The Plaza Botero in downtown Medellin is home to one of the country's best known works of art: a collection of statues called Las Gorditas. They're stylistically overweight figures and they're scattered in front of and inside the Museum of Antioquia. Underneath them plaques read self evident titles like "Mujer" which means woman or "Perro" which means dog.
They were made by Medellin's premier artist, Fernando Botero, for whom the plaza is named. He also creates gorditas in other mediums and the style has become distinctly Colombian.
This is not a gordita. This is a man painted the same color as the gorditas, and although I noticed immediately he was extremely thin compared to the others I didn't realize he was alive until I saw his eyes. Underneath him the sign reads "Esclavo" which means slave. Below that it says "Traido del Africa para realizar trabajos pesados obligado por sus compradores." I thought it was quite clever.
5 comments:
Do you know enough Spanish now to translate that instantly?
no, but soon i will
Is the Spanish clever, or the man clever? Rosie and Caitlin want to know.
So... What does it mean?
It says "brought from Africa to be forced to do heavy work for their owners." I just thought the idea was clever. When the gorditas are next to a skinny slave statue it looks to me like they are excessive and greedy. Maybe you have to see it but it made me think of Botero´s statues like oppressive conquistadors. They had slaves too and Colombia now has race issues similar to those in the U.S., although supposedly it´s less pronounced in Antioquia.
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