|
The toys of yester years exhibition
Notimex/JOT - El Financiero - May 2008
Photos by Jesús de Avila | Translated by Eduardo Rincón Gallardo
•Exhibit at El Carmen Museum in Mexico City.
• The presentation is aimed at presenting their role within the religious festivities.
 Traditional Mexican toys like the “Balero” (a wooden cylinder with a hole at its base, tethered to a stick that is handled with the aim of pulling the cylinder in a way that it will turn in the air and insert into the stick), the yo-yo (also a wooden one), dolls, soldiers, cars, among others, came back to life in the exhibition "Entre Santos, Juguetes y Demonios - Los juguetes populares mexicanos en las fiestas religiosas" (Among Saints, Toys and Demons – Mexican popular toys in the religious festivities).
The show, just inaugurated at the Casa del Acueducto (aqueduct house), in the Museo de El Carmen in Mexico City, represents a brief tour around these kinds of toys which became a key element in the religious festivities in this country, though this tradition is being lost in time.
When the exhibit started, the museum’s director, Alfredo Marín, highlighted the importance of presenting this fun activity where children can see the toys that were placed for sale on stands on fairs.
“These are pieces that surprise and enliven us. Kids love them and they bring about memories in adults”, said Marín, reminding us that the show is presented in April, the month of kids, “as a gift of our traditions”.
With children’s music in the background, the show gathers part of Juan Jiménez’s toy collection, who mentioned that the objects shown are part of towns’ festivities, some dating back to colonial times and have in some cases disappeared.
 “The idea is to rescue this kinds of toys so today’s kids get to know them. Some are articles made during religious festivities like the Day of Saint John, Corpus Christi’s Thursday and Christmas”, Jiménez added.
What he likes best about his collection of over three thousand toys, Jiménez says, "is to know that people will get to know them, for if no one collected them traditions would be lost”.
He also noted that some of his preferred toys are the Judases, for their colorfulness, plus having a very valuable meaning that has been changing with the passing of time.
Towards the end, the collector pointed out that some of the reasons for the scant commercialization of Mexican toys is due to the preference for selling plastic toys and people will not buy a more expensive item no matter the amount of work the artisan put into it.
 He also declared that parents are the ones in charge of bringing back our traditions, they are the ones who can buy those toys for their children motivating them to enjoy and have fun with them as they did when they were kids.
The show is divided among the festivities and you can also observe paintings that reflect the innocence of children looking for a fun and pleasant time.
Sweets, reeds, paper, corn and palm leaves, rubber, clay, wax and different types of cardboard give life to toys presented at fairs, Holy Week and other festivities.
The exhibit "Entre Santos, Juguetes y Demonios - Los juguetes populares mexicanos en las fiestas religiosas" (Among Saints, Toys and Demons – Mexican popular toys in the religious festivities) is presented thanks to the National Council for Culture and the Arts, through the National Institute of Anthropology and History, the exhibit will last until May 18. Email to a friend
Source: www.presidencia.gob.mx/
My Feedback about this Article
Previous Articles
|
Current
Weather Report
