As much as I enjoy the challenge of reading and speaking another language, just as delightful were the English translations Veró and I came across at museums and on menus over the course of our travels . . .

From a pamphlet on Guayasamín:

Oswaldo Guayasamín was born in Quito, Ecuador, on July 6, 1919. He was the oldest of 10 brothers, sons of a modest family. His father worked as tractor operator and further as taxi driver. The death of a very young mother and a life full of hardship and poorness leaves a deep trace in a very sensible child who, at seven, did impress his artistic calling, and to paint his first works. As from that time, he started to search for a personal artistic language, which was mixed with milk from his mother’s breast–food for his just born brother–to dissolve watercolor.

Remember when you had to translate paragraphs in your middle school textbook, and you’d look up every single word in that big honking dictionary you had, and because you’d have free time if you finished the exercise early you’d pick the first English entry for every word? I don’t know, something about this passage just reminded me of that.

And no, you understood that right: Guayasamín used his mother’s breast milk to mix his watercolors.

From a sidebar exhibit on Las Galápagos:

Enjoy the delicious “swet corn whit Fried pork courtesy.”

Yum! And I bet it goes great with barbeque. Happy Labor Day!!