The editorial categories are research topics that have guided researchers during the recovery phase and continue to be the impetus behind the Documents Project’s digital archive and the Critical Documents book series. Developed by the project’s Editorial Board, each of the teams analyzed this framework and adapted it to their local contexts in developing their research objectives and work plans during the Recovery Phase. Learn more on the Editorial Framework page.
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The article comments that the honeymoon of the painter Alfredo Ramos Martínez as director of the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes has been eclipsed by the students in the Academy shouting for his resignation. At the same time, the students in the Escuelas de Pintura al Aire Libre [Open-Air Schools of Painting] support his administration. Based on interviews carried out directly with the staff at the Academy, the reporter describes some strikes and riots that took place in the past. To gather information, D. S. Arias interviews the custodian at the school, who recalls a student protest in 1923 against the teacher Eduardo Macedo y Abreu, whose resignation was called for due to his habitual lateness. The custodian did not wish to give any more information, and he led the reporter to the offices of the assistant director, Carrillo Gariel, to continue his investigation. Gariel told the reporter how surprised he was by the events taking place at the Academy and then turned his attention to some historical data on past conflicts. He emphasized the 1912 strike and the student organizers who participated in it. The final question was whether there was any justification for the attitude of the students that were enemies of the Escuelas de Pintura al Aire Libre. Gariel responded that as assistant director, he would not be allowed to state any opinion on that matter; regarding such questions, the director of the school would be the person to answer them. Finally, on his way out of the school, the reporter was approached by a young student who offered to take him to the free schools and show him the shortcomings on which the accusations against Alfonso Ramos Martínez were based.
This article, published during the conflict between the Escuelas Libres de Pintura and the Academy, shows that at the time, no one considered the 1911 strike important. Later, in historical discourse, the strike’s importance gathered mythical proportions and became the crucible of what would come to be known as the Mexican Renaissance of the 1920s.