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Established 1961 21 Lifestyle Features Wednesday, December 11, 2019 t a stately museum in Mexico City, great-grandpuppies reside. tion and model to Mexican artists, it has also of Kahlo and Rivera paintings. There is a statue priceless paintings by Frida Kahlo and “Xolos,” as they are known for short, are a joined the list of icons that represent Mexican in the dogs’ honor on the museum grounds, and ADiego Rivera share pride of place with quintessentially Mexican dog. The ancient identity, such as Day of the Dead skeletons, a professional caretaker just for them. “To us, an unruly pack of hairless black dogs: Mexico’s species goes back 7,000 years and was first Frida Kahlo and the Aztec calendar,” said these dogs are living works of art, just like prized xoloitzcuintle. The 13 dogs who reside domesticated around 5,500 years ago. The Maria Olvido Moreno, an art historian at Rivera’s and Kahlo’s paintings,” said curator on the leafy grounds of the Museo Dolores Aztecs named the dog for the god of death, Mexico’s largest university, UNAM. Josefina Garcia. Olmedo are the direct descendants of ones that Xolotl, combined with “itzcuintli,” or dog. They belonged to Kahlo and Rivera, whose searingly had themselves buried with xolos so the dogs Doggy survivors ‘Coco’ and rock stars intimate portraits (her) and sprawling murals could guide them to Mictlan, the underworld Xolos lack hair - though some do have a Xolos have become cool once again in the (him) made them the towering power couple of where they believed life continued after death. mohawk on top of their head - because of a 21st century - the dog of choice for 20- and 20th-century Mexican art. The dogs have gone in and out of style since genetic mutation that makes their organisms 30-somethings proud to embrace their unable to read the DNA for fur, according to Mexican heritage. They have had articles experts. They are also known for missing pre- devoted to them in such places as the style molar teeth, which leads to another character- pages of The New York Times, were declared istic look: their pink tongues can often be seen an official “icon of Mexico City” in 2016 and lolling out of their mouths. Additionally, their are the preferred pooch for residents like bodies are particularly warm. In ancient times, Ruben Albarran, frontman for famed rock band people with rheumatism or asthma would press Cafe Tacvba. “They have this link to Mexican the dogs to their bodies as treatment. culture that I love,” Albarran told AFP. A xolo By the time, Mexico launched its war for also featured prominently in Disney-Pixar’s independence from Spain in 1810, the xolo was 2017 movie “Coco”, which won the Oscar for on the brink of extinction. The Spaniards had best animated film. spurned the animals as a symbol of what they “Xolos are a good choice for people who considered pagan beliefs, and even killed and are interested in Mexican identity. And a hair- ate them. But xolos were able to survive largely less dog makes an excellent pet for fast-mov- thanks to the mountains of southern Mexico, a ing Mexico City. They can live in an apartment remote region where they lived in the wild and are easy to care for,” said Raul Valadez, an before being re-domesticated by indigenous expert at UNAM’s paleozoology lab. Proud peasant farmers. xolo owner Oscar Gamas, a 43-year-old audio But the dogs’ big cultural comeback came designer in Mexico City, said he, like many A Xoloitzcuintle (Ancient Mexican hairless dog) rests on the grass at the garden of the Dolores Olmedo after the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The rev- Xoloitzcuintles (Ancient Mexican hairless dogs) people, first got interested in the dogs for their Museum in Mexico City. — AFP photos olution ousted dictator Porfirio Diaz and his rest by a Xoloitzcuintle statue at the garden of the “symbolism.” But then he fell in love with his Europhile ruling class. The new Mexican cul- Dolores Olmedo Museum in Mexico City, Mexico. dog Deck’s reserved yet fiercely loyal and pro- Kahlo and Rivera were proud of their the Spanish conquistadors arrived in 1519 and tural elite, including Kahlo and Rivera, set tective personality. “When you live with one, Mexican heritage, which made the xoloitzcuin- toppled the Aztecs. about reclaiming long-stigmatized symbols of Rivera gave a pair of them to their friend you discover they have a personality that really tle - a tongue-twister pronounced something But five centuries later, they are rolling indigenous identity - not least the xolo. Kahlo Dolores Olmedo, a businesswoman, philanthro- sets them apart,” he said. — AFP like show-low-eats-QUEEN-t-lay - an obvious around in the glory of a renaissance, beloved (1907-1954) and Rivera (1886-1957) can be pist and art collector. Those are the ancestors choice for the family dog. They even put their by the hipster set in trendy neighborhoods seen proudly posing with and cuddling their of the dogs that now roam the grounds of the dogs in their paintings - some of them now on across Mexico City and the country. “The xolos in black-and-white photos from the mid- museum Olmedo established in her former display at the museum where their great- xoloitzcuintle has not just served as an inspira- 20th century. home, which hosts the world’s largest collection n the land of the Sagas, it isn’t Christmas Gudmundur, have already picked the Danish rule. The custom “has something to most titles per capita behind Britain, if there isn’t a deluge of books under the books they want out of the “Bokatidindi”, do with the importance of literature during according to the International Publishers Itree - literally. The Jolabokaflod, or an 80-page catalogue of novels, poetry the Icelandic fight for independence and Association. Christmas Book Flood, is a much-loved and children’s books distributed free of the Icelandic search for identity: part of Around one in 10 Icelanders publishes tradition that has been celebrated in charge to all households. The 2019 cata- being an Icelander was to read books,” a book in their lifetime. And they’re big Iceland since 1945. It’s a bit like Britain’s logue features 842 new titles. Almost seven said Halldor Gudmundsson, an author and readers. The country counts more than 83 “Super Thursday”, when hundreds of hard- out of 10 Icelanders buy at least one book the former head of Iceland’s biggest pub- libraries - one for every 4,300 inhabi- A man stands in front of paintings by Pierre Soulages backs hit the shelves on the first Thursday as a Christmas gift, according to the lisher, Forlagid. tants. More than 90 percent of Icelanders during a press visit prior to the exhibition’s opening at of October, but much bigger: two-thirds of Icelandic Publishers Association. While books are increasingly being read at least one book a year, and half the Louvre museum, in Paris. — AFP books in Iceland are published in published at other times of the year, the read more than eight a year, according to November and December. Hundreds of ‘To be Icelandic is to read’ Jolabokaflod remains crucial for the pub- a 2013 study from Bifrost University. In new titles go on sale in bookshops and Iceland’s literary tradition was born lishing industry, accounting for 40 percent particular, the country has a thriving Man in black: Soulages supermarkets at reduced prices, a yuletide about 900 years ago with the Sagas, wide- of book sales in 2018, according to appetite for crime fiction and boasts a custom that has also become vital for the ly seen as a gem in world literature and still Statistics Iceland. “It’s so important that if host of crime writers, who over the last publishing industry’s survival. studied in school by Icelandic children this tradition dies, Icelandic publishing couple of decades have placed it on the gets Louvre tribute world map of police detective novels alongside their Swedish, Norwegian or Danish counterparts. for 100th birthday Industry struggles hey call him art’s man in black. Artist Pierre Some books are bought during the Soulages has painted primarily in black for Jolabokaflod at supermarkets, where Teight decades — foreswearing all other bookshelves are set up near the produce, colours since 1979. Now the Louvre museum in frozen foods or bread sections, at hard-to- Paris is marking his 100th birthday with a rare resist prices. At full price, the average tribute to a living artist. Twenty works - out of hardback costs 6,990 kronur (about 52 more than 1,700 canvasses he has produced over euros, $57), more than twice the cost in his long career - will be shown in a special three- France or Britain. “You can’t buy books all month show, which opens Wednesday. The French year because you would just go broke,” master, still working despite turning 100 on says Brynjolfur Thorsteinsson, a 28-year- Christmas Eve, may yet make the opening in the old sales assistant at Mal og menning, one face of a national strike which has paralysed Visitors check out the Iceland pavilion featuring giant projections of people reading, at the Frankfurt Book Fair, where Iceland was the of Iceland’s oldest bookshops in Reykjavik. France’s rail network. guest of honour. — AFP photos Part of the high cost comes from the The Pompidou Centre in Paris, which staged a value-added tax (VAT) on books, hiked huge Soulages retrospective in 2009, is also get- from seven to 11 percent in 2015, which ting in on the celebrations by showing 14 of its On Christmas Eve, Icelanders tradition- today.

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