Mexican Calendar Girls: Chicas de calendarios Mexicanos (Paperback)

~ Angela Villalba (Author), Carlos Monsivais (Foreword)
Key Phrases: exclusive calendar, pinturas originales, calendar painters, Galas de México, Collection of Museo Soumaya, Antonio Gómez (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A truly popular art form, the glamorous paintings of Mexican calendar girls have a long and fascinating history—as advertisements, enticements, and emblems of Mexican cultural heritage and pride. The result of years of research, this playful and informative book reproduces more than 150 vibrantly colorful calendar images, plus archival photographs and other materials that illuminate their creation. A fully bilingual text gives an overview of the calendars' social and cultural history, along with biographies of the talented artists who created them. Also including a foreword by the renowned Mexican cultural critic Carlos Monsiváis, Mexican Calendar Girls presents this popular and delightful art as never before.

About the Author

Angela Villalba lived in southern Mexico and has traveled extensively throughout the country. She operates a Mexican import business and hosts workshops on Mexican folk art and culture. She lives in Southern California. Carlos Monsiváis is Mexico's leading cultural critic and one of Latin America's most esteemed social commentators. He lives in Mexico City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books; First Printing edition (August 24, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811853152
• ISBN-13: 978-0811853156
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #263,023 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended insight into Mexican Culture, February 11, 2007

By	Sergio S. Guerrero Jr. (El Paso, Texas) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I highly recommend the picture book on Mexican Calendar Girls. The author really did her homework and touched on an aspect of Mexican Popular Art that played on cultural symbols. From La Adelita to La Malinche and even the venerated Virgen de Guadalupe, this artwork found in kitchens, neighborhood tienditas or bakeries evoked an idealized Mexico and its various viewpoints of womenhood. These images are the cultural equivalent of the Norman Rockwell paintings that evoked an idealized North American culture to generations. Angela Villaba hit a homerun with her book as far as my family was concerned. I gave it to my mother who is an educational advocate for multicultural education here in the Southwest and she could not put the book down.
Sergio S. Guerrero Jr.
El Paso, Texas

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars unbelieveable--historical--exciting, March 16, 2007

By	Julie Franklin (washington dc) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

very well written. interesting historical account of artists and their methods and subjects. have never seen a greater accumulation of beautiful images, colorful-exiting-romantic portraits. full of 'old time' detail and glamour. hard to put down.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent gift for the Latina feminist!, January 9, 2007

By	Bobbie (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

This book is a compilation of the many important roles Mexican women have played in history through the use of calendar art. The photos are colorful and demonstrate the diversity of Mexicanas. What a delightful way to teach the history! This book will surely be appreciated and enjoyed by art lovers, history lovers, women and men alike.