Flor de Maria IX

In memory of my mother: May all these flowers fill your path with light and stars!

The Aztec poet Nezahualcoyotl wrote in his poem "IN XOCHITL IN CUICATL" (title: Flower and Song): "With what shall I go? Shall I leave nothing behind of me upon the earth? How shall my heart act? Are we perhaps in vain coming to live, to sprout upon the earth? Let us at least leave flowers! Let us at least leave songs!" What do I take with me? What do I leave on the earth? How should my heart act? Are we perhaps in vain coming to live, to sprout upon the earth? Let us at least leave flowers! Let us at least leave songs!

"CECEN MICTITTLAMANTILIZTLI IXHUA CE CUICATL" (Nahuatl). "In every form of death a song of flowers arises." (Karloz Atl). In our Mexican tradition death is experienced as a celebration of colors and life; it is not seen as a sad event but as a new birth. In the other world the traveler between the worlds is accompanied by tastes, colors, music, flowers, festivals and memories, to remain united with them until our "reunion" in the spiritual world. For the artist the duality of life and death exists, death not being an absolute end but an expression of growing beauty, a renewed life cycle in art and memory.