Spotlight on Mexico: Blackletter, Rótulos, and More...

Mexican sign painting has been receiving a lot of attention recently, not least due to the scandalous eradication of the food cart signs in Cuauhtémoc. For this month's newsletter I present a digest of this, plus a host of resources for those that want to get deeper into this country's sign painting traditions.

Bardas de Baile

My own awareness of Mexican sign painting began about ten years ago when I bought Patricia Cué's book Bardas de Baile: Mexican Wall Painting. This provides an account of these temporary event signs painted on walls, and the rotulistas (sign painters) that produce them.

Bardas de Baile: Mexican Wall Painting by Patricia Cué

I reviewed the book on my Ghostsigns blog, and recently managed to get some of the last remaining stock, which is available in the online shop.

Other publications to look out for are Mexican Blackletter by Cristina Paoli, and Artes de México No.95, which featured in the recent bl.ag online article, 'A Wink on the Wall' from Mexico's Other Muralism.

Thanks again to Alex Kurunis (@alexkuru) for alerting me to the Artes de México publication, which came up while discussing his photo feature with Mexican signs and sign painters in BLAG 02. In addition to what we printed in the magazine, there is more of Alex's work on this bonus content post.

Blackletter

One characteristic of Mexican signs and sign painting is the prevalence of Blackletter. The history of this was the topic of a recent Type@Cooper / Herb Lubalin Centre presentation from Jesús Barrientos Mora (@typeworkshop).

A Beautiful Dark Heritage: A Historical Overview of Blackletter in Mexican Letterform Culture by Jesús Barrientos Mora.

He took things all the way back to the arrival of the Spanish colonisers, and argued that Blackletter is now more symbolic of Mexico and Mexican culture than its more traditional associations.

Just two of the plentiful illustrations in Jesús Barrientos Mora's talk, A Beautiful Dark Heritage: A Historical Overview of Blackletter in Mexican Letterform Culture.

There was also a discussion of the ways in which the letterforms have moved beyond, and back to, Mexico itself. One example of this cultural back and forth is the Cholo graffiti of Mexican gangs in Los Angeles, and the chat contained links to this book and this article.

Cholo Graffiti Interview with Francois Chastanet PDF (five pages,197 MB) of an interview with Francois Chastanet about Cholo graffiti in Los Angeles. Cholo-Graffiti-Interview-with-Francois-Chastanet.pdf • 197 KB

Mexican Rótulos: An Endangered Species?

In the week before the Blackletter talk, Letterform Archive hosted Romina Hernández's (@ro.hernandezz) presentation of her investigations into sign painting in Mexico City.

While this was born out of the live issues in Cuauhtémoc (see Bryan Yonki's bl.ag online article), the talk got us onto the streets to see even more of the city's sign painting. We also learned about some of the ways in which people have responded to the destruction of these vernacular signs.

Mexican Rótulos: An Endangered Species? with Romina Hernández

Towards the end of the talk, Romina shared the Instagram profiles for some of Mexico's contemporary sign painters, and groups like Rechida (@re.chida) that have been responding to the issues in Cuauhtémoc.

• Martín Hernández / @bhuma_dasa
• Isaias Salgado del Pilar / @isaiassalgadodel
• Carlos Manuel Andrade Segura / @rey.pincel
• Abi / @abidav
• Alina Kiliwa / @alinakiliwa
• Giovanni Bautista / @rotulos.bautista

Eso es la vida/This is life

For those within reach of Palm Springs, California, this exhibition "assembles examples of graphic design from Mexico's past and present to examine the field's development over the past century and its role in popular culture". There is some sign painting included within the show, which is curated by Robert J Kett, PhD, Adjunct Curator, Architecture & Design, Palm Springs Art Museum.

(The exhibition is included among others on the event listings page if you want to find things happening close to you, or online.)

A City Without Ink

And, finally, there's this podcast (in Spanish, but with an English transcription). It's an interview with writer, journalist, and sign aficionado Tamara de Anda (@plaqueta) about the Cuauhtémoc erasures.

A City Without Ink on Radio Ambulante

In the interview, Tamara cites a video from the @pinturafresca.mx Instagram account, which features shop owners discussing the loss of their signs, and how her, and other's, anger led to the formation of Rechida (The Chilanga Network in Defense of Popular Art and Graphics).

More from Latin America

This month's BLAG Chat is Brazil's Letter Openers.

Carga Máxima and the Sign Painting Styles of Lima, Peru

How regulatory signs on goods vehicles gave birth to Lima’s Carga Máxima sign painting style.

•BLAG (Better Letters Magazine) Better Letters

Touriga Casual by Fernando Mello

Fernando Mello’s Touriga Casual alphabet and practise posters.

•BLAG (Better Letters Magazine) Better Letters

Brazil’s Tupigrafia Magazine Inspires in Book Form

Inspiring anthology from Brazil’s Tupigrafia magazine.

•BLAG (Better Letters Magazine) Better Letters

The Magic of Mr Masking, Costa Rica’s King of Tape

The typographic vernacular of Gerardo Picado’s masked and painted letters in San José, Costa Rica.

•BLAG (Better Letters Magazine) Better Letters

The Whitewashing of Vernacular Signs in Mexico City

The food stalls in Cuauhtémoc are having their hand-painted signs erased by order of the mayor.

•BLAG (Better Letters Magazine) Better Letters