Art Day
One
would not expect to enjoy a good art museum in a crowded third world city, like
Santa Cruz, Bolivia. But I am discovering
that people everywhere love the beautiful things in life like good music and
fine art.
This
morning, I dropped my German son, Hans, off at the trufi company near the
Chiriguano statue on the Second Ring. He
was travelling with two other kids his age from Australia, and already in
Samaipata were an Israeli girl and two guys from France. That means six college-aged kids about to
have a fun weekend exploring Samaipata.
I, on
the other hand, was exhausted from spending three days running around Santa Cruz
with a 20-year old kid. I just wanted to
sit and enjoy a cup of coffee. It was
raining outside, so I couldn’t go for a walk.
I met a
young lady here in Santa Cruz about a year ago, who is a Jehovah Witness. We both decided we can’t convert each other,
because we believe too strongly what we believe. But I don’t want to cancel a friendship just
because of religious differences. She
told me I needed to visit a place called the Café Patrimonio, a block from the
Plaza for both delicious coffee and beautiful art. So that is where I headed for coffee.
After a
delicious cappuccino and sonso, I strolled around the gallery. There is a room dedicated to Dr. Melchor
Pinto Parada, a man who fought for better health conditions in the department
of Santa Cruz. The building was his
house at one time, a very traditional Santa Cruz colonial home, with a patio in
the middle of the house and flowers blooming everywhere. There were six galleries in the house. One had modern sculptures and another with portraits
of leading citizens from decades ago.
The others had current artists of Santa Cruz.
Before I
left the Café Patrimonio, I discovered my friend was having a coffee and
texting her friends. We had a good chat
and she invited me to an Easter service at the Jehovah Witness’s assembly. I'm not going to change my beliefs, but being kind to another can open a door to witnessing to that person in the future.
The rain
had let up and a nice breeze was blowing.
Before heading home, I visited the Manzana 1, who had an artist that I
decided not to show you some of his works because of the graphic content, but a
few were interesting. At the Casa de
Cultura there were mostly portraits from an artist of a few decades ago. The walls were filled with leading citizens
of Santa Cruz. Then suddenly in the
middle of them was this brilliant yellow picture of a woman. Looking at this one painting, I thought this
man was never fully appreciated in his life time. He could have done so many amazing paintings
like this instead of the portraits.
These
galleries change every few weeks. The
Café Patrimonio was packing up some of its sculptures. The Casa de Cultura was hanging some new
paintings. That means I have to go back.
No comments:
Post a Comment