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Mi Familia Calaca / My Skeleton Family: A Mexican Folk Art Family in English and Spanish (First Concepts in Mexican Folk Art)

Mi Familia Calaca / My Skeleton Family: A Mexican Folk Art Family in English and Spanish (First Concepts in Mexican Folk Art)

Current price: $12.55
Publication Date: March 7th, 2017
Publisher:
Cinco Puntos Press
ISBN:
9781941026342
Pages:
32

Description

Come meet La Familia calaca They're just like everybody else. Except they're all bones

Welcome to the family It's just like yours: father, mother, sister, brother, abuelita, gato, even a great-great grandmother. Well, but there's something just a little bit different about this particular family. Maybe it's those clothes they wear... just a little bit fashion backward. And the colors So vibrant and... lively. Maybe that's what it is. They are just so full of life while looking almost other worldly.

Cynthia Weill's bilingual collaboration with artist Jesus Canseco Zarate teaches young readers basic information about relationships, while also celebrating the colorful tradition of Mexico's Day of the Dead. Canseco Zarate long-limbed sculptures are a playful twist on traditional Mexican iconography of the skeleton that stretches back through the country's art history to Jos Guadalupe Posada's engravings and Aztec sculpture.

***

Bienvenidos a la familia Es justo como la tuya: pap , mam , hermana, hermano, abuelita, gato, hasta un a vis-abuela. Pero hay algo un poco diferente sobre esta familia. Tal vez es la su ropa... es un poco anticuada. Y los colores Tan vibrantes y... vivos. Tal vez eso es, solo est n llenos de vida, al mismo tiempo pareciendo de otro mundo.

La colaboraci n biling e entre autora Cynthia Weill y artista Jesus Canseco Zarate le ense a a lectores j venes informaci n b sica sobre familias, al mismo tiempo celebrando la tradici n colorida del D a de Muertos. Las esculturas de brazos largos de Canseco Zarate le dan un toque juguet n a la iconograf a Mexicana tradicional del esqueleto, que se ve a lo largo de la historia art stica del pa's, hasta los grabados de Jos Guadalupe Posada, y las esculturas Aztecas.

About the Author

Cynthia Weill's fascination with the crafts of Oaxaca began while she was working in Mexico as a Fulbright exchange teacher. She has published several books in the First Concepts in Mexican Folk Art series, which features different folk art of Oaxaca. Many of the figures showcased in this series are now part of the permanent Mesoamerican Anthropology collections at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois. Cindy lives in New York City and online at cynthiaweill.net. Jesús Canseco Zárate is a Oaxacan folk artist known for his elaborate calacas (skeleton statues). In 2008, he won first prize in the Friends of Oaxacan Folk Art completion for young artists. His work has been showcased in local, national, and international galleries and venues. Currently, Jesús works as an artistic photographer in the Oaxaca and Mexico City area. His work can be seen online at chuchocaza.wordpress.com.