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Female Firsts: Aurora Reyes · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stefan
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Never told you productive iHeartRadio, and today we are once
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: again doing a female first, which means we are once
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: again thrilled to be joined by the lovely, the delightful,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: the talented Eves.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Welcome. Yeah, hello, he once again happy to be here.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: We're so happy to have you.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: We just had a we always have these conversations before,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, why we we need to talk about
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: this on the show, about celebrity culture and ownership around
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: that and people who write in and complain about very
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: specific things and why that might be.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and if you're that kind of person, don't do
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: it now. I'm just saying you can do whatever.
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: You want to the calling in versus just complaining. Please
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: don't complain. We have enough complaints in our lives that
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: we don't need.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Is this some kind of intervention or maybe it might be,
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: because honestly, Annie, I think it's needed. If you're thinking
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: about doing something waking up in the morning, logging onto
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: your computer or opening your phone email app that you
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: use and typing a rude email to somebody, maybe just.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Take a moment to breathe.
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: And then like consider whether this needs to be said
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: at all, or maybe said in the way that you're
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: considering saying it, and then continue, So that might still
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: end in you sending the email, But like, I think
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: the least that can be done is just taking a
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: pause for consideration.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: And this is constructive.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: It great questions we all need to ask ourselves.
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: Encouragements are always welcome. We get a lot of those.
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: We don't talk enough about that, but we get a
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: lot of those. But the ones things that are out
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: of our control, I think we had a like it's
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: a constant trying to explain like ads. That's one of
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: the number one things is like, if we're not actually
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: voicing these ads, the likelihood of us knowing what's happening
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: and the US approving it is probably didn't happen. Like
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: it's very rare. So let us know without being mad
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: at us.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, do let us Okay, sometimes some of those are.
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: Real with you, with you, we just didn't know what
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: was happening, So don't be mad at us.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Well, that's another thing, because we were talking about this,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Samantha and I we just did an episode on like
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: embarrassment and and one of the things I I don't
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: like is, as I was saying, celebrity culture. But it
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: kind of freaks me out. This Like when I see
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: people like do person on the Street interviews and the Dale's,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: they're so eager for their like fifteen minutes that they'll
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: just say anything, they'll do anything in it. That kind
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: of freaks me out that mentality. And then something you
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: were talking about eves with you know, who's going to
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: see this thing, this angry message or whatever. Something else
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: that I ponder about sometimes is when people are pre mad.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: So it's like I've seen some businesses that have signs
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: that are like if you don't believe in God, you
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: ain't welcome.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Like all right, well, alter.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Like maybe I did, maybe I did it, But now
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: I'm like, you're pre angry, and I don't want to do.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: That, and I don't want to do with this.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and if you walked into that store, it's like
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: you probably are not going to have a conversation about
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: God anyway, so you didn't even really know. Right, It's
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: exclusionary and a totally unnecessary way.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Right, because I totally I'm all for, like, you know,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: put up your pride bags, you know, all that kind
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: of stuff.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: But for you to be like.
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: Immediately tell someone that you're not welcomed, don't come in straight,
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: it may not be aimed at that. Like let's say
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: it is something about like anti masking. If you wear
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: a mask, don't come in here. I'm automatly. Oh I'm
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: also Asians. I definitely can't come in here either, So
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: I'll go ahead, and even if I'm not wearing a mask,
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: you know, like that's an automatic sign. So you're not
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: just cutting off that one group of people, you're cutting
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: off a level. Yes, that is pretty mad, and I
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: am pretty scared, so I'm gone.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Exhausting.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: Though it's exhausting to be mad without an impetus for
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: being mad, Like it's already it takes a lot of
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: energy already to be angry, right right, So to make
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: ourselves angry before we need to be.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: It's a waste of resources. You're right, right, right, right right.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: This is not aimed at anybody in particular. By the way,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: we were just talking about this.
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: Before, I was also, yeah, like there's some big news
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: happening in like celebrity world. People are already getting mad,
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: and I'm like, oh, yeah, this is interesting. This is
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: a this is a sociological like study of how people
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: react when it comes to fandoms.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Right, yeah, yeah, what we've talked about for Yeah.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: I think it's also just really easy now to assume
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: that we have a wealth of knowledge based on a
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: limited base of knowledge.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: Like we're thinking about.
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: Celebrities and we're like, yeah, I saw in this article,
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: like they started dating this person and they broke up
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: with them because this person cheated on them. And I
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: know all of this because I've been following two years
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: worse of like you know, ten hours of like forums
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: I'm following or just articles I've read, And so I
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: assume that I have fan theories. I assume that I
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: have like a wealth of knowledge about somebody's life when
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: it's really just a very very tiny modicum of information
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: that I have.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: But I think it's easy to do.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: That, you know, yeah, you're totally this kind of person
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: because I have this small amount of information about them,
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: when it's like no, I don't.
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: Know, right, And then the thing is like, if you're
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: doing this on your own amusement, it's a thing. But
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: then when you start like blasting and calling people out,
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: being angry at people, sending letters, sending hate things. They're like,
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: that's where we're concerned.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the sure, that's so this is really a PSA.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: It's not it's not blame. No, this is a public
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: service announcement.
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: Right, It's gonna be okay, everyone, it's gonna be okay.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, we're gonna get through this. But I am
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: very excited to talk about who you brought today. I
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: got to see some amazing art that I've never seen before.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: And I'm sure this person faced a lot of criticism,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: A nice segue, a lot of iron for sure. Who
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: did you bring for us today?
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Eves?
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: Today we're talking about Aurora Race. So her art is wonderful.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: I really recommend anybody who hasn't seen it check it out.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: I've only been to Mexico City once, it did not
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: get the opportunity to see her art while I was
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: there because it was a very short time. So I'm
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: looking forward to hopefully being able to see some in person.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: But she created she made the first mural that was
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: done by a Mexican born female artist, so she wasn't
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: the first woman in Mexico. You know, we can get
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: into these kinds of weird technicalities when we're talking about
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: female first. She wasn't the first woman in Mexico to
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: get a mural commission, that was an American woman, but
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: she was the first Mexican born woman to get a
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: mural commission from the government, so she's considered Mexico's first
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: female muralist. So a person who did a lot of
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: work in discovering and documenting the history and the biography
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: of Aurora Rays was doctor Dina Coma Senenco Mierican, so
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: you can read some of her work. A lot of
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: the documentation about Aurora Rays is in Spanish, so if
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: you are fluent in Spanish and you're able to read it,
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: then you'll be able to enjoy a lot more of
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: the works on Aurora Rays. But art historian and scholar
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: doctor Dina Comasenanco American has read in works in English
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: about her that you can read, and she talks about
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: how female Mexican muralists have been quote virtually ignored, and
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: she says that that could potentially be because people believed
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: women didn't have the physicality to paint murals, that they
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: didn't really have an interest in public art in the
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: early nineteen hundreds, or that it was only men who
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: painted murals in Mexico. So the history and the documentation
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: of Mexican muralism does focus a lot on men, and
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: it was a lot of men who were painting murals
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: at the time due to a lot of the things
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: that we talk about, who had access to do it,
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: who was asked to do it, especially in these things
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: like government commissions. Who was highlighted by the people who
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: were choosing to document certain things.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: But there were women who were involved in Mexican muralism.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: Who also had political stances in their muralism, So they
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: weren't quiet, They weren't reticent about things all the time,
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: even though they weren't always focused on socio political themes,
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: but they were and they had seen things to say
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: and they often said them through murals during this time period.
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: So now I guess we can get into Aurora Race herself.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: She was born on September ninth, nineteen oh eight, in
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: Hidalgo des Paral in the state of Chihuahua. The Mexican
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: Revolution started just a couple of years after she was born,
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: and her family was involved in politics, and her grandfather
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: was the politician in general Bernardo Race, and her uncle
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: was Alfonso Race, who was a writer and a scholar,
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: and her mother was named Luisa Flores, so her family
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: was relatively wealthy and had some notoriety, but they were
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: politically persecuted. In nineteen thirteen, her father, who was land Race,
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: had to leave his hometown because of his political leanings
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: and the family fleet to Mexico City, so her mother
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: spent time baking bread and Aurora helped with selling it
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: at the market. And Aurora even said in a nineteen
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: fifty three interview that quote art is the medium with
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: the greatest potential to penetrate human emotions and therefore functions
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: as a powerful weapon in the fight for the rights
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: of the common man. She also said that she was
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: interested in social issues because she suffered hunger and misery,
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: so she was invested in because of her personal experience
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: with dealing with challenges economic.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Struggle and also social struggle.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: So she was invested in art being able to be
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: a vehicle for making things happen in the social and
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: political spheres, and she believed that it was a weapon.
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: So her experiences with poverty helped her feel and empathize
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: with what it was like to be in that struggle
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: and helped lead her into the revolutionary practices and matters
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: that she was involved in later in life.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: So this started pretty early.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: Her consciousness started developing pretty early, and she was already
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: put in those spaces because of her family. And so
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: she began attending the National Preparatory School, which is where
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: she met Free to Callo. But she was only there
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: for a short period of time, and she was supposedly
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: expelled not long after enrolling for getting into some kind
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: of conflict with another classmate. But she and Free to
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: Callo ended up being lifelong friend, so you'll see her
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: come up in her story over their entire lives. At
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: age thirteen, Aurora Rays began taking classes at the National
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: School of Fine Arts and she ended up graduating in
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: nineteen twenty four at age sixteen. So it's necessary to
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: form a foundation of a little bit of background of
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: what was happening at the time. Since it was the
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: Mexican Revolution, there was a lot of political turbulence, and
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: of course Aura Rays herself was incorporating some of her
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: own political ideas and the things that were happening in
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: society at the time in her art. So there was
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: Porphyrio Diaz, who people listening have likely heard of before.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: He had been in power since the eighteen seventies in Mexico,
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: and he had opened up Mexico to foreign investment. So
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: there was this thing happening where like the wealthy elite
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: were benefiting, but the rural workers and the peasants were
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: suffering under these policies. But Diaz suppressed opposition, and then
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: people began to challenge his rule and to fight for
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: lamb reform. So obviously that's a very abbreviated version of
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: everything that was happening. It was very complex, and it
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: was a lot more other policies than that that affected
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: the people who were living in Mexico. But in nineteen eleven,
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: Diez resigned and he went into exile. So, after much
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: conflict and many changes in leadership, a new constitution in
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: Mexico was approved in nineteen seventeen. So that constitution called
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: for things like land reform, the nationalization of resources, and workers' rights,
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: and it opened up the government's role in helping and
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: providing for its citizens. But the president then Venustiano Carranza,
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: ignored this, and many historians say that the election of
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: President Alvaro Obergone in nineteen twenty was the end of
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: the revolution, but there was still conflict that continued after that,
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: so not all historians are completely aligned on that being
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: the end. But we know how things like this can
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: often be when it comes to war and revolution, that
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: the beginning points and endpoints of things can be kind
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: of fuzzy, depending on what people want to consider the
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: marker of endpoints. The point is that conflict continued and
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: General Lazaro Cardenas was elected president in nineteen thirty four.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: He implemented a lot of changes, and he pressed four
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: more on those revolutionary goals than people who were previously
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: empowered did. He did things like nationalized railways and the
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: oil industry, and he redistributed land, and he was involved
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: in other social and economic reforms that happened in the country.
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: And one of those things was after nineteen twenty, public
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: art became a more important means of educating Mexican people,
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: many of whom were poor and who couldn't read, and
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: murals in particular, were a medium to do so. So
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: if you're familiar with the history of art or even
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: the way art operates in many of our cities today,
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: and how public art is very accessible to people is
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: that people in different neighborhoods of different class levels and
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: economic situations can access. So being able to use that
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: as a vehicle for education is something that means that
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: it can reach more people and may even be more
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: interesting to people. So a movement began where the government
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: commissioned mostly male artists to paint these murals to teach
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: folks about their history and were future facing as well,
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: so helping them think about the history but also in
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: what ways they would move forward and the things that
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: could be done, the things that should be considered to
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: create this kind of social progress. So three names that
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: are highly associated with this Mexican muralism movement, they were
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: considered the three greats were Diego Rivera da vid Alfaro
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: Sicios and Jose Clemente Odolsco. They were considered the three grades,
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: and of course they're all men, but they were influential
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: in that movement. Aurora raised work focused on topics that
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: she and many other activists artists like she was, were
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: concerned with in this revolutionary era, like education, workers' rights,
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: and gender. So Kama Senenko Mirkin, the scholar who I
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: was referring to earlier, she talks about how women artists
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: at that time shared common themes in their work, like
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: the challenges of motherhood, gender violence, and infant death. And
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: you'll see that in some of her art as well
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: if you go and take a look at it. But
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: it'll come up later in her story. So this is
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: where Aurora Ray's career in art really picks up. In
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: nineteen twenty five, she had her first solo exhibition of drawings.
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: In that same year, she married journalists and writer hoort
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: Hey Goodoy. She had had one child with a previous partner,
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: and then she had one child with Orge Goodoy. She
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: and Goodoy did end up divorcing, though, and they ended
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: contact with each other and she raised her children. She
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: wrote a letter to one of her children while she
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: was pregnant at one point, and there is a quote
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: from this letter in an essay by Dina Koma Saankomerkan
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: that's called frieda Callo and Aurora rais painting.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: To the voice of Concha Michael. So here's the quote.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: I call you my daughter because I want you to
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: know that all women have dreamt of dignifying life. Right now,
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: we must conquer a place of justice and respect in
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: the face of the future, so that there will be
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: balance and fraternity among our children, so that no wars
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: arise out of clumsy ambitions. And we must destroy once
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: and for all the chains of slavery formed by ignorance, hatred,
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: and poverty. And that's the end of the quote. So
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: not to confuse people, she did not have a daughter.
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: Both of her children were sons, but she still wrote
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: this letter when she was pregnant.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: So clearly.
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: We see her values through this quote. We see what
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: she cared about. We see that she cared about creating
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: a future that was good to everybody in society. She
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: cared about gender, she cared about no war happening, she
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: cared about poverty, she cared about people's education levels, and
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: not just in a way that was that was emotional
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: intelligence and also other kinds of intelligence. So in nineteen
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: twenty seven, Riz taught art in public schools and she
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: ended up doing this for a little bit under forty years,
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: so a long time. She also joined that year the
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: Mexican Communist Party and she stayed in that party for
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: the next thirteen years. She was one of several people
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: who later left the Communist Party and was removed from
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: the party for having quote links with Trotskyist groups, always
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: working without connection with the party's higher organizations and base,
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: and receiving influences from people foreign to the political line
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: of the PCM. In nineteen thirty she was also part
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: of the first group show of posters and phono montages
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: in Mexico City, and she was connected with many many
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: artists and activists that we've already brought up Freeda Collo.
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: She was also connected to Diego Rivera, Maria Esquierdo and
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: other people. And I also earlier brought up Concha Michel.
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: She was close to her. Concha Michell was a singer
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: and an activist, and Aura Rais included a portrait of
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: Michel and a mural that she painted, and she painted
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: a portrait of Michel Freeda Callo and herself that she
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: called Concha Aurora Efrida, So she was part of her
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: life as well. In terms of other organizations that Aurora
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: Rais was in, she was also part of the Mexican
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: Republic Teachers Union and the National Peasants Confederation. In the
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: Teachers U Union, she was secretary of Women's Action and
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: through that work she advocated for women's suffrage, things like
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: more maternity leave, and women's right to be in positions
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: of political power like higher government position and other rights
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: for women. So that was a big thing that she
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: advocated for. A lot of the work that she did
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: was influenced by LEAR or the League of Revolutionary Writers
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: and Artists. LEIR operated from nineteen thirty four to nineteen
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: thirty seven, which was a short time, but it was
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: all about art and about social responsibility, and it was
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: ideologically aligned with leftist politics. It organized lectures and other
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: kinds of activities, and it was really centered around the
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: power of art, kind of going back to that quote
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: that I brought up that Aurora Race said earlier about
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: believing in the power of art to create social change.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: So the people she.
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: Was around in that organization, the ideology that it focused on,
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: and the activities that it organized were in alignment with
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: the things that Aura Rays cared about. So that in
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: this point we come to the mural that is often
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: talked about and associated with Aura Rays, which is called
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: a take a la mastre rural, which means attack on
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: the rural teacher. So that was created for an elementary
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: school called centrol Escolar Revolution, which was in a neighborhood
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: in Mexico City. So this school, according to Camasenko, American
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: was a quote experimental model school for testing socialist education
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: and the essential instrument for building the broad popular support
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: needed for social reform end quote. The school was located
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: on the site where there used to be a prison,
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: so that site was transformed and it became educational institution.
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: That was the school, and that school had also had
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: a gym and a track in pool and libraries and
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: the government commissioned the League of Revolutionary Writers and Artists
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: to create murals for that school between the years of
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: nineteen thirty four and nineteen thirty six. So the artists
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: commissioned to do the works in that school were Raoul Aguiano,
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: Everardo Ramirez, Gonzalo de la Paz, Peres, Antonio Gutierrez, Ignacio Gomez, Hadamio,
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: and Aurora Race. So there were many murals in the
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: school and her mural was attack on the Rural Teacher.
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: So you can also see images of this mural online
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: and you'll see in it that it depicts two men
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: who are attacking a female teacher. One man is hitting
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: the teacher in the image with the rifle and the
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: other one is pulling her by her hair. The man
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: who is dragging her by her hair is also holding
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: money and kind of destroying a book, and the other
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: man is wearing this thing called a scapular, which is
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: an object that Roman Catholics were to show their devotion
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: to a saint, often to the Virgin Mary. So in
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: the background of the painting you'll see three children who
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: are kind of peeking out from behind a column, and
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: they're hiding their faces as they look at this violent scene.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: There is also symbolism that identifies a man who is
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: dragging her by her hair as a member of a
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: Mexican Nazi group. He has on this gold shirt and
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: his arms and legs, if you look at the shape
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: of how they're set up in the image, are positioned
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: in the shape of a swastika, and the money that
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: he's holding symbolizes how his violent actions are tied to
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: capitalism and greed and with a or a raise and
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: her political leanings and involvement with the Mexican Communist Party,
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: a lot of her ideology.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: And the work that she did.
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: Was indicative of her anti capitalism stances. So the mural
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: was a response to a massacre that happened at the
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: time where at least sixteen teachers were killed in a
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: village in the state of Guanajuato. And at the time,
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: people who supported Catholic controlled education in Mexico often attacked
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: royal teachers, So it wasn't something that was rare. It
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: was a response to something that was happening semi frequently.
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: There was an amount of violence in that way at
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: the time. And yeah, this work was in the school.
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: As it's put in The Power and Politics of Art
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: and Post Revolutionary in Mexico by Stephanie J. Smith quote,
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: the work must have acted as a warning to protect
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: public education for those who served on the front lines
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: of the educational battles. So were a raised being a
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: teacher herself, being concerned with education and knowing that it
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: would be part of the way for women and the
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: power that they would be able to express in the
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: coming years was focused on education, So it made sense
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: that she would be one of the people to create
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: a mural for this school. Her other murals are in
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: an auditorium in a complex that includes the National Teachers
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: Union headquarters. These murals were originally completed between nineteen fifty
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: nine and nineteen sixty one. So in she remain involved
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: in organizations throughout her life. In nineteen thirty eight she
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: went to the National Women's Congress in Havana and Cuba
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: as a delegate from the Teachers Union. And she also
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: continued her art in different ways. In the nineteen forties,
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: many of her poems were published, and she took part
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: in solo and group shows in Mexico and around the world,
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: and according to Camasenanco American, she got more acclaimed for
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: her poetry than she did for her painting. Eighteen forty seven,
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: the poem Mbre de Mexico was published, and in nineteen
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: fifty three Umanos Paisajes, her first book of poetry, was published.
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: And so she did a range of art for different mediums.
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: She did lithographs for political materials, she did drawings for books,
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: and oil pieces for portrait commissions and frescoes for public
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: work and things like that, and continue to focus on women, children,
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: Mexican traditions, the Mexican Revolution, and education and those kinds
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: of things. And she uplifted indigenous heritage and she protested
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: authoritarian governments. So if you look at her work, you'll
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: see that it's colorful. The figures are often curvy, thick like,
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: they're kind of like sensuous lines.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: The lines are really expressive and wavy.
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: She has a mural called El Premier and Quentro or
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: The First Encounter, that was done in nineteen seventy eight,
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: which shows her depiction of the Spanish colonizers arriving in
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: Tenos te Lin. And there's also Women of War which
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: shows a woman that's holding a child who has passed
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: away and the woman is like appearing to be ready
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: to fight.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: So there are a range.
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: Of different styles kind of in her work, Like some
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: you'll see have are a little bit more wavy, some
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: are a little bit more surrealistic in the style. Some
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: are porches of specific people, and of course these murals
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: are larger works that include a lot of people, but
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: they're very expressive and clearly show her values.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: And the things that she cared about at the time.
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: She died in April of nineteen eighty five in Mexico City,
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: and she was known during her time and was recognized
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: during her time and the fact that she was publicly
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: commissioned to do these murals, but her legacy does live
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: on and her works still exist, and yeah, I am
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: really glad to be able to continue to uplift her
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: legacy and the things that she did for Mexican muralism.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: I mean again, I'm so glad. I'm always so happy
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: when you bring in people I haven't heard of in
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: this art.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: Her style is like right up my alley.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: Also, I could listen to you have a podcast just
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: like walking me through the symbolism of art.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: That was amazing.
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, when you were doing it, I felt like I
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: was a back in art history class, which I loved.
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: Studying was hard, but loved hearing the explanations because you
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: were talking about the rural teachers one and I haven't
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: pulled up right now. You did such a great job.
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: Was like, oh, I didn't notice that, but yeah, well
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: that part too. But I do have a question. I
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: don't know if you know much about it, because this
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: is a fairly violent piece of art. It's moreous. The
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: colors are amazing, the way that it flows, like you
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: could go from the left to right in the art.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: But how was it received.
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: In a public space like a school, because I can't
• 29:20
  Speaker 4: imagine everybody loved it.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: That's a good question.
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: I know in general that there were people who were
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: against this kind of education at the time, and that's
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: the reason that some of these attacks were happening. But
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure exactly how it was like on site
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: received by the people who were there, because that is
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: one of the things that is interesting to me as well. Like,
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: of course, there was a lot of change happening at
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: the time in terms of like this school being built
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: in the kind of education that they were giving children,
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: and it wasn't necessarily status quo. It was something that
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: was just developing. So I'm really not sure, Like that's
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: a question that I would love to know the answer
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: to as well.
• 29:59
  Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, I would just love to see the reaction,
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: especially because it is so controvertic today seeing a piece
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: like this, I don't think would pass. There's so much
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: that we know of course, who are at a different
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: time and everything's the worst, but this type of art
• 30:16
  Speaker 4: as much an amazing history there is behind it and
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: the story that it tells, and even though you have
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: to take a closer look, like at the true violence
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: of it, it's quite shocking that it has survived.
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So I also I'm glad that you brought that up, Samantha,
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: because I'm also thinking about the fact that yes, it's
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: showing the things that are happening, and that this is
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: the reason that education is so important, but it is
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: physically violent. But also in this mural, she's showing children
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: who are looking at it, which I think becomes this
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: kind of like meta self referential thing where there are
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: children who are looking at this scene of violence, and
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: then there are children in the school who are looking
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: at these children in the mural looking at the scene
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: of violence.
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: But it's also like, these children who are going.
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: To these school have also likely seen scenes of violence themselves,
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: or a lot of them have seen scenes of violence themselves,
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: so it's not like something they're unfamiliar with. And it
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: just makes me think of this American tendency and proclivity
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: to shield children from.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: Things that we deal with in real life.
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: So yeah, like I could imagine this being something that
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: is based on perceived or what's pretended to be mainstream
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: morals in the United States and my limited experience of
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: like how I live my life in this country being
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: like do we want I mean, just think about the
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: book bannings in the United States and the reasons that
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: books are banned, Like what we want our children to have.
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: The kind of information that we want our children to
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: have access to is such a topic of contention based
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: on religion and morals in the United States, and that's
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: because it's public school. This is still a public school
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: we're talking about. It's like, well, I have a say
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: in what should happen here. I'm a taxpayer, and this
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: should happen, so I would. I'm too, just like you, Samantha,
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: interested in knowing the answer to this question and fascinated
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: by it because it didn't seem like it didn't seem
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: like this was something the school was still allowed to exist, right,
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: It didn't seem like this was something where people were
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: showing up with tiki torches, you know, at the beginning
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: of the school day or holding signs outside of it,
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: protesting every day, at least as far as my limited information,
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: and it was allowed to exist and still exists, you know,
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: still does so yeah, I think I think.
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: That, Like I don't know.
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: In my head, I'm like the parents are showing up
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: at the PTA methings, you know, like they like take
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: this real down, Like I can't imagine something like that
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: happening then and there.
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: But I can't say that, I'm like, I know, right.
• 32:55
  Speaker 4: Well, I'm sure because she already had a reputation in
• 32:58
  Speaker 4: having political stances before she was commissioned to do these
• 33:01
  Speaker 4: types of murals, so that they may not have expected this,
• 33:03
  Speaker 4: but they knew it was going to be a statement.
• 33:05
  Speaker 4: They like the people who commission and knew it was coming.
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: I'm sure they had an idea of like, Okay, this
• 33:11
  Speaker 4: is gonna be a statement more than just.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: A pretty piece of art. And obviously it is.
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: And again it's gorgeous, like it's I hate to call
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: anything that depicts such a sorrowful time as gorgeous, but
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: when it comes down to what she did and what
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: she created, it is it is art, it is it
• 33:29
  Speaker 4: is an amazing depiction. And then the way she made
• 33:32
  Speaker 4: sure the colors are the blends, the symbolism, the commonality throughout,
• 33:38
  Speaker 4: like it's it's perfect in my mind and what she
• 33:41
  Speaker 4: was trying to represent. But yeah, like in knowing again
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: that you're right, like I'm pushing back what I know
• 33:47
  Speaker 4: today to what this when this was created, and like
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: how how is it still standing and that we actually
• 33:53
  Speaker 4: have evidence that she did this and that it represented
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: this and it's full because as we know right now,
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: things are going terrifyingly bad at people trying to censor
• 34:05
  Speaker 4: so much and to erase so much that it's partially like,
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: how do we make sure that things like this keep
• 34:11
  Speaker 4: staying alive and we keep having a conversation about what
• 34:14
  Speaker 4: she represented, what she wanted to be known, what she
• 34:16
  Speaker 4: wanted to say through our art more so than anything else.
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but I think it's cool that you brought it
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: up because it does allow us to look at how
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: different cultures at different times versus how we consider things
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: today and consider the way we do things to be
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: the right way to do things. So it's like, what
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: can we learn from or raised art and it being
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: public art and what it depicted and how we think.
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: About what we.
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: Expose children to today in public education.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: It is, But I seriously, listeners, go search out this art.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: It's really really fantastic, and I there's a lot of
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: like commonalities, but there's also a lot of differences in them.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: So I love that she had that range but also
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: kind of a unique style that you could be like, oh,
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: it's probably her, so go check that out. And it's
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: always Eve's thank you so much for being here. If
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: you want to start an art podcast?
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: Were there or ready?
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: Now?
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: Okay, we don't want to put any more work on you,
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: but just say it. Just you know, if you did, yeah,
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: we'd be there. But yes, thank you so much, Eaves.
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: Where can the good listeners find you? Thank you?
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: And the listeners can find me on Instagram at not Apologizing,
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: on Twitter at Eve's Jeffcoat, or on my website www
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: dot Evesjeffcoat dot com and you can find all of
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: the other things from there and many other episodes of
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: Female First here on Sminty about other people in history
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: who did amazing things, flowed the status quo in a
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: lot of different ways, and we're there first in their
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: respective feels.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, we always. We love the series. We're so
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: glad you come on and do it. So if you've
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: somehow missed that listener, just go back and listen to
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: those episodes and go find Eves. If you would like
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: to find us, you can. You can email us a
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: stuff media mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com.
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: You can find us on Twitter at.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: Mom Stuff podcast, our, Instagram and TikTok at stuff I've
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: Never Told You. You can also find us on YouTube and
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: we have a book. You can pre order it at
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: stuff you Should Read books dot com. Thanks as always
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: to our super producer Christina, our executive producer Maya, and
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: our contributor Joey.
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: Thank you and thanks to you for listening Stuff I
• 36:35
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• 36:36
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• 36:40
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