Nicolás J. speaking:

This is a hat the belonged to my maternal grand father that was from Michoacán. My maternal grand mother was also from Michoacán and during the revolution both, for various circumstances, ended up living in Mexico City. During the SEP educative missions that went back to live in Michoacán and they met each other. Fortunately, it was in Michoacán in the post-revolutionary period. I am not completely sure that this hat is from Michoacán, but for sure, it is from Tierra Caliente.

I had it since I was a child. My grand father died when I was about 4 years old, maybe a little more, like 5. Since then, I have this hat and it has never been something that I could use. But on the other hand, it’s something that means a lot to me. The history of my family is that after the revolution, they split up, just little pieces everywhere, like this hat, that in reality doesn’t say anything, it’s just a hat.

It’s the little bit that has been left from this time. It’s an object that I love very much but it really doesn’t have a function. I suppose it could be hung on the wall, but esthetically, it doesn’t do much. It doesn’t fit me, so I can’t use it, and in addition, one guy from Café Tacuba, used one that is similar, so I wouldn’t be starting a new trend. I am very glad that it can be used for something like this. In some way, it’s a very important object for me. It’s a remain from my family history that takes a new meaning. The fact of being able to go and visit it, it would be nice to go and visit it in like 20 years to see how it was before.

 

I suppose that it’s difficult to give away things. The maternal side of my family, with the revolution, ended up very scattered. And also, I didn’t know my grand father very much. I have a couple more things from him; they are things that I use. As some point, I thought about giving you some other intimate things but I am still using them. I just keep a few things from my grand father. As we age, memories obviously get blurred and this always reminds me of him, in one way or another, even though I never saw him using it. But it goes well with him. When they were in educative missions, he collected songs from villages. There are tapes and tapes and tapes of recording made by my grand father either of him singing or from the villagers.

At the same time it bothers me, like every memory that follows you. This is the ideal opportunity to not letting it go and letting it go at the same time.