|
|
MEXICO 1953
Below this introduction is a selection photographs from the portfolio and book Mexico 1953: The Nation as Seen by a Young American Photographer Half a Century Ago.
80 prints from this portfolio were exhibited from May 8 through 31 2008 in Guadalajara at the Escuela de Artes Plasticas in the Instituto Cultural Cabañas, a famous cultural center of the city. Roger Hagan spoke at the opening, at 7pm on May 8, showing several prints in projection and discussing them , the project and the roadtrip in 1953.
THE ORIGINS OF THE MEXICO 1953 PORTFOLIO
(en español)
As a very young man I made many photographs of Mexico. I found the country beautiful, mysterious, and touching. I had experiences there that proved the generous and trusting nature of Mexican people.
It was a poor but hopeful nation. Outside the capital, which was excitingly building a new downtown and a glamorous International Style university campus near the city, people’s lives were slower. Everyone seemed to be waiting — for a bus, for work, for harvest, for a customer, and, I felt, for the promise of the revolution to be fulfilled. All their beautiful art which integrated their past and their present was promising them that.
This was before decades of political corruption were exposed, and headlines revealed the drug traffic, the murderous gangs of the border cities, the kidnapping gangs and hijacking cabs of the capitol, and the decay of the nation’s law and justice system. Mexican people grew less hopeful for their nation, and economic crises sent many fleeing across the northern border to find work and feed their families. I have returned to Mexico many times since the Fifties, feeling growing alarm.
Mexico’s magic, that I hope will save it, is its closeness to its native people’s roots and its pride in them. The pre-European past is celebrated everywhere. That is the first thing that shocks North and some South Americans, whose native cultures were nearly erased. The native tradition was resilient and tough. Central Mexico was the most densely populated place on earth a thousand years ago, and its people were so
organized that they could build the largest and cleanest cities on the planet. Europe did not defeat the Mexica: smallpox did, and the political disunity caused by their harsh theology that required constant war to acquire captives for human sacrifice.
Mexicans remember — are taught through art and education — their exploitation by the rulers and priests of six hundred years ago, as well as of four hundred and two hundred years ago, and it gives them perspective on the ways of ruling classes today and tomorrow. I hope their historical sense of who they are will enable Mexicans to persist into a finer time, when we of the north, who ignore our roots, drink down what is passed around, and think all has been made new, will wonder how they did it.
I have returned to these long-stored negatives to recall the Mexico, just a generation out of its revolution, that a young English-German-Polish American fell in love with, more than half a century ago. That seems a short span to me now. Ten of those spans would put us at 1503, when Mexico City was called Tenochtitlan, and the Mexica were expecting, they knew not why, some powerful trouble to appear on the eastern horizon.
It appeared in 1519.
Roger Hagan
Statement for viewers of the exhibition in Guadalajara, May 2008:
This assembly of photographs will not tell you anything about your country
that you do not already know, except perhaps that some streets look empty to
your eyes a half-century later. Of course they do; there were about a
quarter as many Mexicans then as there are now.
What this exhibit is about is what struck the mind or heart of a very young
man from the North as he wandered your nation at that time. I do not recall
a lot about him - he went through many changes after that, en route to
becoming me. But I am pleased by his choices, by and large.
What he saw here, to judge from this evidence, was grandeur, a deep,
complex, undestroyed culture, and people with generosity, pride, humor and
curiosity. I hope that seeing this pleases you today, and makes you alert to
your country's strengths. The young photographer did not meet the wealthy
and powerful, for he was traveling the way students do. The exhibit is by no
means a cross section of Mexican society in the 1950s. His impulse was
artistic, not sociological. It is only about what the young American
noticed. I can ask no more than that you notice what he noticed.
Exposición de Fotografias “México 1953”
Este conjunto de fotografías no le dirá nada nuevo de su país excepto que algunas de las
calles aparecerán vacías ante sus ojos medio siglo después. Esto es evidente pues
entonces solo había un cuarto de mexicanos de los que hay ahora.
Esta exposición se trata del impacto en la mente o el corazón de un joven norteamericano
errante por la nación mexicana en aquel tiempo. En inglés, What he noticed. No recuerdo
mucho de él – pasó por muchos cambios después de esa experiencia - en ruta a
convertirse en mí mismo. Aun así estoy mayormente satisfecho con sus elecciones.
Lo que vió aquí, a juzgar por la evidencia, fué grandeza, una cultura profunda, compleja,
sin destruir, y vió a gente generosa, con orgullo, humor y curiosidad.
Espero que hoy estas imágenes le dejen satisfecho y le hagan advertir la fuerza de su país.
El joven fotógrafo no conoció al rico o al poderoso pues viajaba a la manera de los
estudiantes. La exposición no pretende retratar a la sociedad mexicana en los cincuentas. Su impulso
fue artístico no sociológico. Se trata tan sólo de lo que este joven americano vió.
Sólo deseo que usted intente ver a través de sus propios ojos lo que el vió y pueda llegar a
sentir lo que él sintió.
Roger Hagan
 |
|
|