National Psyche in Free Mexican Wall Calendars

Many years ago when I first read the following passage from Alan Riding’s highly acclaimed book “Distant Neighbors: A Portrait of the Mexicans,” I was quite impressed with its attempt to describe “Mexicanness’ or, in other words, the anthropological, sociological, psychological, philosophical, and cultural essence or psyche of  the Mexican people whose population is largely made up of a vast majority of mestizos and a significant minority percentage of indigenous individuals. “The key lies in the past, a deep subconscious past that stays alive in Mexico today. It is a continuous past, but not a consistent past. In it, Mexicans must conciliate being conquered and conquerer, retaining many of the racial characteristics and personality traits of the Indians and even glorifying their pre-Hispanic heritage, while speaking Spanish, practicing Catholicism..." Little did I know then that after having now  lived in the heartland of Mexico for five years that I would be accurately utilizing that quote in describing the significance of the free wall calendars that merchants in Mexico distribute to their customers.

You see, in the small town that I have lived in for the past five years as an American expatriate, Churintzio, Michoacan, many of the merchants in the community such as pharmacies, shoe stores, paint shops, fruit and vegetable markets, small groceries, building supply stores, and grain and feed stores at the end of the year hand out free calendars as a form of goodwill and advertising to their customers-this calendar give-away is widespread throughout the country in various-sized locales. So popular and coveted are these calendars that many merchants in town wait until early-mid January to hand them out as by then most of the Nortenos (residents or ex-residents of the town who reside in the U.S. and return home for a good part of the Christmas season) leave town and those merchants prefer to give the expensive and limited in supply calendars to their regular customers rather than those temporary, migratory visitors from up North; they will tell those regulars in advance the date that they will be available as did our produce vendor whose distribution date this year is January 6th. These calendars are typically, but not exclusively, colorful recreations of works of art.

Consequently, seeing an opportunity to literally freely add to the ever-growing “Mexican museum” in our mostly humble adobe abode (not to mention my Type A personality compulsion and obsession for always having to know past, present, and future dates) my wife, Maria, every year attempts to get as many of those calendars as possible from the merchants that she frequents in town. Thus, one extremely large, high wall in our home is covered, vertically and horizontally, with the “best” of these calendars, past and present. However, only quite recently did I realize how, going back to the above quote, that the calendars cumulatively represent the national identity of the Mexican people.

With the exception of a few stray images of cute puppies, adorable kittens, and gangly ponies (none of which adorn that particular wall) all of the calendars that we have received are illustrative of three, oftentimes overlapping themes. The first theme is indigenous in nature while the second depicts the country’s Spanish conquest and colonial heritage and the last is decidedly Catholic. Some of those art work recreations have titles affixed to them while others do not.

Hanging from our wall, a calendar displaying a picture of an Indian village, perhaps from the late 16th or early 17th century, is most illustrative of the first theme along with elements of the two other themes. In the foreground is a lovely Indian maiden during what appears to be a tianguis/open air market day in a village setting up a table with gorgeous flowers, clay pots of food, and fruit drinks while behind her are adult male and female vendors and customers and in the background is a small Catholic church. Another calendar in a pastoral setting with sheep and a mountain in the background shows two Indian children playing with puppies at a river’s edge while an angel hovers above them. A third calendar entitled “Tierra Bonita” depicts another lovely Indian maiden cradling corn in her arms while behind her a male Indian is harvesting the corn crop in the field. with a flock of doves circling above them.

Two calendars vividly represent the Spanish conquest of the Americas. One “Descrubrimiento de America” depicts Cristopher Columbus in the foreground while a docile kneeling topless Indian maiden is making a food offering to him while directly behind him is a priest with a cross held high in his left hand while pointing to the maiden with his right hand as he is followed by Columbus’ crew with his ships in the background. The other, “La Noche Triste”/The Sad Night shows Dona Maria for centuries known to Mexicans as La Malinche/The Traitor sitting with her arms draped around the knees of an armored Hernan Cortes; La Malinche was a Nahua Indian who was one of twenty Indians given to Cortes by Gulf Coast natives and played a role in the conquest of Mexico by serving as Cortes’ interpreter, advisor, intermediary, lover, and mother to his first son who is said to be one of the first Mexican mestizos.

Far and away the most numerous of the calendars hanging on the wall are Catholic themed, keeping in mind that much of the Catholism observed in Mexico is a merging of pre-Hispanic indigenous and traditional Spanish/Western practices. The image of the iconic Virgen de Guadalupe who is said to be the manifestation of the Virgin Mary is prominent in many; in one, her prototypical image appears by itself while in another Pope Benedict XVI is in the foreground while her image is behind the Pope- there are other calendars of the Pope by himself. Another calendar “Angel de la Guardia” shows the Guardian Angel looking over two young Caucasian children, apparently a brother and sister. Christ’s image also appears in many of the calendars (even one that did not come from Churintzio but rather from a large Mexican grocery in San Jose, California which has a large Mexican population).

Moreover, also interesting and compelling, from my perspective, is what themes are not represented (or at least underrepresented) in the calendars that I have seen handed out, in people's homes. and/or collected myself. Never have I seen any landscapes-desert, jungle, mangrove, forest or otherwise-by themselves. Nor are there any of modern city scenes or beach resorts by white sandy beaches or any still lifes of Mexico's amazing array of tropical fruits and vegetables. Surprisingly to me, in hyper nationalistically chauvinistic Mexico, neither have I come across more than one or two depicting the Mexican War of Independence or the Mexican Revolution.

Thus, only recently when thinking as to how to frame this “calendar” article, after years of collecting and appreciating these unique and distinctive Mexican calendar art forms but not really realizing their implications vis-a-vis the national psyche, I had an epiphany, albeit of a sociological and cultural kind rather than a religious one as Mexicans view time and themselves in a circular manner rather the Western linear one. Taken as a whole, these calendars are symbolic of how Mexicans seem to be unable, both negatively and positively, as Riding observed in "Distant Neighbors," “to detach themselves from a past to which they still belong. Preferring to look back, they have ample material on which to contemplate: in the history of Mexico as perceived today lies the past that overshadows the present and continues to shape the future.”

As for my future, I can hardly wait to get more of this "ample material," those time-centric snapshots into the "real" Mexico since I have another two adjoining walls waiting for- despite Maria's protests that "basta es basta"/enough is enough as she says about all of my collections- my adopted country's past, present, and (more than likely) future to be suspended from!

POSTSCRIPT:

Part of the future firmly tied to the nation's past has arrived just slightly before the new year. The newest dated member of my collection will soon make an appearance on the wall. Thanks to a local farmacia, in our possession now is "Paz en la Tierra," a representation of the Holy Spirit as symbolized by a dove which is seen hovering above the Biblia Sagrada/Holy Bible amidst the rays of the sun and a mountainous valley covered with colorful daisies.