Today is Cinco De Mayo which is a time to celebrate. An explanation of that day is, "Cinco de Mayo, or the fifth of May, is a holiday that celebrates the date of the Mexican army’s May 5, 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War. The day, which falls on Friday, May 5 in 2023, is also known as Battle of Puebla Day. While it is a relatively minor holiday in Mexico, in the United States, Cinco de Mayo has evolved into a commemoration of Mexican culture and heritage, particularly in areas with large Mexican-American populations." Source: https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/cinco-de-mayo
We were also informed of some really neat facts such as, "Cinco de Mayo means 5th of May in Spanish. It is the anniversary of a battle that took place between the Mexicans and the French in 1862. Mexico had many rich natural resources and gold, which made them vulnerable to other nations that wanted to take advantage of these riches.The battle is known as the Battle of Puebla. This victory also marks a turning point in Mexican national pride. A small, poorly armed group of about 4,500 men were able to stop the invasion of a well-equipped French army that had about 6,500 or even 8,000 soldiers. Their success helped Mexican people feel very happy and helped create a feeling of national unity. While Cinco de Mayo is a national holiday in Mexico, it is mainly observed in the state capital of Puebla. However, in the United States, it is becoming a popular holiday to celebrate Mexican culture. On May 9 1862, Mexican President Benito Juárez declared a national holiday called The Battle of Puebla Day or Battle of Cinco de Mayo. However, it is no longer considered a national holiday today. The largest Cinco de Mayo event in the world is held in Los Angeles, California, where more than 600,000 people celebrate with music and food. The whole event is called Festival de Fiesta Broadway. In 1933, U.S President Franklin Roosevelt created the “Good Neighbor Policy” enabling good diplomatic relations with Latin American countries. However, it was only in the 1970s and ‘80s when Cinco de Mayo became a popular event in the U.S. In 2005, under the administration of George W. Bush, Cinco de Mayo became recognized as a national holiday to be celebrated in the U.S because of its historical significance. According to Forbes, Americans eat 81 million tons of avocados during Cinco de Mayo. Two other big festivals are held far from Mexico, in Denver, Colorado, and St Paul’s, Minnesota, but they draw hundreds of thousands of participants. The Cinco de Mayo festival in Chandler, Arizona, is known for its Chihuahuas! There are Chihuahua parades, races and pageants. At the end, a King and Queen of the Chihuahuas are crowned.Traditional Mexican foods such as tacos, burritos and enchiladas are served.The Cinco de Mayo celebrations that take place also highlight the traditional dances, dress, and decorations of Mexico. Aside from the U.S and Mexico, it is also celebrated in Australia, Japan, South Africa, and Canada. In Vancouver, people hold an annual skydiving festival called the Cinco de
Mayo Boogie as part of celebrating Mexican culture." Source: https://kidskonnect.com/holidays-seasons/cinco-de-mayo/
To rejoice in this day we watched a neat video regarding Mexico: https://youtu.be/NJNyfITr2mA
We learnt that Chocolate and originally came from this country. We enjoyed our favourite version of chocolate this day as a mini treat and wished we had popcorn.
We also learnt that this great artist Frida Kahlo came from Mexico from this cute source: https://youtu.be/AwZc_he1tes
Visiting this page: https://www.museofridakahlo.org.mx/ we discovered that "This year we commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Frida Kahlo Museum, the Blue House. Since 1958, we have witnessed the evolution of art and culture in Mexico and visited by millions of people from all over the world. The house-museum has a unique collection of personal objects, works of art and photographs that offer an intimate insight into the life of Frida Kahlo." We wish the organization a joyous celebration.
It is important to note that, "Frida Kahlo is among the most famous Mexican artists of the 1900s. She was known especially for her disturbing style and her many unsmiling self-portraits. She often included skulls, daggers, and bleeding hearts in her paintings. The pain Kahlo expressed in her paintings came from her own life. She was born Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón in Coyoacán, Mexico, on July 6, 1907. She suffered from the disease polio at 6 years old and walked with a limp the rest of her life. At 18 she was nearly killed in a bus crash. Her injuries were so severe that she spent many weeks in the hospital. She felt physical pain throughout her life. Kahlo began painting self-portraits while in the hospital. Once she was well, she showed her paintings to the famous Mexican painter Diego Rivera. Rivera was enthusiastic. He encouraged her and promoted her work to others. Kahlo and Rivera married in 1929. They divorced in 1939 but remarried in 1941. During her life Kahlo was more famous in the United States and Europe than in her homeland. Since her death, on July 13, 1954, she has become equally famous in Mexico." Source: https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/Frida-Kahlo/400121#:~:text=Frida%20Kahlo%20is%20among%20the%20most%20famous%20Mexican,in%20her%20paintings%20came%20from%20her%20own%20life.
Who was Diego Rivera exacly? "The Mexican artist Diego Rivera is known for creating large murals, or wall paintings. In his murals he represented scenes from Mexico’s history, telling of its cultures, farming and industry, wars, and politics. His paintings feature bright colors and are crowded with people and symbols. Rivera was born on December 8, 1886, in Guanajuato, Mexico. At age 10 he earned a scholarship to study art in Mexico City. In 1907 he won a scholarship that allowed him to travel to Europe. He studied art in Spain and then settled in Paris, France. In Paris Rivera began painting in a style called Cubism. In this style the subject is broken apart into basic shapes, such as squares, triangles, and circles. In about 1917 his style changed. He began to use simple forms and bold areas of color.
In 1921 Rivera returned to Mexico. He and the Mexican painter David Alfaro Siqueiros hoped to create a new kind of art especially for Mexico. They wanted to paint murals on buildings where everyone could see them. The murals would tell the stories of the Mexican people.Rivera completed his first important mural in 1923. He was soon hired to paint murals on several public buildings in Mexico. Between 1930 and 1934 Rivera painted murals in the United States. He died on November 25, 1957, in Mexico City. Frida Kahlo, his wife, also was a famous painter." Source: https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/Diego-Rivera/353719 A great video on his painting process is shared at: https://youtu.be/6_eMmicft6Y
This is our version of a mural:
Their love story is rather unique as they met when she was 15 and he was 35 then at age 21 she married him. They loved each other yet had an open relationship and they divorced and remarried one year later and when she died it was Diego's idea to make their home a museum. A wonderful vifeo can be viewed: https://youtu.be/rwzFLgZSaGY
We subscribe to Art History Kids Newsletter and the amazing Lotus and her wonderful team offer a free Frida Kahlo resource which we downloaded from: https://www.arthistorykids.com/resourcelibrary In a posting from her blog from June 2016 she shares a great book recommendations and headband crafts: https://www.arthistorykids.com/blog/2016/6/28/frida-kahlo-for-kids-dress-up-and-paint-self-portraits Her team reminds us, "Self portraits are a really fun project to do with kids... especially when your are referencing the spectacularly stylish Frida Kahlo for inspiration. She was her own best subject, as she suffered from health problems that often kept her confined to her home. Each self portrait she created reveals a new idea, a new layer to her thoughts, and an artistic flair that was all her own. She was well known for her use of bold and vibrant colors, and her self assured and confident style. She was (and still is) a fashion icon, and she artistically decorated herself as if she was the canvas."
From the free resource provided by Lotus we chose a frame and Barron created a picture of Frida to celebrate this important woman and this important day.
Scrolling through her fabulous postings another mention of Frida occurred by a team member who writes, "As we continue to come to grips with the enforced social isolation we’re presently facing, it’s interesting to note that being isolated has led some people to become artists; great artists in fact! Mexican artist Frida Kahlo whose art is recognised by her use of bright colours and Mexican symbology, contracted polio as a child and was bedbound for 9 months. This wasn’t the first time she endured isolation. When Kahlo was 18, she was involved in a terrible traffic accident and was bedridden for months. She experienced a lot of pain and had to have many operations throughout her life due to the accident, which lead to Kahlo spending a great deal of time by herself. To keep from being bored, Kahlo took up painting. She initially borrowed paints and brushes from her father who was a professional photographer and amateur artist. He even made a special bed-easel and fixed a mirror above her bed so that she could paint portraits of herself as she lay down flat in bed with her body wrapped in plaster. Of the143 paintings Kahlo created, 55 of them were self-portraits! “I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best.”— Frida Kahlo
Kahlo’s large 5’8” x 5’8” oil painting, The Two Fridas (1939) reveals two versions of Kahlo each featuring an exposed heart.
The hearts are reminiscent of those viewed in medical text books. Frida had been preparing to study medicine prior to the traffic accident and would have been exposed to detailed illustrations of the body. This certainly would have contributed to the detail we see in her artworks. Many of Kahlo’s paintings depict the pain and isolation that she experienced throughout her life. This did not stop her from being a lively character or achieving great things. Kahlo was the first Mexican artist to have artwork displayed in the renowned Louvre Museum in Paris. In 1946 Kahlo received the National Prize of Arts and Sciences from the Mexican Government. Her paintings are now so revered that any displayed in Mexico (or which are part of private collections), have been declared ‘Artistic Heritage’ of the nation and cannot be sold outside the country. Kahlo completed many drawings of her foot when she was confined to bed. Her painting What the Water Gave Me (1938) features the reflection of her feet in the water. It is considered to be a biographical painting; a reflection of her life. A wonderful story about Frida Kahlo (and her practice of foot drawing) can be found in the Little People, BIG DREAMS series. It also offers an interesting timeline of the artists’ life. Self-Portraits Maybe it would be fun to paint a self portrait in bed with the help of a mirror. (Washable crayons may be a better choice to minimize the mess.) Or you might like the idea of running a bath and studying the reflection of your feet on the water… or a body part that is perhaps a little easier to focus on without getting all wrinkly is a finger! Finger Portrait Mirror Study Decide which finger you’d like to draw. Position your chosen finger in front of a mirror. Study the reflection of your finger rather than at the finger itself. Pay close attention to the shape, creases, lines, scars, freckles…etc., on your finger and draw it in your chosen finger frame. Draw another finger in a different frame till you have an entire ‘gallery’ of finger portraits. Decorate the frames too! You can even use your talented finger to color-in some one-line coloring pages of Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits. Select the ‘on-line coloring’ option and use bright colours to honour Kahlo’s vibrant style." Source: https://www.arthistorykids.com/blog/218-wn3k5
We found a few other crafts for free on this topic, a neat template when you sign up via email is found at: https://www.mommymadethat.com/frida-kahlo-craft/ There are also two neat free crafts from this webpage that are given via email sign up: https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/frida-kahlo-coloring/ and https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/frida-kahlo-collage/
We chose to download the instant colouring page for free from:
https://artprojectsforkids.org/draw-frida-kahlo/
We traced it and Barron made this from some sources we gathered and some carnation boquet we purchased at our local No Frills:
We have two lovey Google Play books which mention Frida and Diego, one very detailed and another a super summary these are our
shared screenshots:
Barron and I also tried this neat dancing activity from this video:https://youtu.be/5pA8gNj13_4
Together as a couple you can view this lovely piece: https://youtu.be/9dIUCZGLRNM
This is a nice map of Mexico available at: https://www.worldatlas.com/maps/mexico
A favourite video of ours with these two cuties, enjoy at: https://youtu.be/iTGhOJ3rt44
