Art of Diplomacy

St Lucians were treated to a different side of the resident international diplomatic community recently, when the Mexican Ambassador hosted a painting exhibition featuring his Brazilian counterpart.

The week-long exhibition, hosted at the Mexican Embassy at Vigie from June 29 to July 8, featured several paintings by Brazilian Ambassador JB Cruz, who’s been able to use his spare time to take to the canvas at his quiet seaside Rodney Bay home.

Cuba Ambassador Lydia Gonzalez Navarro (centre) along with husband Jose Antonio (second from left) with members of her national diplomatic and volunteer medical delegation and Health Ministry friends attended the opening of the diplomatic art exhibition at the Mexican embassy.

Not a man of many words, Ambassador Cruz specializes in a method of painting that combines colours and geometry to offer varying images of one shape.
Literature Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott (in both his roles as painter and writer) and National Artist Sir Dunstan St Omer, were among the guests.
Mexican Ambassador Gerardo Lozano offered his own interpretation of the paintings, but invited viewers to also share Walcott’s observations, which were also on display.

Walcott said in his published review that he wished other diplomats—here and the world over—would find spare time to take to the canvas.

It was a unique exhibition—one diplomat hosting and exhibiting another—and the colourful display of various representations of the X-shaped paintings impressed many, especially after listening to the host and reading Walcott’s interpretations.
The Mexican and Brazilian embassies are among four Latin American resident diplomatic offices that often cooperate on like-minded and mutually beneficial social, cultural and community-based activities.

The Mexican, Cuban and Venezuelan embassies also engage in mutual trilateral activities here, including support for Spanish language teachers at the island’s secondary schools.