Chapingo: A Local Outing

This week, a CIMMYT outing took us to Chapingo, the campus of Mexico's major agricultural university, 20 minutes from the CIMMYT campus. It is housed in a lovely hacienda, complete with grand inner courtyard. Not only can you visit the Diego Rivera-decorated ex-chapel - surely the only chapel worldwide to feature communist symbols - but also the newly renovated Agricultural Museum, which combines exhibits of ancient farmers' implements with contemporary artists' interpretations of pottery/ceramic arts, which depict rural scenes.

There is something intriguingly naive about Mexican Art. The colors, the shapes, the subjects ... there is much humour, a comics dimension, often a political or social meaning - you know, art with a message, with a socialist state flavor sometimes. The Rivera (ex)chapel amazes with its references to the Sixtine Chapel and Renaissancy symbolism of fertility, translated into easily readable, beautiful coloured wall sections. Very nice buttocks, too, as the male among females on the outer wall attests to.

As a digestif, do enjoy the Mexican take on recycling.