MEXICO: Unseen video and photographs go on display to mark the Mexican Revolution Centennial Celebration

Record ID: 301246

  • Title: MEXICO: Unseen video and photographs go on display to mark the Mexican Revolution Centennial Celebration
  • Date: 20th November 2010
  • Summary: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (NOVEMBER 18, 2010) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) HISTORIAN JOHN MRAZ, SAYING: "What I wanted to rescue was precisely what daily life was like during the Revolution: in other words, hunger, thirst, illnesses, injuries, the dead, instead of building an epic of the Revolution. I probably built a tragedy of the Revolution but I think it was a tragedy that Mexico had to go through such a cruel and difficult Civil War during 10 years."
  • Embargoed: 5th December 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: History
  • Reuters ID: LVA35GPEPMH58YF8H0REC7CKE66O
  • Story Text: Unseen videos and photographs of Mexican Revolutionary heroes Emiliano Zapata, Francisco Villa and Francisco Madero, are being shown at a public exhibition to mark the 1910 Mexican Revolution Centennial Celebration.
    The exhibition titled "Testimonies of a war, Photography from the Mexican Revolution," is composed of photographs and video footage, mostly unseen, with images of the 1910-1920 Mexican Revolution which were recently restored by the National Institute of Anthropology and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, or UNAM, Filmoteca.
    Video footage of historic events, such as the triumphant entrance into Mexico City by "caudillo" leaders Francisco Villa and Emiliano Zapata are on display as well as videos of the 1914 US invasion in Veracruz and the funeral of President Francisco Madero in 1913.
    The UNAM's Filmoteca, which houses the original films, stores 40 videos from the end of the 19th century to the present date and is the largest collection of historic cinema in Mexico.
    "Testimonies of a war, Photography from the Mexican Revolution," also displays a selection of 150 photographs of combatants and peasants who played main roles during the Revolution. Mexican "caudillos" are given a less prominent role at the display.
    Historian and exhibition curator Dr. John Mraz worked for two years to plan the exhibition of extensive cinema and photography archives from the decade-long war in which Mexican photographers and US filmmakers chased different Revolutionary forces around the country to document their battles and main events.
    The collection from the Casasola archive is the largest photograph collection available of the Mexican Revolution. Photographs shown were taken by several Mexican photographers such as Aurelio Escobar, Jeronimo Hernandez, Ignacio Medrano Chavez and the Cachu brothers who appear alongside Francisco Villa, as well as Sara Castrejon, the only female photographer during the Revolution. She followed Emiliano Zapata.
    In 1914, the "Mutual Film Corporation," a cinema production house in New York, paid the northern caudillo Francisco Villa $25,000 dollars for the exclusive rights to film his battles. Films such as the "Ojinaga" battles were exhibited in cinema theatres around the United States and Europe. A percentage of the entrance tickets were paid to Villa.
    "All the caudillos (leaders) had a very developed conscience of modern media. They all knew about the importance of modern media. They wanted to promote themselves personally. They wanted someone to document their feats. They also wanted to promote their movements. At the same time, one has to see this dialectically, the photographers also wanted to take part. They wanted to commit themselves with the different movements," said Mraz.
    Mraz said he wanted to encompass the hardships Mexico went through during the Revolution rather than concentrate on the glories of victory.
    "What I wanted to rescue was precisely what daily life was like during the Revolution: in other words, hunger, thirst, illnesses, injuries, the dead, instead of building an epic of the Revolution. I probably built a tragedy of the Revolution but I think it was a tragedy that Mexico had to go through such a cruel and difficult Civil War during 10 years," Mraz added.
    The two six-minute films and the 150 photographs on display will be presented to the general public in Mexico City until February 2011 at the "Museo del Carmen" in San Angel to the south of Mexico City.
    The same display has been reproduced and will be exhibited at 29 museums across the country as an homage to the first social Revolution of the 20th century.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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