Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stefan
Speaker 1: Never told you productive iHeartRadio, and today we are once
Speaker 1: again doing a female first, which means we are once
Speaker 1: again thrilled to be joined by the lovely, the delightful,
Speaker 1: the talented Eves.
Speaker 2: Welcome. Yeah, hello, he once again happy to be here.
Speaker 2: We're so happy to have you.
Speaker 1: We just had a we always have these conversations before,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, why we we need to talk about
Speaker 1: this on the show, about celebrity culture and ownership around
Speaker 1: that and people who write in and complain about very
Speaker 1: specific things and why that might be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and if you're that kind of person, don't do
Speaker 3: it now. I'm just saying you can do whatever.
Speaker 4: You want to the calling in versus just complaining. Please
Speaker 4: don't complain. We have enough complaints in our lives that
Speaker 4: we don't need.
Speaker 3: Is this some kind of intervention or maybe it might be,
Speaker 3: because honestly, Annie, I think it's needed. If you're thinking
Speaker 3: about doing something waking up in the morning, logging onto
Speaker 3: your computer or opening your phone email app that you
Speaker 3: use and typing a rude email to somebody, maybe just.
Speaker 2: Take a moment to breathe.
Speaker 3: And then like consider whether this needs to be said
Speaker 3: at all, or maybe said in the way that you're
Speaker 3: considering saying it, and then continue, So that might still
Speaker 3: end in you sending the email, But like, I think
Speaker 3: the least that can be done is just taking a
Speaker 3: pause for consideration.
Speaker 2: And this is constructive.
Speaker 1: It great questions we all need to ask ourselves.
Speaker 4: Encouragements are always welcome. We get a lot of those.
Speaker 4: We don't talk enough about that, but we get a
Speaker 4: lot of those. But the ones things that are out
Speaker 4: of our control, I think we had a like it's
Speaker 4: a constant trying to explain like ads. That's one of
Speaker 4: the number one things is like, if we're not actually
Speaker 4: voicing these ads, the likelihood of us knowing what's happening
Speaker 4: and the US approving it is probably didn't happen. Like
Speaker 4: it's very rare. So let us know without being mad
Speaker 4: at us.
Speaker 2: Yeah, do let us Okay, sometimes some of those are.
Speaker 4: Real with you, with you, we just didn't know what
Speaker 4: was happening, So don't be mad at us.
Speaker 1: Well, that's another thing, because we were talking about this,
Speaker 1: Samantha and I we just did an episode on like
Speaker 1: embarrassment and and one of the things I I don't
Speaker 1: like is, as I was saying, celebrity culture. But it
Speaker 1: kind of freaks me out. This Like when I see
Speaker 1: people like do person on the Street interviews and the Dale's,
Speaker 1: they're so eager for their like fifteen minutes that they'll
Speaker 1: just say anything, they'll do anything in it. That kind
Speaker 1: of freaks me out that mentality. And then something you
Speaker 1: were talking about eves with you know, who's going to
Speaker 1: see this thing, this angry message or whatever. Something else
Speaker 1: that I ponder about sometimes is when people are pre mad.
Speaker 1: So it's like I've seen some businesses that have signs
Speaker 1: that are like if you don't believe in God, you
Speaker 1: ain't welcome.
Speaker 2: Like all right, well, alter.
Speaker 1: Like maybe I did, maybe I did it, But now
Speaker 1: I'm like, you're pre angry, and I don't want to do.
Speaker 2: That, and I don't want to do with this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and if you walked into that store, it's like
Speaker 3: you probably are not going to have a conversation about
Speaker 3: God anyway, so you didn't even really know. Right, It's
Speaker 3: exclusionary and a totally unnecessary way.
Speaker 1: Right, because I totally I'm all for, like, you know,
Speaker 1: put up your pride bags, you know, all that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff.
Speaker 2: But for you to be like.
Speaker 4: Immediately tell someone that you're not welcomed, don't come in straight,
Speaker 4: it may not be aimed at that. Like let's say
Speaker 4: it is something about like anti masking. If you wear
Speaker 4: a mask, don't come in here. I'm automatly. Oh I'm
Speaker 4: also Asians. I definitely can't come in here either, So
Speaker 4: I'll go ahead, and even if I'm not wearing a mask,
Speaker 4: you know, like that's an automatic sign. So you're not
Speaker 4: just cutting off that one group of people, you're cutting
Speaker 4: off a level. Yes, that is pretty mad, and I
Speaker 4: am pretty scared, so I'm gone.
Speaker 2: Exhausting.
Speaker 3: Though it's exhausting to be mad without an impetus for
Speaker 3: being mad, Like it's already it takes a lot of
Speaker 3: energy already to be angry, right right, So to make
Speaker 3: ourselves angry before we need to be.
Speaker 1: It's a waste of resources. You're right, right, right, right right.
Speaker 1: This is not aimed at anybody in particular. By the way,
Speaker 1: we were just talking about this.
Speaker 4: Before, I was also, yeah, like there's some big news
Speaker 4: happening in like celebrity world. People are already getting mad,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, oh, yeah, this is interesting. This is
Speaker 4: a this is a sociological like study of how people
Speaker 4: react when it comes to fandoms.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, yeah, what we've talked about for Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think it's also just really easy now to assume
Speaker 3: that we have a wealth of knowledge based on a
Speaker 3: limited base of knowledge.
Speaker 2: Like we're thinking about.
Speaker 3: Celebrities and we're like, yeah, I saw in this article,
Speaker 3: like they started dating this person and they broke up
Speaker 3: with them because this person cheated on them. And I
Speaker 3: know all of this because I've been following two years
Speaker 3: worse of like you know, ten hours of like forums
Speaker 3: I'm following or just articles I've read, And so I
Speaker 3: assume that I have fan theories. I assume that I
Speaker 3: have like a wealth of knowledge about somebody's life when
Speaker 3: it's really just a very very tiny modicum of information
Speaker 3: that I have.
Speaker 2: But I think it's easy to do.
Speaker 3: That, you know, yeah, you're totally this kind of person
Speaker 3: because I have this small amount of information about them,
Speaker 3: when it's like no, I don't.
Speaker 4: Know, right, And then the thing is like, if you're
Speaker 4: doing this on your own amusement, it's a thing. But
Speaker 4: then when you start like blasting and calling people out,
Speaker 4: being angry at people, sending letters, sending hate things. They're like,
Speaker 4: that's where we're concerned.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the sure, that's so this is really a PSA.
Speaker 2: It's not it's not blame. No, this is a public
Speaker 2: service announcement.
Speaker 4: Right, It's gonna be okay, everyone, it's gonna be okay.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, we're gonna get through this. But I am
Speaker 1: very excited to talk about who you brought today. I
Speaker 1: got to see some amazing art that I've never seen before.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure this person faced a lot of criticism,
Speaker 1: A nice segue, a lot of iron for sure. Who
Speaker 1: did you bring for us today?
Speaker 2: Eves?
Speaker 3: Today we're talking about Aurora Race. So her art is wonderful.
Speaker 3: I really recommend anybody who hasn't seen it check it out.
Speaker 3: I've only been to Mexico City once, it did not
Speaker 3: get the opportunity to see her art while I was
Speaker 3: there because it was a very short time. So I'm
Speaker 3: looking forward to hopefully being able to see some in person.
Speaker 3: But she created she made the first mural that was
Speaker 3: done by a Mexican born female artist, so she wasn't
Speaker 3: the first woman in Mexico. You know, we can get
Speaker 3: into these kinds of weird technicalities when we're talking about
Speaker 3: female first. She wasn't the first woman in Mexico to
Speaker 3: get a mural commission, that was an American woman, but
Speaker 3: she was the first Mexican born woman to get a
Speaker 3: mural commission from the government, so she's considered Mexico's first
Speaker 3: female muralist. So a person who did a lot of
Speaker 3: work in discovering and documenting the history and the biography
Speaker 3: of Aurora Rays was doctor Dina Coma Senenco Mierican, so
Speaker 3: you can read some of her work. A lot of
Speaker 3: the documentation about Aurora Rays is in Spanish, so if
Speaker 3: you are fluent in Spanish and you're able to read it,
Speaker 3: then you'll be able to enjoy a lot more of
Speaker 3: the works on Aurora Rays. But art historian and scholar
Speaker 3: doctor Dina Comasenanco American has read in works in English
Speaker 3: about her that you can read, and she talks about
Speaker 3: how female Mexican muralists have been quote virtually ignored, and
Speaker 3: she says that that could potentially be because people believed
Speaker 3: women didn't have the physicality to paint murals, that they
Speaker 3: didn't really have an interest in public art in the
Speaker 3: early nineteen hundreds, or that it was only men who
Speaker 3: painted murals in Mexico. So the history and the documentation
Speaker 3: of Mexican muralism does focus a lot on men, and
Speaker 3: it was a lot of men who were painting murals
Speaker 3: at the time due to a lot of the things
Speaker 3: that we talk about, who had access to do it,
Speaker 3: who was asked to do it, especially in these things
Speaker 3: like government commissions. Who was highlighted by the people who
Speaker 3: were choosing to document certain things.
Speaker 2: But there were women who were involved in Mexican muralism.
Speaker 3: Who also had political stances in their muralism, So they
Speaker 3: weren't quiet, They weren't reticent about things all the time,
Speaker 3: even though they weren't always focused on socio political themes,
Speaker 3: but they were and they had seen things to say
Speaker 3: and they often said them through murals during this time period.
Speaker 3: So now I guess we can get into Aurora Race herself.
Speaker 3: She was born on September ninth, nineteen oh eight, in
Speaker 3: Hidalgo des Paral in the state of Chihuahua. The Mexican
Speaker 3: Revolution started just a couple of years after she was born,
Speaker 3: and her family was involved in politics, and her grandfather
Speaker 3: was the politician in general Bernardo Race, and her uncle
Speaker 3: was Alfonso Race, who was a writer and a scholar,
Speaker 3: and her mother was named Luisa Flores, so her family
Speaker 3: was relatively wealthy and had some notoriety, but they were
Speaker 3: politically persecuted. In nineteen thirteen, her father, who was land Race,
Speaker 3: had to leave his hometown because of his political leanings
Speaker 3: and the family fleet to Mexico City, so her mother
Speaker 3: spent time baking bread and Aurora helped with selling it
Speaker 3: at the market. And Aurora even said in a nineteen
Speaker 3: fifty three interview that quote art is the medium with
Speaker 3: the greatest potential to penetrate human emotions and therefore functions
Speaker 3: as a powerful weapon in the fight for the rights
Speaker 3: of the common man. She also said that she was
Speaker 3: interested in social issues because she suffered hunger and misery,
Speaker 3: so she was invested in because of her personal experience
Speaker 3: with dealing with challenges economic.
Speaker 2: Struggle and also social struggle.
Speaker 3: So she was invested in art being able to be
Speaker 3: a vehicle for making things happen in the social and
Speaker 3: political spheres, and she believed that it was a weapon.
Speaker 3: So her experiences with poverty helped her feel and empathize
Speaker 3: with what it was like to be in that struggle
Speaker 3: and helped lead her into the revolutionary practices and matters
Speaker 3: that she was involved in later in life.
Speaker 2: So this started pretty early.
Speaker 3: Her consciousness started developing pretty early, and she was already
Speaker 3: put in those spaces because of her family. And so
Speaker 3: she began attending the National Preparatory School, which is where
Speaker 3: she met Free to Callo. But she was only there
Speaker 3: for a short period of time, and she was supposedly
Speaker 3: expelled not long after enrolling for getting into some kind
Speaker 3: of conflict with another classmate. But she and Free to
Speaker 3: Callo ended up being lifelong friend, so you'll see her
Speaker 3: come up in her story over their entire lives. At
Speaker 3: age thirteen, Aurora Rays began taking classes at the National
Speaker 3: School of Fine Arts and she ended up graduating in
Speaker 3: nineteen twenty four at age sixteen. So it's necessary to
Speaker 3: form a foundation of a little bit of background of
Speaker 3: what was happening at the time. Since it was the
Speaker 3: Mexican Revolution, there was a lot of political turbulence, and
Speaker 3: of course Aura Rays herself was incorporating some of her
Speaker 3: own political ideas and the things that were happening in
Speaker 3: society at the time in her art. So there was
Speaker 3: Porphyrio Diaz, who people listening have likely heard of before.
Speaker 3: He had been in power since the eighteen seventies in Mexico,
Speaker 3: and he had opened up Mexico to foreign investment. So
Speaker 3: there was this thing happening where like the wealthy elite
Speaker 3: were benefiting, but the rural workers and the peasants were
Speaker 3: suffering under these policies. But Diaz suppressed opposition, and then
Speaker 3: people began to challenge his rule and to fight for
Speaker 3: lamb reform. So obviously that's a very abbreviated version of
Speaker 3: everything that was happening. It was very complex, and it
Speaker 3: was a lot more other policies than that that affected
Speaker 3: the people who were living in Mexico. But in nineteen eleven,
Speaker 3: Diez resigned and he went into exile. So, after much
Speaker 3: conflict and many changes in leadership, a new constitution in
Speaker 3: Mexico was approved in nineteen seventeen. So that constitution called
Speaker 3: for things like land reform, the nationalization of resources, and workers' rights,
Speaker 3: and it opened up the government's role in helping and
Speaker 3: providing for its citizens. But the president then Venustiano Carranza,
Speaker 3: ignored this, and many historians say that the election of
Speaker 3: President Alvaro Obergone in nineteen twenty was the end of
Speaker 3: the revolution, but there was still conflict that continued after that,
Speaker 3: so not all historians are completely aligned on that being
Speaker 3: the end. But we know how things like this can
Speaker 3: often be when it comes to war and revolution, that
Speaker 3: the beginning points and endpoints of things can be kind
Speaker 3: of fuzzy, depending on what people want to consider the
Speaker 3: marker of endpoints. The point is that conflict continued and
Speaker 3: General Lazaro Cardenas was elected president in nineteen thirty four.
Speaker 3: He implemented a lot of changes, and he pressed four
Speaker 3: more on those revolutionary goals than people who were previously
Speaker 3: empowered did. He did things like nationalized railways and the
Speaker 3: oil industry, and he redistributed land, and he was involved
Speaker 3: in other social and economic reforms that happened in the country.
Speaker 3: And one of those things was after nineteen twenty, public
Speaker 3: art became a more important means of educating Mexican people,
Speaker 3: many of whom were poor and who couldn't read, and
Speaker 3: murals in particular, were a medium to do so. So
Speaker 3: if you're familiar with the history of art or even
Speaker 3: the way art operates in many of our cities today,
Speaker 3: and how public art is very accessible to people is
Speaker 3: that people in different neighborhoods of different class levels and
Speaker 3: economic situations can access. So being able to use that
Speaker 3: as a vehicle for education is something that means that
Speaker 3: it can reach more people and may even be more
Speaker 3: interesting to people. So a movement began where the government
Speaker 3: commissioned mostly male artists to paint these murals to teach
Speaker 3: folks about their history and were future facing as well,
Speaker 3: so helping them think about the history but also in
Speaker 3: what ways they would move forward and the things that
Speaker 3: could be done, the things that should be considered to
Speaker 3: create this kind of social progress. So three names that
Speaker 3: are highly associated with this Mexican muralism movement, they were
Speaker 3: considered the three greats were Diego Rivera da vid Alfaro
Speaker 3: Sicios and Jose Clemente Odolsco. They were considered the three grades,
Speaker 3: and of course they're all men, but they were influential
Speaker 3: in that movement. Aurora raised work focused on topics that
Speaker 3: she and many other activists artists like she was, were
Speaker 3: concerned with in this revolutionary era, like education, workers' rights,
Speaker 3: and gender. So Kama Senenko Mirkin, the scholar who I
Speaker 3: was referring to earlier, she talks about how women artists
Speaker 3: at that time shared common themes in their work, like
Speaker 3: the challenges of motherhood, gender violence, and infant death. And
Speaker 3: you'll see that in some of her art as well
Speaker 3: if you go and take a look at it. But
Speaker 3: it'll come up later in her story. So this is
Speaker 3: where Aurora Ray's career in art really picks up. In
Speaker 3: nineteen twenty five, she had her first solo exhibition of drawings.
Speaker 3: In that same year, she married journalists and writer hoort
Speaker 3: Hey Goodoy. She had had one child with a previous partner,
Speaker 3: and then she had one child with Orge Goodoy. She
Speaker 3: and Goodoy did end up divorcing, though, and they ended
Speaker 3: contact with each other and she raised her children. She
Speaker 3: wrote a letter to one of her children while she
Speaker 3: was pregnant at one point, and there is a quote
Speaker 3: from this letter in an essay by Dina Koma Saankomerkan
Speaker 3: that's called frieda Callo and Aurora rais painting.
Speaker 2: To the voice of Concha Michael. So here's the quote.
Speaker 3: I call you my daughter because I want you to
Speaker 3: know that all women have dreamt of dignifying life. Right now,
Speaker 3: we must conquer a place of justice and respect in
Speaker 3: the face of the future, so that there will be
Speaker 3: balance and fraternity among our children, so that no wars
Speaker 3: arise out of clumsy ambitions. And we must destroy once
Speaker 3: and for all the chains of slavery formed by ignorance, hatred,
Speaker 3: and poverty. And that's the end of the quote. So
Speaker 3: not to confuse people, she did not have a daughter.
Speaker 3: Both of her children were sons, but she still wrote
Speaker 3: this letter when she was pregnant.
Speaker 2: So clearly.
Speaker 3: We see her values through this quote. We see what
Speaker 3: she cared about. We see that she cared about creating
Speaker 3: a future that was good to everybody in society. She
Speaker 3: cared about gender, she cared about no war happening, she
Speaker 3: cared about poverty, she cared about people's education levels, and
Speaker 3: not just in a way that was that was emotional
Speaker 3: intelligence and also other kinds of intelligence. So in nineteen
Speaker 3: twenty seven, Riz taught art in public schools and she
Speaker 3: ended up doing this for a little bit under forty years,
Speaker 3: so a long time. She also joined that year the
Speaker 3: Mexican Communist Party and she stayed in that party for
Speaker 3: the next thirteen years. She was one of several people
Speaker 3: who later left the Communist Party and was removed from
Speaker 3: the party for having quote links with Trotskyist groups, always
Speaker 3: working without connection with the party's higher organizations and base,
Speaker 3: and receiving influences from people foreign to the political line
Speaker 3: of the PCM. In nineteen thirty she was also part
Speaker 3: of the first group show of posters and phono montages
Speaker 3: in Mexico City, and she was connected with many many
Speaker 3: artists and activists that we've already brought up Freeda Collo.
Speaker 3: She was also connected to Diego Rivera, Maria Esquierdo and
Speaker 3: other people. And I also earlier brought up Concha Michel.
Speaker 3: She was close to her. Concha Michell was a singer
Speaker 3: and an activist, and Aura Rais included a portrait of
Speaker 3: Michel and a mural that she painted, and she painted
Speaker 3: a portrait of Michel Freeda Callo and herself that she
Speaker 3: called Concha Aurora Efrida, So she was part of her
Speaker 3: life as well. In terms of other organizations that Aurora
Speaker 3: Rais was in, she was also part of the Mexican
Speaker 3: Republic Teachers Union and the National Peasants Confederation. In the
Speaker 3: Teachers U Union, she was secretary of Women's Action and
Speaker 3: through that work she advocated for women's suffrage, things like
Speaker 3: more maternity leave, and women's right to be in positions
Speaker 3: of political power like higher government position and other rights
Speaker 3: for women. So that was a big thing that she
Speaker 3: advocated for. A lot of the work that she did
Speaker 3: was influenced by LEAR or the League of Revolutionary Writers
Speaker 3: and Artists. LEIR operated from nineteen thirty four to nineteen
Speaker 3: thirty seven, which was a short time, but it was
Speaker 3: all about art and about social responsibility, and it was
Speaker 3: ideologically aligned with leftist politics. It organized lectures and other
Speaker 3: kinds of activities, and it was really centered around the
Speaker 3: power of art, kind of going back to that quote
Speaker 3: that I brought up that Aurora Race said earlier about
Speaker 3: believing in the power of art to create social change.
Speaker 2: So the people she.
Speaker 3: Was around in that organization, the ideology that it focused on,
Speaker 3: and the activities that it organized were in alignment with
Speaker 3: the things that Aura Rays cared about. So that in
Speaker 3: this point we come to the mural that is often
Speaker 3: talked about and associated with Aura Rays, which is called
Speaker 3: a take a la mastre rural, which means attack on
Speaker 3: the rural teacher. So that was created for an elementary
Speaker 3: school called centrol Escolar Revolution, which was in a neighborhood
Speaker 3: in Mexico City. So this school, according to Camasenko, American
Speaker 3: was a quote experimental model school for testing socialist education
Speaker 3: and the essential instrument for building the broad popular support
Speaker 3: needed for social reform end quote. The school was located
Speaker 3: on the site where there used to be a prison,
Speaker 3: so that site was transformed and it became educational institution.
Speaker 3: That was the school, and that school had also had
Speaker 3: a gym and a track in pool and libraries and
Speaker 3: the government commissioned the League of Revolutionary Writers and Artists
Speaker 3: to create murals for that school between the years of
Speaker 3: nineteen thirty four and nineteen thirty six. So the artists
Speaker 3: commissioned to do the works in that school were Raoul Aguiano,
Speaker 3: Everardo Ramirez, Gonzalo de la Paz, Peres, Antonio Gutierrez, Ignacio Gomez, Hadamio,
Speaker 3: and Aurora Race. So there were many murals in the
Speaker 3: school and her mural was attack on the Rural Teacher.
Speaker 3: So you can also see images of this mural online
Speaker 3: and you'll see in it that it depicts two men
Speaker 3: who are attacking a female teacher. One man is hitting
Speaker 3: the teacher in the image with the rifle and the
Speaker 3: other one is pulling her by her hair. The man
Speaker 3: who is dragging her by her hair is also holding
Speaker 3: money and kind of destroying a book, and the other
Speaker 3: man is wearing this thing called a scapular, which is
Speaker 3: an object that Roman Catholics were to show their devotion
Speaker 3: to a saint, often to the Virgin Mary. So in
Speaker 3: the background of the painting you'll see three children who
Speaker 3: are kind of peeking out from behind a column, and
Speaker 3: they're hiding their faces as they look at this violent scene.
Speaker 3: There is also symbolism that identifies a man who is
Speaker 3: dragging her by her hair as a member of a
Speaker 3: Mexican Nazi group. He has on this gold shirt and
Speaker 3: his arms and legs, if you look at the shape
Speaker 3: of how they're set up in the image, are positioned
Speaker 3: in the shape of a swastika, and the money that
Speaker 3: he's holding symbolizes how his violent actions are tied to
Speaker 3: capitalism and greed and with a or a raise and
Speaker 3: her political leanings and involvement with the Mexican Communist Party,
Speaker 3: a lot of her ideology.
Speaker 2: And the work that she did.
Speaker 3: Was indicative of her anti capitalism stances. So the mural
Speaker 3: was a response to a massacre that happened at the
Speaker 3: time where at least sixteen teachers were killed in a
Speaker 3: village in the state of Guanajuato. And at the time,
Speaker 3: people who supported Catholic controlled education in Mexico often attacked
Speaker 3: royal teachers, So it wasn't something that was rare. It
Speaker 3: was a response to something that was happening semi frequently.
Speaker 3: There was an amount of violence in that way at
Speaker 3: the time. And yeah, this work was in the school.
Speaker 3: As it's put in The Power and Politics of Art
Speaker 3: and Post Revolutionary in Mexico by Stephanie J. Smith quote,
Speaker 3: the work must have acted as a warning to protect
Speaker 3: public education for those who served on the front lines
Speaker 3: of the educational battles. So were a raised being a
Speaker 3: teacher herself, being concerned with education and knowing that it
Speaker 3: would be part of the way for women and the
Speaker 3: power that they would be able to express in the
Speaker 3: coming years was focused on education, So it made sense
Speaker 3: that she would be one of the people to create
Speaker 3: a mural for this school. Her other murals are in
Speaker 3: an auditorium in a complex that includes the National Teachers
Speaker 3: Union headquarters. These murals were originally completed between nineteen fifty
Speaker 3: nine and nineteen sixty one. So in she remain involved
Speaker 3: in organizations throughout her life. In nineteen thirty eight she
Speaker 3: went to the National Women's Congress in Havana and Cuba
Speaker 3: as a delegate from the Teachers Union. And she also
Speaker 3: continued her art in different ways. In the nineteen forties,
Speaker 3: many of her poems were published, and she took part
Speaker 3: in solo and group shows in Mexico and around the world,
Speaker 3: and according to Camasenanco American, she got more acclaimed for
Speaker 3: her poetry than she did for her painting. Eighteen forty seven,
Speaker 3: the poem Mbre de Mexico was published, and in nineteen
Speaker 3: fifty three Umanos Paisajes, her first book of poetry, was published.
Speaker 3: And so she did a range of art for different mediums.
Speaker 3: She did lithographs for political materials, she did drawings for books,
Speaker 3: and oil pieces for portrait commissions and frescoes for public
Speaker 3: work and things like that, and continue to focus on women, children,
Speaker 3: Mexican traditions, the Mexican Revolution, and education and those kinds
Speaker 3: of things. And she uplifted indigenous heritage and she protested
Speaker 3: authoritarian governments. So if you look at her work, you'll
Speaker 3: see that it's colorful. The figures are often curvy, thick like,
Speaker 3: they're kind of like sensuous lines.
Speaker 2: The lines are really expressive and wavy.
Speaker 3: She has a mural called El Premier and Quentro or
Speaker 3: The First Encounter, that was done in nineteen seventy eight,
Speaker 3: which shows her depiction of the Spanish colonizers arriving in
Speaker 3: Tenos te Lin. And there's also Women of War which
Speaker 3: shows a woman that's holding a child who has passed
Speaker 3: away and the woman is like appearing to be ready
Speaker 3: to fight.
Speaker 2: So there are a range.
Speaker 3: Of different styles kind of in her work, Like some
Speaker 3: you'll see have are a little bit more wavy, some
Speaker 3: are a little bit more surrealistic in the style. Some
Speaker 3: are porches of specific people, and of course these murals
Speaker 3: are larger works that include a lot of people, but
Speaker 3: they're very expressive and clearly show her values.
Speaker 2: And the things that she cared about at the time.
Speaker 3: She died in April of nineteen eighty five in Mexico City,
Speaker 3: and she was known during her time and was recognized
Speaker 3: during her time and the fact that she was publicly
Speaker 3: commissioned to do these murals, but her legacy does live
Speaker 3: on and her works still exist, and yeah, I am
Speaker 3: really glad to be able to continue to uplift her
Speaker 3: legacy and the things that she did for Mexican muralism.
Speaker 1: I mean again, I'm so glad. I'm always so happy
Speaker 1: when you bring in people I haven't heard of in
Speaker 1: this art.
Speaker 2: Her style is like right up my alley.
Speaker 1: Also, I could listen to you have a podcast just
Speaker 1: like walking me through the symbolism of art.
Speaker 2: That was amazing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, when you were doing it, I felt like I
Speaker 4: was a back in art history class, which I loved.
Speaker 4: Studying was hard, but loved hearing the explanations because you
Speaker 4: were talking about the rural teachers one and I haven't
Speaker 4: pulled up right now. You did such a great job.
Speaker 4: Was like, oh, I didn't notice that, but yeah, well
Speaker 4: that part too. But I do have a question. I
Speaker 4: don't know if you know much about it, because this
Speaker 4: is a fairly violent piece of art. It's moreous. The
Speaker 4: colors are amazing, the way that it flows, like you
Speaker 4: could go from the left to right in the art.
Speaker 2: But how was it received.
Speaker 4: In a public space like a school, because I can't
Speaker 4: imagine everybody loved it.
Speaker 2: That's a good question.
Speaker 3: I know in general that there were people who were
Speaker 3: against this kind of education at the time, and that's
Speaker 3: the reason that some of these attacks were happening. But
Speaker 3: I'm not sure exactly how it was like on site
Speaker 3: received by the people who were there, because that is
Speaker 3: one of the things that is interesting to me as well. Like,
Speaker 3: of course, there was a lot of change happening at
Speaker 3: the time in terms of like this school being built
Speaker 3: in the kind of education that they were giving children,
Speaker 3: and it wasn't necessarily status quo. It was something that
Speaker 3: was just developing. So I'm really not sure, Like that's
Speaker 3: a question that I would love to know the answer
Speaker 3: to as well.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, I would just love to see the reaction,
Speaker 4: especially because it is so controvertic today seeing a piece
Speaker 4: like this, I don't think would pass. There's so much
Speaker 4: that we know of course, who are at a different
Speaker 4: time and everything's the worst, but this type of art
Speaker 4: as much an amazing history there is behind it and
Speaker 4: the story that it tells, and even though you have
Speaker 4: to take a closer look, like at the true violence
Speaker 4: of it, it's quite shocking that it has survived.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I also I'm glad that you brought that up, Samantha,
Speaker 3: because I'm also thinking about the fact that yes, it's
Speaker 3: showing the things that are happening, and that this is
Speaker 3: the reason that education is so important, but it is
Speaker 3: physically violent. But also in this mural, she's showing children
Speaker 3: who are looking at it, which I think becomes this
Speaker 3: kind of like meta self referential thing where there are
Speaker 3: children who are looking at this scene of violence, and
Speaker 3: then there are children in the school who are looking
Speaker 3: at these children in the mural looking at the scene
Speaker 3: of violence.
Speaker 2: But it's also like, these children who are going.
Speaker 3: To these school have also likely seen scenes of violence themselves,
Speaker 3: or a lot of them have seen scenes of violence themselves,
Speaker 3: so it's not like something they're unfamiliar with. And it
Speaker 3: just makes me think of this American tendency and proclivity
Speaker 3: to shield children from.
Speaker 2: Things that we deal with in real life.
Speaker 3: So yeah, like I could imagine this being something that
Speaker 3: is based on perceived or what's pretended to be mainstream
Speaker 3: morals in the United States and my limited experience of
Speaker 3: like how I live my life in this country being
Speaker 3: like do we want I mean, just think about the
Speaker 3: book bannings in the United States and the reasons that
Speaker 3: books are banned, Like what we want our children to have.
Speaker 3: The kind of information that we want our children to
Speaker 3: have access to is such a topic of contention based
Speaker 3: on religion and morals in the United States, and that's
Speaker 3: because it's public school. This is still a public school
Speaker 3: we're talking about. It's like, well, I have a say
Speaker 3: in what should happen here. I'm a taxpayer, and this
Speaker 3: should happen, so I would. I'm too, just like you, Samantha,
Speaker 3: interested in knowing the answer to this question and fascinated
Speaker 3: by it because it didn't seem like it didn't seem
Speaker 3: like this was something the school was still allowed to exist, right,
Speaker 3: It didn't seem like this was something where people were
Speaker 3: showing up with tiki torches, you know, at the beginning
Speaker 3: of the school day or holding signs outside of it,
Speaker 3: protesting every day, at least as far as my limited information,
Speaker 3: and it was allowed to exist and still exists, you know,
Speaker 3: still does so yeah, I think I think.
Speaker 2: That, Like I don't know.
Speaker 3: In my head, I'm like the parents are showing up
Speaker 3: at the PTA methings, you know, like they like take
Speaker 3: this real down, Like I can't imagine something like that
Speaker 3: happening then and there.
Speaker 2: But I can't say that, I'm like, I know, right.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm sure because she already had a reputation in
Speaker 4: having political stances before she was commissioned to do these
Speaker 4: types of murals, so that they may not have expected this,
Speaker 4: but they knew it was going to be a statement.
Speaker 4: They like the people who commission and knew it was coming.
Speaker 4: I'm sure they had an idea of like, Okay, this
Speaker 4: is gonna be a statement more than just.
Speaker 2: A pretty piece of art. And obviously it is.
Speaker 4: And again it's gorgeous, like it's I hate to call
Speaker 4: anything that depicts such a sorrowful time as gorgeous, but
Speaker 4: when it comes down to what she did and what
Speaker 4: she created, it is it is art, it is it
Speaker 4: is an amazing depiction. And then the way she made
Speaker 4: sure the colors are the blends, the symbolism, the commonality throughout,
Speaker 4: like it's it's perfect in my mind and what she
Speaker 4: was trying to represent. But yeah, like in knowing again
Speaker 4: that you're right, like I'm pushing back what I know
Speaker 4: today to what this when this was created, and like
Speaker 4: how how is it still standing and that we actually
Speaker 4: have evidence that she did this and that it represented
Speaker 4: this and it's full because as we know right now,
Speaker 4: things are going terrifyingly bad at people trying to censor
Speaker 4: so much and to erase so much that it's partially like,
Speaker 4: how do we make sure that things like this keep
Speaker 4: staying alive and we keep having a conversation about what
Speaker 4: she represented, what she wanted to be known, what she
Speaker 4: wanted to say through our art more so than anything else.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I think it's cool that you brought it
Speaker 3: up because it does allow us to look at how
Speaker 3: different cultures at different times versus how we consider things
Speaker 3: today and consider the way we do things to be
Speaker 3: the right way to do things. So it's like, what
Speaker 3: can we learn from or raised art and it being
Speaker 3: public art and what it depicted and how we think.
Speaker 2: About what we.
Speaker 3: Expose children to today in public education.
Speaker 1: It is, But I seriously, listeners, go search out this art.
Speaker 1: It's really really fantastic, and I there's a lot of
Speaker 1: like commonalities, but there's also a lot of differences in them.
Speaker 1: So I love that she had that range but also
Speaker 1: kind of a unique style that you could be like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's probably her, so go check that out. And it's
Speaker 1: always Eve's thank you so much for being here. If
Speaker 1: you want to start an art podcast?
Speaker 2: Were there or ready?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 2: Okay, we don't want to put any more work on you,
Speaker 2: but just say it. Just you know, if you did, yeah,
Speaker 2: we'd be there. But yes, thank you so much, Eaves.
Speaker 2: Where can the good listeners find you? Thank you?
Speaker 3: And the listeners can find me on Instagram at not Apologizing,
Speaker 3: on Twitter at Eve's Jeffcoat, or on my website www
Speaker 3: dot Evesjeffcoat dot com and you can find all of
Speaker 3: the other things from there and many other episodes of
Speaker 3: Female First here on Sminty about other people in history
Speaker 3: who did amazing things, flowed the status quo in a
Speaker 3: lot of different ways, and we're there first in their
Speaker 3: respective feels.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, we always. We love the series. We're so
Speaker 1: glad you come on and do it. So if you've
Speaker 1: somehow missed that listener, just go back and listen to
Speaker 1: those episodes and go find Eves. If you would like
Speaker 1: to find us, you can. You can email us a
Speaker 1: stuff media mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com.
Speaker 2: You can find us on Twitter at.
Speaker 1: Mom Stuff podcast, our, Instagram and TikTok at stuff I've
Speaker 1: Never Told You. You can also find us on YouTube and
Speaker 1: we have a book. You can pre order it at
Speaker 1: stuff you Should Read books dot com. Thanks as always
Speaker 1: to our super producer Christina, our executive producer Maya, and
Speaker 1: our contributor Joey.
Speaker 2: Thank you and thanks to you for listening Stuff I
Speaker 2: Never Told You. Introduction of iHeartRadio.
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