Profesor José Martínez Ramírez

Date: 1939

Medium: Lithograph

Dimensions (cm.): 29.2 x 20.5

Alternate titles: Unknown

Published edition:

1.  In portfolio En nombre de Cristo... han asesinado más de 200 maestros. Editorial Gráfica Popular, Mexico City, 1939

2. Unknown number of impressions outside the edition printed on loose sheets.

Contemporary publication: see published edition, above

References: Prignitz 397

Commentary: In one of his seven lithographs in the portfolio En nombre de Cristo, Profesor José Martínez Ramírez, asesinado en Customatitla, Puebla, el 28 de febrero de 1938 (Teacher José Martínez Ramírez, murdered in Customatitla, Puebla, February 28, 1938), Méndez referenced American lynching prints and photographs of the 1930s. The teacher’s small body hangs from a tree branch with a sign around his neck that bears an illegible message from his murderers. According to the newspaper article quoted on the adjoining page, they are accusing him of “supporting the bad ideas of the traitorous government,” “perverting innocent youth,” and spreading “bad ideas” to other teachers. The image is reminiscent of prints from Goya’s Desastres de la guerra (Disasters of War), especially Tampoco (Nor This), a similarly disturbing image of a man hanged from a tree. In fact, Méndez readily acknowledged the influence of Goya’s powerful political prints. (Deborah Caplow)

Catalogue record number: 243