On The Road Again

My Scholarship Entry - The Paintings Of Palmarito

MEXICO | Thursday, 4 July 2013 | Views [514] | View Larger Image

On the road to Palmarito the reality of the Cochimí traveling this landscape by foot from the mountains to the Pacific and the Sea of Cortez is made manifest. What could the lives of the paleoindian painters that preceded the Cochimí have been like? We know that they traveled great distances to procure their pigments; that the act of painting was likely a part of ceremonies enacted to achieve terrestrial goals by supernatural means, dwarfed as they were by this vast landscape.

The Misión San Ignacio Kadakaamán, founded in 1728 by Jesuit Juan Bautista Luyando, springs upon the southbound traveler invisible until the last moment, bedded in a verdant arroyo amongst missionary date orchards. It is here that the trip to Palmarito begins in earnest, where the office of the Instituto Nacional de Anthropoleía e Historia connects the resident guide to the traveler. Every night at sunset vultures turn overhead working at the minds of Baja peoples in this difficult desert environs.

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And finally Palmarito! On the trail our guide Armando led the way at a pace he was accustomed to, still in his T-shirt as it drizzled. His pace was hell-bent and the temperature was in the upper forties or low fifties. I called him a man of the mountains and he did not disagree but smiled…. Nothing prepares for the sight of the paintings- color, line, composition, site, all is sublime. To take a picture is insufficient but it buttresses our memories so that is what we do.

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On The Road Again

My Scholarship Entry - The Paintings Of Palmarito

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