The Day of the Dead, Mexican celebration of Mesoamerican origin that honors the deceased every November 2 and has been declared Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, was chosen to inaugurate, in the House of Benemérito de las Américas Benito Juárez - Obrapía number 116, La Habana Vieja-, the Unanimous Presence exhibition, a collective exhibition of twenty-six Cuban artists who honor Mexico with their works.
Enrique Martínez y Martínez, ambassador of the United Mexican States in Cuba; Gladys Collazo, director of the National Heritage Council of the Ministry of Culture of Cuba; Michael González, director of Heritage of the Office of the Historian of the City of Havana; Javier Villaseñor Alfonso, cultural attaché of the Mexican diplomatic representation; Miguel Hernández, director of the institution; other members of the diplomatic corps accredited in Havana, and numerous public attended the event.
Unanimous presence -as Dr. Javier Villaseñor Alfonso explains in his words to the catalog- «is the fragment of a verse from Piedra de Sol, book-poem by Octavio Paz. With the verse of the greatest poet of Mexico, which alludes to such a vast symbolic burden of Mexican culture, ancient and current, we wanted to shed light on this phenomenon that describes, but does not explain, history, or more precisely, historiography: the presence of Mexico in Cuba and vice versa, which occurs unanimously, as a living and constant presence: something natural, like a light of midday when it is present ».
With this exhibition, which will be open until January 15th, 2019, a new lighting system for the exhibition halls of the Casa de México, donated by the Mexican Agency for International Cooperation and Development (Amexcid), is also inaugurated.
«Feel Mexico, in a way, has been the curatorial proposal - explain the curators Ana Luisa Sánchez Echenique, Guillermo Pérez Veranes and Pablo Villalobos Leal-. Therefore, the sample reflects the transcript of such commendable imprinting with the convergence of works from where to breathe, obvious or subtly, the theme, the immanence or simply the atmosphere of the event and the culture, translated, again and again, to the canvas, the photography, the sculpture and the installation of incontestable way like implicit and explicit constancy of the tribute. Since the transubstantiation of the myth, the preponderance of the ritual and the testimony of situations, semblances and places, artists offer what is important and considered to have influenced or interested them among so much cultural wealth, nature, life and art ».
The artists included are Fayad Jamís, Osneldo García, Pedro de Oraá, Jesús de Armas, Manuel Mendive, Emilio Rodríguez, Flavio Garciandía, Juan Francisco Elso, Leandro Soto, Nelson Villalobos, Israel León, Moisés Finalé and Carlos García.
Are also included José Bedia, Marta María Pérez, Rubén Rodríguez, Carlos Cárdenas, Segundo Planes, Cirenaica Moreira, Ricardo Miguel, Adonis Ferro, Mabel Poblet, Maikel Sotomayor, Kmilo Morales, Greta Reyna and Serlian Barreto.
At the end of his speech at the evening, the excellent ambassador of Mexico in Cuba, Enrique Martínez y Martínez, said: «We wish, from the heart, to send to Dr. Eusebio Leal the affection of the Mexicans. I want to tell you, and this is not political courtesy, that the relationship between Cuba and Mexico would not be so fraternal, it would not be so warm, it would not be so close, if it were not for that link that is called Eusebio Leal. I told him in a tribute that we did: "Cuba and Mexico always loyal, and always loyal because we are always united with a man who loves Cuba and loves Mexico, who has done so many beautiful things for Havana and for the relationship between both countries” ».
Note: Eusebio’s last name “Leal” means loyal and it was use by its meaning and referring at the same time to the historian.
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