Natalie Yemenidjian
Mexican culture has never been illuminated so beautifully or brutally all at once by a photographer of our time. “Danza de la Cabrita/The Goats Dance: Photographs by Garciela Iturbide,” at the Getty Center, unearths the matriarchal society of the Zapotec Indian town of Juchitán, Oaxaca, whose inhabitants are the most striking of the women she chose to photograph, because of their large girth yet extremely feminine attire.Iturbide’s point of view captures her unusual subjects with meaningful angles: from the submissive seat of a pauper looking up at a Queen, bedazzled with a crown encrusted with iguanas, whose mouths were shut by her needle and thread to allowing us to peer into the lives of transvestites from a dark, dust-filled corner; from the Aztecan ritual of goat slaying to natural forms of beauty stretching from Mexico to the American Midwest.A woman adorned in traditional Mexican attire, with strong black hair trailing her, tries to battle strong winds and carries what was referred to in the early 80s as a “ghetto blaster,” in a photo entitled “Angel Women, Sonora Desert.” A myriad of birds engulf an electrical post on an abandoned highway, resembling a Jackson Pollock painting.The photographer serves as the viewer’s coyote, smuggling us from the indigenous regions of Southern Mexico, all the way up to the U.S. border where we jump the fence into an East Los Angeles barrio. We then get initiated into the zoot suit-wearing gang of White Fence. We meet the women of the gang and are invited into their alleys and their bedrooms-yet Iturbide does not cover every aspect of Mexican culture.She hits the main artery of Mexican stereotype, especially in Los Angeles. It is important to remember, however, where she comes from. Iturbide is native to Mexico and in the decades of being a photographer-as well as studying under renowned photographer Manuel Alvarez Bravo-this is her first time showing in a gallery in Los Angeles. She does not infer that the indigenous people of Oaxaca are cast out of society; they are where they belong. Instead, she celebrates their beauty. The same way most artists mythologize it. The exhibit will be open until April 13 at the Getty Center, which is open Tuesday through Thursday and Sundays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Admission is free and parking is $8. More information is available at (310) 440-7300.