The Center for Arts in San Agustín Etla and Francisco Toledo

One of my favorite places to visit when in Oaxaca is the Center for the Arts in San Agustín Etla, after of course coming from having several delicious tamales in the market in Etla on a Wedneday, their market day.  

I always stop at "Tamales Maty".  That morning I bought Flor de Calabazas (squash blossoms), Pollo y Salsa Verde (chicken with green sauce) and Rajas (roasted poblanos).  Just delicious.  And she remembered me from my previous visit!  She always throws in one or two different tamales as an extra treat.

 

 

The Fabrica de Hilados y Tejidos La Soledad (La Soledad Yarns and Fabrics Factory) was founded in 1883 in the small community of San Agustín Etla. It was abandoned less than a century after its inception.

 

In 2000, Juchitan-born artist Francisco Toledo (17 July 1940 - 5 September 2019) spearheaded an initiative to turn the then-derelict building into an ecological arts center, which opened in 2006. 

Today, water features, gardens, and abandoned industrial machinery dot the complex.

The trees surrounding the complex are just magnificent .

The current exposition in the main building is the work of Francisco Toledo.  This main expansive space is just stunning.  The steel columns came from Chicago Steel & Iron.

Toledo works in every conceivable medium—oil, watercolor, ink, metal, he makes cloth puppets, lithographs, tapestries, ceramics, mosaics and much, much more.

He designed tapestries with the village craftsmen of Teotitlán del Valle.  These two weaving demonstrate his opposition to the introduction of genetically modified corn into Mexico, something that has been a huge issue in the Oaxaca valley.
 

His iron works are wonderful.

 

Toledo was heavily influenced by Zapotec myths and legends, and the wildlife and flora of a his rural upbringing. His work is filled with the many Zapotec deities, the bat god, the gods of rain and fire, and the sacred animals—rabbits, coyotes, jaguars, deer and turtles.

Toledo's devotion to social and cultural concerns did not stop here.  He participated in the establishment of an art library at the Instituto de Artes Gráficas de Oaxaca (IAGO), in the founding of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca (MACO), the Patronato Pro-Defensa y Conservación del Patrimonio Cultural de Oaxaca, a library for the blind, a photographic center, and the Eduardo Mata Music Library. 

 

He fought against the building of a McDonald's in Oaxaca City, right in the zocalo.

He announced that he would take off all his clothes and stand naked in front of the  proposed site.  He would enlist the help of a few fellow artists and hand out free tamales to anyone who joined the protest, reminding them of their true native food.
Hundreds of people marched in the 2002 event, chanting “Tamales, yes! Hamburgers, no!” In the end,  Toledo did not find it necessary to take off his clothes.

 

And how fortunate my group and I were there for this latest exhibition, especially honoring the artist who was instrumental in restoring this outstanding complex.  What a beautiful setting!