El “Juan”
Date: 1933
Medium: Wood engraving
Dimensions (cm.): 9.9 x 13.7
Alternate titles: Pos pa' que luchamos; Pos, paque luchamos...?; La familia del General
Published edition:
Number of individual impressions unknown.
Reprinted in 1943 in portfolio 25 Prints of Leopoldo Méndez: 100 impressions in numbered portfolios, 50 of them on China paper (described as “special imported chinese stock”), plus 3 impressions in unnumbered portfolios. Each impression signed in graphite, lower right, and annotated 6, lower right corner of sheet. Sheet dimensions 24.4 x 19.2 cm.
Contemporary publication: Unknown.
References: Exposición de Homenaje 825 (illus.); Méndez INBA 24; included in Prignitz 402-426
Selected additional references (illustrated): Caplow 2017, 101; Poniatowska
Commentary: El “Juan,” also called Pos Pa' Qué Luchamos, shows the poverty-stricken family of a Revolutionary soldier next to a wealthy family, The two groups parallel one another visually, in a work that emphasizes the evil effects of capitalism on the working class, and the corruption of post-revolutionary Mexico.
“Juan” was a word used for soldiers during the Mexican Revolution, as a corollary to the character La Adelita, a soldadera (camp follower) in a popular song during the Mexican Revolution. Here the demobilized soldier and his family go on foot while the rich family gets into a chauffeured car, the father, likely a retired military officer, saluted by a doorman.
Méndez stressed the contrasts between classes, as well as between tradition and urban modernity, literally dividing the two groups with the architectural elements in the image. The print is a critique of the unfulfilled promises of the revolution. (Deborah Caplow)
Cataloging note: 1933 date is from Mendez [1949?]. Other sources give the date as 1934.
Catalogue record number: 336