home
Mexico City, 2009
Presented by
REVEALING
MEXICO
“The important turning point in twentiethcentury thought – celebrated as one of the
greatest events of our time, where the expansion
of consciousness worked itself into those realms
of unknown realities that quantum physics now
teaches us to embrace – comes from Mexico, the
old, indigenous Mexico.”
Isidro De La Cruz (Huichol community leader of La Palmita)
Nayarit, 2009
Susanne Steines
in the book Revealing Mexico
(visit: www.revealingmexico.com)
Presented by
REVEALING
MEXICO
“To confront the phenomenon of death on
a daily or hourly basis is one of the defining
characteristics of Mesoamerican philosophy. The
poet Nezahualcóyotl left with his literature of
chant and flowers a testimony of this perception
of death.”
Entrance to an Internet café in the city of Tlaxcala
Tlaxcala, 2009
Susanne Steines
in the book Revealing Mexico
(visit: www.revealingmexico.com)
Presented by
REVEALING
MEXICO
“Mexico has almost as many UNESCO World
Heritage Sites as it does touristically interesting
beaches. If there existed UNESCO awards for
aspects of culture such as art, cuisine, medicine,
and philosophy, Mexico would have to be
considered in all categories.”
The city of Guanjuato, one of Mexico’s many UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Guanajuato, 2005
Susanne Steines
in the book Revealing Mexico
(visit: www.revealingmexico.com)
Presented by
REVEALING
MEXICO
“I am very connected to indigenous dance, with
what motivates the indigenous people to dance.
They dance when there’s a birth, a death, a
wedding, for the harvest, for planting the
seeds – they dance for everything!”
Guillermina Bravo
Founder of contemporary dance in Mexico
(visit: www.revealingmexico.com)
Guillermina Bravo (right) with student in Santiago de Querétaro
Querétaro, 2009
Presented by
REVEALING
MEXICO
“In Mexico there has always been tremendous
interest in astronomy and, in general, in the
exploration of the cosmos. We are, after all,
proud descendents of Mayan culture.”
Rodolfo Neri Vela
NASA Astronaut
(visit: www.revealingmexico.com)
Rodolfo Neri Vela in El Museo Tecnológico
Mexico City, 2009
Presented by
REVEALING
MEXICO
“Because we have never left any period in our
history behind us, Mexico is at once pre-Hispanic,
viceregal, neoclassical, modern. There is no desire
to essentialize it, nor would there be any way to
do so. It is everything at once.”
Carlos Monsiváis
Writer
(visit: www.revealingmexico.com)
The late Carlos Monsiváis in his home
Mexico City, 2009
Presented by
REVEALING
MEXICO
“I was educated by my travels through the towns
in which color was a part of daily life. The light
across Mexico has a certain clarity, from Mérida
to Bajío, an intensity that makes color appear
bolder than in Nordic climates. I have hundreds
of stories about these towns, of a wonderful
humanity.”
Ricardo Legorreta
Architect
(visit: www.revealingmexico.com)
Presented by
Behind the walls of Tlaxcala’s convent
Tlaxcala, 2009
REVEALING
MEXICO
“Why not turn Mexico into a country of creative
industry? Why not bring our country into the
future doing what we do best: using our creativity,
our hands, our imagination, and selling it to the
world? Mexico has always set trends, and the
whole fashion world is waiting to see what comes
out of Mexico.”
Carla Fernández
Fashion Designer
(visit: www.revealingmexico.com)
Presented by
Carla Fernández in her office
Mexico City, 2009
REVEALING
MEXICO
“In Mexico there is a mysticism that I do believe
exists within us. I think that we are a country
that’s completely mystical. I don’t believe that this
part of the Mexican soul, which has been there
for years, could ever disappear.”
Graciela Iturbide
Photographer
(visit: www.revealingmexico.com)
Presented by
Above the main square in Ciudad Victoria
Tamaulipas, 2007
REVEALING
MEXICO
“The Mesoamerican civilization has not died.
There are many Mexicans with Mesoamerican
roots. There are living remains in Chicago,
New York, Los Angeles, San Antonio.”
Miguel León-Portilla
Anthropologist
(visit: www.revealingmexico.com)
Presented by
A street corner on the outskirts of Tijuana
Baja California, 2008
REVEALING
MEXICO
“In Mexican wrestling the mask has already
turned into an object of a popular fiesta. It’s
as if saying: now that we are in the midst of an
expression of popular culture, let’s raise it to the
level of design. ‘El Santo’ (wrestler) has risen to
the same pantheon of popular saints as Frida
Kahlo, Zapata, and Pancho Villa.”
Carlos Monsiváis
Writer
(visit: www.revealingmexico.com)
Presented by
José Eulalio González (luchador-wrestler)
Coahuila, 2009