muy interesante

Mexico! a large and diverse country the culture of which permeates my home state of Texas.

Map in background: part of central and southern portions, with red rectangles around two of my favorite places, Cuernavaca and Oaxaca.

Colorful frame: border of 19th century serape, the red dye of which is cochineal.

Upper left: painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe by Pedro Ramirez.

Upper right: from a Huichol man's ceremonial costume

Middle right: from a turn-of-the-century engraving by José Guadalupe Posada for a newspaper broadsheet (its banner headline is below: "Muy Interesante"), depicting a true crime. (The full scene includes the baby's mother lying dead at the crazy man's feet.)

Hand-carved rubber stamps: (top to bottom) acrobats, figures w/ scissors, gentleman w/ top hat & cane, man in traditional attire drinking cervesa (beer), and man reading newspaper—by a French artist. These are based on Posada's popular skull-n-skeleton images, now widely known and associated with the Day of the Dead.

Lower right: vendor of copal (tree resin used as incense and in varnish) with his burro.

Lower left: wood carving of coyote-skeleton-mermaid by Antonio Xuana.