Se defiende con lo que puede

Date: 1931

Medium: Woodcut

Dimensions (cm.): 14.5 x 21.5

Alternate titles: Fanatismo; Sitio de Granaditas; Alhóndiga de Granaditas

Published edition: Unknown. Méndez [1949?] gives number of impressions as 2,000 approx. (probably referring to publication in El Sembrador).

Contemporary publication: El sembrador, 15 septiembre, 1931

References: Méndez INBA 89

Commentary: This violent image is based on a momentous incident in 1810 near the beginning of Mexico’s war for independence from Spain. An army of insurgents led by the revolutionary priest and independence hero Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla laid siege on the Alhóndiga de Granaditas, an enormous grain warehouse in Guanajuato which the Spaniards were occupying as a fortress from which to defend the city. The print depicts Martín Septién, a priest and member of a wealthy local family who was holed up in the fortress. Like most of the clergy, he was a loyal defender of Spanish rule. Although badly wounded in the siege, Septién managed to escape using a crucifix as an offensive weapon against the poorly armed insurgents. Méndez shows him in full fury, swinging his cross murderously while the church’s ill-begotten wealth spills out of his robes. As explained in the journal El sembrador where the image was first published, the print “by our great young revolutionary artist Leopoldo Méndez . . . tells us simply that the spirit of the people, in 1810 as in the present year, unsparingly punishes the priest, even if he is armed as here with the cross, when the priest tries to steal the people’s freedom and rights.” (Peter Schneider)

Catalogue record number: 689