Phyllis Rauch calls herself an introvert. Yet, due to all of the promotional events, meetings and entertaining that she shared during her 40 years of marriage to her late husband, Georg Rauch, she began calling herself a learned extrovert.
From the mid 1970s to the early 2000s, Georg was famous not only for his art but for his rousing fiestas, and it was his wife, a writer and artist, who took on the role of his marketer and editor.
To honor the anniversary of Georg’s death on November 2, 2006 – the Day of the Dead – Phyllis has selected more than 35 pieces of his artwork to exhibit at Viva Mexico in San Juan Cosala. The exhibit, which coincides with the restaurant’s Day of the Dead dinner on November 4 and 5, will display his original oils, giclee reproductions and silkscreen posters. Sharing in the limelight will be Isidro Xilotl C. Xilonzochitl, a multitalented artist, who will be showing his recent sculptures. Georg’s artwork will remain up through December 12.
Born in Salzburg, Austria and raised in Vienna, Georg described himself as an expressionist.
“With a lifelong love of drawing and painting, everything he did came from within,” says Phyllis. “Although his family was poor, his mother made sure that Georg and his sister always had something to draw or paint with.”
By the time he died, his art had been shown throughout Europe, the United States, Canada and in Mexico’s major cities. Even Vienna’s institutions and museums supported his early work by purchasing his art and gifting him travel money.
As an unlikely Jewish soldier in Hitler’s army, Georg wrote his World War II memoir in German in 1984, while Phyllis simultaneously translated it into English. The book was first self-published as “The Jew with the Iron Cross.”
“At the end of his book,” notes Phyllis, “he describes returning home to Vienna more dead than alive. Having contracted tuberculosis of the bones while at a Russian prison camp, he spent over two years at an Austrian tuberculosis clinic, using that time to draw. I have 600 of these drawings.”
The two met in Vienna in 1965, due to Georg’s cousin, whom Phyllis met in a youth hostel in Athens, Greece.
“His cousin was studying filmmaking and invited me to a filmmaking event where Georg was creating an enormous sculpture. I fell for him in the first five minutes. His charisma and good looks were irresistible,” said Rauch.
Both of them came to Mexico for first time in 1965, along with their friend, Fritz Riedl, a famous Viennese tapestry maker. For four months they traveled throughout Mexico and fell in love with the country.
“The year after Georg I moved to Guadalajara in 1967, he created the posters for the 1968 Olympics’ cultural events and I worked for the Olympics as a tour guide.”
In 1974, they found their dream country property along a hillside in Jocotepec.
“We’d been living in Southern California for six years,” says Phyllis. “While there we had our Jocotepec home built and moved in a few years later. Along with the main house and large pool, we added four additional units, which would become Los Dos Bed & Breakfast.”
Over time, due to macular degeneration, Georg increasingly lost his sight and his mobility, yet that didn’t stop him from painting, which he practiced daily, except when he took a few months off to write his book.
Says Phyllis: “During those few months, Georg sat near the pool and did nothing but write. We produced a self-published version of the book in the summer of 2006, the year he died.”
In November 2015, Phyllis was preparing a Day of the Dead altar at her home for Georg and her mother. She was about to light the candles when her agent called, announcing that the book had been accepted by the renowned New York publishing company, Farrar Strous Giroux.
Renamed “Unlikely Warrior, A Jewish Soldier in Hitler’s Army,” the book was released early last year and has sold 59,000 copies in hardback and paperback, including three editions for Scholastic. There is also an audio version and translations to Polish and Italian.
“It took 30 years, from the time Georg wrote it in 1984 and I translated and edited it, until the book was picked up by Farrar Strous Giroux,” says Phyllis.
With his art-filled studio and garden sculptures, Phyllis still feels Georg’s presence at Los Dos. Yet, in order to devote more time to her writing, traveling and charitable projects, she has recently put her property up for sale.
“I plan on staying in Jocotepec,” she says. “I love this authentic Mexican village and my Mexican neighbors and friends. After 40 glorious years, this is, for me, the best place in the world.”
For reservations for Viva Mexico’s four-course, Day of the Dead dinner on November 4 and 5, including music and the art exhibit, call the restaurant at (387)761-1058.