Vladimir Cora was born in Nayarit, Mexico in 1951.  He is self-taught and was able to build a reputation as a formidable painter is his late teens.  He knew he wanted to be a painter after seeing a print of Monet's "Water Lilies" in his aunt's pharmacy where he worked when he was thirteen.  Cora was named after Vladimir Lenin by his father, a saddle maker and avid follower of politics.  Cora met Tamayo in 1978 and remained his student from then until the mentor died in 199 (showing 500 of 1160 characters).