Harvest diorama
© Sheron Long

How Long Can a Summer in Mexico Last?

A lifetime. When you step into another culture, rarely do you leave without life-changing, long-lasting experiences.

Certainly, that was the case during the summer I spent studying abroad in Mexico. One day, I stopped to admire this tiny scene of a harvest celebration—

the corn stalks scratching the sky,

the central beast of burden,

families thankful for the bounty of the crop.

I bought the miniature scene for the beauty of the Mexican folk art, but I came to love it for the thankful moment it symbolizes. A moment of note.

As life went on, I realized the significant impact of my immersion into Mexican culture. There had been many moments of note, many times to say, “Oh, I see.”

Mexican kitchen scene,
cooking up food for thought
© Sheron Long

Respect for Mexico’s Roots

Just as with people, I came to understand that a country’s life story gives shape to its present. And that is one reason cultures are different.

In 1492 when Columbus arrived, the indigenous people had built great civilizations, and they were already making miniatures. In the ruins at Teotihuacán and Monte Albán, for example, archaeologists uncovered tiny clay figurines of people and animals, little dishes, and diminutive buildings.

Amid Mexico’s modern cities are the vestiges of great civilizations, such as
Teotihuacán outside Mexico City and Monte Albán near Oaxaca.
© iStock

For a country like Mexico, the arrival of the Europeans had a profound impact. The landing was not merely an important discovery, but rather the very birth of la raza, the beginning of something as personally significant as the Hispanic identity.

Just over 300 years later in 1810, Mexicans rose in revolt against Spain. Mexican folk art survived the constraints of the Spanish colonial rule and Porfirio Diaz’s dictatorship that followed. After the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920), however, when national pride swelled, the enduring tradition of artisanal crafts came to be seen as part of the national heritage.

Mexico today is a vibrant culture, both rural and cosmopolitan, with tough issues of drugs and corruption at its doorstep. It is also respectful of its rich origins, a place where arte popular (folk art) is part of the national identity.

Tiny in Form, Big in Appeal

Another moment of note—Mexican miniatures, small replicas of full-sized objects, are the epitome of handcrafts. Katrin Flechsig, in her book Miniature Crafts and Their Makers, gets you thinking about why they enchant us.

Which is more fascinating, the small replica or the real basket?
© Sheron Long

Could it be the playfulness of little objects? Or, could it be the very fact that they are frivolous and impractical? The artisans who make vases like the one below have to know they will never be used. Does that free them up to create?

A vase too small
© Sheron Long

Whatever the reason, they attracted the eye of painter Frida Kahlo who displayed her miniatures and folk art in La Casa Azul (Blue House), the home where she was born and died in Coyoacán, now part of Mexico City.  You can still see them there today. Perhaps they serve, as Flechsig notes about other modern-day collectors, as “an antidote to cultural memory loss.”

Close to Home

Often Mexican miniatures depict everyday objects used in the rhythm of life—a traditional metate for grinding corn . . .

Though a miniature metate won’t hold a lot of corn, it authentically represents Mexican culture.
© Sheron Long

. . . or special vessels for cooking and carrying.

Intricate handiwork shows the perseverance required
to make something beautiful and small.
© Sheron Long

These objects may look small and simple, but they recall family life, one of the deepest and most important values in Mexican culture.

Miniatures speak to important values like family time during la comida,
the two-hour lunch in the middle of the day.
© Sheron Long

Made in Mexico

Just about any material is fair game for a miniature. In the dinner scene, a found object—the walnut—becomes the back of a guitar. Palm leaves are woven into tiny baskets, one holding ceramic fruit. A piece of metal makes a tiny strainer. It’s all up to the resourcefulness and the ingenuity of the artisan.

The maker of these finger-sized wooden masks found the bits of wood, considered their natural shapes, whittled a hollow in the back, and then carved and painted to create the fanciful animals.

Creative faces of the miniaturist
© Sheron Long

A lover of literature and the arts must have made these symbols of culture, one from paper and the other from wood and string, both less than 1/2-inch tall.

Imagine the concentration it takes to bind a tiny book and to string a guitar smaller than a fingernail!
© Sheron Long

When I think about the work involved—the manual skill and the diligence required, the certain tedium in putting the miniatures together—I wonder again about the payoff. These are little objects that will never be used.

And yet there was something about my encounter with Mexican culture that taught me to see them as quite worthwhile.  The visual delight, the joy of play, the pride in a rich cultural history—these are big moments of note. And that gives miniatures a significance greater than what meets the eye.

Hasta la vista!
© Sheron Long

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

For travel information on Mexico, visit Mexico’s Tourist Board. And, if you go, be sure to stop at the Museo de Arte Popular in Mexico City. 

@YoSoyMexicano invites a different twitterer to share info about Mexico each week, a good way to get insights on currents in the modern culture (in Spanish only). Or, visit the government of Mexico on Facebook for “the latest stories and news on progress and modern changes that are moving Mexico into the future.”