Antimonsanto

Sergio Sanchez Santamaria

Mexican printmaker Sergio Sanchez Santamaria creates an image that pays homage to three important Mexican institutions. A Calavera wearing an Aztec headdress and sneakers rides through the night skies with fist forward on a corncob missile with a warhead labeled "Anitmonsanto". Perhaps a tip of the hat to Slim Pickens in "Dr. Strangelove..."

The Aztec civilization was one of the great early pre-Columbian civilizations and their images included many skeletal depictions that represented a rebirth into the next life. The Aztecs were early cultivators of maize, the staple of much of the country.

The master Mexican printmaker José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913) created a whole realm of Calaveras which he used to comment on politics, society and contemporary culture in various broadsides and popular publications.

The printmaker members of Taller de Grafica Popular, founded in 1937, used graphic woodcuts and linocuts to comment on social issues, often informing or warning a largely illiterate populace to impending problems and issues such as Fascism, American political interferences, agricultural issues, the Mexican Revolution, and much more. These images a picture were and are indeed, "worth a thousand words".

Santamaria's linocut is a comment on Monsanto biotech company's successful 2009 attempt to allow the genetic engineering giant to conduct trials of genetically modified organisms (GMO) on Mexico's local corn. Farmers have been opposed to the new laws and have been protesting since - anti-Monsanto. Mexican corn has naturally evolved from teosinte, which was domesticated by the native population during a process of seed selection lasting thousands of years, which was, relative to each area's characteristics. Genetic modification would take a toll on the local, natural corn varieties.