Graphic Witness: visual arts & social commentary
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Méndez' images are most frequently political. Sometimes his message is
very explicit, as in his many prints directed against Franco and Hitler,
those praising the Mexican expropriation of foreign-owned oil fields, and
later prints in support of the Cuban revolution (e.g., his portrait of Che
Guevara). But many of his most powerful prints deal with more general
topicsóthe oppression of peasants by landlords, the violence of the army,
the heroism of Aztec emperor Cuahtemoc, various aspects of Mexico's 19th
century struggle for freedom from Spain and its bloody 1910-20 Revolution.
Fusilamiento ("Firing Squad"), 1950.
Used for the title credits of the 1950
film, Un Dia de Vida.
25 March 99