el caballo blanco

I found this wonderful anecdote about Chavela and Jose Antonio and thought it was a lovely image of two people who share the same world, at odds or 'al reves' from everyone else. Maybe this world hovered between reality and dreams, altered by alcohol and their artists' hearts. But also I think it's important to realize that their drinking was not necessary all darkness and dependence. As Carlos Montsivais wrote, in that time, "There were no critical replies to the idiocies and ignominies of machismo, and being a drunk was a feat that undermined the conformity of people enslaved by respectability.”

I tried to paint this heroic escapism and  the friendship it fostered into this scene of the trip that inspired Jose Antonio's song, El Caballo Blanco.