We are surrounded by angels, otherwise we would have died of sadness.

Do you really believe in angels? Painter Carmen Parra (Mexico City, 1944) does not hesitate: Of course I do, we are surrounded by them, otherwise we would all have died of sadness!

Although he immediately qualifies and clarifies that They are an invention to try to explain ourselves The great surprise of being on Earth and to know what lies between the human and the divine.

They are the messengers, those who come down and up and tell us what exists between both worlds. My favorite archangel is Saint Michael, because he is the right arm of God.he agrees.

The question arises from the fact that the life and imagination of this renowned artist have always been accompanied by winged creatures. First, it was angels and archangels, then butterflies and, more recently, the golden eagle.

For some years now, he has also opened his interest and creativity to the terrestrial world and even to the underwater world, with the incorporation of turtles and crocodiles into his already well-known and recognized iconography, inspired by New Spanish art.

Messengers, Guardians and Executors

The sculptor, anthropologist and set designer also participated with 14 works, including painting and ceramics, in the exhibition Angels: The heavenly hosts on Earth, which was presented with great success at the National Museum of Art (Munal).

Comprising 200 pieces by national and foreign artists from the 16th to the 21st centuries, the exhibition proposed a reflection on the roles that these beings have played throughout the cultural history of humanity, as messengers, guardians, conductors of the stars, executors of the laws, protectors of the chosen ones and symbols of freedom.

I was the best represented contemporary painter in this exhibition. I am very happy to participate; my great pride is to be among the great masters of Mexican art of all time. I told the director of the museum (Héctor Palhares) that it was great that they did it before I died.highlights Carmen Parra in an interview.

“This year, 2024, I will be 80 years old (in November) and 60 years of work, and my goal has always been to raise awareness about Mexico’s heritage, both cultural and natural. In particular, I have been interested in the viceregal world; my pretext for getting into it has been angels, because they are symbols that everyone understands; they are winged beings that connect us with other worlds and are present in all cultures.

In the case of our country, since the Conquest and with the mestizaje, we have made extraordinary baroque altars throughout the Republic; unfortunately, very few are known and they have been plundered due to lack of care. Mexico is as rich in culture as Italy is in Europe; we have more than 75 percent of the cultural assets of America. Therefore, it is an enormous responsibility to preserve this invaluable heritage.

Rescuing viceregal art

The painter and sculptor assumes herself as the heir and continuer of the line initiated by the great figures of Mexican art of the 20th century: “When I was young, I met some of the main masters, such as Diego Rivera, José Chávez Morado and Juan O’Gorman, to mention a few, who had the focus of rescuing the pre-Hispanic past, which they did in a great way.

“The artists of my generation have had to rescue what remains of history – that is, the three centuries of the viceroyalty – in order to have a linear reading of the future of Mexico. That is my proposal, and the angels have been the great conductors of this great adventure. I have studied theology, viceregal art, symbols; I move in a symbolic world, as occurs in any art: poetry, literature, music.”

Carmen Parra’s interest in Mexico’s cultural heritage, specifically that of the New Spain or viceregal period, began at a very early age, as she says, when she accompanied her father, the architect Manuel Parra, who was in charge of the restoration of various historic buildings in the country, including the El Carmen convent in Mexico City.

He planted in me this interest in iconography and heritagehe says. I am one of the privileged Mexicans who have been immersed in Mexican culture since I was born; also in nature, of which I have painted butterflies for more than 45 years. In 2010 I started with the golden eagle, which is in danger of extinction; and right now I am working with sculptures of turtles and crocodiles, since I live half of my time in Guerrero, in the small town of Troncones.

On when he began painting angels, he says that it was during the restoration work undertaken at the Metropolitan Cathedral after the fire in 1967: The architect Jaime Ortiz Lajous allowed me to follow the works; then, I locked myself in the cathedral, in the altars, to draw them, and I saw how the angels accompany the music, the virgins, how they are included in all the imagery, in this reading of heaven to Earth or vice versa. I must clarify that what I have done is a contemporary reinterpretation of these beings, because I live in the 21st century..