May 19, 2023 • 36 mins
Yves helps us brush up on the history of Aurora Reyes, Mexico's first Mexican woman muralist.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stefan
Never told you productive iHeartRadio, and today we are once
again doing a female first, which means we are once
again thrilled to be joined by the lovely, the delightful,
(00:26):
the talented Eves.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Welcome. Yeah, hello, he once again happy to be here.
We're so happy to have you.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
We just had a we always have these conversations before,
and I'm like, why we we need to talk about
this on the show, about celebrity culture and ownership around
that and people who write in and complain about very
specific things and why that might be.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Yeah, and if you're that kind of person, don't do
it now. I'm just saying you can do whatever.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
You want to the calling in versus just complaining. Please
don't complain. We have enough complaints in our lives that
we don't need.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Is this some kind of intervention or maybe it might be,
because honestly, Annie, I think it's needed. If you're thinking
about doing something waking up in the morning, logging onto
your computer or opening your phone email app that you
use and typing a rude email to somebody, maybe just.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Take a moment to breathe.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
And then like consider whether this needs to be said
at all, or maybe said in the way that you're
considering saying it, and then continue, So that might still
end in you sending the email, But like, I think
the least that can be done is just taking a
pause for consideration.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
And this is constructive.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
It great questions we all need to ask ourselves.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Encouragements are always welcome. We get a lot of those.
We don't talk enough about that, but we get a
lot of those. But the ones things that are out
of our control, I think we had a like it's
a constant trying to explain like ads. That's one of
the number one things is like, if we're not actually
voicing these ads, the likelihood of us knowing what's happening
and the US approving it is probably didn't happen. Like
(02:18):
it's very rare. So let us know without being mad
at us.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, do let us Okay, sometimes some of those are.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Real with you, with you, we just didn't know what
was happening, So don't be mad at us.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Well, that's another thing, because we were talking about this,
Samantha and I we just did an episode on like
embarrassment and and one of the things I I don't
like is, as I was saying, celebrity culture. But it
kind of freaks me out. This Like when I see
people like do person on the Street interviews and the Dale's,
(02:52):
they're so eager for their like fifteen minutes that they'll
just say anything, they'll do anything in it. That kind
of freaks me out that mentality. And then something you
were talking about eves with you know, who's going to
see this thing, this angry message or whatever. Something else
that I ponder about sometimes is when people are pre mad.
So it's like I've seen some businesses that have signs
(03:15):
that are like if you don't believe in God, you
ain't welcome.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Like all right, well, alter.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Like maybe I did, maybe I did it, But now
I'm like, you're pre angry, and I don't want to do.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
That, and I don't want to do with this.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah, and if you walked into that store, it's like
you probably are not going to have a conversation about
God anyway, so you didn't even really know. Right, It's
exclusionary and a totally unnecessary way.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Right, because I totally I'm all for, like, you know,
put up your pride bags, you know, all that kind
of stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
But for you to be like.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Immediately tell someone that you're not welcomed, don't come in straight,
it may not be aimed at that. Like let's say
it is something about like anti masking. If you wear
a mask, don't come in here. I'm automatly. Oh I'm
also Asians. I definitely can't come in here either, So
I'll go ahead, and even if I'm not wearing a mask,
you know, like that's an automatic sign. So you're not
(04:07):
just cutting off that one group of people, you're cutting
off a level. Yes, that is pretty mad, and I
am pretty scared, so I'm gone.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Exhausting.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Though it's exhausting to be mad without an impetus for
being mad, Like it's already it takes a lot of
energy already to be angry, right right, So to make
ourselves angry before we need to be.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
It's a waste of resources. You're right, right, right, right right.
This is not aimed at anybody in particular. By the way,
we were just talking about this.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Before, I was also, yeah, like there's some big news
happening in like celebrity world. People are already getting mad,
and I'm like, oh, yeah, this is interesting. This is
a this is a sociological like study of how people
react when it comes to fandoms.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Right, yeah, yeah, what we've talked about for Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
I think it's also just really easy now to assume
that we have a wealth of knowledge based on a
limited base of knowledge.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Like we're thinking about.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Celebrities and we're like, yeah, I saw in this article,
like they started dating this person and they broke up
with them because this person cheated on them. And I
know all of this because I've been following two years
worse of like you know, ten hours of like forums
I'm following or just articles I've read, And so I
assume that I have fan theories. I assume that I
(05:34):
have like a wealth of knowledge about somebody's life when
it's really just a very very tiny modicum of information
that I have.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
But I think it's easy to do.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
That, you know, yeah, you're totally this kind of person
because I have this small amount of information about them,
when it's like no, I don't.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Know, right, And then the thing is like, if you're
doing this on your own amusement, it's a thing. But
then when you start like blasting and calling people out,
being angry at people, sending letters, sending hate things. They're like,
that's where we're concerned.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Yeah, that's the sure, that's so this is really a PSA.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
It's not it's not blame. No, this is a public
service announcement.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Right, It's gonna be okay, everyone, it's gonna be okay.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yes, yes, we're gonna get through this. But I am
very excited to talk about who you brought today. I
got to see some amazing art that I've never seen before.
And I'm sure this person faced a lot of criticism,
A nice segue, a lot of iron for sure. Who
did you bring for us today?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Eves?
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Today we're talking about Aurora Race. So her art is wonderful.
I really recommend anybody who hasn't seen it check it out.
I've only been to Mexico City once, it did not
get the opportunity to see her art while I was
there because it was a very short time. So I'm
looking forward to hopefully being able to see some in person.
But she created she made the first mural that was
(07:03):
done by a Mexican born female artist, so she wasn't
the first woman in Mexico. You know, we can get
into these kinds of weird technicalities when we're talking about
female first. She wasn't the first woman in Mexico to
get a mural commission, that was an American woman, but
she was the first Mexican born woman to get a
mural commission from the government, so she's considered Mexico's first
(07:25):
female muralist. So a person who did a lot of
work in discovering and documenting the history and the biography
of Aurora Rays was doctor Dina Coma Senenco Mierican, so
you can read some of her work. A lot of
the documentation about Aurora Rays is in Spanish, so if
(07:46):
you are fluent in Spanish and you're able to read it,
then you'll be able to enjoy a lot more of
the works on Aurora Rays. But art historian and scholar
doctor Dina Comasenanco American has read in works in English
about her that you can read, and she talks about
how female Mexican muralists have been quote virtually ignored, and
(08:09):
she says that that could potentially be because people believed
women didn't have the physicality to paint murals, that they
didn't really have an interest in public art in the
early nineteen hundreds, or that it was only men who
painted murals in Mexico. So the history and the documentation
(08:30):
of Mexican muralism does focus a lot on men, and
it was a lot of men who were painting murals
at the time due to a lot of the things
that we talk about, who had access to do it,
who was asked to do it, especially in these things
like government commissions. Who was highlighted by the people who
were choosing to document certain things.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
But there were women who were involved in Mexican muralism.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Who also had political stances in their muralism, So they
weren't quiet, They weren't reticent about things all the time,
even though they weren't always focused on socio political themes,
but they were and they had seen things to say
and they often said them through murals during this time period.
(09:23):
So now I guess we can get into Aurora Race herself.
She was born on September ninth, nineteen oh eight, in
Hidalgo des Paral in the state of Chihuahua. The Mexican
Revolution started just a couple of years after she was born,
and her family was involved in politics, and her grandfather
(09:45):
was the politician in general Bernardo Race, and her uncle
was Alfonso Race, who was a writer and a scholar,
and her mother was named Luisa Flores, so her family
was relatively wealthy and had some notoriety, but they were
politically persecuted. In nineteen thirteen, her father, who was land Race,
(10:07):
had to leave his hometown because of his political leanings
and the family fleet to Mexico City, so her mother
spent time baking bread and Aurora helped with selling it
at the market. And Aurora even said in a nineteen
fifty three interview that quote art is the medium with
the greatest potential to penetrate human emotions and therefore functions
(10:31):
as a powerful weapon in the fight for the rights
of the common man. She also said that she was
interested in social issues because she suffered hunger and misery,
so she was invested in because of her personal experience
with dealing with challenges economic.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Struggle and also social struggle.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
So she was invested in art being able to be
a vehicle for making things happen in the social and
political spheres, and she believed that it was a weapon.
So her experiences with poverty helped her feel and empathize
with what it was like to be in that struggle
(11:16):
and helped lead her into the revolutionary practices and matters
that she was involved in later in life.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
So this started pretty early.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Her consciousness started developing pretty early, and she was already
put in those spaces because of her family. And so
she began attending the National Preparatory School, which is where
she met Free to Callo. But she was only there
for a short period of time, and she was supposedly
expelled not long after enrolling for getting into some kind
of conflict with another classmate. But she and Free to
(11:47):
Callo ended up being lifelong friend, so you'll see her
come up in her story over their entire lives. At
age thirteen, Aurora Rays began taking classes at the National
School of Fine Arts and she ended up graduating in
nineteen twenty four at age sixteen. So it's necessary to
(12:08):
form a foundation of a little bit of background of
what was happening at the time. Since it was the
Mexican Revolution, there was a lot of political turbulence, and
of course Aura Rays herself was incorporating some of her
own political ideas and the things that were happening in
society at the time in her art. So there was
(12:28):
Porphyrio Diaz, who people listening have likely heard of before.
He had been in power since the eighteen seventies in Mexico,
and he had opened up Mexico to foreign investment. So
there was this thing happening where like the wealthy elite
were benefiting, but the rural workers and the peasants were
suffering under these policies. But Diaz suppressed opposition, and then
(12:53):
people began to challenge his rule and to fight for
lamb reform. So obviously that's a very abbreviated version of
everything that was happening. It was very complex, and it
was a lot more other policies than that that affected
the people who were living in Mexico. But in nineteen eleven,
Diez resigned and he went into exile. So, after much
(13:15):
conflict and many changes in leadership, a new constitution in
Mexico was approved in nineteen seventeen. So that constitution called
for things like land reform, the nationalization of resources, and workers' rights,
and it opened up the government's role in helping and
providing for its citizens. But the president then Venustiano Carranza,
(13:37):
ignored this, and many historians say that the election of
President Alvaro Obergone in nineteen twenty was the end of
the revolution, but there was still conflict that continued after that,
so not all historians are completely aligned on that being
the end. But we know how things like this can
often be when it comes to war and revolution, that
(13:59):
the beginning points and endpoints of things can be kind
of fuzzy, depending on what people want to consider the
marker of endpoints. The point is that conflict continued and
General Lazaro Cardenas was elected president in nineteen thirty four.
He implemented a lot of changes, and he pressed four
more on those revolutionary goals than people who were previously
(14:22):
empowered did. He did things like nationalized railways and the
oil industry, and he redistributed land, and he was involved
in other social and economic reforms that happened in the country.
And one of those things was after nineteen twenty, public
art became a more important means of educating Mexican people,
(14:44):
many of whom were poor and who couldn't read, and
murals in particular, were a medium to do so. So
if you're familiar with the history of art or even
the way art operates in many of our cities today,
and how public art is very accessible to people is
that people in different neighborhoods of different class levels and
economic situations can access. So being able to use that
(15:08):
as a vehicle for education is something that means that
it can reach more people and may even be more
interesting to people. So a movement began where the government
commissioned mostly male artists to paint these murals to teach
folks about their history and were future facing as well,
so helping them think about the history but also in
(15:31):
what ways they would move forward and the things that
could be done, the things that should be considered to
create this kind of social progress. So three names that
are highly associated with this Mexican muralism movement, they were
considered the three greats were Diego Rivera da vid Alfaro
Sicios and Jose Clemente Odolsco. They were considered the three grades,
(15:55):
and of course they're all men, but they were influential
in that movement. Aurora raised work focused on topics that
she and many other activists artists like she was, were
concerned with in this revolutionary era, like education, workers' rights,
and gender. So Kama Senenko Mirkin, the scholar who I
(16:17):
was referring to earlier, she talks about how women artists
at that time shared common themes in their work, like
the challenges of motherhood, gender violence, and infant death. And
you'll see that in some of her art as well
if you go and take a look at it. But
it'll come up later in her story. So this is
where Aurora Ray's career in art really picks up. In
(16:42):
nineteen twenty five, she had her first solo exhibition of drawings.
In that same year, she married journalists and writer hoort
Hey Goodoy. She had had one child with a previous partner,
and then she had one child with Orge Goodoy. She
and Goodoy did end up divorcing, though, and they ended
contact with each other and she raised her children. She
(17:05):
wrote a letter to one of her children while she
was pregnant at one point, and there is a quote
from this letter in an essay by Dina Koma Saankomerkan
that's called frieda Callo and Aurora rais painting.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
To the voice of Concha Michael. So here's the quote.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
I call you my daughter because I want you to
know that all women have dreamt of dignifying life. Right now,
we must conquer a place of justice and respect in
the face of the future, so that there will be
balance and fraternity among our children, so that no wars
arise out of clumsy ambitions. And we must destroy once
(17:41):
and for all the chains of slavery formed by ignorance, hatred,
and poverty. And that's the end of the quote. So
not to confuse people, she did not have a daughter.
Both of her children were sons, but she still wrote
this letter when she was pregnant.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
So clearly.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
We see her values through this quote. We see what
she cared about. We see that she cared about creating
a future that was good to everybody in society. She
cared about gender, she cared about no war happening, she
cared about poverty, she cared about people's education levels, and
(18:21):
not just in a way that was that was emotional
intelligence and also other kinds of intelligence. So in nineteen
twenty seven, Riz taught art in public schools and she
ended up doing this for a little bit under forty years,
so a long time. She also joined that year the
Mexican Communist Party and she stayed in that party for
(18:42):
the next thirteen years. She was one of several people
who later left the Communist Party and was removed from
the party for having quote links with Trotskyist groups, always
working without connection with the party's higher organizations and base,
and receiving influences from people foreign to the political line
(19:04):
of the PCM. In nineteen thirty she was also part
of the first group show of posters and phono montages
in Mexico City, and she was connected with many many
artists and activists that we've already brought up Freeda Collo.
She was also connected to Diego Rivera, Maria Esquierdo and
other people. And I also earlier brought up Concha Michel.
(19:27):
She was close to her. Concha Michell was a singer
and an activist, and Aura Rais included a portrait of
Michel and a mural that she painted, and she painted
a portrait of Michel Freeda Callo and herself that she
called Concha Aurora Efrida, So she was part of her
life as well. In terms of other organizations that Aurora
(19:50):
Rais was in, she was also part of the Mexican
Republic Teachers Union and the National Peasants Confederation. In the
Teachers U Union, she was secretary of Women's Action and
through that work she advocated for women's suffrage, things like
more maternity leave, and women's right to be in positions
(20:12):
of political power like higher government position and other rights
for women. So that was a big thing that she
advocated for. A lot of the work that she did
was influenced by LEAR or the League of Revolutionary Writers
and Artists. LEIR operated from nineteen thirty four to nineteen
(20:33):
thirty seven, which was a short time, but it was
all about art and about social responsibility, and it was
ideologically aligned with leftist politics. It organized lectures and other
kinds of activities, and it was really centered around the
(20:53):
power of art, kind of going back to that quote
that I brought up that Aurora Race said earlier about
believing in the power of art to create social change.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
So the people she.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Was around in that organization, the ideology that it focused on,
and the activities that it organized were in alignment with
the things that Aura Rays cared about. So that in
this point we come to the mural that is often
talked about and associated with Aura Rays, which is called
a take a la mastre rural, which means attack on
(21:27):
the rural teacher. So that was created for an elementary
school called centrol Escolar Revolution, which was in a neighborhood
in Mexico City. So this school, according to Camasenko, American
was a quote experimental model school for testing socialist education
and the essential instrument for building the broad popular support
(21:50):
needed for social reform end quote. The school was located
on the site where there used to be a prison,
so that site was transformed and it became educational institution.
That was the school, and that school had also had
a gym and a track in pool and libraries and
the government commissioned the League of Revolutionary Writers and Artists
(22:13):
to create murals for that school between the years of
nineteen thirty four and nineteen thirty six. So the artists
commissioned to do the works in that school were Raoul Aguiano,
Everardo Ramirez, Gonzalo de la Paz, Peres, Antonio Gutierrez, Ignacio Gomez, Hadamio,
and Aurora Race. So there were many murals in the
(22:37):
school and her mural was attack on the Rural Teacher.
So you can also see images of this mural online
and you'll see in it that it depicts two men
who are attacking a female teacher. One man is hitting
the teacher in the image with the rifle and the
(22:57):
other one is pulling her by her hair. The man
who is dragging her by her hair is also holding
money and kind of destroying a book, and the other
man is wearing this thing called a scapular, which is
an object that Roman Catholics were to show their devotion
to a saint, often to the Virgin Mary. So in
the background of the painting you'll see three children who
(23:18):
are kind of peeking out from behind a column, and
they're hiding their faces as they look at this violent scene.
There is also symbolism that identifies a man who is
dragging her by her hair as a member of a
Mexican Nazi group. He has on this gold shirt and
his arms and legs, if you look at the shape
(23:39):
of how they're set up in the image, are positioned
in the shape of a swastika, and the money that
he's holding symbolizes how his violent actions are tied to
capitalism and greed and with a or a raise and
her political leanings and involvement with the Mexican Communist Party,
a lot of her ideology.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
And the work that she did.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Was indicative of her anti capitalism stances. So the mural
was a response to a massacre that happened at the
time where at least sixteen teachers were killed in a
village in the state of Guanajuato. And at the time,
people who supported Catholic controlled education in Mexico often attacked
(24:26):
royal teachers, So it wasn't something that was rare. It
was a response to something that was happening semi frequently.
There was an amount of violence in that way at
the time. And yeah, this work was in the school.
As it's put in The Power and Politics of Art
and Post Revolutionary in Mexico by Stephanie J. Smith quote,
(24:48):
the work must have acted as a warning to protect
public education for those who served on the front lines
of the educational battles. So were a raised being a
teacher herself, being concerned with education and knowing that it
would be part of the way for women and the
power that they would be able to express in the
(25:08):
coming years was focused on education, So it made sense
that she would be one of the people to create
a mural for this school. Her other murals are in
an auditorium in a complex that includes the National Teachers
Union headquarters. These murals were originally completed between nineteen fifty
nine and nineteen sixty one. So in she remain involved
(25:31):
in organizations throughout her life. In nineteen thirty eight she
went to the National Women's Congress in Havana and Cuba
as a delegate from the Teachers Union. And she also
continued her art in different ways. In the nineteen forties,
many of her poems were published, and she took part
in solo and group shows in Mexico and around the world,
(25:53):
and according to Camasenanco American, she got more acclaimed for
her poetry than she did for her painting. Eighteen forty seven,
the poem Mbre de Mexico was published, and in nineteen
fifty three Umanos Paisajes, her first book of poetry, was published.
And so she did a range of art for different mediums.
(26:13):
She did lithographs for political materials, she did drawings for books,
and oil pieces for portrait commissions and frescoes for public
work and things like that, and continue to focus on women, children,
Mexican traditions, the Mexican Revolution, and education and those kinds
(26:34):
of things. And she uplifted indigenous heritage and she protested
authoritarian governments. So if you look at her work, you'll
see that it's colorful. The figures are often curvy, thick like,
they're kind of like sensuous lines.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
The lines are really expressive and wavy.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
She has a mural called El Premier and Quentro or
The First Encounter, that was done in nineteen seventy eight,
which shows her depiction of the Spanish colonizers arriving in
Tenos te Lin. And there's also Women of War which
shows a woman that's holding a child who has passed
away and the woman is like appearing to be ready
(27:15):
to fight.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
So there are a range.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
Of different styles kind of in her work, Like some
you'll see have are a little bit more wavy, some
are a little bit more surrealistic in the style. Some
are porches of specific people, and of course these murals
are larger works that include a lot of people, but
(27:40):
they're very expressive and clearly show her values.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
And the things that she cared about at the time.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
She died in April of nineteen eighty five in Mexico City,
and she was known during her time and was recognized
during her time and the fact that she was publicly
commissioned to do these murals, but her legacy does live
on and her works still exist, and yeah, I am
(28:12):
really glad to be able to continue to uplift her
legacy and the things that she did for Mexican muralism.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
I mean again, I'm so glad. I'm always so happy
when you bring in people I haven't heard of in
this art.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Her style is like right up my alley.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Also, I could listen to you have a podcast just
like walking me through the symbolism of art.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
That was amazing.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
Yeah, when you were doing it, I felt like I
was a back in art history class, which I loved.
Studying was hard, but loved hearing the explanations because you
were talking about the rural teachers one and I haven't
pulled up right now. You did such a great job.
Was like, oh, I didn't notice that, but yeah, well
that part too. But I do have a question. I
don't know if you know much about it, because this
is a fairly violent piece of art. It's moreous. The
(29:11):
colors are amazing, the way that it flows, like you
could go from the left to right in the art.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
But how was it received.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
In a public space like a school, because I can't
imagine everybody loved it.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
That's a good question.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
I know in general that there were people who were
against this kind of education at the time, and that's
the reason that some of these attacks were happening. But
I'm not sure exactly how it was like on site
received by the people who were there, because that is
one of the things that is interesting to me as well. Like,
of course, there was a lot of change happening at
the time in terms of like this school being built
(29:45):
in the kind of education that they were giving children,
and it wasn't necessarily status quo. It was something that
was just developing. So I'm really not sure, Like that's
a question that I would love to know the answer
to as well.
Speaker 4 (29:59):
Right, Yeah, I would just love to see the reaction,
especially because it is so controvertic today seeing a piece
like this, I don't think would pass. There's so much
that we know of course, who are at a different
time and everything's the worst, but this type of art
as much an amazing history there is behind it and
(30:19):
the story that it tells, and even though you have
to take a closer look, like at the true violence
of it, it's quite shocking that it has survived.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Yeah, So I also I'm glad that you brought that up, Samantha,
because I'm also thinking about the fact that yes, it's
showing the things that are happening, and that this is
the reason that education is so important, but it is
physically violent. But also in this mural, she's showing children
who are looking at it, which I think becomes this
(30:50):
kind of like meta self referential thing where there are
children who are looking at this scene of violence, and
then there are children in the school who are looking
at these children in the mural looking at the scene
of violence.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
But it's also like, these children who are going.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
To these school have also likely seen scenes of violence themselves,
or a lot of them have seen scenes of violence themselves,
so it's not like something they're unfamiliar with. And it
just makes me think of this American tendency and proclivity
to shield children from.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Things that we deal with in real life.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
So yeah, like I could imagine this being something that
is based on perceived or what's pretended to be mainstream
morals in the United States and my limited experience of
like how I live my life in this country being
like do we want I mean, just think about the
book bannings in the United States and the reasons that
(31:44):
books are banned, Like what we want our children to have.
The kind of information that we want our children to
have access to is such a topic of contention based
on religion and morals in the United States, and that's
because it's public school. This is still a public school
we're talking about. It's like, well, I have a say
in what should happen here. I'm a taxpayer, and this
should happen, so I would. I'm too, just like you, Samantha,
(32:08):
interested in knowing the answer to this question and fascinated
by it because it didn't seem like it didn't seem
like this was something the school was still allowed to exist, right,
It didn't seem like this was something where people were
showing up with tiki torches, you know, at the beginning
of the school day or holding signs outside of it,
protesting every day, at least as far as my limited information,
(32:32):
and it was allowed to exist and still exists, you know,
still does so yeah, I think I think.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
That, Like I don't know.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
In my head, I'm like the parents are showing up
at the PTA methings, you know, like they like take
this real down, Like I can't imagine something like that
happening then and there.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
But I can't say that, I'm like, I know, right.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
Well, I'm sure because she already had a reputation in
having political stances before she was commissioned to do these
types of murals, so that they may not have expected this,
but they knew it was going to be a statement.
They like the people who commission and knew it was coming.
I'm sure they had an idea of like, Okay, this
is gonna be a statement more than just.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
A pretty piece of art. And obviously it is.
Speaker 4 (33:16):
And again it's gorgeous, like it's I hate to call
anything that depicts such a sorrowful time as gorgeous, but
when it comes down to what she did and what
she created, it is it is art, it is it
is an amazing depiction. And then the way she made
sure the colors are the blends, the symbolism, the commonality throughout,
(33:38):
like it's it's perfect in my mind and what she
was trying to represent. But yeah, like in knowing again
that you're right, like I'm pushing back what I know
today to what this when this was created, and like
how how is it still standing and that we actually
have evidence that she did this and that it represented
this and it's full because as we know right now,
(34:01):
things are going terrifyingly bad at people trying to censor
so much and to erase so much that it's partially like,
how do we make sure that things like this keep
staying alive and we keep having a conversation about what
she represented, what she wanted to be known, what she
wanted to say through our art more so than anything else.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Yeah, but I think it's cool that you brought it
up because it does allow us to look at how
different cultures at different times versus how we consider things
today and consider the way we do things to be
the right way to do things. So it's like, what
can we learn from or raised art and it being
public art and what it depicted and how we think.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
About what we.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
Expose children to today in public education.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
It is, But I seriously, listeners, go search out this art.
It's really really fantastic, and I there's a lot of
like commonalities, but there's also a lot of differences in them.
So I love that she had that range but also
kind of a unique style that you could be like, oh,
it's probably her, so go check that out. And it's
(35:14):
always Eve's thank you so much for being here. If
you want to start an art podcast?
Speaker 2 (35:19):
Were there or ready?
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Now?
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Okay, we don't want to put any more work on you,
but just say it. Just you know, if you did, yeah,
we'd be there. But yes, thank you so much, Eaves.
Where can the good listeners find you? Thank you?
Speaker 3 (35:35):
And the listeners can find me on Instagram at not Apologizing,
on Twitter at Eve's Jeffcoat, or on my website www
dot Evesjeffcoat dot com and you can find all of
the other things from there and many other episodes of
Female First here on Sminty about other people in history
who did amazing things, flowed the status quo in a
(35:57):
lot of different ways, and we're there first in their
respective feels.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Yes, yes, we always. We love the series. We're so
glad you come on and do it. So if you've
somehow missed that listener, just go back and listen to
those episodes and go find Eves. If you would like
to find us, you can. You can email us a
stuff media mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
You can find us on Twitter at.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Mom Stuff podcast, our, Instagram and TikTok at stuff I've
Never Told You. You can also find us on YouTube and
we have a book. You can pre order it at
stuff you Should Read books dot com. Thanks as always
to our super producer Christina, our executive producer Maya, and
our contributor Joey.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Thank you and thanks to you for listening Stuff I
Never Told You. Introduction of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
For more podcasts on my heart Radio, you can check
out the iHeartRadio appp a podcast wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stefan
Never told you productive iHeartRadio, and today we are once
again doing a female first, which means we are once
again thrilled to be joined by the lovely, the delightful,
(00:26):
the talented Eves.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Welcome. Yeah, hello, he once again happy to be here.
We're so happy to have you.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
We just had a we always have these conversations before,
and I'm like, why we we need to talk about
this on the show, about celebrity culture and ownership around
that and people who write in and complain about very
specific things and why that might be.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Yeah, and if you're that kind of person, don't do
it now. I'm just saying you can do whatever.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
You want to the calling in versus just complaining. Please
don't complain. We have enough complaints in our lives that
we don't need.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Is this some kind of intervention or maybe it might be,
because honestly, Annie, I think it's needed. If you're thinking
about doing something waking up in the morning, logging onto
your computer or opening your phone email app that you
use and typing a rude email to somebody, maybe just.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Take a moment to breathe.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
And then like consider whether this needs to be said
at all, or maybe said in the way that you're
considering saying it, and then continue, So that might still
end in you sending the email, But like, I think
the least that can be done is just taking a
pause for consideration.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
And this is constructive.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
It great questions we all need to ask ourselves.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Encouragements are always welcome. We get a lot of those.
We don't talk enough about that, but we get a
lot of those. But the ones things that are out
of our control, I think we had a like it's
a constant trying to explain like ads. That's one of
the number one things is like, if we're not actually
voicing these ads, the likelihood of us knowing what's happening
and the US approving it is probably didn't happen. Like
(02:18):
it's very rare. So let us know without being mad
at us.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, do let us Okay, sometimes some of those are.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Real with you, with you, we just didn't know what
was happening, So don't be mad at us.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Well, that's another thing, because we were talking about this,
Samantha and I we just did an episode on like
embarrassment and and one of the things I I don't
like is, as I was saying, celebrity culture. But it
kind of freaks me out. This Like when I see
people like do person on the Street interviews and the Dale's,
(02:52):
they're so eager for their like fifteen minutes that they'll
just say anything, they'll do anything in it. That kind
of freaks me out that mentality. And then something you
were talking about eves with you know, who's going to
see this thing, this angry message or whatever. Something else
that I ponder about sometimes is when people are pre mad.
So it's like I've seen some businesses that have signs
(03:15):
that are like if you don't believe in God, you
ain't welcome.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Like all right, well, alter.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Like maybe I did, maybe I did it, But now
I'm like, you're pre angry, and I don't want to do.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
That, and I don't want to do with this.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah, and if you walked into that store, it's like
you probably are not going to have a conversation about
God anyway, so you didn't even really know. Right, It's
exclusionary and a totally unnecessary way.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Right, because I totally I'm all for, like, you know,
put up your pride bags, you know, all that kind
of stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
But for you to be like.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Immediately tell someone that you're not welcomed, don't come in straight,
it may not be aimed at that. Like let's say
it is something about like anti masking. If you wear
a mask, don't come in here. I'm automatly. Oh I'm
also Asians. I definitely can't come in here either, So
I'll go ahead, and even if I'm not wearing a mask,
you know, like that's an automatic sign. So you're not
(04:07):
just cutting off that one group of people, you're cutting
off a level. Yes, that is pretty mad, and I
am pretty scared, so I'm gone.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Exhausting.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Though it's exhausting to be mad without an impetus for
being mad, Like it's already it takes a lot of
energy already to be angry, right right, So to make
ourselves angry before we need to be.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
It's a waste of resources. You're right, right, right, right right.
This is not aimed at anybody in particular. By the way,
we were just talking about this.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Before, I was also, yeah, like there's some big news
happening in like celebrity world. People are already getting mad,
and I'm like, oh, yeah, this is interesting. This is
a this is a sociological like study of how people
react when it comes to fandoms.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Right, yeah, yeah, what we've talked about for Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
I think it's also just really easy now to assume
that we have a wealth of knowledge based on a
limited base of knowledge.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Like we're thinking about.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Celebrities and we're like, yeah, I saw in this article,
like they started dating this person and they broke up
with them because this person cheated on them. And I
know all of this because I've been following two years
worse of like you know, ten hours of like forums
I'm following or just articles I've read, And so I
assume that I have fan theories. I assume that I
(05:34):
have like a wealth of knowledge about somebody's life when
it's really just a very very tiny modicum of information
that I have.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
But I think it's easy to do.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
That, you know, yeah, you're totally this kind of person
because I have this small amount of information about them,
when it's like no, I don't.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Know, right, And then the thing is like, if you're
doing this on your own amusement, it's a thing. But
then when you start like blasting and calling people out,
being angry at people, sending letters, sending hate things. They're like,
that's where we're concerned.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Yeah, that's the sure, that's so this is really a PSA.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
It's not it's not blame. No, this is a public
service announcement.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Right, It's gonna be okay, everyone, it's gonna be okay.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yes, yes, we're gonna get through this. But I am
very excited to talk about who you brought today. I
got to see some amazing art that I've never seen before.
And I'm sure this person faced a lot of criticism,
A nice segue, a lot of iron for sure. Who
did you bring for us today?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Eves?
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Today we're talking about Aurora Race. So her art is wonderful.
I really recommend anybody who hasn't seen it check it out.
I've only been to Mexico City once, it did not
get the opportunity to see her art while I was
there because it was a very short time. So I'm
looking forward to hopefully being able to see some in person.
But she created she made the first mural that was
(07:03):
done by a Mexican born female artist, so she wasn't
the first woman in Mexico. You know, we can get
into these kinds of weird technicalities when we're talking about
female first. She wasn't the first woman in Mexico to
get a mural commission, that was an American woman, but
she was the first Mexican born woman to get a
mural commission from the government, so she's considered Mexico's first
(07:25):
female muralist. So a person who did a lot of
work in discovering and documenting the history and the biography
of Aurora Rays was doctor Dina Coma Senenco Mierican, so
you can read some of her work. A lot of
the documentation about Aurora Rays is in Spanish, so if
(07:46):
you are fluent in Spanish and you're able to read it,
then you'll be able to enjoy a lot more of
the works on Aurora Rays. But art historian and scholar
doctor Dina Comasenanco American has read in works in English
about her that you can read, and she talks about
how female Mexican muralists have been quote virtually ignored, and
(08:09):
she says that that could potentially be because people believed
women didn't have the physicality to paint murals, that they
didn't really have an interest in public art in the
early nineteen hundreds, or that it was only men who
painted murals in Mexico. So the history and the documentation
(08:30):
of Mexican muralism does focus a lot on men, and
it was a lot of men who were painting murals
at the time due to a lot of the things
that we talk about, who had access to do it,
who was asked to do it, especially in these things
like government commissions. Who was highlighted by the people who
were choosing to document certain things.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
But there were women who were involved in Mexican muralism.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Who also had political stances in their muralism, So they
weren't quiet, They weren't reticent about things all the time,
even though they weren't always focused on socio political themes,
but they were and they had seen things to say
and they often said them through murals during this time period.
(09:23):
So now I guess we can get into Aurora Race herself.
She was born on September ninth, nineteen oh eight, in
Hidalgo des Paral in the state of Chihuahua. The Mexican
Revolution started just a couple of years after she was born,
and her family was involved in politics, and her grandfather
(09:45):
was the politician in general Bernardo Race, and her uncle
was Alfonso Race, who was a writer and a scholar,
and her mother was named Luisa Flores, so her family
was relatively wealthy and had some notoriety, but they were
politically persecuted. In nineteen thirteen, her father, who was land Race,
(10:07):
had to leave his hometown because of his political leanings
and the family fleet to Mexico City, so her mother
spent time baking bread and Aurora helped with selling it
at the market. And Aurora even said in a nineteen
fifty three interview that quote art is the medium with
the greatest potential to penetrate human emotions and therefore functions
(10:31):
as a powerful weapon in the fight for the rights
of the common man. She also said that she was
interested in social issues because she suffered hunger and misery,
so she was invested in because of her personal experience
with dealing with challenges economic.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Struggle and also social struggle.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
So she was invested in art being able to be
a vehicle for making things happen in the social and
political spheres, and she believed that it was a weapon.
So her experiences with poverty helped her feel and empathize
with what it was like to be in that struggle
(11:16):
and helped lead her into the revolutionary practices and matters
that she was involved in later in life.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
So this started pretty early.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Her consciousness started developing pretty early, and she was already
put in those spaces because of her family. And so
she began attending the National Preparatory School, which is where
she met Free to Callo. But she was only there
for a short period of time, and she was supposedly
expelled not long after enrolling for getting into some kind
of conflict with another classmate. But she and Free to
(11:47):
Callo ended up being lifelong friend, so you'll see her
come up in her story over their entire lives. At
age thirteen, Aurora Rays began taking classes at the National
School of Fine Arts and she ended up graduating in
nineteen twenty four at age sixteen. So it's necessary to
(12:08):
form a foundation of a little bit of background of
what was happening at the time. Since it was the
Mexican Revolution, there was a lot of political turbulence, and
of course Aura Rays herself was incorporating some of her
own political ideas and the things that were happening in
society at the time in her art. So there was
(12:28):
Porphyrio Diaz, who people listening have likely heard of before.
He had been in power since the eighteen seventies in Mexico,
and he had opened up Mexico to foreign investment. So
there was this thing happening where like the wealthy elite
were benefiting, but the rural workers and the peasants were
suffering under these policies. But Diaz suppressed opposition, and then
(12:53):
people began to challenge his rule and to fight for
lamb reform. So obviously that's a very abbreviated version of
everything that was happening. It was very complex, and it
was a lot more other policies than that that affected
the people who were living in Mexico. But in nineteen eleven,
Diez resigned and he went into exile. So, after much
(13:15):
conflict and many changes in leadership, a new constitution in
Mexico was approved in nineteen seventeen. So that constitution called
for things like land reform, the nationalization of resources, and workers' rights,
and it opened up the government's role in helping and
providing for its citizens. But the president then Venustiano Carranza,
(13:37):
ignored this, and many historians say that the election of
President Alvaro Obergone in nineteen twenty was the end of
the revolution, but there was still conflict that continued after that,
so not all historians are completely aligned on that being
the end. But we know how things like this can
often be when it comes to war and revolution, that
(13:59):
the beginning points and endpoints of things can be kind
of fuzzy, depending on what people want to consider the
marker of endpoints. The point is that conflict continued and
General Lazaro Cardenas was elected president in nineteen thirty four.
He implemented a lot of changes, and he pressed four
more on those revolutionary goals than people who were previously
(14:22):
empowered did. He did things like nationalized railways and the
oil industry, and he redistributed land, and he was involved
in other social and economic reforms that happened in the country.
And one of those things was after nineteen twenty, public
art became a more important means of educating Mexican people,
(14:44):
many of whom were poor and who couldn't read, and
murals in particular, were a medium to do so. So
if you're familiar with the history of art or even
the way art operates in many of our cities today,
and how public art is very accessible to people is
that people in different neighborhoods of different class levels and
economic situations can access. So being able to use that
(15:08):
as a vehicle for education is something that means that
it can reach more people and may even be more
interesting to people. So a movement began where the government
commissioned mostly male artists to paint these murals to teach
folks about their history and were future facing as well,
so helping them think about the history but also in
(15:31):
what ways they would move forward and the things that
could be done, the things that should be considered to
create this kind of social progress. So three names that
are highly associated with this Mexican muralism movement, they were
considered the three greats were Diego Rivera da vid Alfaro
Sicios and Jose Clemente Odolsco. They were considered the three grades,
(15:55):
and of course they're all men, but they were influential
in that movement. Aurora raised work focused on topics that
she and many other activists artists like she was, were
concerned with in this revolutionary era, like education, workers' rights,
and gender. So Kama Senenko Mirkin, the scholar who I
(16:17):
was referring to earlier, she talks about how women artists
at that time shared common themes in their work, like
the challenges of motherhood, gender violence, and infant death. And
you'll see that in some of her art as well
if you go and take a look at it. But
it'll come up later in her story. So this is
where Aurora Ray's career in art really picks up. In
(16:42):
nineteen twenty five, she had her first solo exhibition of drawings.
In that same year, she married journalists and writer hoort
Hey Goodoy. She had had one child with a previous partner,
and then she had one child with Orge Goodoy. She
and Goodoy did end up divorcing, though, and they ended
contact with each other and she raised her children. She
(17:05):
wrote a letter to one of her children while she
was pregnant at one point, and there is a quote
from this letter in an essay by Dina Koma Saankomerkan
that's called frieda Callo and Aurora rais painting.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
To the voice of Concha Michael. So here's the quote.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
I call you my daughter because I want you to
know that all women have dreamt of dignifying life. Right now,
we must conquer a place of justice and respect in
the face of the future, so that there will be
balance and fraternity among our children, so that no wars
arise out of clumsy ambitions. And we must destroy once
(17:41):
and for all the chains of slavery formed by ignorance, hatred,
and poverty. And that's the end of the quote. So
not to confuse people, she did not have a daughter.
Both of her children were sons, but she still wrote
this letter when she was pregnant.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
So clearly.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
We see her values through this quote. We see what
she cared about. We see that she cared about creating
a future that was good to everybody in society. She
cared about gender, she cared about no war happening, she
cared about poverty, she cared about people's education levels, and
(18:21):
not just in a way that was that was emotional
intelligence and also other kinds of intelligence. So in nineteen
twenty seven, Riz taught art in public schools and she
ended up doing this for a little bit under forty years,
so a long time. She also joined that year the
Mexican Communist Party and she stayed in that party for
(18:42):
the next thirteen years. She was one of several people
who later left the Communist Party and was removed from
the party for having quote links with Trotskyist groups, always
working without connection with the party's higher organizations and base,
and receiving influences from people foreign to the political line
(19:04):
of the PCM. In nineteen thirty she was also part
of the first group show of posters and phono montages
in Mexico City, and she was connected with many many
artists and activists that we've already brought up Freeda Collo.
She was also connected to Diego Rivera, Maria Esquierdo and
other people. And I also earlier brought up Concha Michel.
(19:27):
She was close to her. Concha Michell was a singer
and an activist, and Aura Rais included a portrait of
Michel and a mural that she painted, and she painted
a portrait of Michel Freeda Callo and herself that she
called Concha Aurora Efrida, So she was part of her
life as well. In terms of other organizations that Aurora
(19:50):
Rais was in, she was also part of the Mexican
Republic Teachers Union and the National Peasants Confederation. In the
Teachers U Union, she was secretary of Women's Action and
through that work she advocated for women's suffrage, things like
more maternity leave, and women's right to be in positions
(20:12):
of political power like higher government position and other rights
for women. So that was a big thing that she
advocated for. A lot of the work that she did
was influenced by LEAR or the League of Revolutionary Writers
and Artists. LEIR operated from nineteen thirty four to nineteen
(20:33):
thirty seven, which was a short time, but it was
all about art and about social responsibility, and it was
ideologically aligned with leftist politics. It organized lectures and other
kinds of activities, and it was really centered around the
(20:53):
power of art, kind of going back to that quote
that I brought up that Aurora Race said earlier about
believing in the power of art to create social change.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
So the people she.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Was around in that organization, the ideology that it focused on,
and the activities that it organized were in alignment with
the things that Aura Rays cared about. So that in
this point we come to the mural that is often
talked about and associated with Aura Rays, which is called
a take a la mastre rural, which means attack on
(21:27):
the rural teacher. So that was created for an elementary
school called centrol Escolar Revolution, which was in a neighborhood
in Mexico City. So this school, according to Camasenko, American
was a quote experimental model school for testing socialist education
and the essential instrument for building the broad popular support
(21:50):
needed for social reform end quote. The school was located
on the site where there used to be a prison,
so that site was transformed and it became educational institution.
That was the school, and that school had also had
a gym and a track in pool and libraries and
the government commissioned the League of Revolutionary Writers and Artists
(22:13):
to create murals for that school between the years of
nineteen thirty four and nineteen thirty six. So the artists
commissioned to do the works in that school were Raoul Aguiano,
Everardo Ramirez, Gonzalo de la Paz, Peres, Antonio Gutierrez, Ignacio Gomez, Hadamio,
and Aurora Race. So there were many murals in the
(22:37):
school and her mural was attack on the Rural Teacher.
So you can also see images of this mural online
and you'll see in it that it depicts two men
who are attacking a female teacher. One man is hitting
the teacher in the image with the rifle and the
(22:57):
other one is pulling her by her hair. The man
who is dragging her by her hair is also holding
money and kind of destroying a book, and the other
man is wearing this thing called a scapular, which is
an object that Roman Catholics were to show their devotion
to a saint, often to the Virgin Mary. So in
the background of the painting you'll see three children who
(23:18):
are kind of peeking out from behind a column, and
they're hiding their faces as they look at this violent scene.
There is also symbolism that identifies a man who is
dragging her by her hair as a member of a
Mexican Nazi group. He has on this gold shirt and
his arms and legs, if you look at the shape
(23:39):
of how they're set up in the image, are positioned
in the shape of a swastika, and the money that
he's holding symbolizes how his violent actions are tied to
capitalism and greed and with a or a raise and
her political leanings and involvement with the Mexican Communist Party,
a lot of her ideology.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
And the work that she did.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Was indicative of her anti capitalism stances. So the mural
was a response to a massacre that happened at the
time where at least sixteen teachers were killed in a
village in the state of Guanajuato. And at the time,
people who supported Catholic controlled education in Mexico often attacked
(24:26):
royal teachers, So it wasn't something that was rare. It
was a response to something that was happening semi frequently.
There was an amount of violence in that way at
the time. And yeah, this work was in the school.
As it's put in The Power and Politics of Art
and Post Revolutionary in Mexico by Stephanie J. Smith quote,
(24:48):
the work must have acted as a warning to protect
public education for those who served on the front lines
of the educational battles. So were a raised being a
teacher herself, being concerned with education and knowing that it
would be part of the way for women and the
power that they would be able to express in the
(25:08):
coming years was focused on education, So it made sense
that she would be one of the people to create
a mural for this school. Her other murals are in
an auditorium in a complex that includes the National Teachers
Union headquarters. These murals were originally completed between nineteen fifty
nine and nineteen sixty one. So in she remain involved
(25:31):
in organizations throughout her life. In nineteen thirty eight she
went to the National Women's Congress in Havana and Cuba
as a delegate from the Teachers Union. And she also
continued her art in different ways. In the nineteen forties,
many of her poems were published, and she took part
in solo and group shows in Mexico and around the world,
(25:53):
and according to Camasenanco American, she got more acclaimed for
her poetry than she did for her painting. Eighteen forty seven,
the poem Mbre de Mexico was published, and in nineteen
fifty three Umanos Paisajes, her first book of poetry, was published.
And so she did a range of art for different mediums.
(26:13):
She did lithographs for political materials, she did drawings for books,
and oil pieces for portrait commissions and frescoes for public
work and things like that, and continue to focus on women, children,
Mexican traditions, the Mexican Revolution, and education and those kinds
(26:34):
of things. And she uplifted indigenous heritage and she protested
authoritarian governments. So if you look at her work, you'll
see that it's colorful. The figures are often curvy, thick like,
they're kind of like sensuous lines.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
The lines are really expressive and wavy.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
She has a mural called El Premier and Quentro or
The First Encounter, that was done in nineteen seventy eight,
which shows her depiction of the Spanish colonizers arriving in
Tenos te Lin. And there's also Women of War which
shows a woman that's holding a child who has passed
away and the woman is like appearing to be ready
(27:15):
to fight.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
So there are a range.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
Of different styles kind of in her work, Like some
you'll see have are a little bit more wavy, some
are a little bit more surrealistic in the style. Some
are porches of specific people, and of course these murals
are larger works that include a lot of people, but
(27:40):
they're very expressive and clearly show her values.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
And the things that she cared about at the time.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
She died in April of nineteen eighty five in Mexico City,
and she was known during her time and was recognized
during her time and the fact that she was publicly
commissioned to do these murals, but her legacy does live
on and her works still exist, and yeah, I am
(28:12):
really glad to be able to continue to uplift her
legacy and the things that she did for Mexican muralism.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
I mean again, I'm so glad. I'm always so happy
when you bring in people I haven't heard of in
this art.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Her style is like right up my alley.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Also, I could listen to you have a podcast just
like walking me through the symbolism of art.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
That was amazing.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
Yeah, when you were doing it, I felt like I
was a back in art history class, which I loved.
Studying was hard, but loved hearing the explanations because you
were talking about the rural teachers one and I haven't
pulled up right now. You did such a great job.
Was like, oh, I didn't notice that, but yeah, well
that part too. But I do have a question. I
don't know if you know much about it, because this
is a fairly violent piece of art. It's moreous. The
(29:11):
colors are amazing, the way that it flows, like you
could go from the left to right in the art.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
But how was it received.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
In a public space like a school, because I can't
imagine everybody loved it.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
That's a good question.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
I know in general that there were people who were
against this kind of education at the time, and that's
the reason that some of these attacks were happening. But
I'm not sure exactly how it was like on site
received by the people who were there, because that is
one of the things that is interesting to me as well. Like,
of course, there was a lot of change happening at
the time in terms of like this school being built
(29:45):
in the kind of education that they were giving children,
and it wasn't necessarily status quo. It was something that
was just developing. So I'm really not sure, Like that's
a question that I would love to know the answer
to as well.
Speaker 4 (29:59):
Right, Yeah, I would just love to see the reaction,
especially because it is so controvertic today seeing a piece
like this, I don't think would pass. There's so much
that we know of course, who are at a different
time and everything's the worst, but this type of art
as much an amazing history there is behind it and
(30:19):
the story that it tells, and even though you have
to take a closer look, like at the true violence
of it, it's quite shocking that it has survived.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Yeah, So I also I'm glad that you brought that up, Samantha,
because I'm also thinking about the fact that yes, it's
showing the things that are happening, and that this is
the reason that education is so important, but it is
physically violent. But also in this mural, she's showing children
who are looking at it, which I think becomes this
(30:50):
kind of like meta self referential thing where there are
children who are looking at this scene of violence, and
then there are children in the school who are looking
at these children in the mural looking at the scene
of violence.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
But it's also like, these children who are going.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
To these school have also likely seen scenes of violence themselves,
or a lot of them have seen scenes of violence themselves,
so it's not like something they're unfamiliar with. And it
just makes me think of this American tendency and proclivity
to shield children from.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Things that we deal with in real life.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
So yeah, like I could imagine this being something that
is based on perceived or what's pretended to be mainstream
morals in the United States and my limited experience of
like how I live my life in this country being
like do we want I mean, just think about the
book bannings in the United States and the reasons that
(31:44):
books are banned, Like what we want our children to have.
The kind of information that we want our children to
have access to is such a topic of contention based
on religion and morals in the United States, and that's
because it's public school. This is still a public school
we're talking about. It's like, well, I have a say
in what should happen here. I'm a taxpayer, and this
should happen, so I would. I'm too, just like you, Samantha,
(32:08):
interested in knowing the answer to this question and fascinated
by it because it didn't seem like it didn't seem
like this was something the school was still allowed to exist, right,
It didn't seem like this was something where people were
showing up with tiki torches, you know, at the beginning
of the school day or holding signs outside of it,
protesting every day, at least as far as my limited information,
(32:32):
and it was allowed to exist and still exists, you know,
still does so yeah, I think I think.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
That, Like I don't know.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
In my head, I'm like the parents are showing up
at the PTA methings, you know, like they like take
this real down, Like I can't imagine something like that
happening then and there.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
But I can't say that, I'm like, I know, right.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
Well, I'm sure because she already had a reputation in
having political stances before she was commissioned to do these
types of murals, so that they may not have expected this,
but they knew it was going to be a statement.
They like the people who commission and knew it was coming.
I'm sure they had an idea of like, Okay, this
is gonna be a statement more than just.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
A pretty piece of art. And obviously it is.
Speaker 4 (33:16):
And again it's gorgeous, like it's I hate to call
anything that depicts such a sorrowful time as gorgeous, but
when it comes down to what she did and what
she created, it is it is art, it is it
is an amazing depiction. And then the way she made
sure the colors are the blends, the symbolism, the commonality throughout,
(33:38):
like it's it's perfect in my mind and what she
was trying to represent. But yeah, like in knowing again
that you're right, like I'm pushing back what I know
today to what this when this was created, and like
how how is it still standing and that we actually
have evidence that she did this and that it represented
this and it's full because as we know right now,
(34:01):
things are going terrifyingly bad at people trying to censor
so much and to erase so much that it's partially like,
how do we make sure that things like this keep
staying alive and we keep having a conversation about what
she represented, what she wanted to be known, what she
wanted to say through our art more so than anything else.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Yeah, but I think it's cool that you brought it
up because it does allow us to look at how
different cultures at different times versus how we consider things
today and consider the way we do things to be
the right way to do things. So it's like, what
can we learn from or raised art and it being
public art and what it depicted and how we think.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
About what we.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
Expose children to today in public education.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
It is, But I seriously, listeners, go search out this art.
It's really really fantastic, and I there's a lot of
like commonalities, but there's also a lot of differences in them.
So I love that she had that range but also
kind of a unique style that you could be like, oh,
it's probably her, so go check that out. And it's
(35:14):
always Eve's thank you so much for being here. If
you want to start an art podcast?
Speaker 2 (35:19):
Were there or ready?
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Now?
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Okay, we don't want to put any more work on you,
but just say it. Just you know, if you did, yeah,
we'd be there. But yes, thank you so much, Eaves.
Where can the good listeners find you? Thank you?
Speaker 3 (35:35):
And the listeners can find me on Instagram at not Apologizing,
on Twitter at Eve's Jeffcoat, or on my website www
dot Evesjeffcoat dot com and you can find all of
the other things from there and many other episodes of
Female First here on Sminty about other people in history
who did amazing things, flowed the status quo in a
(35:57):
lot of different ways, and we're there first in their
respective feels.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Yes, yes, we always. We love the series. We're so
glad you come on and do it. So if you've
somehow missed that listener, just go back and listen to
those episodes and go find Eves. If you would like
to find us, you can. You can email us a
stuff media mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
You can find us on Twitter at.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Mom Stuff podcast, our, Instagram and TikTok at stuff I've
Never Told You. You can also find us on YouTube and
we have a book. You can pre order it at
stuff you Should Read books dot com. Thanks as always
to our super producer Christina, our executive producer Maya, and
our contributor Joey.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Thank you and thanks to you for listening Stuff I
Never Told You. Introduction of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
For more podcasts on my heart Radio, you can check
out the iHeartRadio appp a podcast wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Stuff Mom Never Told You News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Samantha McVey
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!