Mexican author Carlos Fuentes dies at 83

May 15 (Reuters) – Mexican author Carlos Fuentes has died at the age of 83, President Felipe Calderon said on Tuesday via his Twitter account.

Fuentes was known for works including The Death of Artemio Cruz and The Old Gringo. (Reporting by Liz Diaz, writing by Krista Hughes; Editing by Anthony Boadle)

Latino Performers Shine at Coachella Music Festival

Over the last two weeks, music lovers from around the world flocked to Indo, California to take part in The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, an annual music event featuring genres of music ranging from rock, indie, hip hop and electronic music, as well as a large display of sculptural art.

This year’s festival – which wrapped this past Sunday after two weekends of shows, featured over 100 artists including main headliners The Black Keys, Radiohead, and Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg. Some notable Latino acts also took the stage alongside these big names, and have proved to be a formidable force at this year’s event.

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The National Museum of the American Indian Exhibits the “Vochol”: The Huichol Indian Decorated VW Bug

The Vochol, a piece of contemporary indigenous artwork, is being exhibited at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian from March 21 through May 6, 2012 in Washington, D.C. as part of its international tour. The museum welcomes the 1990s Volkswagen Beetle named “Vochol” decorated by indigenous craftsmen from the Huichol (Wixaritari) communities of Nayarit and Jalisco, Mexico, who used more than 2 million glass beads and fabric to decorate the vehicle.

The name Vochol is a combination of vocho, a name for the Volkswagen Beetle in Mexico, and Huichol, which are the native Mexican Indians who beaded the car, originally from West Central Mexico and widely recognized for their colorful beadwork and fiber arts. The Huichol Indians took seven months to bead and design the car, which depict culturally important designs, ceremonies and historic events, including the Mexican Revolution and Mexican independence from Spain; the Vochol serves as a demonstration of the complex intersections between traditional and modern cultures, and helps promote the Huichol Indians’ rich culture and talent.

This one-of-a-kind vehicle is presented in collaboration with the Association of Friends of the Museo de Arte Popular and the Museo de Arte Popular in Mexico City, the Embassy of Mexico and the Mexican Cultural Institute. President Marie Thérèse Hermand de Arango of Mexico’s Museum of Popular Art, shared the Vochol’s latest itinerary for the international tour in an exclusive interview with MexicoToday.org, stating, “Following the Washington, D.C. exhibition, the Vochol will visit Denver in June for two months,” and, “After going back to Mexico for a first restoration, the Vochol will travel by sea to Paris, France where it will be exhibited on October 1. We are hoping to also show it in Brussels where we are in conversations with a famous venue. Following a second trip to Mexico for another restoration, the Vochol will come back to the United States for the April 2013 inauguration of an important building in Houston, Texas.”

For more on the Vochol, click here to see MexicoToday’s exclusive photos of the inauguration at the National Museum of the American Indian.

Philip Guston’s 1935 Mural “The Inquisition” Undergoes Restoration in Morelia, Mexico

Hidden for almost 40 years after its creation in 1935, “The Inquisition (also known as “The Struggle against War and Terror”), a 1024 square foot mural by renowned artists Philip Guston and Reuben Kadish, will undergo restoration and shared with the world.

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Frida Kahlo’s Personal Collection of Photos Shown for the First Time in the United States After More Than Half a Century

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) is one of the most well known Mexican artists in the world. Now, for the first time in the U.S., a selection of Kahlo’s personal photographs will be on display, drawing new insight into the artist’s tumultuous personal and professional life. “Frida Kahlo: Her Photos”, inaugurated on February 23, will go through March 25, 2012 at Artisphere – the first and only venue in the United States to present this exhibition.

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The SFMOMA Hosts the Exhibit “Photography in Mexico” including Mexican Photographer Pablo Ortiz Monasterio

Thanks to a recent major gift from Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, presenting a complex synthesis of art and politics, “Photography in Mexico” explores Mexico’s diverse and distinctively rich photography tradition from the 1920s until today. Photographies being exhibited include Edward Weston’s “Pirámide del Sol”, Teotihuacán, 1923; Lola Álvarez Bravo’s “Los gorrones”, 1955; Graciela Iturbide’s “Nuestra Señora de las Iguanas”, Juchitan, Oaxaca, Mexico, 1979; and Alejandro Cartagena’s “Fragmented Cities, Juarez #2” from the Suburbia Mexicana series, 2007.

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Exhibit Features Aztec Artifacts from Ancient School

The Cultural Centre of Spain in Mexico City just launched a new exhibit featuring Aztec artifacts belonging to an ancient school. Archaeologists have revealed that the excavated school, known as the Calmecac, is thought to have been a place of education for the future of the Aztec elite. The Aztec youth were trained militarily and politically in the school to pursue lives of greatness and leadership. Students went on to become priests, governors, and fighters after leaving the Calmecac. Javier Gonzalez, the spokesperson for Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History explained, “So this was an institution where the children of nobility, generally speaking, were prepared to be future leaders and governors of Tenochtitlan or warriors.”

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Diego Rivera: “Classical Head” (1898)

Classical Head. 1898. Oil on canvas. 48.5 x 39.2 cm. Museo Casa Diego Rivera, Guanajuato, Mexico.

Diego Rivera: “Head of a Goat. / Cabeza de cabra” (1904)

Early drawing from Mexican artist Diego Rivera. Credit Rafael Coronel Collection, Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Diego Rivera: “Portrait of Ramon Gomez de la Serna” (1915)

Ramon Gomez de la Serna was a Spanish writer, dramatist and avant-garde agitator. This famous cubist portrait of Ramon Gomez de la Serna, painted in 1915 by Diego Rivera, was lost without trace during the civil war but resurfaced to become the ‘property’ of a Mexican millionaire.