el corrrido de Jesus Enrique Emilio de la Helguera Espinoza

i remember going to the laundromat with my mom for the longest time, and they would always be giving away calendars. Lavanderia El Rio, they are a chain of family owned businesses around my neighborhood and i remember that in some of them i would see these stoic pictures of Aztec warriors cradling beautiful women, or maybe pastoral scenes with peones going about their daily routine. At that time i took them for anonymous paintings serving only to decorate the empty square on top of the dates on the calendar. He has since, however, come to be one of my personal favorite painters.

photograph of Helguera, obvio

His name was Jesus Enrique Emilio de la Helguera Espinoza and he was born in Chihuahua, Mexico on May 28, 1910. He went on to study art in Mexico and then Spain which is where he met Julia Gonzalez Llanos, who would go on to become the model for most of the women in his paintings. Most of his painting where featured in calendars because that's where he began working, painting for calendar companies. At a time when it was very rare to find positive representations of Mexicans (the 50s and 60s) Helguera's art gave people (both in Mexico and the United States where his work was very popular) what they deserved, a strong visual representation to make them proud of their heritage.

Grandeza Ateca, 1948

He had a love for depicting Aztec warriors in gallant poses, much like Frank Frazetta in his work. Helguera's work however wasn't as kinetic, it was a warmer and quieter picture, a scenic artwork where you could almost feel the light breeze. at least me. Apart from warriors, he also painted Mexican life, such as adelitas, charros and peones. Helguera also had a few painting in which he showed the Spanish culture and heritage he came from. His painting always had a romantic touch, and every man was a hero and every woman was beautiful, some even had Arab features. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Helguera never showed the downtrodden, never showed the sad aspect of Mexican life, he only demonstrated the idealized version of life, and i think that's beautiful. To me Helguera is kind of like the Mexican Norman Rockwell, and hopefully somebody reading this comes to like him as much as i.

El Rebozo, 1962

La Bamba, late 1940s

Je ne sais pas

     
"No hay honor mas grande que ser un Charolastra"

Since the Criterion Collection just recently announced their August release of Alfonso Cuaron's Y tu mama tambien, i thought it appropriate to make the first post about it.

Released in 2001 , Y tu mama tambien, has proven its status as a film masterpiece and one of the best representation of New Wave Mexican Cinema.
This movie can be descrived as a coming of age road comedy, but i think that would be doing it a disfavor seeing as how this movie is much more than that. The story co-written by the brothers Alfonso and Carlos Cuaron, (Carlos later went on to direct his own movie, Rudo y Cursi, which is my favorite soccer picture) is preety straightforward and in fact nothing grand or expansive, but thats what i like about it, its a very contained and private story. The magnificent thing about it however is its structure, the story is written as a kind of liquid narrative, the plot is linear, but doesnt feel constricted or formulaic. The movie makes terrific use of a narrator, one to rival even Scorcese. The reason i love the use of the narrator in this picture (voiced by Daniel Gimenez Cacho) is cuz he doesnt narrate plot points, or anything stupid or cliche. The narration serves to provide atmosphere, build character, and  give background, honestly some of my faborite scenes from the movie are the ones where it is used, because i think its beautiful honestly. You know what else is beautiful? the cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki, a frequent Cuaron collaborator. Ive only seen this movie as the shittty version i downloaded off the Piratebay but even there it is evident, and to know that its coming out in the Criterion Colection in all its glory makes my fucking rocks hard. The acting in this movie is really good too, its extremely naural and realistic, Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna (who are two of my favorite mexican actors) deliver a powerhouse performance man, its great, they play best friends and the fact that they are best friends in real life makes it all the better. The music in this film is also really good, interestly enough however there is no score, all the music in the movie comes from either a device, or is playing somewhere else, and i like that about it it maintains this realistic vibe the movie has. Also the film makes tremendous use of Frank Zappa's "watermelon in easter hay" in the end sequence, fun fact, this was one of only three songs Zappa ever requested not be played in anything that wasnt the album it appeared on but his widow saw a cut of the film with the song at the end and was so moved by it she decided it was okay. This movie also deals heavily with sex concerning two horny teenagers and one seductive and imposing older woman. However it is not treated lightly or as something which is inconsequential, the way it is used i think is very realistic and dramatic in a way that doesnt make it seem like its cinematic (which in my opinion is a good thing for this film).  At the end of the day this is a pretty sad movie, encompassed collectively by the movie's last scene which i think is completely fantastic.

Y tu mama tambien, is a beautiful, mature and complex film you should definetely check out and maybe even fork over 23.96 for the criterion DVD.
So yes this is a masterfully crafted, well executed, heartfelt, emotional, well written, cool-ass movie
I give it 5.8 goldblums out of a possible 6 goldblums