Our grandkids love Dr. Seuss’ book Wacky Wednesday just as much as our sons did when they were little. The alliteration always appealed to be, so I lookedfor one to go with miércoles, which is Spanish for Wednesday (and no, the Spanish do not capitalize days of the week). Today was more wonderful than wacky, although the décor in the restaurant where we ate lunch might qualify. I’ll let you judge from the pictures Ted and I took.
Our day began with needing to be out of our house for a few hours. The contractors working to complete the gramophone museum being built next door discovered evidence of termites – a definite problem for a place planned to house vintage wooden cabinetry and gorgeous wooden gramophone horns. Since our townhouse shares a wall with its twin, the contractor and museum owners wanted to ensure that our place was also free of pests who might “migrate”. It’s hard to believe that anything could bore through the foot thick stone and mortar walls, but better safe than sorry.
Ted and I had been talking about visiting another couple of small museums very near here anyway, so needing to be out for a few hours made those museums and a late breakfast the order of the day.
We started our day at the Museo de Arte Popular de Yucatan, the Yucatecan folk art museum, located in the beautiful Casa Molina on the Parque de la Mejorada. The casa was built in 1900 for Carmela Molina as a gift from her father, Olegario Molina Solís (a wealthy henequen merchant and one-time Governor of Yucatán) on the occasion of her marriage. The architectural project was carried out by the Italian architect Enrico Deserti. The house is in the Porfirian design of that era, incorporating classical and European elements in a mix unique to turn of the 20th century Mérida.
There are six exhibition rooms on the upper floor: Popular Art, Clothing and Millennial Art of Weaving, Yucatecan Image, Sacred Spaces, Diversity in Art, Gift of the Earth, and Enduring Techniques, plus a temporary exhibition hall on the ground floor that currently houses stunningly beautiful 20th century Mexican designer dresses, most of them by Josefa Ibarra, whose interview on a 1970’s television program plays outside the exhibit. Despite the relatively small size of the museum, there were lots of photo-worthy items on display.
Having enjoyed the folk art exhibits, we next took in the temporary exhibit, focussed on late 20th century Mexican couture clothing, largely by a designer named Josefa Ibarra. If you’re old enough to remember the beautiful dresses featured in the movie Ten, with Bo Derek and Dudley Moore, or the flowy caftan that Glenda Jackson wore in 1973’s A Touch of Class, then you’ve seen Josefa’s work.
The gorgeous fine cotton fabrics, vibrant dyes, intricate stitching, and flowing designs all reminded me of Dr. Linda Bradley, who lectured so brilliantly about textiles during the first leg of our world cruise last year. I was inspired to send her some of these images, as well as keeping them here in our blog. Episode 169 – Fashion and Food.
While a few of the folk art items we saw at the museum could be described as a bit wacky, it was our lunch venue’s choice of art that truly qualified. We ate at GastroBarrio El Templo, where we were just in time to take advantage of their late breakfast menu and enjoy oat and banana pancakes, and French toast with bacon, both served with fresh watermelon and papaya.
The décor intrigued and amused us: a mix of religious themes, celebrity portraits, and tongue-in-cheek pseudo religious images.
After breakfast we headed to the Museum of Yucatecán songs, where we learned about the composers and performers of trova, which has become a favourite music style of mine. That deserves es a blog post of its own.
Rose and Ted’s Excellent Adventure 