Mexico: 2010
Forget the cataclysmic Mayan prophecies of 2012. This year, 2010, was supposed to be a great one for Mexico. The nation’s highways are marked with commemorative “Ruta 2010” signs. “Route 2010” celebrates both the bicentennial of Independence from Spain, 1810, and the centennial of the Revolution of 1910.

Having just returned from Mexico, I can say this is an interesting time to visit. From Mexico City to Oaxaca and beyond, streets are being resurfaced, band shells repainted, public gardens replanted to freshen Mexico’s public face for a yearlong celebration. The projects, large and small, are wondrous. Diego Rivera’s greatest murals are being cleaned and restored. The Christmas tree at Mexico City’s Presidential Palace this year was hung with gold plastic “Revolucion” ornaments.

Meanwhile, Mexico’s newspapers are filled with bloody photos of the Narco-wars. Though the chances of a visitor getting caught in gangster crossfire are remote, the daily barrage of these graphic images is unnerving.

Reading the news from Mexico, it is very hard to get a sense of where the nation is heading. In 2009, Mexico City legalized same-sex marriage, and decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use. These social policy shifts are significant since Mexico City is by far the largest city in Latin America.

Elsewhere in Mexico, changes have been less radical. The left seems to have taken a breather. Perhaps Mexico’s left is feeling the same sort of fatigue afflicting progressives north of the Rio Grande. The global economic crisis has hit Mexico hard. The country’s economic engine has stopped chugging. Remittances from the U.S have plunged. Incredibly, Mexicans are now sending cash to relatives in the U.S. See the NY Times’ story, Money Trickles North as Mexicans Help Relatives. In Miahuatlan, Oaxaca, a subsistence farmer is sending $60 checks to his unemployed, undocumented, 18-year-old son in California.

In January, I traveled about 350 miles of Ruta 2010 by bus from Mexico City to Oaxaca. Last year, Oaxaca’s tourism industry was finally beginning to recover from the days of rebellion of 2006. That all changed in April, 2009, when Oaxaca became ground zero for the first publicized outbreak of H1N1 virus, and tourism again slowed to a trickle. It is worth noting that many middle-class Mexican tourists vacation in Oaxaca, rather than at the country’s famed beach resorts. Oaxaca is more affordable, has a temperate climate, and is popular for its culinary and cultural riches. 2009 was so grim, that even Mexican visitors stayed home. Oaxaca’s hospitality industry, its Spanish language schools, and even the street artists, suffered.

The young artists of Oaxaca’s ASARO collective were not spared in the meltdown. They lost their Espacio Zapata Gallery. Without visitors, they couldn’t pay the 8000 pesos (about $650) a month for the storefront that served as their gallery and countercultural center. They also lost their printmaking studio. With the printing press gathering dust, the best printer in the group headed north to Mexico City.

I met with an ASARO member, Yeska, for coffee. A talented and energetic artist, Yeska remains upbeat, telling me ASARO is “regrouping.” The collective has been offered space in a community center in a neighborhood some distance from Oaxaca City. When I told him I would like to see the space, he admits there is nothing to see, yet. Yeska is 22 years old but takes a long view. This lull in activity is the ideal time to bring younger members into the group, he insists, to teach them printing, and find new blood to re-energize the group. Yeska tells me to come back in a year to see the new ASARO. It is an invitation I hope to accept.
I’ve written a great deal about Kutztown University’s collection of ASARO’s woodblock prints. Now as the artists regroup, that collection of 2006 and 2007 woodblock prints already seems like a time-capsule from another era. Interest in ASARO’s work among printmakers and educators remains strong. The Kutztown University ASARO Collection is the basis of a traveling show and will be on view at three venues in 2010.

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ASARO Exhibitions: 2010

ASARO’s work can now be seen at Misericordia University’s Pauly Friedman Art Gallery through February 27, 2010, then March 14- April 2 at The College of Architecture Gallery at University of North Carolina, Charlotte. Next they move to Chicago from April 9- May 14 where they will be shown at the Marwen Gallery. Marwen, a nonprofit art school, is one of several institutions celebrating a citywide event called 2010: Year of Mexico in Chicago.

Photos Added to the Exhibitions

I remember sitting on the curb in front of Oaxaca cathedral with Mario of ASARO back in 2007. He told me the story of ASARO’s first public art project. The project was a variation on a tapete, a traditional memorial carpet of sand and flower petals. Often tapetes are made by family members at a funeral or during the Day of the Dead celebration. ASARO’s tapete, I was told, denounced Oaxaca’s Governor Ruiz for his part in the dozens of deaths that resulted from the violence used to end largely peaceful protests there. Mario told me ASARO created the tapete at the very boots of the heavily armed police lines. I listened, I even took notes, but, at the time, I felt I was hearing what anthropologists call a “creation myth.” I took Mario’s story with a grain of salt.

Months later, surfing the web for info on ASARO, I found a photograph by Hank Tusinski taken during the turmoil of November 2006. I was blown away to see that the event happened exactly as Mario described it. The courage evident in that act of creativity and protest is stunning.

Hank Tusinski has generously lent prints of his photos of Oaxaca to travel with the ASARO print collection. Hank, like the members of ASARO, is an artist of courage and conviction. He was in Oaxaca during the most dangerous times of 2006. His photos are a welcome addition to the Oaxaca time capsule. They give a special context to the struggle of ASARO and document the resilient spirit of the people of Oaxaca.