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"You are hearing the heart of the world, the heart of the huéhetl”: the folk songs and books of Concha Michel

Cecilia Itzel Noriega Vega

Résumés

Concha Michel était une auteure-compositrice-interprète, chercheuse et combattante pour les droits des femmes pendant la période post-révolutionnaire. Tout au long de sa vie, elle a mené d'importantes recherches sur la musique préhispanique. De même, elle a écrit des pièces de théâtre, des chansons folkloriques et des textes expliquant sa position féministe tels que « Marxistes et marxistes » (1934), Deux antagonismes fondamentaux (1938), Dieu Notre-Dame (1966) ; et Dieu-Principe est le couple (1974). Ses productions ont été influencées par sa participation au Parti communiste mexicain, son voyage en URSS et le contexte culturel mexicain de l'après-révolution. A travers ces textes, elle dénonce le féminicide et la culture hétéropatriarcale post-révolutionnaire. En même temps, elle a critiqué le Parti communiste mexicain, parce qu'il supplantait les problèmes des femmes. Enfin, les contributions de Michel ont été décisives pour le contexte culturel mexicain de la première moitié du XXe siècle, car elle a établi des ponts entre la littérature, la musique et l'art.

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Introduction

1The contributions of women artists in the Mexican context of the post-revolution have been decisive. Despite this, there are artists who have been understudied by the historiography of Mexican art; such is the case of Concha Michel. She is a difficult figure to categorize, because she was a woman, a mother, a singer-songwriter of post-revolutionary folk songs, a student of pre-Hispanic music, an incessant defender of women's rights, a writer, a member of the Mexican Communist Party (MCP) and a traveler. Also, she was an active person in the post-revolutionary cultural context, whose thoughts influenced the production of many artists.

2There are some texts that study the work of Concha Michel, such as The Feminine Dramaturgy and the Theatrical Mexican Folk Songs (La Dramaturgia Femenina y el Corrido Mexicano Teatralizado) by Olga Martha Peña in 2010. The book analyzes several plays written by Michel in 2010. Also, in For a more just society: Communist Women in Mexico 19191935, (Por una sociedad más justa: Mujeres comunistas en México 19191935 ) María Luisa Cueva studies the participation of women in the Mexican Communist Party. Despite the contributions of these investigations, the texts analyze just one part of Michel's oeuvre, so we are not able to understand her work globally or how her texts changed with the passage of time.

3Therefore, this article aims to analyze her literary works, songs and writings that she wrote throughout her life. This will facilitate an understanding of her feminist thinking, her evolution throughout her life, and how her work was nourished by her links with the PCM, her trip to the USSR, the Mexican feminist movement, and the post-revolutionary social context. This implies thinking in terms of a confluence of factors. Additionally, I study how Michel addressed the problem of femicide and the mechanisms that provoked gender violence in the context of the first half of the 20th century in Mexico. Likewise, I analyze how through her writings she recognized the work of women and their ability to make decisions within the social and cultural context of that time, characterized by heteropatriarchal thinking. Finally, I explain how Michel's contributions facilitate reflection on a subject understudied by post-revolutionary art, such as music and literature and their influence in the artwork of the period.

Every day you look at me poor: Post-revolutionary Mexico and the USSR

  • 1 A form of education where people can work the morning or afternoon shift and study during the night (...)

4Concha Michel was born in Villa de la Purificación Jalisco, on May 26, 1895, and died in the City of Morelia, Michoacán in 1991, a daughter of landowners. Her father died when Concha was very young and not much is known about her mother. She received a strongly religious education, and was even accepted by the Convent of San Ignacio de Loyola, although she stayed for only four years, because she burned religious images. Subsequently, she was left in the care of her brothers for a time in Guadalajara where she studied music. The exact reasons are not known, but in 1911 she moved to Mexico City where she began working as a singing teacher at night school.1 María de Lourdes Cuevas explains that perhaps her departure from Guadalajara was due to her pregnancy out of wedlock and the birth of her daughter Yolia in Acámbaro. She experienced a very difficult situation, since she had to combine her work as a singing teacher and as a domestic worker to support her daughter, who ultimately did not survive (Cueva, 2021, p.293). These circumstances faced at a very early age were decisive in her approach to women and motherhood, and defined a large part of her activism.

Image 1 Concha Michel on the day of the inauguration of the Emiliano Zapata Free School of Agriculture No. 2, in Ocopulco, 1928, Photography of Tina Modotti, SECRETARÍA DE CULTURA-INAH-SINAFO-F. N. MEX. Reproduction Authorized by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (Reproducción autorizada por el Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia)

5After the trauma of losing her daughter and in financial trouble, she married Pablo Rieder, an Austrian-German artist. They had a sonnamed Godofredo. Despite this, Colcha Michel's rebellious soul led her to abandon him and dedicate herself to traveling the country as a soldier. She was also an opera singer andstudied Belcanto at the San Carlos Academy in Mexico City, although this was not the path for her and she dedicated herself to researching pre-Hispanic music and singing post-revolutionary folk songs. She was also an artist strongly embedded in the Mexican context and slotted into the country's cultural environment through contacts with the music conservatory and the San Carlos Academy, where she encountered artists such as Diego Rivera.

  • 2 Jose Vasconcelos was appointed rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico by President (...)
  • 3 Puig Casauran held various public positions, he was Secretary of Public Education on two occasions (...)

6Concha Michel began her artistic career during the Mexican post-revolutionary period. The art of that period contributed to the construction of Mexican identity, promulgating how Mexicanness was rooted in its pre-Hispanic past and in the indigenous issue, though also recognizing the colonization process from which “the mestizo” emerged. The state participated significantly in the development of artistic productions. The Secretary of Education, José Vasconcelos at that time,2 was very important because he promoted the development of muralism and other cultural work. He also contributed to the ideological issue with texts such as The Cosmic Race (La Raza Cósmica) (1925) where he explains the processes of miscegenation that lay the foundations for the Mexican nation (Vasconcelos, 2023, p.20-100). This is based on a profound contradiction because although the pre-Hispanic past w recognized, contemporary indigenous people wereare disregarded because they were considered within the category of otherness. This is evident in the cultural missions also promoted by José Vasconcelos as part of his educational program, whose intention was to reduce illiteracy rates in the 1920s; however, the program promoted Spanish as an official written language, which had a decisive impact on the disappearance of languages ​​in the various indigenous communities. Concha Michel actively participated in the educational missions that were developed at that time, seeking to rescue the musical culture of indigenous peoples. Despite the policies on the Spanish language, during the Puig Casauranc3 period she joined as a rural organizer in the Cultural Missions Program in La Huerta in Michoacán. Her work involved revivingrescuing popular songs that she would later incorporate into her literary productions (Hernández and Rashkin, 2019, p.36)

  • 4 The PCM was the second communist party founded in Latin America, after the pioneering Communist Par (...)

7In this cultural context and search for Mexican nationalism, communist ideas influenced Concha Michel’s reflections. The possibility of establishing relations between both geographically distant territories was possible because Mexico and the USSR had undergone civil wars at similar times, seeking better conditions for the oppressed classes and in favor of social justice. During that period in Mexico, several worker groups were influenced by socialist ideologies such as the Federation of Workers' Unions of the Federal District, which was formed in 1916, and the Great Central Body of Workers in 1918. (Cueva, 2021, pp. 66) These groups preceded the formal constitution of the Mexican Communist Party (MCP) on November 24, 19194, where Mexican artists such as the muralists Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, were members since 1922

8Despite the multiple influences between Mexico and the communist ideas in the social and cultural context of the post-revolution, there are also some differences to consider.

The soviet and Mexican revolution invite comparison because of their chronological proximity and their shared emphasis on social justice and on modernization. The two revolutions certainly had some ideological affinities […]. However, while the Bolshevik revolution emerged as an internationalist effort animated by the industrial proletariat, the Mexican revolution veered between localist and nationalist as various factions of peasant uprising, and military brigades jockeyed to assume the mantle of revolutionary leadership (Olcot, 2017 p.984)

  • 5 The printed media were an important resource for the communist parties as an instrument of politica (...)

9In this way, one of the main discussions of the MCP was how to relate communist ideals with the search for identity in Mexico. At its first Party congress in late 1921, the PCM resolved to transform Mexico's agrarian revolution into a proletarian one, diminishing the peasantry's critical role in overturning the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. By its second congress in March 1923, the agrarians' continued mobilization, especially under the leadership of Primo Tapia and Ursulo Galván, urged the MCP to seek ways to incorporate agrarian radicals into the Party (Olcot, 2017 p.984) Although we do not know with certainty, but probably Concha Michel joined the MCP in 1922. We do not have a lot of information, but it is known that she participated in festivals organized by the communist party, sang post-revolutionary folk songs laters published in El Machete5 (Cueva, 2021. p. 295).

A trip to the USSR: Concha Michel's feminist position in the 1930s

10In the 1930s Concha Michel wrote fervidly about her feminist thought. During this decade, state policy sought greater social stability, which had been lost by the war. In this context, Concha Michel wrote the book Short works of revolutionary and popular theater (Obras cortas de teatro revolucionario y popular) published in 1931, where she wrote some theatrical plays like “Organism” “Of Our Life” “Images”, “Lady Reaction”, “Demetrio Juaregui” and “the Güera Chabela”.

  • 6 In 1931 a group of women, concerned about women's political participation and low wages, organized (...)

11One of the playswas “Of Our Life”, performed in 1931, within the framework of the First Congress of Women Workers and Peasants6. In the play, she forcefully analyzes her feminist thinking and begins to interrelate concepts related to class and gender. The work begins by depicting capitalist society along with workers, peasants, and women; it also includes characters who represent time, intelligence, and the planning of a new classless society. At first, the teacher, who also plays the role of mother, reviews how the first organization of humanity was defined by mothers, but later men, ambitious for greater knowledge, organized themselves to fight against the women. They usurped the natural rights of women, subordinating them and thus giving rise to slavery among human beings. Later she explains how education and work are the pillars upon which to build a new society. FinallyF, a new organization of society is presented among different groups of farmers, workers, and women (Michel, 1931). In this text, several authors have stated that Concha Michel presents a narrative conflict based on characters that represent the mother, the worker and the peasant. In this sense, the rural teacher is a thoughtful person who manages to convince the people to question misery and ignorance. CECILIA ITZEL NORIEGA VEGA2024-07-18T04:29:00Steve Jones2024-07-02T09:13:00Regarding this text, several authors have stated that Concha Michel presents a narrative conflict based on characters that represent the mother, the worker, and the peasant. In this sense, the rural teacher is a thoughtful person who manages to convince the people to question misery and ignorance (Peña, 2013, pp.45). In addition to this interpretation, the narrative of the play may also be influenced by the life experiences of Concha Michel, who suffered the abandonment of her partner, the death of her daughter, the separation from Godofredo's father and multiple low-paid jobs. This led her to think about another form of social organization that would contribute to a better society.

12Likewise, in the same book, Concha Michel wrote a theatrical play inspired by the folk song Demetrio Juaregui. This play takes place between 1860 and 1868 at the time of the French intervention, in the Demetrio's ranch, in the state of Jalisco. The play criticisess the violent masculinity that characterized the stereotypical post-revolutionary man. In the folk song, Demetrio Juaregui was feared by the entire population. At the end of the play she transcribed the folk song:

Don Demetrio Jáuregui said

Fastening a shoe

Here I bring many shell casings,

To have fun for a while

They killed my cousin brother

That was compassion

They put him in Jalisco

That looked like a procession.

13Folk songs are a popular means of expressing the feelings of the Mexican people through music and song, where the events of the characters are narrated. She used these folk songs to analyze her theorizations and reflections on the struggles of the proletariat as well as gender issues. Additionally, in the book, Concha Michel CECILIA ITZEL NORIEGA VEGA2024-07-18T04:36:00Steve Jones2024-07-02T09:16:00also recovered in 1929 and was inspired by the folk song “La güera Chabela” to write a theatrical play with the same name in 1931. The play denounces a case of femicide, which was a problem rooted in the heteropatriarchal culture of post-revolutionary Mexico. The play is not sung but isbut written thematically and adds scenes that do not appear in the folk song. The work is divided into three acts: The first describes the romance between Jesús Cadenas and La güera Chabela. In the second, Chabela and Jesús Cadenas appear dancing. Cadena's friends mock him because the güera is dancing with many men. He unleashes his fury and shoots her, inflicting a fatal wound. The final act features the funeral of güera Chabela. Peña claims that the güera was someone who enjoyed music but also transgressed the rules and suffered the consequences. Jesús Cadenas is a clear example of a “Mexican macho” (Peña, 2013, pp.42- 44) In the end, the play includes anCECILIA ITZEL NORIEGA VEGA2024-07-18T04:37:00Steve Jones2024-07-02T09:20:00 original folk song which is of an unknown origin and there are several versions although it is part of a popular tradition.

Jesús Cadenas was walking

walking in a “fandango”

telling his friends:

-I'll send that girl.

She did not want to correspond,

for no distinction,

she was shot four times

on the side of the heart.

The güera Chabela said,

when she was dying:

-Be careful, girls,

look how they are living.

14At that time, the conceptualization of feminicide did not yet exist, although her play depicts the experience of gender violence that many women experienced. This folk song was very important in the post-revolutionary context, and several artists made representations of it. Isabel Villaseñor, who was a great friend of Concha Michel and knew about the folk song that Concha Michel transcribed in 1929, made the engraving La Güera Chabela (1929) which represents a dead woman surrounded by a group of people, their faces expressing pain for Chabela's death. The expression “güera” is used in the Mexican context to refer to people who have blonde hair. In the engraving, Isabel Villaseñor made the hair a lighter shade to refer to this particular quality that characterized the woman. It is important to highlight the woman's light hair color contrasted with the rest of the people represented. The term “güera” alludes to a tradition of whiteness, although at that time CECILIA ITZEL NORIEGA VEGA2024-07-26T16:24:00Steve Jones2024-07-02T09:25:00mestizaje was recognized, in popular tradition an association of women with blonde hair as beautiful and special women prevailed within the Mexican context. Both the folk song, the play and the engraving denounce femicide but also recognize the problems related to coloniality, which prevail in Mexican culture.

Image 2 Isabel Villaseñor, La Güera Chabela, 1929, Engraving

15In the Mexican context, other women artists also denounced femicide, as was the case of Frida Kahlo with her painting A Few “Piquetitos” (1935), where she represents a journalistic article from the period that describes a woman who was brutally stabbed (Jimeno, 2004, pp.143-163). Likewise, there is also the mural work Attack on the Rural Teacher (1936) by Aurora Reyes produced for the Centro Escolar Revolución in downtown Mexico City. This work refers to the attacks that teachers suffered for delivering socialist education in the context of the government of Lázaro Cárdenas. Although these representations offer an overview of the various circumstances of femicide in the context of the post-revolution, Michel's peculiarity is the interrelation she makes between the folk song, the play and the engraving, and a denunciation of the femicide where it recognizes that issues of class, race and gender are related.

Her trip to the USSR and links with the Mexican context.

  • 7 In the 1930s, the governments of Abelardo L. Rodríguez and Lázaro Cárdenas created the philosophica (...)
  • 8 In 1919, a department specialized in women's issues called Zhenotdel wascreated, promoted by Kolont (...)

16Along with her literary and musical productions, in that decade Michel also wrote feminist texts, influenced by her participation in the MCP and the cultural and political context that discussed socialist precepts7. Concha Michel was also interested in traveling to the USSR, to learn how women lived in a communist country. There her ideals of fighting for women's rights intermingled with a search for identity and communist ideals. The path that Michel took to reach the USSR was not easy. First she arrived in New York City, where she was invited by the Rockefeller family to sing for John David Rockefeller and in the recently inaugurated Museum of Modern Art. (Hernández and Rashkin, 2019, p.18) She also contacted Joseph Freeman, who had lived in Mexico for several months in 1929 and who had ties with the Mexican Communist Party. Freeman helped her, and she sang at the John Reed Club and at the School of Social Sciences. This earned her enough money to travel to the USSR. During her stay in Leningrad, she was able to contact the Latin American Society and the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries (VOKS), who put her in touch with artists and the main women's organizations. A month later she traveled to Moscow, and finally managed to establish contact with the Women's Department8, which invited her to give two talks one about women's efforts in the PCM and another about the possibilities and problems for the development of a women's movement within the Party. It is also documented that on her trip to Russia she argued with Aleksandra Kolontaí, a Russian revolutionary communist and defenderand of women's rights, Nadezhda Krumpskaia, wife of Lenin, who had dedicated herself to the struggle for education, and Clara Zetkin, a socialist feminist, leader of the German communist party and interested in working women (Olcot, 2017 p.987-988).

17On this trip, Michel was completely disillusioned by the absence of women within communist ideals. In the international theory of socialism, various theorists linked the role of women with the class struggle, but it always remained theoretical. For example, August Bebel who was founder and activist of the German Social Democratic Party, influenced by the ideas of Engels, carried out research on historical materialism, socialism, and women. In 1883 he published “Women and Socialism”, where he analyzed the roots of women's oppression from a Marxist framework. He also explained that socialist men resisted the incorporation of women's problems. Similarly, Rosa Luxemburg and Clara Zetkins joined together to defend women and fight for their emancipation. Even Lenin recognized the importance of women's participation in the Russian revolution (Edelman, 2001, p.75). Likewise, the Russian theorist Aleksandra Kolontaí proposed articulating the categories of class and sex in communist theory. Clara Zetkins published the book Memories of Lenin where she explains the need to work within the communist parties in separate groups, Steve Jones2024-07-02T09:34:00recognizing working women and against radical positions. Even at the Third Congress of the COMINTERN held in the USSR in June 1921, they adopted a resolution on women, in the “Theses on propaganda work among women”, explaining that the socialite revolution must also achieve the liberation of women. Despite these intentions, these ideas were never explained or realized. The resolutions and guidelines on the women's issue would have a controversial and heterogeneous application; on the one hand to the general process of both the government and the Soviet Communist Party, and in the other hand, it was also due to the complex and contradictory process of formation and development of each party that attempted to confront and resolve the women's issue. In this way, women's problems were exposed and acknowledged; however, when they were put into practice, they were ambivalent in character (Cueva, 2021, p. 111)

18Concha Michel became aware of this situation after her trip to the USSR. Cuevas comments as follows:

Concha Michel returned to Mexico fully convinced that in the soviet government women had not resolved their main problems; They had not achieved their emancipation even though it was proclaimed that they worked and participated just like men [...] Upon her return, she decided to dedicate her efforts to convincing her comrades, men and women, of the tactical error of the communist parties because they considered that the problems of women would disappear when the proletariat took power (Cueva, 2020, pp.308)

19Out of disillusionment, she published “Marxists and Marxists” in 1934, a 34-page pamphlet criticizing communist ideas and the treatment given to women. According to her vision, the PCM had betrayed the revolution by not taking gender issues into account. She considered that women had been doubly enslaved by their gender and class, but the CECILIA ITZEL NORIEGA VEGA2024-07-26T16:25:00Steve Jones2024-07-02T09:37:00MCP had only recognized class (Miller, 1974, p22). She explained thatthe revolution has two ideological fronts that will increasingly become more delineated: the ideological front that encompasses the triumph of the producer in the economy and the ideological front that strives to manifest women for the solution and balance of both problems” (Michel , 1934, p.34) This resulted in the opposition of several of the PCM members. The form of resolution was to expel from the party everyone who did not toe the party line (Cueva, 2021, p. 67).

20Although the MCP discussed gender issues, concrete action was never taken. At the Second Congress held by the PCM on April 10, 1923, the creation of a children's section was reported, but it lackedSteve Jones2024-07-02T09:39:00 explicit bases and a clear action plan. Likewise, at the Third Congress held from April 7 to 23, 1925, an evaluation was made of work with women, although no explanation was given about what would happen. Likewise: “Although in the IV Congress of the MCP firmer bases were establishedSteve Jones2024-07-02T09:41:00 on what bodies and how they should work, these bases raised tensions and ambiguities, another big problem was the reduced and unstable participation of women” (Cueva, 2020, p.136)

21For these reasons, when Michel tried to express the problems she had found in the MCP regarding gender issues, it involved absolute rejection, whichSteve Jones2024-07-02T09:41:00 cost her the departure. Despite this, she did not abandon her ideals and, returning to what she had learned in previous years, in 1936 she published the “House-school of women working program” (Programa Casa Escuela de la Mujer Trabajadora) where she sought to link socialist goals with the struggles of the women's movement (Michel, 1936). At this time, Concha Michel was situated in the first wave of feminism, which focused on women acquiring the same political rights. What is interesting in Michel's approach is an intersectional position from an early moment, which recognized the relationships between gender as well as class problems.

22At that time, she also later published the book Two Fundamental Antagonisms in 1938. TheT book cover featured the mural The Fertile Land (La Tierra Fecunda) (1924-27) made by Diego Rivera in the Chapel of the University of Chapingo. The mural depicts a naked woman who symbolizes the fertilized earth, and from her hand emerges a plant that symbolizes the fertile earth. Additionally, Rivera represented the Vulcan God, who is the god of the volcanoes, son of Jupiter and Juno, forger of iron and creator of weapons and in the center of the composition a man producing electricity. Similarly, in the upper part of the composition there is the head of a child blowing, representing the wind, while in the lower part flows Eolic Energy. This work is part of a set of murals where in several frescos Rivera represented a woman associated with nature and its fertility, while a male figure symbolizes a post-revolutionary hero fighting for better living conditions; he is murdered and throught his blood better living conditions are achieved. The models for the creation of this mural series were Tina Modotti, Lupe Marín, Luz Martínez, Graciela Garbaloza and Concha Michel (Acevedo, 2008, p.9) The set of frescos in the Riveriana Chapel depict the woman as land to be fertilized and the man as the post-revolutionary hero. Consequently, the man is an agent of social change. Nevertheless, Michel gives attaches particular significance to this mural, explaining that “it illustrates the cover of this book, a photograph of a fresco by Diego Rivera, which, with the wonderful simplicity of every human work that manages to connect with the PRINCIPLES of life, shows us the intimate relationship between natural and human forces. The central issue of the free present” (Michel, 1938, p.4). In this way, Michel signifies this artistic production as a search for the balance of dualities, neither superiority nor CECILIA ITZEL NORIEGA VEGA2024-07-31T19:20:00inferiority.

23In the text, Michel mentions the main founders of scientific socialism such as Frederick Engels and explains the situation of women in communism. Michel says:

The common cause is that of the majority of women who live exploited by capitalists and the different cause is the reconquest of our autonomy in relation to the social responsibility that we have as mothers or as producers of the human species. (Michel, 1938, p.69)

24According to Michel, to achieve a transformation of society it is necessary to recognize two antagonisms, where neither woman nor man is inferior, but complement each other. Women must also assume their responsibility in the fight against gender-related problems. She also explains in detail her exchanges with Clara Zetkin, Aleksandra Kolontaí and says:

Among the lagging literature of the Communist Party in Russia and Mexico there is a very interesting pamphlet written by Clara Zetkin, in which she exposes the following points in relation to female activity within communism […] She spoke of the creation of a special organization for women, also to meet the demands for women and decide to hold a world congress of women. (Michel, 1938, p.69)

25Her contributions to the feminist movement in Mexico during the 1930s are very important and coincide with a time of important advances for the feminist movement. During the presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas, her wife, Amalia Solórzano Bravo, was an important defender of women's rights who promoted their active participation in political unions and even in public positions. She also promoted the production of a radio program to spread new ideas about the importance of the female social role in Mexico. Likewise, it is important to highlight that in 1935 the FUPDM (Frente Unico Pro Derechos de la Mujer – )United Front for Women's Rights CECILIA ITZEL NORIEGA VEGA2024-07-26T16:29:00Steve Jones2024-07-02T10:50:00was set up and this group ended up gathering more than fifty thousand members from different social classes, some of whom were militants from the National Revolutionary Party and the Communists. Likewise, the FUDM sought to modify the civil codes to achieve better conditions for women (Comisarenco, 2017, p.64-65). In this context, Michel's reflections began to open a discussion about the relationship between class and gender, affiliating herself with a socialist feminism along the lines of Aleksandra Kolontai and Clara Zetkin.

  • 9 Like Concha Michel, the artist María Izquierdo (1902-1955), despite having an artistic and written (...)

26Likewise, during this period, some mexican artists of the post-revolution did not define themselves as feminists9. In line with the above, despite her defensive position towards women, Beth Miller interviewed Michel and explains “[...] then when I finally asked Concha Michel if she was a feminist, she finally answered no. . Like most Latin American feminists, Michel believes in the polarity of the sexes” (Miller, 1974). Although she does not call herself a feminist, her thinking has a feminist reading. She made such statements until the 1970s, although she was respondinged to how women artists defined her position regarding feminism.

My mother, eternal love… hierarchy of hierarchies

27During the 1940s and 1950s, Concha Michel searched for nationalist overtones and research into pre-Hispanic Mexico. This moment coincides with the publication of Indigenous Songs (Cantos Indígenas) in 1951, which brings together a significant amount of pre-Hispanic music. As Michel explains,in this selected collection of more than a thousand songs that I have been putting together, I have been putting it together throughout my life […] I have therefore carried out the work of an archaeologist who carefully unearths the treasures of the past” (Michel, 1951, p.9) The songs that are selected are rendered in their original language, their phonetic translation and their translation into Spanish.

Dance of the Aztlán pilgrimage

Nahua

TIHUI

Teopixqueh

Aztatzitzintin ti, tin, tin, tin

Tihuí, tihuiyan, tihuí, tihui

tihuí, tihui, tihuí, tihui

Aztatzitzintin ti, tin, tin, tin

Transcripción by Prof. Mariano Jacobo Rojas

VAMOS

Sacerdotes

Aztequitas

Vamos, vámonos, vamos, vamos

Vamos, vámonos, vamos, vamos

Aztequitas

28The endeavor to recover the musical culture of Mexico during that period is very important. On the one hand, she recognizes popular music through her work as a singer-songwriter of post-revolutionary folk songs, where she also expresses many of her theoretical reflections. At the same time, her work collecting and translating pre-Hispanic music is significant in the context of Post-revolutionary Mexico, because it establishes its identity origins in a glorious pre-Hispanic past, although the richness of music has been an aspect insufficiently analyzed and incorporated into the history of this period.

29Likewise, the moment when this book was written coincides with multiple changes in the cultural field, largely due to the migrations of Europeans who arrived in Mexico fleeing the war, as was the case with Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, Fanny Rabel, Marta Palau among many others, and who went on to reconfigure Mexican art. We also found ourselves in a period where muralism was exhausted, and a new generation of artists emerged who were looking for other forms of artistic production. Finally, several artists known as “The Rupture Generation” proposed aesthetic quests that rejected nationalist narratives and opted for abstraction. In that same context, Michel remains steadfast in her nationalist search for a pre-Hispanic past, evident in Indigenous songs, where she presents research conducted throughout her life.

30It is peculiar that during that period, Michel did not write any major feminist texts, and this could be because in the 1940s and 1950s there was a certain setback that contrasts with what happened in the 1930s, during the Cardenista government. The presidency of Manuel Ávila Camacho (1940-1946) was characterized by a right-wing, industrialist policy that caused the feminist movement to decline. It is important to consider that, during the government of Miguel Alemán, in 1946, article 115 of the constitution was reformed to allow women to vote. In 1953, during the Adolfo Ruíz Cortines administration, the right to vote was recognized (Comisarenco, 2017, pp.68-69). These measures responded to the need for popular support and to international political trends. Despite this, women had little scope for activity and a very conservative atmosphere prevailed.

  • 10 Around the 1960s, a new wave emerged and focused on women's right to their own body, whereby the fe (...)

31This finally changed in the 1970s with the emergence of feminist art, which coincides with the emergence of the second wave of feminism, where women used their body, once a space of domination, now as a place of subversion and emancipation.10 The artists talked about sexuality, motherhood, and abortion. In the Mexican context, these modifications were influenced by changes in artistic productions, which occurred in 1968 after the Tlatelolco massacre. This conjunctural moment changed the production of art towards collective and socially committed art. In this context, Mónica Mayer (b.1954), a pioneer of feminist art in Mexico, expressed the need to form groups of artists that addressed the situation of women, pointing out that the artistic endeavors of this period characterized by groups of artists were not completely transformative since they focused on a class struggle, omitting gender issues. In this way, feminist art emerges from a consciousness that sought to separate itself from the groups of artists of the seventies (Mayer, 2004, pp. 16). Accordingly, in that decade, Michel published God the beginning is the couple (1974) where she reflected on several of her theorizations. This book brings together three periods, the first Two Fundamental Antagonisms originally published in 1938, the second God Our Lady in 1961, and finally The Genesis published in 1974. An inaugural poem of the text describes some of her thinking.

Go towards the couple

Well, I come from the couple

My homeland is the universe

My mother, eternal love

Hierarchy of hierarchies

It is the supreme origin

Light and energy source

It's the Beginning of Time

(Michel, 1974)

32Starting from her experience on the displacement of women from revolutionary struggles and considering the intimate relationship between patriarchy and capitalism, she proposed the concept of a dual androgynous and hermaphrodite god, which functioned as a counter myth that found fruition in the country’s ideology and culture. This religious counter myth was based on the dual god of ancient indigenous religions. Although this text was writtendeveloped in the 1970s, with new codes of artistic production, which differ greatly from what happened in the 1930s, this book largely summarizes the approach developed during the first half of the 20th century in Mexico and links the thinking of feminist art from the 1970s. (Michel, 1974)

33Finally, to conclude, Concha Michel was a very important woman for the Mexican context of the post-revolution, for her contributions both to art and feminism. In the first years of her career, she was associated with communist ideas through her participation in the MCP and with her trip to the USSR. This helped her introduce gender issues to the communist ideas that were discussed in Mexico. These reflections helped her to write several books, sing folk songs and write theatrical plays that raised gender and class issues innovative for the period in which she lived and worked. Finally, her musical and literary production interweaves a feminism that links gender and class but that also responds to the nationalist logic of the construction of Mexican identity.

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Bibliographie

ACEVEDO, E., (2018) “Diego Rivera : cuatro momentos, cuatro propuestas, cuatro soluciones” en La identidad nacional mexicana en las expresiones artísticas : estudios históricos y contemporáneos Raúl Béjar, Héctor Rosales  (coord), México: UNAM

AGUILAR, E., (20 de junio de 2022) León Trotsky: México, Su refugio y su tumba, Instituto Nacional de Estudios Históricos de las Revoluciones de México, consulted in https://inehrm.gob.mx/es/inehrm/LeonTrosky__MexsRefsuTumba

COMISARENCO, D., (2019) “Frida Kahlo y Aurora Reyes Painting to the Voice of Concha Michel”, Woman art Journal, Vol 40 CECILIA ITZEL NORIEGA VEGA2024-07-30T04:21:00Steve Jones2024-07-27T06:47:00CECILIA ITZEL NORIEGA VEGA2024-07-26T16:35:00Steve Jones2024-07-02T11:22:00N.2 pp. 3-13

CUEVA, M., (2021) Por una sociedad más justa: Mujeres comunistas en México 1919-1935, México: UAM, Ediciones Bonilla

DE LA CRUZ, F. J., (2011). “Las revoluciones rusas: origen, desarrollo y crisis de la URSS. Repercusiones internacionales”, México: Clío 37

EDELMAN, (2001) Fanny Feminismo y marxismo Conversación con Claudia Korol, Buenos Aires: Ediciones Cuadernos Marxistas

GIUNTA , A ., (2016) Verboamérica, Buenos Aires, MALBA

HERNÁNDEZ , E. y RASHKIN, E., (2013) Luz Rebelde. Mujeres y producción cultural en el México posrevolucionario, México: Universidad Veracruzana

IZQUIERDO, M., 24 de octubre de 1950 “Carta a las mujeres de México,” Martes feminino del Zócalo, suplemento, número 2 Archivo María Izquierdo Museo de Arte Moderno

JIMENEZ M, (2004) “Unos cuantos piquetitos, violencia, cultura y muerte” in Migrations, territories et Multiculturalisme, n.45 pp 143-164

MAYER, M., (2004) Rosa chillante, Mujeres y Performances en México, México, CONACULTA /Pinto mi raya

MELLA, T., (2022) La revolución mexicana como precursora de los movimientos sociales en la Ciudad de México, México SECTEI

MILLER, B., (3 de agosto 1974) Entrevista con Concha Michel México D.F

MONTES DE OCA, E., (2008) “La disputa por la educación socialista en México durante el gobierno Cardenista” Educere, vol. 12, n. 42, pp. 495-504

PEÑA, O., (2015). En busca de la dualidad. La obra literaria de Concha Michel. México: Silla vacía, editorial/ U de G/Centro Universitario de la Costa Sur.

--------------- (2010) La dramaturgia femenina y el corrido mexicano teatralizado, México, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León

OLCOTT, J., (2017). ‘A Plague of Salaried Marxists’: Sexuality and Subsistence in the Revolutionary Imaginary of Concha Michel. Journal of Contemporary History52(4), 980–998.

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DOCUMENTS CONCHA MICHEL

MICHEL C (1931) Obras cortas de teatro revolucionario y popular , México, Jalapa Enríquez

MICHEL C. (1934), Marxistas y marxistas

MICHEL C. (1936) Programa Casa Escuela de la Mujer Trabajadora

MICHEL C (1938) Dos Antagonismo fundamentales, México, Editorial de Izquierda de la Cámara de Diputados

MICHEL C (1951) Cantos indígenas, México, Instituto Nacional Indigenista

MICHEL C. (1974) Dios Principio es la pareja, México, Costa Amic

MICHEL C (1977 ) Concha Michel, Novedades

LIST OF IMAGES

Image 1 Concha Michel on the day of the inauguration of the Emiliano Zapata Free School of Agriculture No. 2, in Ocopulco, 1928, Photography of Tina Modotti, Fototeca Nacional INAH

Image 2 Isabel Villaseñor, La Güera Chabela, 1929, Engraving

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Notes

1 A form of education where people can work the morning or afternoon shift and study during the night shift.

2 Jose Vasconcelos was appointed rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico by President Adolfo de la Huerta in 1921 and was the country's first Secretary of Education.

3 Puig Casauran held various public positions, he was Secretary of Public Education on two occasions between 1924-1928 and between 1930 and 1931

4 The PCM was the second communist party founded in Latin America, after the pioneering Communist Party of Argentina created in January 1918.

5 The printed media were an important resource for the communist parties as an instrument of political struggle. The PCM published several newspapers such as El Comunista, El Frente Único, and Vida Nueva. The publication of Machete during 1924 and 25 was the official publication of the Union of Technical Workers, Painters and Sculptors of Mexico. In the 36th edition of El Machete that was published on May 10, 1925, it was stated that it was the “Central Organ of the Communist Party, Mexican Section of the Communist International” (Sousa, 2014, p 172-173)

6 In 1931 a group of women, concerned about women's political participation and low wages, organized the first . The newspapers El Nacional and El Universal published about the Congress and reported that on the second day President Pascual Ortiz Rubio attended for an hour.

.

7 In the 1930s, the governments of Abelardo L. Rodríguez and Lázaro Cárdenas created the philosophical foundations of “socialist education” and implemented it as an educational model, which was approved on December 1, 1935, and definitively repealed in 1945. The precepts of socialist education were to combat ignorance and religious prejudices, offer free, secular, and scientific education, linked to the popular organizations of the time, and improve the living conditions of peasants and workers. This was not widely accepted socially and led to violent attacks on teachers for delivering socialist education (Montes de Oca, 2008, pp.495-504).

8 In 1919, a department specialized in women's issues called Zhenotdel wascreated, promoted by Kolontái and Inessa Armand. This department carried out propaganda, trained women and encouraged them to join the Communist Party.

9 Like Concha Michel, the artist María Izquierdo (1902-1955), despite having an artistic and written production that denounced women's problems in her publications, commented “I am not a classical feminist, I am not one of those who believe that “The world should be run solely by women” (Izquierdo, Letter to the Women of Mexico).

10 Around the 1960s, a new wave emerged and focused on women's right to their own body, whereby the female body was the vehicle of women's struggle and empowerment. In this sense, artists who considered themselves feminists emerged in several Latin American countries, for example in Argentina the participation of María Luisa Bemberg, Delia among others stands out, in Brazil we find Claudia Andujar, Lygia Clark, Mara Alvarez, Lenora de Barros among others, in Chile we find artists such as Gracia Barrios, Luz Donoso, Paz Errázuri among others. Of course in Mexico we can find several feminist artists such as Maris Bustamante, Lourdes Grobet, Magali Lara, Mónica Mayer, Pola Weiss, Carla Ripper, Marta Palau, among many others, who questioned gender violence and fought for women’s rights to decide about their own body (Giunta, 2016, p.11)

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Référence électronique

Cecilia Itzel Noriega Vega, « "You are hearing the heart of the world, the heart of the huéhetl”: the folk songs and books of Concha Michel »Artelogie [En ligne], 22 | 2024, mis en ligne le 30 décembre 2024, consulté le 15 mai 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/artelogie/15391 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/12wv8

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Auteur

Cecilia Itzel Noriega Vega

Art Historian.UAM Azcapotzalco CyAD. ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8991-935X

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