Nota Roja: 27 Vintage Photos of Crimes and Accidents

Nota Roja: 27 Vintage Photos of Crimes and Accidents. [Yucatán, Mexico]: n.d., ca. 1970-1980. Vintage prints, sizes vary slightly, most approx. 13 x 9 cm. Slight curling, a few faded, overall VG+.
This collection presents 27 characteristic examples of Mexico’s nota roja photojournalism in Yucatán, possibly Merída. Nota roja is a genre of sensationalist, violent crime journalism central to Mexico’s tabloid press since the 1950s.

The group documents car crashes, murders, arrests, fires, crime scenes, bodies in the streets with curious crowds, and the death of a woman carrying a Confederación Nacional Campesina flag, presumably attacked during a demonstration.

The ubiquitous public display and consumption of such graphic imagery is often explained in relation to an emerging modern Mexican popular culture and national identity in the early- to mid-twentieth century. Some scholars have resisted the characterization of the nota roja as dehumanizing, writing instead about its reparative force: a public forum against political and institutional corruption. But the escalation of drug trafficking violence in Mexico, and the popularity of cultural forms which celebrate or romanticize this violence (tv shows; corridos; etc.), over the last twenty years has brought renewed criticism of nota roja style and its role in normalizing violence and spreading fear and apathy.

Vintage examples of a controversial photographic genre whose history and cultural importance remain central to contemporary conversations about violence in Mexico and Mexican popular culture.

Las semillas mejoradas del maíz afirmarán tu futuro.

[US / Mexico Relations] Taller de Gráfica Popular [sometimes Leopoldo Mendez]. Las semillas mejoradas del maíz afirmarán tu futuro. Comisión del Maíz [...]. Mexico, D.F.: TGP, 1950. Linocut, 47 cm x 35 cm. Some minor chipping in the blank margins. VG.

Agricultural propaganda produced by the Taller de Gráfica Popular for Mexico’s Corn Commission, established in 1947 as a postwar partnership with the US Government and the Rockefeller Foundation to develop and distribute high-yield corn seeds in Mexico [Mexico Agriculture Program (MAP)]. A very rare collaboration between the TGP, associated with socialism and revolutionary worker’s parties, and an organization with direct ties to the US government during the early days of the Cold War and US antisocialist policy.

Despite initial mistrust of the new varietals, public campaigns like this one successfully raised Mexico’s corn yields dramatically. The first seed issued to farmers from the project was marketed under the name “Rocamex”.

OCLC records one member holding: UCSD.

$375

Allegorical Map of Mexico City and Environs

(Pictorial Cartography) Herrmann, Carlos. Allegorical Map of Mexico City and Environs. Mexico, D.F.: n.d, ca. 1930-1935. 63.5 x 92.3 cm. Image very good, blind margins a bit worn, beginning to fray.

A pictorial map of Mexico City, representing the natural, industrial, architectural, and cultural landmarks of the city. The artist blends indigenous styles and historical references with colonial and postcolonial features, identifying the key features of Mexico’s emerging modern national identity.

Probably printed in the 1930s during the Maximato, when as Delia Cosentino has argued, “the production, circulation, and consumption of such imagery offered the opportunity to imagine a uniquely animated geography coming into its own … [C]artography, [was] an advantageous way to shape the view of Mexico as a cohesive entity with a rapidly developing infrastructure and an evolving relationship with its own Indigenous past and present. [...]. Through these images dating to the first half of the 1930s, an international cadre of artists, travelers, publishers, government officials, and other boosters disseminated an integrated vision of Mexican cultural space and thereby coproduced the territory itself.” (1)

Known from a single other example, in the David Rumsey Map Collection.

$950

Notes:

1. Delia Cosentino. “Unfolding Maps during the Maximato in Mexico,” Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture 1.1 (January 2019).

Ricardo Aldape Guerra: ¡Condenado a muerte!

(Criminal Justice) (Wrongful Convictions) (Illegal Immigration) Jaubert, Sergio. Ricardo Aldape Guerra: ¡Condenado a muerte! Por un incidente de tránsito. Mexico: Edamex, 1989. 17 cm, 121 pp.; with b/w illus; pictorial wrapper.

Mexican criminologist Sergio Jaubert’s book was the first significant challenge to the wrongful conviction and death penalty for illegal immigrant Ricardo Aldape, found guilty of killing a Houston cop in 1982. Aldape’s eventual exoneration (1997) confirmed many of Jaubert’s theories about the biases and false evidence presented during the trial. The case became a landmark of what the judge called “outrageous” police misconduct; the jury was allowed to consider his status as an illegal immigrant during sentencing.

Aldape became a folk hero and the subject of corridos, novelas, and soap operas upon his return to Mexico, but he died in a car accident only four months later.

Jaubert’s book is profusely illustrated with evidence (photographic, ballistic, etc.) presented at the trial, with his own annotations and interpretations. Fewer than 10 physical holdings recorded in OCLC.

$225

El Movimiento Estudiantil: Three Posters

El Movimiento Estudiantil de 1968: Three Posters. México: 1968. Donde hay lucha hay sacrificios [...], linocut?, 34 x 47 cm, center crease, newsprint toned as expected; Asesinos. Pueblo: el gobierno te engaña [...] ¡Despierta!; 29 x 43 cm, an uneven impression, colored ink slightly faded, typical minor soiling and staining for a protest poster; and Untitled [after Adolfo Mexiac]; offset?; 44.7 x 29.8 cm, unevenly trimmed.

Rare surviving graphics from the 1968 student protest movement in Mexico City, which ended shortly before the ‘68 Olympics on October 2nd with the infamous Tlatelolco Massacre. The posters were printed rapidly and inexpensively during the summer and early fall for use during massive demonstrations and as street propaganda. They were primarily created by student collectives at the San Carlos and La Esmerelda art schools using linocut and silkscreen in addition to offset presses. In addition to original artwork, the artists appropriated militant imagery and text from previous social protest movements and legendary Taller Grafica Popular prints.

This group includes two uncommon examples together with a variation on a famous Adolfo Mexiac linocut that was repurposed (with the artist’s permission) during the protests. The juxtaposition of student artwork and protest language with the official Olympic graphic, as seen on the Asesinos example, was a hallmark of many of the ‘68 poster designs.

The first example is known from a copy in the UNAM archives, but otherwise unrecorded in OCLC holdings; we are unable to find location information for a copy of the second despite its reproduction by at least one blog. The third is a curious version of the Mexiac image, slightly altered from most period examples available for comparison, and evidence of the print collectives’ ongoing process of iteration and reproduction.

$1500

La lucha política de las mujeres

Instituto de Estudios Políticos, Económicos y Sociales; Inter-American Commission of Women; Partido Revolucionario Institucional. La lucha política de las mujeres. México, D.F.: PRI, IEPES, 1990. 28 cm, 79 pp.; b/w illus. throughout, color pictorial wraps a bit rubbed with corner crease.

Highly politicized, propagandistic account of the women’s movement from the Revolution through suffrage (1952), emphasizing participation in the Revolution and achievements by individual women in government and agriculture (happy peasants!). Final brief section on post-1952 developments. No mention of the feminist struggles for additional civil and political liberties, voluntary motherhood, etc.

$90

Revista Mujeres Insurgentes

(Feminism) (Mexico) Pleites, Lidia, Ed. Revista Mujeres Insurgentes, No. 2. Mexico, D.F.: Federación Nacional de Mujeres Insurgentes, 1996. 28 cm, 15 pp.; color pictorial wraps. VG.

Curious feminist artifact of internecine Mexican political struggles in the 1990s, the short-lived magazine was allied with the controversial Partido Cardenista, which may have been a socalist-leaning front for the PRI in its electoral campaigns against the PRD.

Not recorded in OCLC.

$70

Por Que luchan las mujeres

(Mexico) (Feminism) [Chato, Illus.]. Por que luchan las mujeres. Mexico City: 1978. Broadside, 40 cm x 60 cm. Mild fading and toning, a few small chips to blank edges. Creased where folded. Signed “CHATO” in plate.

Poster advertising a feminist lecture series organized by teachers and students from the Physics and Mathematics department of UNAM. Listing the names and titles of the four lecturers and their presentations, including “que es feminismo” by Guatemalan poet Alaide Foppa [shortly before her disappearance by Guatemalan government forces]; “que es el sexismo” by renowned journalist Esperanza Brito; “la mujer en Mexico” by Elena Urrutia; and “alternativa politica” by anthropologist Marta Lamas.

The late 1970s marked an important shift in the Mexican feminist movement, as it aligned more closely with other leftist and worker’s movements. Foppa was the cofounder of the feminist journal Fem, and Brito was its director.

Not in OCLC or market records.

SOLD

Mirlitón: El Compañero de Juan

​Enriqueta, Maria [Camarillo]. Mirlitón: El Compañero de Juan. Madrid: Juan Pueyo, 1918. First Edition. 19.4, 232 pp.; some foxing, esp. in first quarter of text block; illus. color wrapper, worn and splitting at rear. Signed and dedicated by the author on ffep.

Maria Enriqueta Camarillo was a contributor to the proto-feminist Mexican journal La Mujer Mexicana (1904-1906). She was the author of a mandatory Mexican grammar school textbook and many volumes of popular children’s literature in Mexico. Miriltón was her first novel, preceding her well-known work El Secreto (1922), which was praised by Paul Valéry and selected by L’Académie française for a prize in 1923.

Camarillo also translated works from classic French literature and philosophy into Spanish.

$150

Alrededor de México: Vista en los carros especiales de La Compañía Limitada de Tranvías Eléctricos

(Mexico) (Tourism) (Railways) Compañía Limitada de Tranvías Eléctricos de Mexico. Alrededor de México: Vista en los carros especiales de La Compañía Limitada de Tranvías Eléctricos de México. Mexico, D.F.: La Compañía, 1907. Oblong 14.7cm, 37, [2], pp.; 13 b/w pls. with captions; stapled brown paper wrappers, a bit thumbed, printed with “Obsequio La Compañía Limitada de Tranvías Eléctricos de Mexico” recto, “Compliments of…” [same] verso. Very Good.

Bilingual, early guide to exploring Mexico City by rail on the special parlor car service of the Mexico Electric Tramway system. These special cars make two trips daily and will be accompanied by “competent” guides to describe the sights. “Every foot of ground covered in these trips is replete with a constantly changing panorama of historical interest, combined with pleasure and romance.” Detailed trip itineraries are listed with schedules. Special cars can also be chartered! Other electric and animal-driven tram lines listed with points of interest for the tourist.

Rare, a single holding listed in OCLC: UC-Berkeley.

$450

Nine Photographs

Caballero, Antonio R. Nine Photographs, ca. 1965. Gelatin silver prints, six approx. 25.5 x 20.5 cm each; three approx. 17.5 x 12.6 cm each. All with studio stamp verso, some with editing marks verso or typed captions.

Antonio Caballero is recognized as a pioneer of the Mexican “fotonovela” genre; a narrative multi-image format published in various tabloids in the 1960s and 1970s that mirrored the style and melodramatic themes of telenovelas. In both a 2019 retrospective of his work at the Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, and a 2011 exhibition in New York, his photographs in the style of the present group were praised for a campy, vernacular style that riffed on Pop motifs and quintessential aspects of 60s aspirational Mexican bourgeois culture.

Caballero is also known for an infamous, explicit photograph of Marilyn Monroe, taken at the Mexico City Hilton in 1962, a few months before her death.

$1050

Untitled Photograph

García, Hector. Photograph, ca. 1955-1960. Gelatin silver print, 24 x 19.5 cm. Studio stamp verso. Editor’s pencil crop marks recto. VG+.

Evocative print by the acclaimed Mexican photojournalist. Despite the historical significance of his work documenting the Pachuco culture and Mexico City’s slums in the 1950s, holdings of vintage García prints are scarce in US institutions and often limited to portraits of his famous friends (Kahlo, Rivera, etc.).

SOLD

Two Photographs

[Lazo, Rina Wasern and Diego Rivera]. Two Photographs, ca. 1950. 13 x 17.5 cm. One captioned verso, the other with marks by the photographer or editor. Crop marks recto.

Photographs depict the Guatemala muralist Rina Lazo with her mentor, Diego Rivera. The two painters worked together on a number of commissions, she is best known for her murals at the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City.

$250

75 Photographs of the Aftermath of the Mexico City Earthquake

75 Photographs of the Aftermath of the Mexico City Earthquake, 1985. Black and white gelatin prints, each 8.5 cm x 12 cm, a few over or under exposed, one duplicate. Uniform mild curling, VG. Sleeved.

Amateur photography of Mexico’s era-defining event, the 8.0 earthquake which struck the city in the early morning of September 19, 1985. Three to four minutes of shaking leveled much of the historic center, causing a still unknown number of deaths in addition to devastating losses to infrastructure and housing. The response of the PRI government was to create a media blackout; their denial of the seriousness of the damage led to riots, looting, and delays in search and rescue as well as emergency aid. Some historians believe the corruption exposed by the PRI’s mismanagement contributed to the end of their single-party rule fifteen years later.

Despite the fact that the international press had access to early photos of the destruction, many Mexicans did not see the extent of the damage for weeks or months. The unknown photographer of the current group appears to have taken some of the photos of police and armed guards surreptitiously, focusing their lens downward in the street to capture the activities of cleaning crews, people carrying water, and broken sidewalks. From buildings that may be identified, the photographer covered quite a bit of distance, including outer zones of the city and slums whose damage is not otherwise well documented.

Although most of the images are informally composed, some include the photographer’s shadow or demonstrate a more self-conscious presentation of the dramatic ruins.

SOLD

Six Photographs of Prostitution, Mexico City

Hermanos Mayo, Los. Six Photographs of Prostitution, Mexico City, 195[0]. Gelatin prints, each 17 x 13 cm with studio stamp verso and editorial marks, including one typed caption “Prostitucion”. Date stamped 18 Enero 195[0], possibly 195[3]. Two with red editorial pencil marks recto, some minor wear to surfaces, overall VG.

The Hermanos Mayo photographic collective adopted their nom de guerre in reference to May Day labor protests in Madrid in the early 1930s. Comprising five brothers from two families, the group’s pseudonym “Mayo” affirmed their individual commitments to the struggle of the working class and the Spanish Second Republic. The early influence of Republican anarcho-syndicalism set the tone for the extraordinary body of work they produced in Spain, as war photographers, and in exile in Mexico, where Foto Hermanos Mayo was a successful agency for fifty years.

Together, they pioneered the use of Leica street photography in Mexican photojournalism, producing more than 5 million negatives working for periodicals including El popular, La prensa, Hoy, Mañana, Siempre!, Tiempo, Time and Life. They were unflinching chroniclers of labor and and the lower classes, as evidenced in this unusual series of female sex workers on the streets of Mexico City. The women are seen in day and night, interacting with police (as clients?) and other passersby. In a few images they seem to be aware of the photographer, hiding their faces; in others they smile broadly outside the hotels where they work.

The work bears some resemblance to the photographs of sex workers taken by Weegee in New York City during the same time period. They reflect the commitment of the Mayos to using the press photo format to advance a social message. Compared, for example, to Henri Cartier-Bresson’s Calle Cuauhtemoctzin, Mexico City (1934), which shows two sex workers from close range looking out of windows, the images place the women in their environment, shown as part of the landscape with their clientele. Current scholarship has suggested that between 15-30% of young Mexican women were employed as sex workers in the beginning of the century, with many impoverished women working as sex workers in the post-Revolution decades that followed.*

Rare. Vintage prints from Hermanos Mayo’s influential career documenting Mexico City’s dramatic postwar expansion and social crises are largely absent from US institutional and museum holdings. Most contemporary prints would have been produced solely for distribution to the press and remain scarce. The Hermanos Mayo archive was purchased by the state and is now housed at the Mexico National Archives in CDMX.

*Bliss, Katherine Elaine (24 February 2004). “A Right to Live as Gente Decente: Sex Work, Family Life, and Collective Identity in Early-Twentieth-Century Mexico”. Journal of Women’s History. 15 (4): 164–169.

$1800

Offered in collaboration with Auger Down Books.

Agro: La Mejor Revista del Campo. Año I, No. 5.

Agro: La Mejor Revista del Campo. Año I, No. 5. (June 1955). Mexico, D.F.: Imp. Cal-Yu-Mex. 4to, 30 pp., pictorial illus. wrapper, chipped with small closed tears. Toned.

One issue of a government sponsored(?) agricultural serial distributed for free to “campesinos, agricultores, miembros de las Sociedades de Crédito Ejidal.” Sections on farming, labor organizing, health, and religion.

OCLC listed only at BNM (partial).

$50

Mitos y Leyendas de Teotihuacan [...]

[Dominguez, Francisco; Gonzalez, Carlos; and Efren Orozco Rosales] Departamento del Distrito Federal [México], Dirección General de Acción Cívica. Mitos y Leyendas de Teotihuacan. Creación del Quinto Sol; Sacrificio Gladiatorio: Escenificaciones Musicadas // Myths and Legends of Teotihuacan. Creation of the Fifth Sun; Gladiatory Sacrifices: Musically Arranged Scenes. Mexico, D.F.:, Imp. “Cosmos”, 1935. Tabloid, 29 pp.; program with illus. head- and tail-pieces, mostly repeating from Spanish to English sections, and map; stapled stiff card wrapper, with color illus. recto and verso. Damage to wrapper at lower forecorner, causing small area of loss through the text block (not affecting text or images). Rear wrapper chipped with earlier tape repair. Only fair.

Souvenir program for a musical event held at the Teotihuacan archeological zone for the international Lion’s Club convention in 1935 (the first time the annual convention was held in a non-English speaking country). Includes a map of the zone indicating where the performance took place and how visits were directed. More than 6,000 members attended the convention, where they were greeted by President Cárdenas.

$50

Primer Salon Nacional de la Estampa

[Guati Rojo, Alfredo]. Primer Salon Nacional de la Estampa. Exh. cat. [Mexico, D.F]: [Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes], 1972. Square 8vo, [36] pp.; profusely illus. checklist with reproductions of artists’ works. Stapled wrapper toned but tight, pinholes affecting second half of text block and rear wrapper.

A new salon for contemporary Mexican printmaking, bypassing the established “Salones Anuales de Grabado.” Including many important Mexican modernists and a wide array of styles.

Unrecorded in OCLC.

$50

Para las Madres ...

(Maternal Health and Child Care) (Eugenics) Departamento de Salubridad, México. Para las Madres …. México, D.F.: D.A.P.P., 1939. 8vo, 64 pp.; 8 b/w pls., in pictorial stapled wrappers, rubbed and sunned. Good.

Propagandistic public health booklet promoting the connection between healthful, clean mothers and children and a strong society and nation. Including a section on the “certificado pre-nupcial,” a required premarital medical exam that was a part of the post-Revolutionary regulation of the national (“la gran familia mexicana’‘) family. The Mexican Eugenics Society was actively involved in the creation and implementation of these laws. Focusing on hygiene and care before marriage, during pregnancy, birth, and infancy, with sections on STDS, labor, early schooling, and the prevention of common infant diseases.

$95

Venus: Las Estrellas en Exclusiva! Nos. 73, 75-77, 79-82, 84-85, 88, 91-92, 95-104.

(Cinema) (Mexploitation) (Prensa Rojo) Samayoa Lizárraga, Carlos, Ed. Venus: Las Estrellas en Exclusiva! Nos. 73, 75-77, 79-82, 84-85, 88, 91-92, 95-104. México: D.F.: [Publicaciones Llergo], 1966. Small folio, 23 issues, each 31 pp., bound with orig. illustrated wrappers in contemporary cloth with orig. covers. Newsprint fragile and lightly toned, some minor chipping, creases.

A broken but substantial run of an otherwise unrecorded chiefly photographic tabloid featuring the major and minor actresses of Mexican cinema. Each issue with full-page centerfolds. The editor, Carlos Samayoa founded the iconic tabloid weekly Alarma! in 1963. As the original prensa rojo, Alarma! revolutionized the Mexican popular press and Samayoa (together with right wing publisher Regino Hernandez Llegro) led the era-defining transition to sensationalist journalism.

Venus follows Samayoa’s successful graphic formula at Alarma!, with a skillful combination of photography, eye-catching headlines, and gossipy industry columns. Issues are dedicated to well-regarded actresses and singers of the 1960s including Lilia Prado, Maria Victoria, Angélica María, Ana Bertha Lepe, Sonia Infante, Ana Martín Yolanda Montes (Tongolele), and Gina Romand. Retrospectively Venus documents a generation of women whose work on Mexploitation films has largely been forgotten. These include Mary Esquivel, Rossy Mendoza, Mayte Carol, Angelita Castany, Grace Polit, Marga Lopez, Ana María Fernández Pomar, Elsa Cárdenas, Eva Norvind, Jeanine Acosta, Fanny Cano, Maria Fuensanta, Malu Reyes, Vianey Lárraga, Olga Guillot, et al.

Articles written under pseudonyms report on social issues of the 1960s, including “skirts vs. pants,” and actresses exploited in border towns of Cd. Juarez and Tijuana by Northamerican tourists. Privilege given to actresses of Mexican origin, frequent accusations of malinchismo to those descriminating against Mexican beauties.

$900

Two programs celebrating the inauguration of Mexico’s Supreme Court buildings in 1904 and 1964

(Architecture) (Law) Santacruz y Olivier. Inauguración del Ala Poniente del Palacio de Justicia Civil [cover title]. [Mexico, D.F.]: Tip. de la Oficina Impresora del Timbre, 1904. Small folio, 36 pp.; 18 full page b/w reproductions of photographs and elevations with captions, texts facing, first leaf chipped with small losses, closed tear to fore-edge affecting all leaves, repaired with tape recto. Decorative wrapper, orig. stab bound, stained and rubbed, in recent protective mylar sleeve. Together with: Carvajal Herrera, Fernando, Ed. Palacio de Justicia del Distrito Federal Ad Perpetuam Rei Memoriam. Mexico, D.F.: Imprenta Ayuntamiento, 1964. 4to, 131 pp.; first 60 pp. a history of the courts and their organization, Mexican legal code, and the orig. courthouses on calle Donceles, the remainder a profusely illus. account of the new building by Juan Sordo Madaleno and Assoc., its construction and inauguration, some in color. Cloth, gilt title on front board. Edition of 1000.

The first a large, privately printed program celebrating the inauguration of the new national and federal district courthouses on calle Cordobanes (now Donceles). Produced by the engineers who directed the renovation of the buildings, the large plates are accompanied by text detailing the contracts, costs, and results of the work. The government requested the renovation to bring a “more adequate character to the important” offices whose “gloomy appearances” made a “poor impression on foreigners.” Approved in 1900, the work was not completed until 1904 due to engineering challenges discussed here at length. The physical separation of the federal and district courts was accompanied by their legal separation.

The buildings on Donceles remained the primary courts in Mexico City until the subject of the second volume, the new Palacio de Justicia del Distrito Federal, was completed in 1964. This edition was produced to commemorate Juan Sordo Madaleno’s modernist design, whose streamlined spatial organization was intended to reflect a similar rationalization of Mexico’s federal legal code. Exemplar of Latin American modernism as both a corporatist and nationalist aesthetic.

Both quite scarce, OCLC finding only one holding apiece, the former at UT-Austin, the latter at LA Law Library.

$550

Museos: Realizaciones y Proyectos

[Rivera, Ruth Marín]. Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes. Museos: Realizaciones y Proyectos. UNESCO/INBA [cover title]. Catalogue for an exhibition held at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, Departamento de Arquitectura, September-October, 1962. [Mexico, D.F.]: [Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes], [1962]. Oblong 4to, [88] pp.; mostly illustrations; illus. wrappers very worn, spine starting, crease affecting upper corner continues throughout text block.

Terrific catalogue of realized and unrealized museums in Mexico, curated by the director of the Department of Architecture at INBA, Ruth Rivera (Diego Rivera’s daughter). It introduces lesser known projects that were part of a huge surge in national modernist architecture during the 1950 and 1960s. These include three planned border museums in Matamoros; Tijuana; and Ciudad Juarez, all designed by Pedro Ramirez Vazquez under the auspices of the Programa Nacional Fronterizo.

Ruth Rivera’s key role as a promoter and archivist of Mexican modernist architecture is often overlooked. Her design for the Galerias Salon de la Plastica Mexicana is included here.

OCLC finds three holdings in North American institutions: Univ. of Arizona, UC Santa Barbara, and the CCA, Montreal.

$250

Acción Plástica Popular: Educación y Aprendizaje a Escala Nacional. Con ciento cinco reproducciones

(Arts Education) (Socialism) García Maroto, Gabriel. Acción Plástica Popular: Educación y Aprendizaje a Escala Nacional. Con ciento cinco reproducciones. México, D.F.: Editorial Plastica Americana, 1945. 8vo, 220 pp.; profuse b/w illus. from woodcuts by Mexican students and the author, plus [32] b/w pls. reproducing artworks from Mexico and Spain, as well as infographics and other designs by the author. In yellow pictorial publisher’s cloth, worn and darkened, corner’s bumped, spine with small losses to cloth at foot. Ink marks on ffep and rear pastedown.

Well-illustrated book about a short-lived experimental children’s art program, the Escuelas de Acción Artística (EAA). Iterations in both Mexico and Cuba built on the revolutionary educational ideals of the Escuelas de Pintura al Aire Libre, founded a decade earlier in Mexico City. The EAA incorporated these ideals with indigenous methods and styles, and prioritized free expression. These were important aspects of Indigenismo in Mexican arts in the early twentieth century, but the schools were later criticized for paternalistic assumptions about the “authenticity” of “naive” native arts.

The author, Gabriel García Maroto, was an exiled Spanish printer, artist, and critic who trained in one of Cuba’s Escuelas de Acción Artística in the late 1920s. He brought the EAA philosophy to Michoacan, founding several programs there with the support of governor (and future President) Lazaro Cárdenas. The schools taught print-making, drawing, and painting to predominantly indigenous and working-class women and children. Aligned with Cárdenas’s work on agrarian and land reform, García Maroto believed that his schools could teach the people to “possess” their land through art.

García Maroto was a member of avant-garde Spanish artistic circles in the 1920s and 30s. As a printer, he was an active member of the Republican Asociación de Intelectuales Antifascistas para la Defensa de la Cultura and had the distinction of publishing Frederico García Lorca’s first book. He began “Editorial Plastica Americana’’ with the intention of issuing a “Colección Plástica Mexicana” series but this appears to be the only title ever published under either imprint. After settling in Mexico, he also promoted art education for children with hearing problems. The book is dedicated to his son, the deaf painter Jose García Narezo.

See: Jolly, Jennifer. Creating Pátzcuaro, Creating Mexico: Art, Tourism, and Nation Building under Lázaro Cárdenas. Austin, TX: University of Texas, 2018, pp. 47-51.

$550

Arquitectura de la Ciudad de México: Guía

International Union of Architects. World Congress; Trueblood, Beatrice. Arquitectura de la Ciudad de México: Guía / Architectura [sic] du Mexico: Guide / Mexico City Arquitecture [sic]: Guide. México, D.F.: [International Union of Architects], [1978]. Tall 8vo, 199 pp.; b/w illus. of 74 sites, with 11 folding maps locating each building, pp. 167-173 misbound. In pictorial wraps, with 1 in. loss at spine, adhesive failing, one signature semi-detached. Fair only. Previous owner inscription on half-title.

Fascinating and thorough guide to the historical and modern architecture of Mexico City, prepared for the IUA’s 1978 World Congress. Many unexpected buildings featured among the more obvious highlights. All text given in Spanish, French, and English. Design by Beatrice Trueblood, co-designer of the ‘68 Olympiad graphics.

Scarce, OCLC finds four copies in the Americas: Harvard, Dumbarton Oaks, Library of Congress, Pratt.

$175

Plastica Bajacaliforniana: Selección Bienal 1977

Plastica Bajacaliforniana: Selección Bienal 1977. Exh. cat. [México, D.F.]: [Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes], [1977]. Square 8vo, [24] pp.; intro by critic Raquel Tibol, reproductions of artists’ works followed by bios and checklist. Stapled wrapper tight, a few small dents.

Catalogue of the second Baja artist biennial, held at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. One OCLC holding: LACMA.

$45

Centro Deportivo Chapultepec: Recuerdo de la Inauguración de los Nuevos Edificios

(Architecture) (Muralism) [Almanza, Gaspar Octavio]. [Romo, Ramiro]. Centro Deportivo Chapultepec: Recuerdo de la Inauguración de los Nuevos Edificios [cover title]. México, D.F.: [Junta Directiva del Centro Deportivo Chapultepec], 1950. 8vo, [32] pp.; chiefly illus. b/w reproductions of photos of the ceremony, building, and murals. Stapled pictorial wraps printed in blue recto and verso, edges chipped front and rear.

Souvenir program celebrating the inauguration of a new sports complex in Chapultepec Park, a collaboration between the Bank of Mexico and the government of President Alemán. Designed by architects Gonzalo Garita and Carlos Romo. The majority of the booklet is given over to a text by Almanza interpreting the building’s commissioned murals by Ramiro Romo Estada, a student of José Clemente Orozco. Concludes with excerpts of press coverage praising the government, etc.

A single holding located in OCLC: UC-Berkeley.

$150

10 Mujeres y Textil en 3D / 10 Women and Textile into 3D

Galleria Universitaria Aristos. 10 Mujeres y Textil en 3D / 10 Women and Textile into 3D. México, D.F.: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1975. Square 8vo, [16] pp.; intro, checklist and 11 b/w pls.; stapled pictorial wraps, sunned. Printed by Imprenta Madero.

Exh. cat. in Spanish and English, exploring contemporary fiber arts in Mexico, including Marta Palau, Leticia Arroyo, et al., and paying “homage to the creative weaver during the Women’s International Year.” Introduced by anthropologist and curator Marta Turok.

$60

El Paraíso de los Dulces Mexicanos

Galeria Universitaria Aristos. El Paraíso de los Dulces Mexicanos. México, D.F.: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, n.d. [1968]. Square 8vo, [16] pp.; primarily visual, some reproductions in color, with [2] pp. wove paper insert. Stapled color pictorial wraps, extremities worn.

Exh. cat. exploring the sculptural artistry of Mexican confectionaries. Surrealist and Pop overtones. With text and images by artists associated with UNAM in the late 1960s including Olga Costa and Victor Fosado.

OCLC finds one US holding: UCSD.

$75

Inauguración de su Nuevo Edificio

Secretaria de Recursos Hidráulicos. Inauguración de su Nuevo Edificio. México, D.F.: N.p., n.d. [1950]. Oblong 11-½ x 7-¾ in., [16] pp.; illus. throughout, with a white inauguration ribbon stapled to the first leaf. Pictorial wraps with orig. clear plastic DJ. Front wrap creased. Good.

Souvenir of the inauguration of the politically important ministry’s new building, commissioned in 1946 by President Alemán. Reviews history of water works in Mexico, including dams and irrigation. Several leaves with highlights of the new building, designed by architects Del Moral y Pani with later assistance by Gustavo Saavedra.

Not found in OCLC.

SOLD

Atlas de las Nubes para el Servicio meteorológico de la República Mexicana

Pastrana, Manuel E. Atlas de las Nubes para el Servicio meteorológico de la República Mexicana formado por Manuel E. Pastrana i del Observatorio Meteorológico Central de México [...]. Boston, MA: Heliotype Co., 1906. Oblong 4to, [9] leaves, 61, [4] pls.; introduction by Pastrana followed by plates, nos. 1-20, 22, 29, 31-34, 41-58, and 60 in color, very good; stamped publisher’s cloth with marbled endpapers; boards rubbed, corners bumped. Numbered 135 in ink on title, from stated edition of 1000.

The first cloud atlas produced for use by the Mexican meteorological service; most images reproduced from photographs taken at La Escuela Industrial Militar Porfirio Diaz in Morelia, Mexico. At the time of printing, the national meteorological service was comprised of 49 observatories, including one in each state. Each reported by telegraph to the central observatory in Tacubaya. The atlas’s classification and captions follow the recommendations of the 1891 International Meteorological Conference, Munich, and the first International Cloud Atlas (Hildebrandsson, Riggenbach, and Teisserenc de Bort, 1896).

Four US holdings listed in OCLC: UT, UNM, SDSU, and Stanford.

$1500

Cartilla Maya-Español para los monolingües Mayas de Yucatan, Campeche y Quintana Roo

[Beloff, Angelina. (Illustrator)]. Instituto de Alfabetización en Lenguas Indígenas, México. Cartilla Maya-Español para los monolingües Mayas de Yucatan, Campeche y Quintana Roo. México, D.F.: [Secretaría de Educación Pública], 1946. Small 4to, 102 pp.; illus. reader, unmarked, newsprint pages toned, fragile, and chipped, a few leaves unopened; in color pictorial wraps, with closed tears and losses, fair.

A Maya-Spanish children’s primer, part of the Secretary of Education’s campaign against illiteracy, particularly among indigenous, monolingual populations. These federal initiatives had mixed results and were largely unsuccessful at achieving larger social improvements in rural communities.

This edition illustrated by artists Angelina Beloff and Gabriel Fernández Ledesma, both associated with the muralist movement (Beloff through her marriage to Diego Rivera).

$150

Cuauhtemoc

[Valcárcel, Gustavo and Adolfo Mexiac (Illustrator)]. Cuauhtemoc. Serie Biografia, No. 1. México, D.F.: Instituto Nacional Indigenista, 1956. Small 8vo, 48 pp.; illus. throughout from linocuts and drawings by Mexiac, lightly toned; orig. stapled pictorial wrapper, sl. worn.

A condensed biography of the last Aztec Emperor with bold illustrations by Adolfo Mexiac. From an intended series of indigenous biographies of which only 2 vols. were seemingly published.

OCLC identifies only two copies in US libraries.

$150

Mexico

Comité Organizador de la Participación en la Exposición Ibero-Americana de Sevilla, Luis Alberto de Herrera, and Francisco A. Sáenz. Mexico. [Mexico]: Talleres gráficos de la nación, 1929. Oblong 4to, 591 pp.; full-page b/w pls. throughout, paper toned, pls. very good; 3/4 green cloth, corners bumped, paper labels stained.

Large format, encyclopedic album commissioned by the government’s department of propaganda to present the modern political and social structures, and economic successes of post-revolutionary Mexico to an international audience. Lavishly illustrated with tipped-in plates reproducing photographs of government buildings, schools, public transportation, industrial and commercial sites, and public works. Most plates with decorative borders inspired by Aztec designs. The album culminates with images and descriptions of the Mexican pavilion in Sevilla.

An important piece of propaganda describing the massive reforms of the post-revolutionary period, it was published under President Calles’ direction in the year that he founded the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), a time in which the “social revolution” was very much still at risk.

Example 440 of 3000.

$450