Alfredo Zalce . Home video

Alfredo Zalce 1996 by René Serrano Morelia, Michoacán México. 

Alfredo Zalce was a renowned artist in the region of Michoacán, Mexico, and a resident of Morelia.

I had the pleasure and honor of meeting him around 1994. During that period, I was finishing my high school studies in Economics/Administration and had temporarily set aside the idea of pursuing Arts as a career. I was in the process of taking exams to enter the university for a degree in Business Administration at the Technological Institute of Morelia.

At the same time, I couldn't shake off the need to draw, to make music, but I needed guidance in the arts, and that's when he opened his doors to me.

Master Alfredo Zalce, originally from Pátzcuaro, always welcomed me without charging a single cent. It seemed like he enjoyed my company, but I realized that he genuinely enjoyed the company of all the young people interested in art.

"You are my guests," he would always say.

Home video of ALFREDO ZALCE

Photo by Jesús Jiménez

At that time, I would have been around 19 years old, something like that. I remember vividly that one of the great artists from my region was there every day; the also very, very young Mizraim Cárdenas. A very kind, pleasant person, and, I repeat, a great artist.

I also remember another guy my age, Eduardo Rubio, and Jair Leal, who now lives in Madrid, Spain, and other young people whose names I don't recall. I am very grateful to Jair for welcoming me for a month in the apartment he shared in Madrid, where I would later pursue a master's in Arts.

There was also a group of ladies, "las marujitas," as the other guys used to call them at that time. They would come to the café to share their lives, or rather the lives of their husbands. They would organize cookies, buy their newspapers, and, in the end, they would have a good time in the pleasant afternoon conversation.

Photo by Jesús Jiménez

Photo by Jesús Jiménez

At that time, the Master explained certain art history techniques, notions of light, and I was on the verge of learning the engraving technique with him. The important thing here is that he truly had a lot of patience to endure my discussions about my existential doubts at the end of his "class."

He would sit, light his pipe, and listen to me patiently...

I would tell him about my second year in the Business Administration program, how I wasn't sure about continuing, that while there were subjects I liked such as Human Resources, Probability and Statistics, even administration itself; the accounting part wasn't really my "top."

Reproducción dedicada por el Mtro. Alfredo Zalce 

I was more drawn to going out with friends to explore towns in the region, and it was at that moment that I started a radio program. While only the people on campus listened to it, it allowed me to meet other computer science students who showed me different perspectives.

Photo by Jesús Jiménez

I remember a day when I told him that I had finally decided to take a break from my studies and travel to the other side of the world with my backpack and guitar.

He was very happy for me and signed a reproduction of his work for me; it wouldn't be the last one. Later on, he sent me a signed book when he learned that I was studying at the School of Fine Arts in Brussels.

A signed book.

I never saw him again; he departed to another universe but left many flowers in his garden.

Because isn't that why we come into the world?

Ars longa vita brevis ....