El Estanquillo Museum

Located near El Zócalo, the city main square, at the corner of Francisco I. Madero (a pedestrian-only street since mid-2010) and 26 Isabel La Católica streets, the Estanquillo Museum presents diverse objects that belonged to the late Carlos Monsiváis. This famous Mexican writer often lent part of his collection for itinerant exhibitions, which inspired the idea for the museum in the minds of their founders, Carlos Payán, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Rafael Barajas and Carlos Slim.

The Emerald building, home of the museum, has four floors, where 3 of them house the gallery, and the last one is used for office space and a terrace. The exhibit consists of more than 12,000 items, ranging from model boards, piggy-banks, toys, photographs, lithographs, engravings, cartoons and a wide range of miscellaneous items.

Although the museum owns a huge number of objects, it only displays those that match the theme of the current exhibit. In recent times it has presented, in order of appearance: model boards, toys, miniatures, comics and more, just to provide a glimpse on the vastness and the many genres of the collection.

Another past exhibit that was well received was "De San Garabato al Callejón del Cuajo” (From St. Scribble to the passageway of Rennet)." It was a sample of the work of two of the greatest cartoonists and critics of the Mexican society, Eduardo del Rio "Rius" (creator of Los Supermachos and Los Agachados) and Gabriel Vargas (who passed away on February 25th, 2010), the mastermind behind the happenings of the Burrón Family. Due to the enormous amount of cartoons, the exhibition floor was divided, provided one area for each artist. It also included portraits about the life of the cartoonists.

"Lo Oculto y lo Expuesto” (The Hidden and the Exposed) was a well deserved tribute to the actor "Tin Tan", covering both his film career and his private life. Some of his movies were also shown on that occasion.

Nowadays, and in line with the celebrations of the Bicentennial Anniversary of the Mexican Independence and 100 years of the Mexican Revolution, the museum presents "Mexico a través de las causas” Mexico seen through the causes." The idea is to show which have been the reasons for the various armed uprisings, civil wars, and even conflicts with other countries that Mexico has been involved with. Here, we can see more than 800 pieces from the museum with topics ranging from the colony (as a precursor to independence) to the current armed movements, through the stages of the early independent Mexico, The Reform, the French and American Interventions, the Porfiriato, the Revolution, the Oil Expropriation and the present democracy.

The collection preserves the tone of the origin of the museum, as it consists mainly of lithographs, trading cards, cartoons, model boards and the always relevant Monsivais' commentary on the frames that divide each historical period. A highlight is also the set of pictures of Emiliano Zapata, taken in 1914.

The museum has also an audio guide to the exhibit, which you can listen on headphones to avoid disturbing other people.

The fourth floor shows many cartoons drawn by Alberto Isaac. We recommend you read the captions: they are very entertaining and thought-provoking. Finally, we would like to mention that El Estanquillo currently presents the play: “Mujeres por la Independencia” (Women in favor of Independence). It's being shown on Saturdays and Sundays at 11 A.M.

We recommend you to visit this museum on an ongoing basis if you want to get acquainted with the wide range of treasures that it holds. You can get there by subway: it's close to the Zócalo and Allende stations. Also, you can follow the museum's activity on Facebook at http://es-la.facebook.com/people/Museo-del-Estanquillo/100001277850557 and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/m_estanquillo/status/16024911724


Article produced by the Editorial Team of "Explorando Mexico".
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Photo: Lion 05