Emilio Zapata exaltación (first edition)

Date: 1927

Original medium: Drawing

Published in: Germán List Arzubide, Emilio Zapata exaltación (Xalapa: Talleres Gráficos del Gobierno de Veracruz, 1927), cover 

Variants: Méndez also designed the cover for the second edition of the book.

References: Information to be added

Commentary:  Méndez, who already strongly identified with the working class, became more politically engaged during his Stridentist years. In 1926 and 1927 he provided a number of illustrations for Zapata exaltación, the poetic biography of Emiliano Zapata by Germán List Arzubide; this was the first book written about Zapata, published by the Stridentist press, Ediciones Estridentistas, and List Arzubide was one of the first to recognize the power of Zapata as a symbol of the thwarted goals of the Revolution, and in fact, his biography was an important step in the construction of Zapata’s post-Revolutionary identity.   

During the 1920s, Zapata was becoming one of the most important figures in the new mythology of the Revolution. From 1911 1919 Zapata had fought for radical agrarian reform, promoting his Plan de Ayala, which advocated communal land ownership and local control, which challenged the large haciendas and debt peonage; the Constitution of 1917 incorporated many of his demands.  

After Zapata’s death, Alvaro Obregón welcomed the Zapatista agrarianists into the new government, with the result that Zapata was absorbed into the myth of a unified Mexican state.  The government of Mexico used themes of the Mexican Revolution to advance and legitimize its activities, and accordingly, artists also turned to the Revolution for subject matter. Zapata’s image began to take on iconic proportions, as, for example, in Rivera’s image of the dead hero in his mural at the National Agricultural School at Chapingo. Portrayals of Zapata and the revolutionary trinity of campesino, soldier and worker became key elements in the iconography of post-Revolutionary Mexico. In a sense, artists promoted the official ideals of the Revolution in an attempt to actualize them. Méndez’s 1927 cover illustration for List Arzubide’s Zapata exaltación is an austere portrait of Zapata, with heavy black lettering for the title, author and publication information. (Deborah Caplow)

Catalogue record number: 212