Mexican Wall Painting: Bardas de Baile - Hardcover

Cue, Patricia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0615761240 ISBN 13: 9780615761244

Publisher: Ghost & Company, 2013

Synopsis

For many Mexicans, a wall has only one meaning: the border. And what is a border but a wall at its fiercest? Walls also play a key role in Mexican daily life, far from the border. For Octavio Paz, the Mexican male is remote and indifferent, creating an invisible wall as sanctuary from the chaotic, and very public, world outside. Walls, then, allow Mexicans to withdraw, to turn inward.

Wall painting also has a distinguished history in Mexican visual culture. Throughout the twentieth century, renowned muralists Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, Jose Orozco, and Rufino Tamayo used public and private walls to render the scale and drama of their largely political artistic visions.

Mexican Wall Painting: Bardas de Baile identifies and explores another crucial role that walls serve in Mexico: advertising concerts by contemporary folk bands. These bardas de baile first appeared in the late 1960s, responding to the increased popularity of contemporary Mexican folk music, which today has been reinterpreted and energized by bands that often are based in the U.S. Performing songs of love and loss, and full of the trials and tribulations of life north of the border, these bands' tours are advertised on public and private bardas (walls) throughout Mexico.

Bardas de baile are now so common that they have become part of the country's physical and cultural landscape. These hand-painted murals (ratulos) are fully integrated into Mexico's cities, towns, and villages –on cemetery walls, bridges, abandoned houses, roadside buildings and ledges, small businesses, and empty lots. But mostly they grace public and private walls along the street. Amid the ubiquitous cacti, sprawling vegetation, and hanging branches, among the bus shelters, unfinished soccer stands, and vacant warehouses the vivid colors and heavily stylized lettering breathe life and energy into the green and brown landscapes.

Bardas de baile are a distinctive form of vernacular design that not only puts across a message, but also embodies core characteristics of Mexican national identity, rooted in history while also reflecting the complex relationship with its neighbor to the north. Through a studied history of these dances, as well as interviews with rotulistas (the sign painters) and hundreds of colorful photographs, Mexican Wall Painting: Bardas de Baile is the first book to cover this topic, revealing a little-known facet of Mexican visual culture.

About this title

About the Author

Patricia Cue is a graphic designer whose life and work oscillates between the U.S. and Mexico. She completed her graphic design studies at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico and at the Basel School of Design in Switzerland. Cue teaches graphic design at San Diego State University, exploring how design shapes cultural identity, drawing inspiration from the tradition, colors, and textures in vernacular forms of design. Her work has been featured in Voice AIGA Cross-Cultural Design, Fahrenheit Contemporary Art and more recently in the TV documentary series Sensacional de Diseño Mexicano.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Walls allow Mexicans to withdraw, to turn inward. As a sanctuary from the chaotic, and very public, world outside, walls protect and reinforce that interiority, that inwardness. And in a culture based on appearances, as Mexico largely is, walls are the perfect symbol. They are two-sided and dual-purposed: inclusive and exclusive, public and private. They promote intimacy and bar strangers. As well as providing sanctuary, walls afford the luxury of being invisible. We can hide behind them, and even disappear.

It is no surprise, then, that in Mexico a wall is often the first thing built on a newly
bought piece of land. In time, houses too will be built, but initially the land is
"claimed" by the wall that surrounds it, as a kind of territorial flag planting. It may
be a way to safeguard the property until the land is fully occupied. Many such properties are built adobe brick by adobe brick, using remittance money sent by family members in the U.S. They might stay undeveloped, or part developed, for years, until enough money is found for additions–a second floor, a roof, some windows. Often, if the money stream dries up, they're simply abandoned. (The landscape of rural Mexico is awash with half-finished houses.) So a wall may be the only evidence that the land is owned, is in private hands. And this wall building feels natural. We're human. We protect our own. We fence ourselves in.

This is a book about walls, or bardas. More specifically, it's a book about the writing
found on walls in rural Mexico, announcing concerts by contemporary folk bands
in local towns and villages. Such concerts, or fiestas, are frequently organized and paid for by the church, which uses the occasion both to reward its congregation
and as a recruiting tool. The fiestas may or may not coincide with religious festivals.
Oftentimes, whole families attend, as well as friends and neighbors, young couples,
etc. Sooner or later the entire town or village shows up, and the party goes on
through the night. These fiestas are a very big deal in rural towns and villages, and
so are the bands that perform at them. Many of the more successful bands are based in the U.S., and they sing of lives away from home, of the sacrifices they and others have made to carve out a better life on el otro lado. A familiar enough story. For the band members themselves, the border plays a major role in their lives and in their music, both as a mythic force and inspi ration and as a non-negotiable reality.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ghost & Company
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0615761240
• ISBN 13: 9780615761244
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 160