Today we celebrate Carmen Lomas Garza. Ms. Garza is an artist from Kingsville, Texas. Kingsville is also where UC#4-SU was born and raised.
Photo By Texas State Library and Archives Commission from Austin, TX
A Little Background
Carmen Lomas Garza (born 1948) is an Chicana artist and illustrator. She is well known for her paintings, ofrendas and for her papel picado work inspired by her Mexican-American heritage.
Early years Garza was born in 1946 in Kingsville, Texas. She is the second of five children. This small community is near the Mexico-United States border. Garza loved watching her mother paint, and felt like what her mother did was magic. Garza had also seen her mother painting picture cards for a game that is similar to Bingo[1] around the time she was 8, which increased her love of art even more.
As an author-illustrator, Garza has authored bilingual children’s books that are notable for the bilingual text and vivid illustrations. She draws on Chicano culture, family stories, memories, and her heritage. Her archives are held by the Benson Latin American Collection.
One of Ms. Garza’s painting shows a family preparing cascarones – a fun Easter tradition in south Texas and Mexico.
A cascarón (plural cascarones, without accent mark; from Spanish cascarón, “eggshell”, the augmentative form of cáscara, “shell”) is a hollowed-out chicken egg filled with confetti or small toys. Cascarones are common throughout Mexico and are similar to the Easter eggs popular in many other countries. They are mostly used in Mexico during Carnival, but in American and Mexican border towns, the cultures combined to make them a popular Easter tradition.
By Luisfi – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0
History Cascarones are said to have been first brought to Europe by Marco Polo from China, where perfume-filled eggs were given as gifts…. Accounts of weddings and celebrations in California as early as 1826 include accounts of cascarones, often as means for mischievous girls to attract the attention of eligible bachelors.
Cascarones has been a WLBOTT tradition for many years.
Semi-Sequitur: Nette Lee Benson
BENSON, NETTIE LEE (1905–1993).Nettie Lee Benson, historian, teacher, and librarian, the fourth of ten children of Jasper William and Vora Ann (Reddell) Benson, was born in Arcadia, Galveston County, Texas, on January 15, 1905. The family moved in 1908 to Sinton, where her father established a vegetable-shipping business. Nettie Lee graduated from Sinton High School in 1922 as valedictorian. A voracious reader, she studied Spanish, played competitive tennis, and participated in numerous school and church activities. She was a lifelong member of the Sinton Presbyterian Church (her parents were founding members); in later years she was a benefactor of the Presbyterian Children’s Home and Service Agency.
Miss Benson’s involvement with Mexico and with teaching began early in her life. She considered a course by Professor Charles W. Hackett on Spanish North America that she took in 1925 at the University of Texas her prime motivation for studying Mexico. Shortly after taking the course, she moved to Monterrey, Nuevo León, and taught from 1925 to 1927 at the Instituto Inglés-Español, a school run by the Methodist Church. She earned a bachelor’s degree with honors at UT in 1929, and began graduate work the following year. She left in 1931 to teach fifth grade in Hartley and returned to Sinton the next year to care for an ailing mother and to teach Spanish and English at Ingleside High School. For the next ten years she sponsored field trips to Monterrey for the high school senior class. She was also instrumental in gaining admittance of Hispanic students to the previously all-White high school. By continuing graduate study during the summers, Miss Benson earned a master’s degree in 1935 from UT with majors in Latin-American history and government.
Miss Benson taught at Ingleside High School (currently 626 students).
What’s for lunch?
The Ingleside Mustangs are a solid team, advancing in the 2023 playoffs.
Loteria
[1] This game is Loteria, a very popular game in South Texas and Mexico. A simple and very family-friendly[2] game where even little children can play.
Carmen Lomas Garza decided she wanted to become an artist when she was 13 years old. She had seen her mother painting tablas (picture cards) for loteria (a Mexican game like bingo) when she was 8 years old and knew she loved art.
[2] Family-friendly, with the exception of La Sirena (the mermaid), which UC#4-SU’s mother would adjust to a PG level for family gatherings.
BeforeAfter
Lotería (Spanish word meaning “lottery”) is a traditional Mexican board game of chance, similar to bingo, and is played on a deck of cards instead of numbered ping pong balls. Every image has a name and an assigned number, but the number is usually ignored. Each player has at least one tabla, a board with a randomly created 4 x 4 grid of pictures with their corresponding name and number. Players choose a tabla (Spanish word for “board”) to play with, from a variety of previously created tablas, each with a different selection of images.
The origin of lotería can be traced far back in history. The game originated in Italy in the 15th century and was brought to New Spain (modern Mexico) in 1769. In the beginning, lotería was a hobby of the upper classes, but eventually it became a tradition at Mexican fairs.
