The Fridos
Living testaments to Diego and Frida
By Jesús Ibarra

Arturo García Bustos and Rina Lazo

The four art students called the Fridos were Frida Kahlo’s favorites and were very close to her. One of them is Arturo García Bustos, and he, along with his wife, Rina Lazo, Diego Rivera’s mural assistant, are living testaments to the talents and legacies of Diego and Frida. 

Jesús Ibarra: Maestro García Bustos, why did you decide to be a painter?

Arturo García Bustos: When I was a child, Mexican painting was going through a very intense time. The great painters were sensations, and we paid attention to their political opinions, their ideas and their declarations. The atmosphere in Mexico was very nationalistic, and a lot of art was being produced. All the artists painted in public view: Diego Rivera at Palacio Nacional, José Clemente Orozco at the church of the Hospital de Jesús, David Alfaro Siquieros at Bellas Artes. When I came home after seeing them, I wanted to keep on painting, and I used to paint the wall with watercolors, so that they could later be cleaned. Orozco even gave me the chance to help him with easy things like handing him his brushes. All of them were teachers at La Esmeralda, Bellas Artes’ school of arts. 

JI: It was there, at La Esmeralda, where you met Frida? 

AGB: That’s right. She was my teacher at La Esmeralda. So that we would understand muralism, she took us to paint the Pulquería La Rosita in Coyoacán, and the public lavaderos in Coyacán. Unfortunately, none of these works exists today. 

JI: Why were you called the “Fridos”?

AGB: The other students used to call us that because we were always with Frida. She must have seen something special in us. We were four students: Arturo Estrada, Guillermo Monroy, Fanny Rabel and me. I was even closer to her than the others because I was involved with the Communist party, and I used to bring her the party newspaper and kept her informed of the party’s activities. When she got sick, she invited us to hold the class at her house, Casa Azul. 


JI: Did you watch her painting?

AGB: Yes, I did. I saw her paint several of her works, which she usually talked to us about with great modesty. When she painted, she always concentrated, always paid attention to what she was doing. 

JI: What was she like?

AGB: Frida was a charming person. She was a very modest woman, even though she was a genius. She was plain, friendly, young and cheerful. We used to go with her to different places, to Toluca, to Texcoco, in a Volkswagen that belonged to her sister, which she called the “Chinche” (bug), and we used to sing Mexican songs. She was also very brave. She felt pain, but she never showed it; she only painted it or wrote about it, but she never complained. I was close to her for 11 years, first as a student, then as a friend. I shared many moments with her, even her last one, between 1943 and 1954, when she died.

JI: How did you meet your wife, Rina Lazo?

AGB: I had invited the other students to paint some billboards that would be exhibited in the Zócalo (main square) as a monumental art experience. It was a demonstration against the Clayton Plan, which had to do with international trade. Rina was very close to maestro Rivera, and he sent her to help us with this task. 

JI: Ms. Lazo, how did you meet Diego Rivera?

Rina Lazo: In 1947 I arrived from Guatemala on a scholarship to study painting in Mexico City at La Esmeralda. I was so lucky that my teacher, who worked with Diego Rivera, asked me if I would like to help maestro Rivera with the mural he was about to begin at the Hotel del Prado, called Sueño de un Paseo Dominical por la Alameda Central (Dream of a Sunday Walk at the Central Alameda). Of course I accepted, and the next morning I was at the hotel when maestro Rivera was about to begin his mural. I was there from the time he drew the first line until he signed it. My signature is also there. Later, the mural was covered over, but not, as it was said, because of the phrase maestro Rivera included in it: “Dios no existe” (God does not exist). That was not actually his, but was pronounced by Ignacio Ramírez “El Nigromante.” The true reason was because he painted two presidents, Manuel Ávila Camacho and Miguel Alemán, with a bunch of money. I worked with maestro Rivera for 10 years; I helped him on the murals he did from 1947 to 1957.

JI: What was maestro Rivera like?

RL: He was very cheerful and he liked to make jokes. He used to say he ate human flesh. He admired women and he stimulated them to do something in life—to paint, to write. He was an avid supporter of women’s rights. That is why he attracted women so much, and he got a reputation as a womanizer. With Frida, he was very tender; he admired her painting and promoted it. 

Arturo García Bustos Painter, engraver and muralist, born in Mexico City.

Main murals:

Oaxaca en la historia y en el mito (Oaxaca in History and Myth) and Cosmografía del los pueblos indígenas del estado de Oaxaca (Cosmography of the Indigenous Peoples of Oaxaca), both at the Palacio de Gobierno in Oaxaca 

Pobladores de las siete regions de Oaxaca (Inhabitants of the Seven Regions of Oaxaca), in the Ethnography of Oaxaca room at the Anthropology Museum, Mexico City

The University at the Beginning of the 21st Century, Universidad Metro Station, Mexico City

The Tepaneca Inheritance at the Beginning of the Third Millenium, Casa de la Cultura, Azcapotzalco, Mexico City 

Rina Lazo Painter and muralist, born in Guatemala

Murals: The Four Elements, Mexico City, and Tierra Fértil, University of San Carlos, Guatemala

Replica of the Mayan paintings at Bonampak, for the Anthropology Museum, Mexico City

Venerable Abuelo Maiz (Venerable Grandfather Corn), Anthropology Museum, Mexico City

She is currently working on the mural Inframundo de los Mayas (Mayan Underworld) 

Finding Frida—a San Miguel story 

Discussion & Book Signing
Carlos Noyola, Barbara Levine & Jesus Ibarra
Mon, Oct 19, 7:30pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A
100 pesos

Exclusive! Finding Frida in San Miguel

The Biblioteca Pública and Atención San Miguel sponsor an exclusive presentation, Finding Frida—a San Miguel story on the Frida Kahlo collection.

Antiquarian Carlos Noyola, owner of the collection, and Barbara Levine, author of the polemic book Finding Frida Kahlo join journalist Jesús Ibarra to discuss the collection, the book and the national furor that has enveloped the country and generated international media coverage.

Noyola, Levine and Ibarra will discuss the collection of drawings, paintings, notebooks, letters and personal items attributed to Frida Kahlo and the advances on the legal case defending their authenticity. 

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A magical evening with William Martin and Mario Oliva 
By Alejandro Devesa

There is no need to ask why San Miguel is known as a magical town. On a Sunday walk, it is commonplace to encounter traditional dancing, musicians playing in the street or a local artist working on a painting in public. In fact, I happened upon the latter on Sunday, October 4.

The artists William Martin and Mario Oliva decided to set up their easels on calle Cuadrante to paint scenes of the fountain at the corner of calle Aldama for a couple of hours. They tend to take to the streets to paint fairly often, doing what they like to do and capturing the light before it changes. If an audience gathers to watch and enjoy themselves, so much the better.

William Martin was born in Mexico City and traveled around the country during his childhood, learning about the local culture as well as the cultures of the French and Spanish that had occupied the country.

The Martin family eventually moved to California, where William began painting with oils. At the early age of 20 he became a painting instructor. After 20 years of teaching and growing as an artist, Martin remains dedicated to his art. Among his canvases can be found realist paintings that capture the rich textures and shades of things such as exotic forests, antique fabrics, the delicate edge of cut glass, and fresh fruit and flowers. Martin, though, is versatile, and some of his work is abstract. The artist has had several exhibitions in galleries in Santa Fe, Carmel, Aspen and Dallas, among other locations. Another of Martin’s loves is food; it is often said that his restaurant, Billy’s Hot Dogs, serves the best hot dogs in town. 

Mario Oliva was born in Guadalajara, where he studied visual arts. Early in his career he painted illustrations for a couple of books and took part in individual and collective exhibitions in galleries in Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta, Quintana Roo and San Miguel de Allende, to name a few.

His style could be called “neo-figurative expressionism”: the elongation of the human figure in his work suggests such a name. He is also responsible for developing the project “Naif Puro,” which provides a space for free expression for children through painting. The youngsters handle canvases, brushes, spatulas and other tools used by professional painters for the first time, gaining an interest art while developing their psychomotor skills. He has already held two such sessions, the first in the Guadalajara kindergarten Da Vinci Talents, and the second in St. Paul’s children’s center here in San Miguel. 

The workshops and galleries of these two diverse artists are housed in the Fábrica La Aurora art and design center. Their next public demonstration will take place on Sunday, October 18, in the Jardín around 4pm.

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Twenty years of instruction and inspiration
By Françoise Lemieux 

In the spring of 1990, a flock of impassioned photographers set out in a cross-country caravan.

Their destination: Santa Fe, New Mexico. Their plan: to create the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops. It was a long trip, what with all those photo ops along the way.

The migration was worth it, if only to escape the Maine winters. But the main reason for the move was, well…eye candy. (You know how photographers are.)

“I figured I had to locate my photography workshop business in a place people wanted to photograph,” says Reid Callanan, director of the Workshops. “What US city is more photogenic than Santa Fe?”

Two Decades Later

This year marks the Workshops’ 20th anniversary. A lot has changed. What began as a summer program with nine staffers is now a full-service campus nestled in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, with a staff of 14 and scads of seasonal employees. 

That first summer of shooting evolved into more than 150 educational programs year round, including weeklong courses, weekend intensives and National Geographic Expeditions. The Workshops now count more than 10,000 alumni.

For those who yearn for something more exotic than high desert, the Workshops hit the road every year. Destinations in 2009 range from Maine and Vermont to Nepal, Tanzania and Bhutan. And, naturally, their second campus in San Miguel’s Posada de la Aldea. 

With educational partners like Nikon and Hewlett Packard, the Workshops’ cutting-edge courses have gained international recognition. Most recently, they’ve been featured on CNN.com/travel and in Travel + Leisure and Country Living magazines. Participants now fly in from around the world—from England and France to Malaysia, Slovenia and Indonesia.

Some things haven’t changed, like the Workshops’ mission to instruct and inspire photographers of all levels. By bringing them together in evocative environments, along with eminent instructors and the latest technology, they provide an arena for creative development, technical mastery, and, of course, fun. A Santa Fe workshop allows participants to enter a community of fellow artists, build confidence, progress personally and professionally and, ideally, learn to make images that “flow from their hearts and souls as well as their eyes.” 


Coming to San Miguel

Nine years ago, that mission crossed the border. Callanan first came to San Miguel with photographers Raul Touzon and Vidal Berrones, and—you guessed it—fell in love with the place.

“It reminded me so much of Santa Fe,” he explains. “I thought it would be a perfect venue for photography workshops. The light is so special due to the elevation and clarity of the air, and there’s a creative energy that’s palpable.”

Most of all, says Callanan, he was moved by the warmth and openness of the locals. “Everyone we met on that first scouting trip was excited about the possibility of working with us to produce a world-class photographic program here.”


Giving back to SMA

This year, the Workshops will collaborate with the Rural Eyeglasses Project, a US-based organization that strives to improve vision in less-developed countries. Working with the San Miguel Women’s Project, eye doctors will visit nearby communities. Workshop participants will ride along and document the process of administering eye exams and teaching local women how to perform them.

The first program of its kind in the Workshops’ repertoire, its purpose is to be of service to the people of San Miguel, while allowing participants to develop their own documentary photo projects.


Join the fun

Whether you’re a seasoned pro whose camera cost more than your car, or are just figuring out what all those buttons on your new SLR do, the Workshops have something for you. San Miguel residents get substantial discounts—more than 50 percent off, in most cases.

Don’t miss the free Monday evening image presentations; the first is in the theater of Bellas Artes on October 26. This is a once-a-year chance to witness outstanding photographers showing off their treasured projects. Each week provides an intimate view into this very varied craft, ranging from fine art photos to documentary work to travel photography.

Maybe you’ll get inspired…

Françoise Lemieux is a writer and photophile living in San Miguel.



Santa Fe Photographic Workshops in San Miguel
October 25–November 15
www.santafeworkshops.com  

Take advantage of substantial discounts for San Miguel residents. For details, email or call:

info@santafeworkshops.com  
001 (505) 983-1400 x11 (US number)

2009 Schedule:
Workshop details available on the website.

October 25–November 1
Contemporary Black and White Portraits
Paul Elledge and Leasha Overturf 
Rural Eyeglasses Project 
John Michael Coppinger
The Colors of Mexico 
Alison Shaw

October 29–November 4
Day of the Dead 
Sarah Meghan Lee

November 1–November 8
Exploring the Soul of a Portrait 
Greg Gorman
The Essence of Place 
Eddie Soloway

November 8–15
Basics of Digital Photography
Jennifer Spelman
Dancing with the Ambient: Using Small Flashes 
David Hobby
Exploring the People and Culture of San Miguel 
Marcela Taboada
National Geographic Expeditions Photography Workshop: San Miguel 
David Alan Harvey


Prerequisites:

Please check online workshop descriptions for technical requirements and course skill levels.

PHOTO TAG LINES:

As per contracts between the Workshops and photographers, each photo MUST have the copyright tagline, porfa.


© Maribeth Lundeen, workshop participant

© Dodie Ellis, workshop participant

© Raul Touzon, Instructor

© Tricia Cronin, course assistant

© Julien McRoberts, workshop participant