Harvard University homepage
HARVARD.EDU

Vera Amezcua

Vera Amezcua
Senior Grants Manager
Research Initiatives & Global Programs

The painting follows a circular motion feeding into all three planes simultaneously. The left quadrant was designed to be the brightest to catch the viewers’ eye because this is where I wanted the story to begin. Hun Hunahpu is wearing his traditional ‘ball game’ attire. Large green vines and human maize husks are coming out of him because he is in charge of populating the world. This is because one of the ancient codex texts called the Popol Vuh describes the ancient myth of how ‘gods formed the first humans through dough made out of white and yellow corn’, after clay and wood failed. He is also holding an orange gleaming and blossoming plant of cempasuchil (marigold) because it could not grow human corn seedlings for Frida (alluding to her 3 miscarriages). The plant is giving birth to three calaveritas (skulls). In the second plane, I replanted a cactus with my bare hands as an offering to Frida because at that time, that is all I had to give; a prickled, half broken heart.

Un regalito del cielo (A little gift from heaven)

Acrylic on canvas

The painting displays 3 quadrants. The left quadrant showcases Hun Hunahpu, the Mayan god of maize, the right quadrant features Frida with her three children (3 miscarriages), and the bottom quadrant displays the artist coming out of a corn husk.

Artist Statement

Vera is a Mexican American artist that uses Mesoamerican Cosmology to showcase the connection we have to our ancestral roots in modern day. She uses Mesoamerican symbolism and myth to narrate her story.

School / Unit

Harvard Medical School

Go Back To Directory