Psychoanalysis, unfortunately, has scarcely anything to say about

beauty either. All that seems certain is its derivation from the field of
sexual feeling. The love of beauty seems a perfect example of an im-
pulse inhibited in its aim. Beauty and attraction are originally attri-
butes of the sexual object.
Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents.

all creation is really a re-creation of a once loved and once whole,

but now lost and ruined object, a ruined internal world and self. It is
when the world within us is destroyed, when it is dead and loveless,
when our loved ones are in fragments, and we ourselves in helpless
despairit is then that we must re-create our world anew, re-assemble
the pieces, infuse life into dead fragments, re-create life.
Hanna Segal A Psycho-Analytical Approach to Aesthetics.

For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, which we are still
just able to endure,
and we are so awed because it serenely disdains to annihilate us.
First Duino Elegies
Rainer Maria Rilke

How can ugliness and disharmony, which are the content of tragic
myth, inspire an esthetic delight?
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy
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 Editor
Editor Robert
Robert S. White
White

Associate
Associate Editor
Editor ArnoldRichards
Arnold Richards

PoetryConsultant
Poetry ConsultantIrene
IreneWillis
Willis

Arts
Arts Consultant
Consultant Danielle
Danielle Knafo
Knafo

Technology
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 Table of Contents
5
From the Editor
7-9
Wonderful Surprises for Psychoanalysts
in Mexico City for IPA Congress
11-16
Frida Kahlo: Mother and Mirror
18-25
Frida Kahlo and Freud: Moses and
Monotheism
28-37
The Fabulous Folk Arts of Oaxaca,
Mexico: An Introduction
39-40
Martin Espada: Poetry
42-43
Contributors
10, 17, 26, 38
Photography
41, 43, 44, 45
Juan Rulfo

March 15, 2011

From The Editor - the photographs of Juan Rulfo
We are excited to present the arts and culture of
Mexico, in honor of the 47th Congress of the In-
ternational Psychoanalytic Association, to be held
in Mexico City, August 3-6, 2011.
You will find scattered through this issue the
photographs of Juan Rulfo (1917-1986). He was
born in Jalisico, Mexico. His father was killed
when he was 6 and his mother died when he
was 10. He was raised by his paternal grand-
parents. He came from a family of landowners
who were ruined by the Mexican Revolution. He
attended secondary school and graduated as a
bookkeeper. He attended the National Military
Academy briefly and took classes at the Univer-
sidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico. He worked
as a immigration officer and a wholesale travel-
ing sales agent, for which he traveled widely in
southern Mexico. From the early 1960s Rulfo
was a staff member and later the director of the
editorial department of National Institute for In-
digenous Studies. He is one of Latin Americas
most esteemed authors. His reputation rests on
2 books. , a collection of short stories (1953),
centered around life in rural Mexico around the
time of the Mexican Revolution and the Cristero
Rebellion. Pedro Pramo (1955) featured a ghost
town populated by spectral figures. This novel
represents the beginning of magical realism and
a direct inspiration to Gabriel Garca Mrquez.
He won Mexicos National Prize for Literature in
1970 and was elected to the Mexican Academy
of Language in 1980. In 1985 he received the
Premio Cervantes (Cervantes Prize) from Spain
in recognition of his accomplishments.
His photographs, shot mostly during the 1940s
and 50s are exclusively in black-and-white, made
by 6x6 cm negatives. He travelled throughout
Mexico among the common people. His goal
was to present what he encountered, and noth-
ing more-groups of farmers in prayer, women
at market, men on horseback, and views from
mountainous paths. Few of his photographs
were published in his lifetime. He had an exhibi-
tion in Guadalajara in 1960, but it was not until
1980, when his photographs were shown during
his Homage in the Palacio de Bellas Artes, that
his fame increased
The photographs presented here are taken from
the book, Inframundo, El Mexico by Juan Rulfo,
Ediciones del Norte, 1980.
The latest large-format publication about Rulfos
photographs will appear in 2011 and bears the
title of 100 photographs of Juan Rulfo .
Wonderful Surprises for Psychoanalysts in Mexico City for IPA Congress

By Prudence Gourguechon, M.D.

Mexico City is: enormous, modern, varied, elegant, clean, and complex. It is not frightening. It has
an economic vitality that American cities are still searching for in year three of the recession. (Visit-
ing last December, I was amazed to see many construction projects were in high gear, while home in
Chicago they sit fallow). It is home to a vibrant 60 year old psychoanalytic community, which, hav-
ing discovered a way to engage young people straight out of college in a psychoanalytic career, just
might have the best model for ensuring the future of our profession. Our psychoanalytic colleagues in
Mexico are very proud of their tradition of learning, teaching and researching psychoanalysis, and are
eager to welcome the international psychoanalytic community. And welcoming they are.

Mexico City is the home of some 150 museums and vast amounts of art
in municipal buildings. There is conscious attention to creating a sense of
community, even in so vast a metropolis. The largest avenue to pedestrian
and bicycle traffic every Sunday morning.

Here are some surprises: The altitude is 7200 feet. Keeping yourself
hydrated is essential. The tequila is like nothing youve had in your mar-
garitas at home. The weather is fairly perfect, primarily because of the alti-
tude. In December it was 74 and sunny every day. In August
the average temperature is74! Though a bit more humid
than in the winter. It rains at the end of every day in a short
dense shower but otherwise it is sunny. Dinners go on until
midnight. Traveling to Mexico City is, from many parts of the
US, not at all taxing. The city is on central time. Direct flights
from big US cities may take only 3 1/2 hours (Chicago, LA) or 5 hours New York). The Benito Juarez
airport is close to the central city. So even a three day trip is reasonable and not tiring. But you will
want more time than that.

In a quick visit last year, just 3 days, I could only get a taste of the things I wanted to see. The Pala-
cio de Bellas Artes has magnificent murals from the 1930s to the 1950s by Orozco, Rivera, Tamayo
and Siqueiros. If you are not acquainted with
the Mexican muralists you will be amazed by
this work. If you are acquainted with this mod-
ernist movement, it is the chance of a lifetime
to see the murals in situ. With a Mexican col-
league I visited the Frida Kahlo home and mu-
seum, La Casa Azul. I worried that with all the
Frida Kahlo kitsch in the US it would be disap-
pointing but it was moving and magnificent.
The Museo de Arte Popular houses incredible
folk art and craft exhibitsthe finest speci-
mens of traditional Mexican crafts piatas,
alebrijes (fantastical creatures), embroidery,
pottery and catrina figures posed in haunting
and humorous Dia del Muerte tableaux.

There are so many things I wanted to see

and couldnt get to in just a couple of days:
the enormous Zocolo, or central square, with its archeological excavation (Templo Mayor) right in
the center of the city. This site is said to have been considered the center of the universe by Aztecs.
Twelve hundred feet of Rivera murals depicting the history of Mexico in the Palacio Nationale on the
Zocolo, now a federal government building. The Catedral Metrepolitana whose construction began
in 1573. The Bosque de Chapultepec, an enormous urban park with the Museo Nacional de Antro-
pologia sited within it. Xochimilco, a town 13 miles south of the city, threaded with canals and known
as the place of flowers. I wanted to see more modern Mexican architecture and design
which is always inventive, startling, naturalistic, colorful and inspiring.

Teotihuacan deserves special mention. This enormous ruin was once the largest city in
pre-Columbian America. Its pyramids rival any in the world for size and splendor. And it
is only one hour from the city itself.
 The IPA leadership asked me to travel to Mexico in
December 2010 to report back on the security situ-
ation. Many in the U.S. are very frightened about
travel to Mexico. News of the terrible ongoing drug
wars can make the country seem quite terrifying.
But it is important to understand that the drug cartel
violence is occurring in areas far from Mexico City,
primarily the border areas between Mexico and the
US and, sadly, some of the resort areas Americans
are familiar with. Also, the vast majority of the vic-
tims have been directly involved in the war on the
criminal cartels, or are members of gangs who are
killed during internecine conflict. While this is tragic
and gruesome, it does not affect the safety of travel
to and within Mexico City. In fact, the capital city
has experienced a decrease in crime over the last decade.

I have to say I felt entirely safe during my visit in the areas of the city where the Congress will take
place and where the museums and restaurants and shops are located. The officials in the capital city
are extremely security conscious, and are especially intent on making sure tourists are safetheir
livelihood and honor depends on it. They have installed a state of the art video monitoring system,
and proudly report events with millions of participants that had no incidents of crime.

If you have never been to an international psychoanalytic meeting, this is the time to try it. Cost, con-
venience and fantastic sightseeing are powerful draws. There are some invaluable intangible factors
too. Convening with colleagues from all over the world is a tremendously moving and empowering
experience. I found that the isolation and uncertainty of the psychoanalytic profession melted away
in the midst of milling colleagues speaking Italian, Spanish, German, Russian, etc. Attendees from
new societies in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia provide concrete evidence that the profes-
sion is growing. Learning that organized psychoanalysis in Mexico is 60 years old says something
profound about the depth of the roots of our field. Learning that there are new ideasboth theoretical
and practicalthat just never crossed your path is tremendously invigorating.
 FRIDA KAHLO: MOTHER AND MIRROR
Danielle Knafo, Ph.D.

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), known also simply as Frida, recently attained a degree of popularity and
public fascination usually reserved for cult figures. For years after her death, she was primarily known
in her native Mexico, and chiefly as the wife of internationally acclaimed muralist and painter, Diego
Rivera. Over the last 20 years, Frida has begun to be hailed as a feminist icon and perhaps the most
talented of all Latin American artists. One conclusion clearly emerges from discussions of Fridas ce-
lebrityhood: her star quality and larger-than-life status are due not only to her art but also to the whole
of her life and personality.
Frida began painting at the age of 18 following her near-fatal accident. Even prior to her accident,
however, she struggled with polio since the age of six, a malady for which she missed a year of
school and was taunted, teased, and called pato de pago (peg leg). The bus accident she suffered at
eighteen added a host of extra problems. Throughout her life, Frida was hung upside down, naked,
and obliged to wear plaster and steel casts and corsets to strengthen her spinal column, required to
undergo over 30 operations, and was bedridden and incapacitated over long periods.

The Mirror

It is widely accepted that Fridas art largely self-portraits that depict a resplendent mask-
like faceallowed her to deal concretely with her pain (both physical and psychic) while
feeding her narcissism, which had been injured along with her body (1). She actually had
an easel mounted onto her bed to allow her to paint while lying flat. It is true that she seri-
ously turned to painting only following her accident at the age of 18, yet Frida was coping
with early childhood circumstances that predisposed her to a particular form of artistic
expression with its strong emphasis on self- portraiture (2). Her mother, Mathilde Caldern, a devout
Catholic Spanish-Indian, remained unavailable to Frida as an infant. Apparently a histrionic personal-
ity, Fridas mother suffered from pseudoseizures that were curious replicas of her husbands authentic
epileptic fits. The infant Frida was not breastfed by her mother; instead, she was suckled by an Indian
wet nurse and cared for by her older sisters.

In My Nurse and I (1937), Fridas early mirroring experience is represented as she is

shown suckling the breast of a masked Aztec Indian goddess. Although her body is one of
an infant, her face is that of an adult. This Rousseau-like painting, with its lack of propor-
tion, reveals the blurred boundaries between childhood and adulthood. The nurse repre-
sents the Indian heritage that Kahlo found nourishing and from which she later adopted
her persona. It is also significant to consider that she depicts her own mirroring experience as one in
which she was obliged to gaze into an impenetrable weeping mask of iron. Not only does the nurse
look straight ahead instead of at the child she holds in her arms, but the infant Frida stares blankly
as she turns away from the masked face and body of her symbolic mother. Frida not only lost her
mothers attention at an early age, she also lost her nurse, who was fired when apprehended drinking
alcohol (3).

Known for her unusual, even obsessional, relationship with mirrors and preoccupation with her ap-
pearance, Frida surrounded herself with mirrors of all sizes, placing them at varying angles from her
bed (where she spent much of her time), installing an enormous one facing down at her from the
underside of her canopy bed. She thus assured repeated encounters with her own reflection and the
concrete assurance of her existencea crucial need for Frida whose physical problems required that
she repeatedly overcome new challenges.

To cope with her loneliness and feelings of abandonment, resulting from the prolonged bed rests
imposed on her, Frida wrote numerous letters imploring her friends and lovers to visit her and, more
importantly, not forget her. Haunted by the isolation foisted upon her by chronic pain and the sad
solitude left in the wake of her husbands betrayals, the answers to her pleas were insufficient for her
needs and so she transformed her canvas into a mirror in which she reflected a world of exquisite
tensions, stark beauty stoic strength, insidious will, and layered self-definitions. Incessantly draw-
ing self-portraits, Frida seemed to be painfully striving to obtain what she did not receive from her
mothers eyes: confirmation to help delineate a firm and cohesive sense of self while creating another
world, one imagined to heal her physical and psychic wounds, yet radiant in its depictions of pain,
longing, and transformation.

For Frida, the self-portrait represented an apt, almost self-evident, means by which she was able to
act as a mirror to herself, reflecting her need for self- definition while simultaneously attempting to
achieve it. It is clear, therefore, that through her art Frida succeeded in repeating the mother-infant
dyad with its mutual gazing reciprocity. Creating her double in her self-portraits, she became her own
mirror. At least in her art, Frida reached a state of forgiveness and reconciliation with her mother for
she guaranteed not only that her image would live onto immortality, but that it would forever be mir-
rored.

The Double

The way Frida replaced her mother by becoming the mirror she wished she had is best illustrated in
The Two Fridas (1939), her largest painting. In it, the artist informs us about the way she survived:
she kept herself together by appropriating the maternal function with which to nurture herself and by
representing the ensuing self-containment of her world. Two Fridas seated on a bench hold hands
and face the viewer before a dark sky filled with ominous storm clouds. One Frida has a broken heart
and the other a heart that is whole. One Frida clasps a pair of surgical pincers in her hand to keep the
other alive. Dispassionate and impersonal facial expressions produce an emotional remove from the
poignant, emotional, near-death scene she is depicting. Frida thus reminds us that she is a perennial
observer who looks at herself and then paints herself looking at herself, drawing the view-
er into a dialogue with the observer and observed.

Fridas double images further represent the mother who herself is divided between giv-
ing milk and giving poison, between nurturing the child and devouring the childmother
creator versus mother destroyer. Painted at a time when she divorced Diego, Frida ad-
ditionally portrayed the divided feelings she harbored toward him. She herself stated that the painting
depicted the Frida Diego loved and the Frida Diego no longer loved (4). This remarkably complex
painting with its multiple layers of meaning also reminds us that the structure of the selfthis self that
assumes itself to be singular, individual, and monolithicis, in reality, mirrored, divided, plural, and
distributed.

A
Already, at the age of six, while homebound and physically restricted with polio for nine
months, Frida discovered, perhaps for the first time, that she could turn to her creative
imagination to compensate for a painful, restrictive reality. She created an imaginary play-
mate who, unlike herself, was agile and loved to dance. Continually creating her double in
her self-portraits, Frida later struggled to prove that she could not only portray her pain, but in doing
so, step outside of it and surmount it. Like her childhood imaginary companion, Fridas mask-like face
in her self-portraitsher more mature alter-ego with its unflinching, stoic gazedeclares that all is
fine and under control. Beyond mirroring herself and creating a safe, self-enclosed world within which
to meet her needs, Frida also acted against feelings of self-disintegration and fears of loss of self by
reconstructing a novel self. In her diary, next to several small self-portrait drawings, Frida wrote, The
one who gave birth to herself(5)

Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen, Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti
(London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1982), 7-27. Alice Adams,
Frida Kahlo's passion, Art and Antiques (1989): 58-98. Anne Horton,
1
Fridamania, Art and Antiques 14.4 (1991): 126-178.
2
Danielle Knafo, In Her own Image: Womens Self-Representation
in Twentieth-Century Art (Cranbury, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University
Press, 2009).
3
Ibid.
4
Hayden Harrera, The Paintings, (New York: Harper Collins, 1991): 135.
5
Frida Kahlo, The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait
(New York: Harry Abrams, Inc., 1995; Mexico: La Vaca Independiente S.A.
de C.V., 1995), 228.
 Frida Kahlo and Freud: Moses and Monotheism
Robert S. White

Frida Kahlo
had painted a portrait of Don Jos Domingo
Lavin's wife in 1942. Lavin suggested that
Frida read the Sigmund Freud book "Mo-
ses the Man and Monotheistic Religion" and
then paint her interpretation of what she had
read. This painting was done in the style of a
miniature mural. This painting is sometimes
referred to as "Nucleus of Creation". In a writ-
ten description of this painting, Frida refers to
it as "Moses", or "Birth of the Hero".

I. The Book (1)

The original draft is dated 8/9/34 and titled, The Man Moses. A Historical Novel . The first and sec-
ond parts were published separately in Imago in 1937. The third part was published in Amsterdam
in 1939, shortly before Freud died. He hesitated to publish these pieces initially, in fear of angering
the Catholic Church and endanger the place of psychoanalysis in Austria. Shortly after Hitler came
to power in Germany in 1933, there was a public burning of psychoanalytic books. Then followed a
systematic liquidation of psychoanalysis in Germany. By 1934, most of the Jewish analysts had left
Germany. Freud certainly underestimated the Nazis. Many of his closest associates had died: Abra-
ham in 1925, Ferenczi in 1933, Groddeck in 1934, Adler in 1936, and Lou Andreas Salom in 1937.
The Nazis invaded Austria in March, 1938. Both Jones and Marie Bonaparte worked to get Freud out
of Austria and he was allowed to leave in June. Now there were no external prohibitions to publish-
ing. Starting in 1923, Freud had repeated operations for cancer of the mouth, with use of prosthesis
and treatment with radiation. For months at a time, he would have daily pain and discomfort. His
cancer reoccurred in 1936. He died on September 23, 1939.
II. The themes
Moses and Monotheism takes up a number of Freuds enduring themes:

Freuds Moses and Monotheism highlights Jewish Geistigkeit (spirituality), the renunciation
of instincts, intellectual prowess and manly self-control all epitomized by Moses. It was
this founder of civilization who had taken the highest achievements of the Egyptian Enlight-
enment and bequeathed them to the Jews the total rejection of idolatry, image-making and
magic, the cult of reason, justice and truth as well as a revolutionary commitment to moral
rectitude. (2)

Freud had always claimed that he had been attracted to

Moses since adolescence (3) . He reportedly visited the Mi-
chelangelo statue on Moses repeatedly on his visits to Rome.
The book is not without its detractors. The thesis of phylo-
genetic memory-traces, the reading of Egyptian history, the
view of Jewish and Christian religions and the transfer from
individual to mass psychology is viewed by many as dubious.
Not to mention the emphasis on masculine sexuality.

Moses, in this regard, is almost interchangeable with Freud. He too is depicted as

a person who does not need the compact majority, in his case the priests opposed to
Pharaoh Akhanatons reforms. He is a man of single-minded dedication to an idea
that runs counter to prevailing cultural beliefs, social norms and personal experience.
His abstract conception of an imageless and non-corporeal God is the boundary
he creates, setting him off from the rest of the world, and in need of defending and
preserving this boundary. He is the everlasting proof that an idea can be so transfor-
mative as to sweep and change an entire people and culture forever. Spirituality and
ideology win the day and change the course of history. (4)
The Nucleus of Creation (1945)
Frida Kahlo
 Frida, I think, was a Great Woman, full of the same single-minded purpose and intensity as Freud.
She had her own particular artistic vision, drawing from many sources, but wholly unique.

Here is a talk she gave to some friends about the Nucleus of Creation:

I read the book only once, and started the painting with my first impression. Later, I
read it again, and I must confess I found my work most incomplete and quite different
from the interpretation Freud analyzes most marvelously in his Moses. But no theres
no way to change it by adding or subtracting, so Ill describe my painting just as it is.
The subject in particular is Moses or the birth of the Hero, but I conceived in my own
way a most confused way the events or images that left the greatest impact on me
when I read the book. What I tried to express most clearly and intensely was that the
reason people need to invent or image heroes and gods is because of their fear fear
of life and fear of death.

I began painting the figure of Moses as a child; Moses in Hebrew means the one
rescued from the waters, and in Egyptian Moses means child. I painted him as many
legends describe him, abandoned in a basket floating on a river. Creatively I tried
as much as possible to make the basket, covered by an animal skin, bring to mind a
womb, but actually according to Freud the basket is an exposed womb, and the water
means the maternal source, that gives birth to a baby. To focus on that event, I paint-
ed a human fetus in its last stage inside the womb. The horns that look like hands, are
held out to the world. At the sides of the already created child, I put the elements of its
creation: the fertilized egg and the cellular division.

Freud analyzes very clearly, but in a very complex way for me, the important fact that
Moses was not Jewish. So I only painted a youngster who might represent Moses, like
all those who had a similar beginning, according to legend, and later became important
people, guides to their countrymen, that is to say heroes brighter than the rest, and
thats why I painted the eye of knowledge. In this case, we encounter Sargon, Cyrus,
Romulus, Paris, etc.

Another extremely interesting conclusion of Freuds is that Moses, not being a Jew,
gave to the people he chose to guide and save, a religion that was not Jewish but
Egyptian. Amenhotep IV revived the cult of the Sun by taking as its foundation the an-
cient religion of Heliopolis. For that I painted the sun as the center of all religions, as
the foremost god, as creator and reproducer of life. This is the relationship of the three
main figures in the center of the painting.

Like Moses, there have been, and will be, a huge number of high and mighty
people to transform religions and human societies. It can be said that they are
a kind of messenger among the rulers and among the gods they invented to rule
them. There are more of these gods, and naturally not all of them would fit in, so I ar-
ranged on both sides of the sun those, who like it or not, have some direct relationship
with the sun. At the right those of the West, and at the left those of the East. The Assyr-
ian winged bull, Amon, Zeus, Osiris, Horus, Jehovah, Apollo, the Moon, the Virgin Mary,
Divine Providence, the Holy Trinity, Venus, and the devil. At the left, a lightening flash,
that is, Hurakn, Kukulkn and Gukamatz; Tlloc, the magnificent Coatlicue, mother of all
the gods, Quetzalcatl, Tezcatipoca, the Centotl, the Chinese dragon god and the Hindu
Brahman. I have no African god but I couldnt find one; I could make a little space for
him.

Having painted the gods who dont fit into their respective heavens, I tried to divide the
celestial world of imagination from the poetry of the earthly world of the fear of death,
then painted the human and animal skeletons you can see. The earth cups its hands
to protect them. Between death and the group of heroes theres no division at all, since
the heroes die too and the earth receives then generously and with no distinction. On
the same earth their heads painted larger to distinguish them from the common people,
the heroes (very few of them but most carefully chosen) the transformers, inventors or
creators of religions, the conquerors, the rebels that is to say bucktoothed. At the right
you see Amenhotep, latter called Iknaton, a young pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty,
1370 BC, who imposed on his subjects a nontraditional religion, one against polytheism
and strictly monotheistic, with distant routes in the cult of On, Atons religion, that is, the
religion of the Sun. I ought to have given more relevance to this figure than to any other.
The people not only adored the Sun as a material being, but as the creator and preserver
of every living thing, both in and out of Egypt, a being whose energy is shown by its rays,
thus outdoing the most modern knowledge of solar power.

Then Moses, according to Freuds analysis, gave to his adopted people the very same
religion of Iknaton, changed a little to be in keeping with the interests and circumstances
of his time. Freud reaches this conclusion after a detailed study, in which he discovers
the intimate relationship between the religion of Aton and the Mosaic, both of them mono-
theistic. I didnt know to translate this whole part of a book into a painting.

Christ, Zoroaster, Alexander the Great, Caesar, Mohammed, Tamerlane, Napoleon, and
then follows the misguided child Hitler. At the left the marvelous Nefertiti, Iknatons wife.
I imagine that in addition to her extraordinary beauty, she must have been very flirtatious
and a superintelligent help to her husband. Buddha, Marx, Freud, Paracelsus, Epicurus,
Genghis Khan, Gandhi, Lenin and Stalin. The order is askew but I painted them accord-
ing to my knowledge of history, which is also askew. Between these people and the ones
on the hill, I painted a sea of blood, meaning war. And finally the powerful but never well-
connected common people, composed of all kinds of little insects; warriors, pacifists, sci-
entists and the ignorant, monument builders, rebels, flag bearers, medal wearers, talk-
ers, the insane and the wise, the happy and the sad, the healthy and the sick, the poets
and the fools, and all the other kinds of people you enjoy who live on this powerful
globe. Only the progressives see themselves a bit clearly; as for the rest with all
the noise, we dont know.
In the left foreground is Man, the builder, in four colors the four races. On the right, the
Mother, creator, her child in her arms. Behind her the Monkey. The two trees forming
an arch of triumph are the new life that always springs from the truck of old age. Below
in the center, the most important for Freud and many others, is Love represented by the
shell and snail, the two sexes, those who contain the ever new and living roots. Thats
all I can say about my painting.
A description of the symbolism .

3 vertical panels
The middle panel a central space of birth, life and Eros
Top to bottom the sun, the center of all religions, first Godcreator and reproducer of life the sun
has rays the tubes that look like hands extend toward the world
A cell in meosis, a uterus with a full-term fetus, a fertilized egg. Amniotic fluid is leaking from the
womb that merges with the rain in the background. The rain that doubles as both milk and as the
waters of the Nile, fertilizes the soil but also evokes amniotic fluid in this context, merging the concept
of human nourishment with the fertility of nature. (p. 139)
Moses as a baby in the basket, a mythical surrogate womb. The infant Moses resembles Diego Ri-
vera and has been given the third eye of wisdom, a device Kahlo sometimes used in her portraits of
Rivera. The shell and snail, pre-Columbian fertility symbols.
The panels on the left and right represent death and Thanatos. Animal and human skeletons that
divide the panels between the invented immortal Gods above and the mortal heroes and the masses
below. There are brown hands that frame the composition, opens her arms to receive everyone,
generously and without distinction
The two side panels are organized into the triparate realms of the id, ego and superego. Or into the
realms of immortality, life and death.

The right panel the female side

At the top, gods of Western culture
Zeus with the image of Athena upon the orb in his hand, alluding to Athenas miraculous birth from his
head.
Apollo Belvedere
Venus, Aphrodite, born from the castrated testis of Uranus and the ocean foam. Also evokes Eve.
Egyptian deities: the eye of Horus, the falcon-headed Horus, Anubis, the ram-headed Khnum
The human head of the winged Neo-Assyrian lion Iamassu, which she calls a Assyrian bull
The Christian deities: the holy trinity of Mary, Joseph and the Christ child. The halo above Mary con-
tains Kahlos features. Above the halo of Joseph is the Hebrew word, Adonai.
Below the skeleton are the Heroes.
Iknaton, Jehovah, Christ, Hamurabi, Alexander, Caesar, Mohamad, Luther, Napoleon and Hitler.
At the bottom are the masses. They represent humanity, composed of all kinds of - rare types, the
warriors, the pacifists, the scientists, the ignorant, the makers of monuments, the rebels, the flag-
bearers, the medal carriers, the loud mouths, the sane and the insane, the gay and the sad, the
healthy and the sick, the poets and the fools and all the rest of the race that you may imagine exist
among this fertile bunch Prominent is the Woman, the creator of life, with a child in her arms, part
human and part goat, milk leaking from her breasts. She is in four colors, represents the different rac-
es. Behind her are monkeys, reflecting the animal kingdom. A flag with a swastika is barely visible in
the background.

The left panel, the male side

The pre-Columbian deities: rain god Tlaloc, the corn goddess Xilonen, the earth goddess of life and
death Coatlicue, her son Quezalcoatl, the rabbit Tochtli and the tiger Ocelotl.
The Hindu god Vishnu is resting on the serpent Ananta while Brahma is born from his
navel. Vishnu also evokes Adam who is stylistically paired with Aphrodite/Eve on the
right.
Below the skeleton is Nefertiti, paired with Iknaton on the right. With Nefertiti are Marx,
Paracelsus, Freud, Epicurus, Stalin, Lenin, Ghandi, Ghenghis Khan, and the Buddha.
 At the bottom of the panel are the masses. On this side, there is constructor man. An ape is sitting
beside the man and flags with the rising sun and hammer and cycle are present in the background.

Gannit Ankori points out how Frida actually subverts Moses and Monotheism:

I suggest that Kahlo actually subverts the foundation of Freuds concept on monotheism. In-
deed, his emphasis on monotheism is undermined by her spectacular polytheistic pantheon of
fantastic hybrid deities. His emphasis on the spiritual, manifested in the prohibition to visualize
God proscribed by Mosaic Law, is subverted by Kahlos emphatic polychromatic visual splendor.
Another way to look at it would be to view Moses as a magnificent visualization of the return of
the repressed. Not merely the victory of an anthropomorphic and zoomorphic imagination over
an ascetic anti-visual severity, but also the triumphant return of the sensual; the return of the
maternal; and the return of the womb. (5)

Frida Kahlos Moses also testifies to the rich and provocative nature of Freuds original text.
Kahlo could use the book as a point of departure for her own eclectic and eccentric vision that
merges history, psychology, myth, religion, autobiography and art. Kahlo took from Freud im-
mense creative output that which she found most meaningful and relevant to her. Thus, by
merging phylogeny and ontogeny, she painted a creation myth that intersected with and cor-
responded to her own mythical self-creation. She presented Moses as she presented herself,
as a hybrid, cross-cultural protagonist within a cosmic drama that embraces plants, animals and
human beings; that balances Eros and Thanatos; male and female components; east and west;
science and art. (6)

1 Freud, S. Moses and Monotheism, SE 23, 57

2 Wistrich, Robert S. Sigmund Freuds Last Testament, in New Perspectives on

Freuds Moses and Monotheism, ed. Ginsberg and Pardes, Tbingen: Max Niemeyer
Verlag, 2006 p. 58

3 Jones, E. The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, Volume 3, New York: Basic Books,
1957.

4 Erlich, H. Shmuel. Der Mann Freud: A Contemporary Perspective on His and Our
Jewish and Psychoanalytic Identity, in New Perspectives on Freuds Moses and
Monotheism, ed. Ginsberg and Pardes, Tbingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 2006 p.240

5 Gannit, Ankori. Moses, Freud and Frida Kahlo, in New Perspectives on Freuds
Moses and Monotheism, ed. Ginsberg and Pardes, Tbingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag,
2006, p. 147.

6 Gannit, Ankori, Ibid, p. 148

 The Fabulous Folk Arts of Oaxaca, Mexico: An Introduction

Arden Rothstein, PhD

Adapted from Mexican Folk Arts from Oaxacan Artist
Families,
co-authored with Anya Leah Rothstein
Schiffer Publications, Ltd., 2007
www.oaxacanfolkart.com

Folk Art Paradise

Oaxaca (pronounced wah-hah-kah), in south-
eastern Mexico, is a folk art collectors paradise.
There are many varieties of ceramics, weaving,
woodcarving, embroidery, decorative tin work,
toys, jewelry, candles, dried flower crafts, and
basketry, to name a few. Artists work entirely by
hand, involved in every aspect of their creations.
Most traditions have been handed down from
generation to generation over hundreds, or even
thousands, of years. They embody a unique
blend of indigenous myths and legends melded
with the heritage of the Spanish conquest and
the regions natural earth products, expressing
elemental fantasies and reverence for nature.

Background on Oaxaca
Oaxaca is the name of one of Mexicos south-
eastern states and its capital city. The city, 330
miles from Mexico City, is typically reached by
a 45-minute plane trip or a five-hour highway
drive. Located at the convergence of two Sierra
Madre ranges, it has spectacular views of puffy
cotton clouds in brilliant blue skies over dazzling
mountain ranges and verdant cactus-dotted
valleys sprouting endless crops of corn. With its altitude of 5000 feet, Oaxaca enjoys a spring-like
climate year round. Even during the so-called rainy season one typically awakens to sparkling sun
interrupted only occasionally by a late afternoon or early evening shower. This provides
the nutriment for its exotic vegetation, and dazzling bursts of color provided by flowering
trees such as bougainvilleas.
Although Oaxaca remains unfamiliar to many, once a person has visited, he or she is
deeply moved and intrigued by its magical cultural traditions, glorious vistas and the
warmth of its people. In addition to its outstanding spectrum of folk art and handicrafts,
Oaxaca offers startling indigenous markets, ancient Zapotec ruins of monumental proportions such
as Monte Albn and Mitla, and world famous Spanish colonial buildings and churches housing exem-
plary 16th century gold leaf work.

The Fun of Visiting Artists in their Home Studios

Within a small geographical radius of Oaxaca City, there are numerous indigenous pueblos (vil-
lages) in which artists produce specific art forms. Backstrap loom cotton weaving is practiced in one,
while rug weaving, woodcarving, black pottery, green glazed, multi-color glazed and terra cotta pot-
tery are characteristic of yet others.

Artists are delighted when collectors visit their homes. As the

saying goes, nuestra casa es su casa (our home is your home).
Tourists, accustomed to American standards of privacy, may feel
reluctant to arrive unannounced. But here you can simply walk
in if the door is open, or make your presence known by ringing
a bell or knocking loudly on a closed metal door or wooden gate
while yelling buenos das or buenas tardes. Stop in briefly
to get the flavor of the work produced, or linger while discussing
an artesanos pueblo, family, their artistic techniques, or asking
prices, purchasing, placing orders. While high quality folk art piec-
es are available at affordable prices in the best shops in town,
viewing artists physical surroundings -- and seeing their process
of creation and their close-knit families in interaction -- adds a
very personal dimension to the collecting process. This is further
enriched by familiarity with the family legacy of its
creators. There are the added benefits of being
able to commission pieces of specific size, design
elements and coloration, and potentially to find
lower prices.
Two typical pueblo scenarios:
After hiking up a rocky and jagged incline strewn with puddles from the previous day's late afternoon
shower an ascent too challenging for a car to negotiate you see the entrance to a courtyard. It is
populated by strutting chickens that weave in and out of lines of laundry hung to dry in the billowing
wind. There is no address or name plaque to identify the spot, no signal that at any moment you will
encounter an artist, often accompanied by several members of his family, engaged in various stages
of inspiring artwork. A woman crafts a female figure out of clay, while her husband and daughter paint
intricate designs on clothing or accessories created for other figures earlier that morning.

In another pueblo, large patterned woven rugs wave like banners suspended from a massive but
graceful arched home encircled by its generous patio. Two vast white-washed showrooms display a
mixture of pre-Columbian patterns and woven reproductions of paintings by Diego Rivera and Escher.
An expertly designed sign announces the success of this family. The click clack of huge wooden
looms, through which shuttles are woven, is created by a man whose devotion and industriousness is
apparent. In these palatial quarters, a beautiful woman sits on the floor by his side, grinding natural
substances with stone implements and overseeing the preparation of dyes. Many skeins waiting to
be dyed are nearby, carded and spun by her daughter the previous day.

Spectrum of Folk Arts

Ceramics
The wealth of ceramics in Oaxaca
is truly extraordinary, and can eas-
ily fill many volumes. There are five
major classes produced in three
pueblos: terra cotta, green glazed,
multi-color glazed, black and paint-
ed red. There is also an attractive
variety of unpainted red ceramics
produced in a fourth pueblo. Artists
create sculptural figures for purely
decorative purposes (e.g., market
ladies carrying all varieties of pro-
duce and complex representations
of mythical, historical and religious
themes), as well as functional ob-
jects for cooking and serving.

Textiles
Oaxaca is renowned for its wealth of textiles produced in three pueblos within easy reach
of Oaxaca City These can be divided into two broad categories: weaving and embroidery.
Weaving includes woolen rugs and wall hangings created on shuttle looms; cotton belts,
handbags and placemats produced on backstrap looms; and cotton cloth made on foot
pedal-operated shuttle looms, sold as yard goods or used to make finished bedspreads,
tablecloths, dresses and shawls. Embroidery consists primarily of hand-made garments
 called wedding dresses. There
are many additional varieties of fine
textiles produced by indigenous
groups in the mountainous areas at
far greater distance from Oaxaca
City; these can be viewed in shops
in town.

Decoratively Painted Woodcarvings

Painted woodcarving is a major art form in three pueblos near
Oaxaca City. Unlike weaving and many types of ceramics,
woodcarving is a relatively new art, introduced in the 1950s.
Although unpainted religious masks and small toys for children
have long been an important part of the culture, the creation of
painted animal, human and fantasy figures for purely decora-
tive purposes is a later development. Many people have taken
to incorrectly referring to this entire class of art as alebrijes,
or monsters. While some artists create monsters, many pieces
treat subjects of natural beauty (such as animals or cacti), re-
ligious beliefs or fantasy
material grounded in
myths or cultural tradi-
tions (for instance, the
nahuales captured in
many types of ceramics).

Decorative Tin Work

Tin work, or hojalata, dates back to the 16th century. It is pri-
marily created in the Xochimilco section of the city of Oaxaca.
A wide range of pieces is created by the best
artisans, most of which are decorated with bright
colors in lacquer. Some examples are Christmas
decorations, mirrors, lamps, trees of life, candle-
holders, and lanterns.
 Miniatures and Toys
The love of miniatures and other types of toys in
Oaxaca (and Mexico in general) reflects the cultures
strong investment in children and family. Nearly all
types of folk art are made in miniature: ceramics,
woodcarving, baskets, and decorative tinwork, to
name a few. Rather than being confined to particular
pueblos, creators of miniatures can usually be found
wherever folk artists work. Some artists specialize in
this medium, while others produce miniatures along
with pieces of larger dimensions.

Corn Husk Figures

Corn husk toys (and decorative objects)
are a relatively new form of folk art, referred
to as totomoxtle. Many types of doll-size
figures are produced, some engaged in
everyday activities such as cooking or sell-
ing their wares, while others are dressed in
regional costumes or other types of finery.
Totomoxtle artists also make glorious
flowers of all varieties, Christmas orna-
ments, decorated baskets and many other
objects.
Jewelry
Oaxaca offers an abundance of distinctive
jewelry, much of it at very affordable prices.
One particularly famous type is ornate filigree
that is often decorated with pearls, coral or
semi-precious stones and variously produced
in gold, gold-plate, silver and chapa de oro
(an inexpensive metal with gold tone). Basic
techniques were introduced by the Spaniards,
who were in turn influenced by the Arabs.
Reproductions of the ancient Mixtec jewelry
designs discovered in the archaeological site of
Monte Albn are produced most often in gold,
but also in silver. There is also jewelry from the
Spanish colonial period, composed of small
stones (so called white sapphires) mounted in
silver that is soldered onto gold bases. In ad-
dition, large silver Yalalag crosses, from which
smaller crosses dangle, are worn on prominent
silver chains. Tiny ceramic animals and beads
made in the pueblos of Santa Maria Atzompa and San Bartolo Coyotepec are strung together to cre-
ate necklaces.

Candles
Candles are an important part of pueblo life. They
are used for a variety of religious and other celebra-
tions such as weddings, confirmations and quincea-
os, the Mexican equivalent of Sweet Sixteen that
takes place at 15 years of age. The finer candle
makers create graceful, elaborate configurations
incorporating natural elements such as glorious flow-
ers and birds in a wide array of sizes. Candlemak-
ers create wonderful wax palettes, encompassing a
range of subtle and brilliant colors, sometimes ac-
cented with flowers of paper and tinsel.
 Basketry
Baskets of innumerable types are sold in abundance in all
indigenous markets and in shops. There are rigid laundry
baskets with tops (canastos), rigid open baskets with
handles used for marketing (canastas), bird cages, flex-
ible round wastebaskets, and cases for eyeglasses and for
money, that are made of palm. Many, however, come from
distant pueblos well beyond the geographical radius we
consider: the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and the Mixteca (in
northwestern Oaxaca).

Dried Flower Crafts

A mere handful of artisans continue to create the
beautiful, natural handicraft referred to as flores
inmortales (literally immortal flowers). The objects
fashioned from these vibrantly colored dried flow-
ers are central to many aspects of Oaxacan culture.
They are used year-round as toys, placards in re-
ligious and other celebratory processions (calen-
das), and decorations.

Day of the Dead and its Influence on Folk Art

Traditions
The Day (or more accurately Days) of the
Dead is a major stimulus for Oaxacan folk
art and handicrafts, both year-round and
during the months immediately preced-
ing this most important celebration of
 the year. There is nothing morose or
frightening about this occasion. Instead
it is an affectionate, and in some re-
spects humorous, celebration of the
memories of those departed, and of the
loving bonds their descendants sustain
with them. It is based on a derivative
of the ancient idea that death is part of
the process of life. Spirits of deceased
members of the family, of both recent
times and long ago, are believed to
rejoin their families and friends for one
day each year. The comforting unity
of family, and an appreciation of each
living persons part in the magical circle
of life and death, is experienced. The
Day of the Dead simultaneously offers the community an opportunity to publicly mock and defy death,
a devastating experience that many pueblo dwellers have come to know all too well. Performances or
processions are sometimes put on for this purpose. Pre-Hispanic elements are blended with the Ro-
man Catholic customs of All Saints Day and All Souls Day, when ancestors are honored.

The most significant indigenous holiday of the year, nearly all folk artists create pieces in its honor,
especially those who work in ceramics and woodcarving. In addition, objects are made specifically
for this occasion, for placement on home altars and gravesites. These include decorated sugar skulls
and miniature tables bearing bottles and food offerings for muertos (the souls who return for one day
to visit their families). There are also clay and wire figures of skeletons in every human pose imagin-
able (getting married, having and performing dental work, riding a bicycle, dancing, and fishing, to
name a few), pull-string skeletons that pop up within their coffins, and display boxes containing de-
tailed scenes of this event.

More Detailed Information

For more detailed information on specific pueblos and artists, you can consult Mexican Folk Art by
Oaxacan Artist Families, (www.oaxacanfolkart.com), as well as the website of Friends of Oaxacan
Folk Art (FOFA), a 501C-3 organization, devoted to the preservation and promotion of Oaxacas folk
arts (www.fofa.us).

IPA 2011 Congress Trips to Oaxaca

There will be two tours to Oaxaca before and
after the IPA Congress
(July 29-Aug. 2 and August 7- 11). The tour
will feature visits to individual artists and
pueblos, major archaeological sites, colonial
architecture and the cuisine of Oaxaca. For
information, see http://www.ividmc.com/op-
tours/ipa2011/activities.php
 Angelica Vasquez Cruz

At the IPA Congress

Six master artists two each for three days will
demonstrate their techniques in ceramics, wood-
carving, shuttle-loom weaving of woolen rugs, and
back-strap-loom cotton weaving of fine handbags,
as they narrate the meanings of their creations
(that will be for sale). This live folk artist gal-
lery, generously sponsored by Mexicos national
council for culture and the arts, CONACULTA, in
collaboration with IPA member Arden Rothstein,
PhD, author of Mexican Folk Art from Oaxacan
Artist Families, will take place on August 4, 5 and
6 in the World Trade Center, adjacent to the Con-
gresss major meeting room.

Bulmaro Perez Mendoza (shuttle loom woolen

rug weaver)
 Carlomagno Pedro Martinez

Demetrio Garcia Aguilar

Claudio Ojeda Morales and his wife and son (woodcarver)

 Martn Espada.
A poetry reading at the winter meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association on January 15,
2010

Introduction to Isabels Corrido

I went to the University of Wisconsin off and on (1977-81). One day I
did a favor for a friend. I had no idea how this favor would turn out, that
it would haunt me for many years to come, or that today I am proud of
what I did. The poem is called, Isabels Corrido.

A corrido is a Mexican narrative song-form.

Isabels Corrido
Para Isabel

Francisca said: Marry my sister so she can stay in the country.

I had nothing else to do. I was twenty-three and always cold, skidding
in cigarette-coupon boots from lamppost to lamppost through January
in Wisconsin. Francisca and Isabel washed bed sheets at the hotel,
sweating in the humidity of the laundry room, conspiring in Spanish.

I met her the next day. Isabel was nineteen, from a village where the elders
spoke the language of the Aztecs. She would smile whenever the ice pellets
of English clattered around her head. When the justice of the peace said
You may kiss the bride, our lips brushed for the first and only time.
The borrowed ring was too small, jammed into my knuckle.
There were snapshots of the wedding and champagne in plastic cups.

Francisca said: The snapshots will be proof for Immigration.

We heard rumors of the interview: they would ask me the color
of her underwear. They would ask her who rode on top.
We invented answers and rehearsed our lines. We flipped through
Immigration forms at the kitchen table the way other couples
shuffled cards for gin rummy. After every hand, Id deal again.

Isabel would say: Quiero ver las fotos. She wanted to see the pictures
of a wedding that happened but did not happen, her face inexplicably
happy, me hoisting a green bottle, dizzy after half a cup of champagne.

Francisca said: She can sing corridos, songs of love and revolution
from the land of Zapata. All night Isabel sang corridos in a barroom
where no one understood a word. I was the bouncer and her husband,
so I hushed the squabbling drunks, who blinked like tortoises in the sun.
Her boyfriend and his beer cans never understood why she married me.
Once he kicked the front door down, and the blast shook the house
as if a hand grenade detonated in the hallway. When the cops arrived,
I was the translator, watching the sergeant watching her, the inscrutable
squaw from every Western he had ever seen, bare feet and long black hair.

We lived behind a broken door. We lived in a city hidden from the city.
When her headaches began, no one called a doctor. When she disappeared
for days, no one called the police. When we rehearsed the questions
for Immigration, Isabel would squint and smile. Quiero ver las fotos,
she would say. The interview was canceled, like a play on opening night
shut down when the actors are too drunk to take the stage. After she left,
I found her crayon drawing of a bluebird tacked to the bedroom wall.

I left too, and did not think of Isabel again until the night Francisca called to say:
Your wife is dead. Something was growing in her brain. I imagined my wife
who was not my wife, who never slept beside me, sleeping in the ground,
wondered if my name was carved into the cross above her head, no epitaph
and no corrido, another ghost in a riot of ghosts evaporating from the skin
of dead Mexicans who staggered for days without water through the desert.

Thirty years ago, a girl from the land of Zapata kissed me once
on the lips and died with my name nailed to hers like a broken door.
I kept a snapshot of the wedding; yesterday it washed ashore on my desk.

There was a conspiracy to commit a crime. This is my confession: Id do it again.

 Contributors

Professor Martn Espada, called the Latino poet of his genera-

tion and the Pablo Neruda of North American authors, was
born in Brooklyn, New York in 1957. He has published seven-
teen books in all as a poet, editor, essayist and translator. The
Republic of Poetry, a collection of poems published by Norton
in 2006, received the Paterson Award for Sustained Literary
Achievement and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Price; his next
collection, The Trouble Ball, is forthcoming from Norton in spring
2011. A collection of essays, The Lover of a Subversive is Also
a Subversive, was just released by the University of Michigan.
He has received numerous awards and fellowships, including

Dr. Prudence Gourguechon is immediate past president of the

American Psychoanalytic Association, where she previously
served as Secretary and Editor of TAP. She is interested in
the application of psychoanalytic ideas to a wide range of is-
sues and endeavors in the public arena. She blogs for Psy-
chology Today and Huffington Post commenting on political
and cultural issues. In addition to a private clinical practice
in Chicago, she is interested in using psychoanalytic ideas in
consulting to business, not for profits, political campaigns and
the media. She travels to Mexico as often as she can.

Danielle Knafo, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Clinical Psychology

Doctoral Program at Long Island Universitys C.W. Post Campus
and Associate Professor and Supervisor at NYUs Postdoctoral
Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. Dr. Knafos
books include: Egon Schiele: A Self in Creation, Unconscious
Fantasies and the Relational World, Living with Terror, Working
with Trauma: A Clinicians Handbook, and In Her Own Image:
Womens Self-Representation in Twentieth-Century
Art. Dr. Knafo has written and lectured extensively on
psychoanalysis, trauma, gender and creativity. She
is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst and she
maintains a private practice in Manhattan and Great
Neck, NY.
Arden Rothstein, PhD is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry,
NYU School of Medicine, Training and Supervising Analyst at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Educa-
tion affiliated with NYU School of Medicine, and the author of psychoanalytic books and papers. She
also has a second career that had its roots in her adolescence, when she fell in love with Oaxaca in
1961 -- just before her 14th birthday -- having traveled there for the first of three summers to partici-
pate in a cultural program for American girls. This was a life-altering experience with many facets.
Most important was getting to know folk artists and their families in the pueblos surrounding Oaxaca
City. Decades later, Arden introduced her daughters and husband to this enchanted place, where they
devoted the majority of their time to visiting artists in their pueblos and learning about their crafts. This
culminated in the creation of a guide to the regions spectrum of folk arts Mexican Folk Art from
Oaxacan Artist Families -- co-authored and co-photographed with her daughter, Anya, in 2002. An
expanded second edition was published in 2007. The Rothstein family has hosted numerous artesa-
nos in New York City, arranging demonstrations in schools and museums, and helping them market
their work. The Rothsteins have a large personal collection of Oaxacan folk art that graces their home
and professional offices. Arden is also President of Friends of Oaxacan Folk Art, or FOFA (www.fofa.
us), a 501-C3 organization whose mission it is to preserve and promote the folk arts of Oaxaca.
The cover was created in Illustrator. The graphics were created
in Fireworks. The magazine layout was set up in InDesign. All of
these programs are Adobe products.