The Zapotec artist Rodolfo Morales is best known for his brightly colored surrealistic dream-like canvases and collages, which often feature Mexican women in village settings. He was born 8 May 1925 to working class parents in the town of Ocotlan de Morelos in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. He studied art at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City, after which he began a 32-year career as an art teacher in the capital. With the help of Rufino Tamayo, an established artist and fellow Oaxaqueño, Morales became a recognized painter. By 1985 he had the financial capacity to quit teaching and return to his hometown, where he dedicated himself to his art and to the community through a program of restoration. He funded the restoration of fifteen churches, including the 17th century church in Santa Ana Zegache. His most important restoration project was the former convent in Ocotlan, which now houses part of his art collection. Two of his murals can be seen in the municipal building in Ocotlan, just steps away from the restored convent. Until his death in 2001 at age 75, he and Francisco Toledo were regarded as the greatest living artists in Mexico. Rodolfo Morales is buried in his restored Convent of Santo Domingo in Ocotlan.
This year participants in this hike will stop along the way to visit the cemetery in San Antonino, which is famous for the resplendent flower tapestries and sand paintings with which local inhabitants decorate the graves of their ancestors. You will absolutely want to bring your camera! There will be many food vendors lining the perimeter of the cemetery offering food and beverages suitable for a lunch during our trek.
For insight into subsistence farming and the need to keep native varieties of corn from becoming extinct, you might want to read an interesting article from the “New York Times”: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/world/americas/oaxacas-native-maize-embraced-by-top-chefs-in-us-and-europe.html?emc=eta1&_r=0
Time frame: 11:00 Lending Library / 12:15 arrive Zegache – visit church / 12:40 begin overland hike / 2:30 stop at cemetery in San Antonino & lunch break / 3:30 leave San Antonino / 4:00 arrive Ocotlan – visit Rodolfo Morales Museum, see murals in municipal building, visit Morales’ home & studio / 5:00 leave Ocotlan / 6:00 return to Library.
