Today’s Google Doodle solves a little mystery leftover from my brief March visit to Mexico City. Staying in Colonia Cuauhtemoc, making my way to Insurgentes metro stop took me across Paseo de la Reforma and past this beguiling sculpture.
I circumnavigated the sculpture on several occasions in an unsuccessful attempt at finding a plaque identifying the artist. Thanks to today’s Google Doodle, now I know. Titled, How Doth the Little Crocodile (also known simply as, Crocodile), it is by the late surrealist artist, writer, expat, and women’s liberation activist, Leonora Carrington, whose 98th birthday is being honored today. The sculpture’s title comes from the Lewis Carroll poem by the same name.
Carrington led an extraordinary and fascinating life that was touched by many of the most important events and influential people of the twentieth century. In 2000, she donated the sculpture to Mexico City, her adopted home for the latter part of her life, and it was moved to its current location in 2006. How lucky for all whose paths cross this whimsical creation with its smiling jaws!
How Doth the Little Crocodile
by Lewis Carroll
How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!
How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws!
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