Chimalistac Mañana

Some Mexico City news: The Spanish edition of my book, Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual, translated by Mexican poet and novelist Agustin Cadena as Odisea metafisica hacia la Revolución Mexicana, Francisco I. Madero y su libro secreto, Manual espírita, will be presented tomorrow Wednesday February 25, 2015 at 7 PM in the Centro de Estudios de la Historia de México CARSO in Chimalistac. The panel will include Mexican historians Luis Cerda, Javier Garciadiego, Manuel Guerra de Luna, and Yolia Tortolero Cervantes. This will be for the beautiful edition just published by Rose Mary Salum's Literal Publishing, based in Houston, Texas.

The venue, by the way, is the home of Francisco I. Madero's personal library, a treasure-trove of extremely rare esoterica, including works by Annie Besant, Dr; Peebles, Majweski, Alan Kardec, and one inscribed to Madero by its author,  Dr Arnoldo Krumm-Heller, aka "Maestro Huiracocha" who was a his personal doctor, fellow Mason, Spiritist, and Rosicrucian.

Odisea metafísica hacia la Revolucion Mexicana is now available in major bookstores in Mexico City. If you show up at the event, you will no doubt learn some very interesting things and I shall be delighted to autograph a copy for you.

The Kindle and print-on-demand editions of Odisea metafisica are also available from Dancing Chiva, as are the English editions. All super easy ordering options are right >> here.<<

>> Listen in anytime to my talk about this book (in English) for the UCSD Center for US-Mexican Studies.

>> Listen in anytime to my talk about this book (in English) for PEN San Miguel at Bellas Artes in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

>> Read excerpts in English and/ or in Spanish

>> Check out the reviews 

Your COMMENTS are always welcome.

(Want to know when I'm doing another event? I welcome you to sign up for my free newsletter.)

Lone Star Nation: How Texas Will Transform America by Richard Parker

  • Lone Star Nation
  • How Texas Will Transform America
  • By Richard Parker
  • Pegasus, November 2014
  • pp. 352
  • ISBN-10: 1605986267
  • ISBN-13: 978-1605986265

Book Review by C.M. Mayo

Texas Exceptionalism (TE): I would give it the knee-jerk reject but for the fact that after more than 25 years of living in another country (Mexico), if I've learned anything, it's that empathy for others' notions of themselves, off-kilter as they may seem, is not only the more politic but oftentimes the wisest stance (because the other thing I've learned is that there's always more to learn). Plus, as my birth certificate says, I'm a Daughter of the Lone Star State, so nudge its elbow and my ego is happy to hop along, at least a little ways, with that rootin'- tootin' idea. But I was not raised in Texas and, to put it politely, I've yet to grok TE. The way I see it at present, yes, Texas is a special place full of proud and wonderful people, with a unique history and an awesome landscape, and once we look with open eyes, ears, intellect, and heart, so is just about every other place, from Baja California to Burma.


That said, though in Lone Star Nation: How Texas Will Transform America, Richard Parker serves up a heaping helping of gnaw-worthy TE, it is an elegantly-written and important book examining trends and challenges for Texas  Texas first, Parker argues and the nation. 

Migration is changing Texas at warp-speed, and here, with an overview of the history of migration into the area, Parker makes the most vital contribution. 

It was the Fifth Migration, from the Rust Belt of the 1970s and 1980s, that brought northerners with their Republican-leaning politics; the Fourth, Southerners, many of them Yellow Dog Democrats, coming in to work in the oil and related industries in the early 20th century; and the Third, Southerners arriving in the 19th century to farm and ranch in what was originally Mexican territory, then an independent Republic, then a slave state, then a member of the Confederacy, then, vanquished, reabsorbed into the Union. (The Second and First Migrations telescope thousands of years of immigrations from elsewhere in indigenous North America and, originally, from Asia.) 


The current wave of migration, the Sixth, is bringing some 1,000 immigrants into the state each day, from Mexico, points further south, East Asia, South Asia, Europe, and all across the United States itself. And because of this, the over a century-long "Anglo" dominance is about to crumble.  Soon the idea of Texas itself may morph into something denizens of the 20th century might no longer recognize. 

J. Frank Dobie (1888-1964) was considered 
the first recognized and professional literary 
writer in the state. From the Wittliff 
Collections biography: "Many Texas writers 
openly credit Dobie with giving them the 
inspiration not only to be a writer but also 
to feel comfortable using their home state 
as a subject."
Yet where did that idea of Texas this great state for big men in cowboy boots  and the related TE come from? How did it become an image fixed in not only the Texan imagination, but the national and international? I would have ascribed it merely to a mash-up of anti-Mexican Texan and US-Mexican War propaganda, the tales of literary legend and folklorist J. Frank Dobie, Southern wounded pride, and splashy bucketfuls of Hollywood fantasy, until I came to Parker's riveting detour into the history of the marketing of the World's Fair of 1936. That fair, held the same year as Texas' centennial, was celebrated with all get-out in Dallas. For its leading citizens, this was, Parker writes, 
"the opportunity to recast Texas:  No longer a broken-down Southern state of impoverished dirt farmers, but one with oil and industry— an inspiration if not a beacon to hungry Americans looking for opportunity in the midst of the Great Depression.... Copywriters, journalists, and artists were hired to tell tales of cowboys, oil, and industry in the years leading up to the World's Fair." 
But alas, this came with the racial nonsense of the time. Parker: 
"Gone was the Mexican vaquero, the African American, and the Native American, or at least they were relegated to the role of antagonist.... A centennial exposition [Theodore H. Price, a New York PR man] argued, would teach attendees that the cowboy story was really a story of racial triumph..." 

Giant, the 1956 movie based on Edna Ferber's 
novel, starred Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor
and James Dean.
Some of Texas history is painful to read, painful as those punches Rock Hudson's character, Bick Benedict, took at the end of Giant, in defending his Mexican-American daughter-in-law (from being refused service in a café because of the color of her skin). Parker doesn't shy away from discussing some ugly and enduring racial problems in Texas, including in Austin, its capital and haven of liberalism, music, and righteously organic breakfast tacos.

At the time Lone Star Nation went to press in 2014, according to Parker, "nearly one in three people who call Texas home have arrived from elsewhere in the United States in the last year." The gas and oil boom have since collapsed along with the price of oil, so I would expect those numbers to have dropped; nonetheless, as Parker stresses, the overwhelming majority of immigrants end up not in the oil fields, but the "triangle," the area in and around Dallas, Austin-San Antonio, and Houston. The draw? "Better-paying jobs and bigger homes for less money."

Parker argues that better jobs are a function of education, and that therefore one of the challenges Texas faces is adequately funding its schools and universities while keeping tuition at affordable levels, especially for the working class and recent immigrants. But the political will may not be there; neither has it been adequate to cope with water shortages, both current and looming. 

Parker's political analysis is seasoned but unabashedly biased. My dad, a California Republican, would have called it "Beltway Liberalism," and indeed, until returning to Texas, Parker, a journalist, was based in the Washington DC metropolitan area. I happen to agree with much of what Parker argues, but as someone trying to get my mind around Texas, I would have appreciated his making more of an effort to explore, if not with sympathy then at least empathy, the various strains of conservatism. 

To illustrate the trends and challenges for Texas, Parker offers two scenarios for 2050: one in which Texas has not invested in education, nor maintained a representative democracy, nor addressed environmental issues, and so degenerated into a nearly abandoned ruin (think: Detroit meets Caracas meets the Gobi Desert); in the other, challenges addressed, Texas is a super-charging China-crushin' hipster Juggernaut. My own guess is that the Texas of our very old age will fall somewhere in between, vary wildly from one region to another, and be more dependent on developments south of the border than the author or, for that matter, most futurists, consider. 

On this last point, in discussing the tidal wave of migration from Mexico, Parker mentions the Woodlands, a once upscale Anglo suburb outside of Houston, still upscale, but now predominantly Mexican. I would have liked to have learned more about this slice of the sociological pie, for in my recent travels in Texas, and from what I hear in Mexico, I've also noticed that a large number of well-off Mexicans have been moving to Houston, San Antonio, and Austin. I'm talking about Mexicans who speak fluent English, play tennis and golf, and have studied and traveled abroad in, say, New York, Vancouver, Paris. There's a bigger story there, for many of them are the wives and children, but not so many husbands, who spend weekdays at their offices in Monterrey, Guadalajara, or, say, Mexico City. These families have not come to Texas for the jobs, nor the wonders of that great state (whose loss still makes many Mexicans bristle), but primarily for their safety  and, in many cases, for business opportunities. Should security improve in Mexico, I would expect many of these families to return and quickly. Whether that is likely or not is another question.

In sum, Lone Star Nation: How Texas Will Transform America is a rich, vivacious read that provides a sturdy framework to think about the past, present, and prospects of a state that is as much a place as it is, in the words of John Steinbeck, "a mystique approximating a religion." And if the author is a true blue believer in TE, well hell, bless him. Highly recommended.


>> Your COMMENTS are always welcome.

>> Follow me on Twitter @cmmayo1






(includes discussion of Houston, Texas)

(includes discussion of El Paso)





Cyberflanerie: Mexico Book Edition

I'm presenting my book-- translated by Agustin Cadena-- Odisea metafísca hacia la Revolución Mexicana, Francisco I. Madero y su libro secreto, next week, on the 25th at 7 pm at the Centro de Estudios de la Historia de México CARSO in Mexico City. Presenters include Rose Mary Salum, Luis Cerda, Javier Garcíadiego, Manuel Guerra de Luna, and Yolia Tortolero Cervantes. >>Details here. << I am especially delighted to be able to present the book in this venue because it is the home of President Francisco I. Madero's personal library, very possibly the most important collection of late 19th - early 20th century esoterica in Latin America.

Food historian Rachael Laudan's  superb Cuisine and Empire, which has quite a bit to do with Mexico, is now available in paperback.

Nancy Marie Brown recommends Anders Winroth's The Age of the Vikings, so it must be good. I downloaded the Kindle and am avidly reading-- I have this theory (could be solid, could be a marshmallow puff) about raiding by Vikings and Comanches... stay tuned. 

(Just an aside: the Vikings smoked pot as early as the mid-9th century.)

Updates on my recommended books on Mexico page include Brian DeLays's The War of a Thousand Deserts. Must reading for anyone who wants to understand the US-Mexican War-- and the Comanches. More about this book anon.

Out in March, looks fascinating: Sharman Apt Russel's YA novel Teresa of the New World. 

Out in April, must read: Sam Quinones' Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic.
(>Read my review of his True Tales from Another Mexico for Wilson Quarterly.)

Top of my reading tower: Laila Lalami's novel based on the story of Cabeza de Vaca & Co., The Moor's Account.

>Your COMMENTS are always welcome.

Transcripts of the "Conversations with Other Writers" Occasional Series of Podcasts


Hat tip to authors' guru Jane Friedman for the suggestion: For my occasional podcast series, Conversations with Other Writers -- (in plain English, I post recorded chats with my writer friends when I happen to get around to it)-- I'm going to start offering transcripts. And I am really excited about this because the interviews are absolutely fascinating and yet I know, alas, not everyone who would enjoy them has the wherewithal to download a podcast. 

(That said, I love podcasts-- I listen while I'm cooking or driving-- and I'm always running out of them, so if you know of a good one, please zap me your recommendation.)

Here is the first transcript (no worries, it's not a PDF and it's free):

A Conversation with Mexican Writer and Editor Rose Mary Salum:
Making Connections with Literature and Art
Rose Mary Salum is the founding editor of Literal and editor of the visionary Delta de las arenas, cuentos árabes, cuentos judíos, a collection of works by Latin American writers of Arab and Jewish heritage. 

>> Follow Rose Mary Salum and Literal on Twitter @literalmagazine

>> To listen in anytime to that podcast, click here.

So far, podcasts in the "Conversations with Other Writers" series include:


Sergio Troncoso
Michael K. Schuessler
Edward Swift
Sara Mansfield Taber
Solveig Eggerz

It may be a while until I can post another in this series, alas, because I am out and about for my latest book, Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual [podcasts about that >>here<<] and also working on a new book about Far West Texas, apropos of which I am hosting the Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project (16 podcasts so far of a projected 24). All that said, I aim to be able to post a second transcript later this month.

P.S. Hat tip also to Debra Eckerling whose Write On Online newsletter recommended CLK Transcriptions

>> Your COMMENTS are always welcome.

Cyberflanerie: James McGrath Morris, Mexican Baby Jesus, Maps, Tiles Stoves, Hang, The Umbrella Man


James McGrath Morris's "Type A" Column for the Santa Fe New Mexican, including E-books: the legerdemain of tomorrow?

Morris also has a new book out, Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, First Lady of the Black Press

Check out the book's trailerit's well worth watching (especially for the bit about President Eisenhower.)

And check out his article about writing this biography, "Reporting Across the Color Line," in The Daily Beast.






Mexican Baby Jesus in the "Mexico Cooks!" blog. (No worries, BJ does not get broiled.)





Interesting Low-Techerie: Tiled Stoves 

From ye olde soundworks category: Hang: A New Instrument 

Utterly fascinating op-doc: The Umbrella Man 


>More Madam Mayo Cyberflanerie

>Your COMMENTS are always welcome.

A Batch of US-Mexico Border Mini Travel Clips

Just posted a batch of what I call "mini travel clips," that is, super brief videos, nothing fancy (taken with my iPhone), but edited and with audio—in these, by that jaw-droppingly prolific clangy-bangy soundmaestro of Bridport, U.K., Ergo Phizmiz.


FAR WEST TEXAS MINI CLIPS


Casa Piedra Road, Far West Texas 

(with a view of a fire in Mexico)
(1:06)




> Listen in anytime to my podcast. "A Visit to Swan House." Swan House, a unique adobe teaching house inspired by the legacy of Egypt's greatest architect, Hassan Fathy, is on Casa Piedra Road.


> Read my article in Cenizo Journal, "A Visit to Swan House."



Over Burro Mesa and Into Apache Canyon 

(Big Bend National Park)
(1:06)



> Listen in anytime to my "Marfa Mondays" podcast, "Over Burro Mesa / The Kickapoo Ambassadors"


> Read the essay, "Over Burro Mesa."



Pecos River Crossing (Highway 90, near the US-Mexico border)

(:41)
West of the Pecos is Far West Texas. The end of the video is a gaze south into Mexico.






And I did some slight edits on a video I had posted a few weeks ago, Descent into Eagle Canyon (:53), near Langrty, Texas Eagle Canyon flows into the Rio Grande on the US-Mexico border.





> Listen in anytime to "Gifts of the Ancient Ones: Greg Williams on the Rock Art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands."



AND AWAYS YONDER WEST


Finally, almost the border (well, a two hour drive) is Joshua Tree National Park in California (2:24). Herewith my mini travel clip of that:





> More mini travel clips here and

> Mini clips of Far West Texas (apropos of my book-in-progress) here.

> Watch Ergo Phizmiz starring in "I Am the Music Man," a video by Martha Moopette.





>Your COMMENTS are always welcome.

What is Custom ??? What is the Requirements of a Valid Local Custom as a Source of Law

What is the Requirements of a Valid Local Custom as a Source of Law
What is Custom

The law-making was not the business of the kings. law of the country was to be found in the customs of the people which developed spontaneously according to
circumstances. it was felt that a particular way of doing things was more convenient then others when the same things was done again and again in a particular way, it amused the form of custom. custom is the embodiment of those principles which have commended themselves to the national conscience as the principles of justice and public utility. Custom is a rule of conduct which the governed observed spontaneously and not in pursuance of law set by a political superior. Custom is a generally observed course of conduct.
According to this discussion , here it is very importan to describe that there are also some kinds of custom which are mention now.

Legal Custom:
 A legal custom is one whose legal authority is absolute, one ehich in itself and purpose vigore possesses the force of law. some also kinds of legal custom:
General custom: are those which have the force of law throughout the territory. the common law of England is based upon general customs of the realm.
Local custom: the local custom are those which operate or have the force of law in a particular locality. the authority of a local custom is higher than that of general custom.

Conventional custom:
A custom is one whose authority is conditional on its acceptance and incorporated in the agreement between the parties to be bound by it. there is process by which conventional usage
comes to have the force of law.

Some certain conditions must be satisfied before a Court is entitled to incorporate the usage into contracts:
1-the usage must be so well-established as to be notorious.
2-the usage must be reasonable.
3-usage cannot alter the general law of the land.

for examples, the law of negotiable instruments before it was embodied in the statute, was a part of the law merchant, which is conventional custom.Besides it , there are some requirements of a valid custom which are most important and essential for the society.

Immemorial: a custom to be valid must be proved to be immemorial , a custom in order that it may be legal and binding, must have been used so long that the memory of man
runneth not to the contrary,  so that if anyone can show the beginning of it, it is no good custom.

Reasonable: another essential of a valid custom is that it must be reasonable. the unreasonableness of custom must be so great that its enforcement results in greater
harm thatn if there were no custom at all.

Continuous: a custom must not continuously observed and if it has not been continuously and uninterruptedly observed, he presumption is that it never existed at all.

Peaceable Enjoyment: the enjoyment of a custom must be a peaceable one.
Custom is the source of law and not law itself. customs are not positive laws until their existence is recognized by the decisions of the courts. all custom cannot be attributed to the common consciousness of the people. in many cases, customs have arisen on account of the convenience of the ruling class. customs are not laws when they arise but they are largely adopted into laws by state recognition.

The Punishment in Our Society According to Law and How it Happens According to Crime and Offence

The Punishment in Our Society According to Law
Punishment in Our Society According to Law
The punishment may be regarded as a method of protecting society by reducing the occurrence of criminal behavior or we can consider it as an end itself. the object of criminal justice in awarding punishment is to deter the people from committing crimes again. punishment is before all things deterrent and the chief end of the law of crime is to make the evil-doer an example and a warning to all that are like minded with him. the commission of every offence should be made a bad bargain for the offender.
The aim of punishment is not revenge but terror. an exemplary punishment should be given to the criminals so that the others may learn a lesson from him. penalty keeps the people under control. excessive harshness of punishment tends to defeat its own purpose by arousing the sympathy of the public towards those who are given cruel punishments. Deterrent punishment is likely to harden the criminal instead of creating in him the fear of law. the punishment loses it horror once the criminal is punished.
In preventive theory , the offenders are disabled from repeating the offences by such punishments. such as imprisonment, death, exile etc. this theory does not
act so much on the motive of the wrong-doer but disables his physical power to commit the offence.An example of preventive punishment is the cancellation of the driving license of a person.
punishment not the revenge but to reform the offender.
The reformative theory: the object of punishment should be the reform of the offender. even if he commits a crime, he does not cease to be a human being. He must be educated
and taught some art of industry during the period of his imprisonment so that he may be able to start his life again after his release from jail. the reformation theory is that if criminals are to be sent to prison to be transformed into good citizens, risons must be turned into comfortable dwelling place. the theory of reformative punishment alone is not suffering and there should be a compromise between the deterrent theory and the reformative theory and the deterrent theory must have the last word.
Compensatory Theory: The object of punishment must be not merely to prevent further crimes but also to compensate the victim of the crime. the contention is that the mainspring of  criminality
is greed and if the offender is made to retun the illgotten benefits of the crime, the spring of criminality would dry up.
Utilitarian Theory: This theory does not highlight or support any particular theory, but is one of the biggest theories for basis of punitive measure. they believe that punishment is an instrument
for reducing crimes no matter from what approach they are adopted. there is no restriction to which theory be applied , the purpose is to achieve good consequences.
  Punishment is also the lesson for reducing or forbidden crimes in future for those who commit or do that offence for their unethical survival and future or we can say
that for the negative purpose to feed their children or fulfill their funfairs means.

What is legal right? How You Can Solve Your Problem on the Basis of Legal Right in this Reriod

How You Can Solve Your Problem on the Basis of Legal Right in this Reriod
What is legal right

Legal right is one person,s capacity of obliging others to do or forbear by means not of his own strength but by the strength of a third party. if such third party is GOD, the right is Divine. If such third party is the public generally acting  through opinion, the right is moral. If such third party is the stale acting directly or indirectly, the right is legal". the term legal right has been used in two sense.
Firstly, Restricted or Popular sense:  The second is Wider sense:.
Besides it the legal right has many of kinds : like wise

Perfect and imperfect rights: is one which corresponds to a perfect duty for example which if enforced by law, it is perfect right and an imperfect right is that which is
recognized by law but cannot be enforced by law due to some impediment. these may be turn into perfect rights.

Positive Rights: a right corresponds to positive duty and the person  subject to the duty is bound to do something. A" borrows money to B" it is the right of B that A gave money back to B"

Negative Rights: is corresponds to negative duties the enjoyment of negative rights is complete unless such interference takes place. If i have some money in my pocket and i have a negative right against all others not to disturb it.

Real Rights and Personal Rights: a real right corresponds to a duty imposed upon persons in general. it is available against whole world. real rights are generally a negative rights as the duties
which can be expected from the whole world are of a negative character. i have a right not to be deprived of my life is a real right as  it is available against the whole world. Personal rights corresponds to a duty  imposed upon determinate individuals. it is available only against a particular person. i have a personal right to receive compensation from any individual who is any way harms me.

Proprietary Rights: of a person include his estate, his assets and his property in many form. they have some economic or monetary value . they possess both judicial and economic importance.
for example the right to debt, and the right to goodwill etc.

Legal Rights: are those which were recognized by common law courts for example right to vote etc.

Equitable Rights: are those which were recognized by the court of chancery, the right of the mortgagor to redeem the property is regarded as a creation of the courts of equity and is an
equitable right known as the equity of redemption.

Primary Rights: are also called antecedent sanctioned or enjoyment rights. these are those rights which are independent of a wrong having been committed. they exist for their own sake. they are antecedent to be wrongful act or omission. right of reputation, right to life etc.
Secondary rights: are also called sanctioning, restitutory or remedial rights. secondary  rights are a part of the machinery provided by the state for the redress of injury done to the primary rights, their necessity arises on account of the fact that primary rights are very often violated by the persons. for example right to obtain compensation for defamation to person.

What is Horrors of War and Its Effect on Human Life Now a days

What is Horrors of War and Its Effect on Human Life Now a days.
What is Horrors of War
War is not a now thing. man has been fighting since his very arrival on the earth. man is a fighting animal. he has advanced intellectually but emotionally. He is the same.Man is as quarrelsome today as he was thousand of years ago. Only he has found deadlier and speedier weapons of destruction . Killing with stone has given place to killing with guns, bombs and gases etc. The methods of warfare have now undergone tremendous changes. science has placed speedier and deadlier weapons at our
disposal . modern wars are not so much the wars of human beings as of machines. the weapons used in the war are modern and scientific , a large variety of guns is used in the modern war. Then there are tanks and armored cars which work havoc on land. the fighters, sea planes, flying boats are now used for offensive and defensive purposes.Troops carrying planes landing para-troops behind the enemy lines prove very useful in disrupting the transport system of the enemy. the poisonous gases bombs and chemical bombs are also used to kill and maim the population of the cities.

Science has made modern war a wholesale affair of destruction. civilians and soldiers suffer alike. nothing is sacred in the demon of modern war . Houses, churches, temples, mosques, schools and hospitals, are all bombed. Even women and children are not spared. war is the science of destruction . it brings numberless miseries to people. countries people receive injuries. there are many who become crippled and are unable to move through their life. what is held dear by human beings
is destroyed. destruction is to be seen in every field of life.

Trade, business and commerce of the country are shattered within a flash of light. A smiling land of plenty is turned into barren waste. Fields become dry. Crops fail. works of art are destroyed. the philosopher loses his balance of mind and the poet bids good bye to fancy. The musician begins to play with bombs. The educational institutions are closed. the pen is replaced by the sword. the onward march of civilization is arrested. War excites evil passions in human beings. the civilians suffer terribly. large quantities of food are sent to the army camps. the result is that the civil areas suffer from shortage of food. generally, there is a famine during a long war become lax or relax. the very foundations of morality are shaken. Marriage is replaced by free love and illicit relations . poeple resort to black marketing and smuggling. they begin to hoard necessities of daily life. war also creates unemployment in its wake. it produces in the people a sense of insecurity . it gives birth to
inflation . it has rightly been said that war leaves behind an army of crippled and maimed people. we cannot eliminate war as long as man has base feeling due to war.

      In short and in the last it is remember always that war has bad effect after its end time. Because it is never guess that how much destruction will be spread due to war and the wrath of the winner side or countries . The winner siders always stop the activities of the present people and also destroy their culture and educational activities.

What is an Offer and When Offer Can Be Revoked or Broken

What is an Offer and When Offer Can Be Revoked or Broken

A contract cannot, ordinarily be created by a bare promise or even set of promise. It is essentially a bilateral(of two side or by the two party) transaction which can only  be concluded by the acts of both parties.For its creation , it is necessary that tow or more parties should have reached an agreement and before this can be done, it is ecessary that one party should have stated his terms to the other party. Thus an agreement is made when one party accepts an offer made by the other party.

So the offer or proposal is an initail step towars contract making. A proposal is a suggestion, sometimes a written one. Present for acceptance or refusal or consideration.

Proposal may mean an offer, as of marriage, an introduction and it may also mean an expression of intention or design. An offer sometimes referred. An offer, by one person to another, of terms and conditions with reference to some work or understanding , or for the transfer of property.To constitute a valid proposal the person making it must declare his willingness which extends to almost being a request, a proposal is not complete. Thus an offer is considered to be so only if the person making it manifests his willingness to do or abstain from doing something.

Proposal must contain clear and certain terms laid down by the offeror. If a proposal contains uncertain or ambiguous terms which do not express clearly offeror,s intentions and desires then it cannot be considered a valid proposal.Another important element of a valid proposal or offer is that it should be made with an intention of obtaining the assent of the other party for example the party to whom the offer is being made. An offer must be made with an intention to create legal obligation. If an offer is made without  any intention of entering into a legal relationship with the other party , it would not be a valid offer in the eye of law. let us explain it with the examples: "A" offer "B" to have dinner with him, which "B" accept. This is not an offer made to enter into a legal relation.Whereas when "A" offers to sell his car to "B" for Rs:200000/, he is making an offer with the intention of entering into a legal relationship , having legal obligations.

        Revocation or broken of proposal or offer: Revocation is defined as law , the withdrawal by the oferee of an offer that had been valid until withdrawn. Act or instance of annulling by recalling or taking back. A proposal may be revoked any time before the communication of its acceptance is complete as against the proposer, but not afterwards. Now the question arises when the communication of acceptance is complete as against the prosper. This will be answered by communication of acceptance is complete as against proposer when it is put in course of transmission to him, so as to be  out of the power of the acceptor. The offeror can revoke his offer at any time by sending a notice of revocation to the offeree, before its acceptance. Proposal is a vital and initial step of a contract, it may be express or implied, general or specific but there must be an expression of willingness by one person to another to do something or not to do something with the intention to obtain the assent of the other person to that act or abstinence, having in legal consequences.

Communication of proposal complete when the person to whom it is made, comes to know that . It can be revoked at any time before the acceptance is complete.

"Resources for Writers" Updated, Expanded, and Reorganized

It's now going into its 16th year, this ever-growing cornucopia of the webpage I maintain for my writing students and anyone else interested in creative writing.

This April 18th at the Writer's Center just outside Washington DC, I'll be offering a one day only workshop on Literary Travel Writing; apropos of that I have given ye olde Resources for Writers webpage a spring cleaning, updating links, scrubbing the dead ones, adding fresh yummies, and organizing said resources into the following categories, each with its own page:









The home page for all this, FOR CREATIVE WRITERS, also includes







>> Your COMMENTS are always welcome.

An Interview with Mexican Historian Alan Rojas Orzechowski about Painter Santiago Rebull, "One of the Most Creative Minds of the Academic Movement"

He was Maximilian's Court Painter, a leading figure in 19th century Mexican painting, and one of the important influences on Diego Rivera, yet few people have heard of Santiago Rebull until now.
Santiago Rebull: The Outlines of a Story
at the Museum of the Diego Rivera Mural in Mexico City
Through February 15, 2015

If you're anywhere near Mexico City, make the effort to come in and visit the Santiago Rebull show at the Museo Mural Diego Rivera. >>More information here.<< For those aficionados of the history of the French Intervention, and in particular the brief reign of Maximilian von Habsburg as Emperor of Mexico, this is an especially important show not to miss, for Rebull was Maximilian's Court Painter and, interestingly, one of the few individuals close to the monarchy who managed to remain in Mexico and even thrive in subsequent decades under the Republic.
Herewith, my interview with the show's curator, Mexican historian Alan Rojas Orzechowski.

Santiago Rebull
Self-portrait, 1852
C.M. MAYO: What gave you the idea for the show?
ALAN ROJAS ORZECHOWSKI: The exhibition Santiago Rebull: Los contornos de una historia (Santiago Rebull: The Outlines of a Story) presented in the Museo Mural Diego Rivera is our own way to pay homage to one of the most creative minds of the Academic Movement in Mexico, an illustrious painter and educator who molded the minds of pupils such as Roberto Montenegro, Ángel Zárraga and Diego Rivera.

As an outstanding teacher, he taught Diego Rivera as a young student in the San Carlos Academy of Arts. Rivera in return, always considered him as a mentor and guide, respecting him as both, as an instructor and fellow artist. Exploiting this connection, the Museo Mural Diego Rivera and external curator Magaly Hernández, thought suitable to present an exhibition which honored Rebull´s artwork, underlining his influence on Rivera and his generation.

CMM: How did Santiago Rebull, so close to Maximilian, manage to remain in Mexico and continue working as a successful artist for decades afterwards?
Santiago Rebull
La muerte de Marat, 1875
ARO: I personally think that it was his undeniable talent as an artist which enabled him to continue teaching in San Carlos Academy during three more decades. In the immediate years after Maximilian's fall he did receive severe reproaches from fellow artists and local newspapers as a monarchist and “afrancesado” (pro-French), but he carried on painting members of the political, economic and cultural elite. As a testament of this, the portraits of Presidents Benito Juárez and Porfirio Díaz are shown in the exhibition. Both pieces are dated in the 1870s, less than a decade after the monarch´s disgrace.
He retained his position as a teacher in San Carlos and also imparted drawing lessons to female pupils in the Colegio de Vizcaínas which was the only female and secular school in Mexico throughout the XVIII and XIX centuries. Along with his academic career, he remained a prolific painter, authoring remarkable pieces such as La muerte de Marat (Marat's Death) and several portraits.

CMM: What has been the reaction from art historians and historians of the Second Empire?
ARO: The Academic reaction towards the Second Empire, from both, historians and art historians, has changed through time. During the first half of the XX Century, the posture was very much aligned to the official history, characterized by a nationalist stance in which Maximilian was portrayed as an invader and many of his actions as an imposition to Mexicans. Nevertheless, this has shifted to a fascination for both, Maximilian and Charlotte, partly thanks to literature. Examples of this are the book Noticias del Imperio (News from the Empire) by Fernando del Paso or The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire by C.M. Mayo. 
Historians have now a much more benevolent gaze to the Second Empire, emphasizing on Maximilian's liberal measures that assisted the indigenous groups and regulated Ecclesiastic influence on civilianswhich certainly made him unpopular with his original supporters.
Art historians tend to be cautious with their judgments, stressing the continuity on San Carlos Academy trough its curriculum, academic cluster and board, all of them dramatically modified with the Republic's restoration. For instance, Eduardo Báez Macías, in his volume History of the National School of Fine Arts (Old San Carlos Academy), mentions Maximilian's patronizing attitude towards Mexican art, believing it to be provincial to what he was used to in Europe.  
My personal view is the opposite. Maximilian was a very intelligent ruler, he was aware of the necessity of his government's legitimacy, and knew that the main way to achieved it was through art and Court protocol. In the first case, he arose from the liberal vs. conservative's discussion over national heroes and entrusted several talented young artists to create a portrait gallery of the libertadores, including characters such as Hidalgo and Iturbide along. Also, in several Imperial projects he preferred to employ talented Mexican students over well-known established European teachers as Eugenio Landesio or Pelegrín Clavé.

CMM: Which of all the 68 pieces do you consider the most essential for understanding Rebull and his place in Mexican art?
Santiago RebullLa muerte de Abel, 1851
ARO: Santiago Rebull is one of the most relevant XIX century painters in Mexico's history. He is a fundamental artist of the Academicism generation, and keystone to understanding the shift in the Art Scene towards the Vanguards and the Mexican Painting School of XX century, since he was an inexhaustible teacher to many of its participants. 
One of Santiago Rebull's anchor pieces is La muerte de Abel (Abel's Death). It was painted in 1851 and earned him a scholarship to travel to Rome. He there attended the San Lucas Academy, a conservative catholic art school that followed the principles of the Nazarene Movement, specially influenced by the German painter Johann Friedrich Overbeck.
Rebull studied under the guidance of Academic artist Thomaso Consoni, who molded and perfected his technique through a careful series of exercises consisting on copying masterpieces from Renaissance maestros
Therefore, La muerte de Abel best represents the Academic ideals of trace, color use and proportions so faithfully followed by Rebull. 

CMM: Was it difficult to find these 68 pieces, and were there any you couldn’t get for the show that you wish you had?
Santiago Rebull
El sacrificio de Isaac, 1859
ARO: Unfortunately there was a piece we were unable to obtain, El sacrificio de Isaac (Isaac's Sacrifice) painted in 1858 during his sojourn in Italy and displayed in the Centennial Exposition of Philadelphia and later shown in New Orleans. The image is almost 118 inches tall and it’s a flawless sample of Rebull´s work during this formative voyage under Consoni's guidance. Alas, it was a crucial piece in the National Museum of Art (MUNAL), therefore, they were unable to lend it.
It was relatively unproblematic to secure the greater part of the assortment since it belongs to the painter's descendants, most of them eager to promote their ancestor's work. The rest of the pieces were graciously provided by significant institutions such as the San Carlos Academy, the National Museum of Art and the Colegio de Vizcaínas.
CMM: Was the museum at Il Castillo di Miramar involved in any way? (The original of Rebull's portrait of the Emperor Maximilian was sent there, is that right?)
Joaquín Ramírez
Portrait of Emperor Maximilian I, ca. 1866. 
ARO: The original full length portrait of Maximilian was painted by Santiago Rebull in 1865. The Emperor took such pleasure on it that resulted on the appointment of Rebull as court painter; he was also awarded the Order of Guadalupe, the Empire's uppermost honor. 
The monarch relocated the painting in Miramar Castle in Trieste, Italy that same year. Nonetheless he commissioned Joaquín Ramírez, another Academic painter to produce an exact copy of his portrait. Currently, the latter is part of the National Institute of Fine Arts collection and it's shown at Chapultepec Castle. We exhibit a contemporary reproduction of the Ramírez painting.

CMM: The decorative bacchantes that Rebull painted for Chapultepec Castle-- were these Maximilian's idea or the artist's? What do you think was the message of such decorative paintings?
Santiago Rebull
Bacante para la terraza 
del Alcázar de Chapultepec, 1894.
ARO: The decorative bacchantes of Miravalle (Chapultepec) Castle were the Emperor's idea but Rebull only painted four of them during Maximilian's reign since the remaining two were created later, during President Porfirio Díaz administration when he occupied the castle as his summer residence.
The message behind the bacchantes is clear: the ideal of graciousness that courtesan life implied. Maximilian was convinced that through art and elaborate court rituals his regime would gain the legitimacy and acceptance of Mexican elites. The creation of new titles, honors and reinstated old colonial titles were strategies followed by the sovereign. Thus, art and protocol were undeniably intertwined in the imperial residences. In the words of art historian Justino Fernández “Rebull planned six bacchantes figures […] the romanticism of the epoch finds here one of its classical expressions, these women, or better said, demigoddesses, highly idealized, wear the magnificence of their figure, in a movement attitude.” *

*Justino Fernández. El arte del siglo XIX en México, Mexico, Imprenta Universitaria, 1967,  p. 77.

CMM: What do you consider Rebull's most essential achievements as an artist?
Santiago Rebull
Portrait of Porfirio Díaz, 
1872
ARO: His personal career is bound to the history of San Carlos Academy; we may consider him as a founding painter of Mexican art of the first decades of independence, when the elite and middle classes were shaping an identity of their own, which they found in the expressions of Academicism and Neoclassic Art. 
He perfected his education with the European sojournnot remaining solely in Rome, but traveling extensively through Spainand returned with a refined paintbrush imbibed by Purism and Nazarene precepts. The preparative drawings are a testament of Rebull´s expertise of trace and copying, the two cornerstone of a XIX century Academic education. 
Upon his return he grew as a prolific portraitist, the most important being that of Emperor Maximilian. But his talent was enjoyed not only by royals; both Presidents Benito Juárez and Porfirio Díaz were also depicted by the artist. The latter, is embodied as a young aspiring president, unlike later representations where an elderly and heavily ornamented military men is shown. Furthermore, common and quotidian characters were also portrayed by him.

Santiago Rebull
Portrait of an unknown man, undated


CMM: Why is the show in the Museo de Diego Rivera? Can you talk a little about Rebull's influence on Diego Rivera?

Santiago Rebull
Profeta Elymar, 1853
Diego Rivera
Cabeza masculina, 1900
ARO: Since the Museo Mural Diego Rivera has the commitment of preserving Diego Rivera's legacy, promoting the artistic expressions created during the XX century and especially those influenced by Rivera himself, we thought there was a great breach with his predecessors. Who were they? Who particularly influenced him?
Rivera was educated at the San Carlos Academy of Arts in Mexico City where he was an accomplished student, tutored by the great artists of the XIX century Academic movement. He received a refined instruction from painters such as José Salomé Pina, José María Velasco and Santiago Rebull. Diego always felt in debt towards the latter, recognizing him as his mentor.