(Jose Maria Velasco, The Valley of Mexico, 1875)
As i looked at this painting my mind wandered to one of my favorite old western songs; El Paso, by Marty Robbins. And I realized that Mexico and all that it offers makes people do some crazy things.
Now let me explain, it all makes sense in my head I just hope that i can get it down on the page... As I looked at this painting and thought of this song I could picture the cowboy up on the hill from the painter's perspective looking down on the town and longing to be there. He wants to be with Felina (Mexico). He is drawn to the town and the girl, just like Velasco was drawn to that same place to paint the same thing more than once. We may thing it strange of Velasco to paint the same thing twice, but we would also think it stupidity to ride into a town when you know that you are going to be killed. Some things just don't let us escape.
As the cowboy was riding down to his death he told himself that to die would be better than never be with the girl that he loves. That's what beautiful scenes of Mexico do to all of us! We want to see these places! We live here in the United States, but we desire to go down south to Mexico to see something cool. We as humans are captivated by certain things it makes us do crazy things. Maybe Velasco was crazy for painting the Valley of Mexico more than once, maybe the cowboy was crazy for riding to his Mexican lover, and maybe we are crazy for spending crazy amounts of money to go to Mexico, but that is what Mexico does.
Mexico is beautiful and captivating, it draws all of us to it.
Mexico makes us men do some crazy things.
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