Guinness-breaking “Chavela” comes from Jalisco

WORK ON PLANS | Sculptor Camilo Ramírez Munjía poses next to the plan of the “chavela” that he builds to bring to Denver. (Photo/ Courtesy Carlos Ramírez Munjía)

SCULPTOR CAMILO RAMÍREZ MUNJÍA TALKS ABOUT HIS CREATION

Newsroom El Comercio de Colorado

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The Playero Fest will be the stage in which Denver seeks to break the Guinness World Record for the largest shrimp cocktail in the world. The current record in that category was awarded in 2015 to the city of Cartagena, Colombia. Cooks from the city on the Colombian coast broke the Guinness record with a glass that housed a mixture of shrimp, vegetables, sauces and lemon that weighed 2,910 pounds, or 1,320 kilos.

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Francisco Cuevas, his wife Camelia, and the entire team that commands the Playero Fest set themselves the goal of surpassing the achievement of the Colombians. The shrimp cocktail to be prepared in Denver seeks to contain a mixture that weighs a little over 3,306 pounds, or 1,500 kilograms. Cuevas and his team have carefully planned the entire shrimp supply and conservation chain to achieve their purpose.

“Chavela” three meters high

The “Chavela”, or giant cocktail glass, was one of the critical aspects that Cuevas took into account. “We were looking for the best sculptor to create it, Camilo Ramírez Munjía. We found him in Tlaquepaque, near Guadalajara. He is an artist for difficult tasks,” Cuevas told us. All signs indicate that he was the right choice as sculptor. Ramírez Munjía, winner of the National Art Award in 1989, has extensive experience with diverse public art projects.

Ramírez Munjía is building a giant “chavela”. “Like all the chavelas, from the coastal towns of Mexico, this one has a good grip. But that is not all. It is a piece that measures three meters high with about 80 centimeters in diameter. The mouth of this enormous cup, much taller than me, is going to be like a swimming pool. Those are the dimensions so that it can contain that fabulous shrimp cocktail that they are going to prepare”, said the sculptor.

Production process

The work of this artist has been thorough. Ramírez Munjía provided more details, “I started working in June of this year. It was a challenge for me because I had never made a piece of this size for this use. I came to the conclusion that we should assemble the glass using epoxy resin, or liquid glass. From there came the drawing that we later transferred to a three-meter-high sheet. From there we began to model the pieces in clay”.

The sculptor’s strategy required the people of Tlaquepaque to produce the clay necessary to create the pieces that would later be converted into plaster molds to facilitate the pouring of the epoxy resin. The artist indicated that the last stage of the process would be the assembly and polishing to achieve the glass finish. “This is also a work of effort from the pottery village where I live,” says Ramírez Munjía.

Are you going to come with the piece?

Camilo Ramírez Munjía: I am making plans to ensure I am present. I am going to take my daughter Celeste, who is also a great artist, a great sculptor.

What is your goal with this project?

CRM: That we win the Guinness record in Denver, Colorado. We are really looking forward to this project and I am convinced that we are going to break the record. And this triumph will be shared by all the artisans and by the whole family and by all our Hispanic American brothers.

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