Maria Delores Velasquez Rivas, better known as Lola (short for Delores) Cueto, was born today in Mexico City, in 1897. She was a painter, printmaker, puppet designer and puppeteer. Cueto began her early art training at age twelve, entering Academy of San Carlos before it was customary for women, and even was allowed to participate in drawing nudes. She also attended the Escuela de Pintura al Aire Libre after her studies at San Carlos were interrupted by the Mexican Revolution.
Lola Cueto was married to sculptor German Cueto (whom I wrote about on Feb. 9)and they lived for a time in Paris, where she discovered her love for puppets and puppeteering. She and her husband returned to Mexico where they formed a traveling puppet company. They had two daughters, one of whom became a renowned puppeteer and writer in her own right.
The focus of her work in theater was education and literacy. Mexican folk art and hand crafts were a great influence, and she created marionettes, traditional toys and even tapestry weavings. Lola Cueto was also a watercolorist, sculptor, and graphic artist including mezzotint. Her talent was not recognized with many showings of her work, but much has been written about her in retrospect.
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