Constructing the Image of the Mexican Revolution: Cinema and the Archive

Notes

Notes chapter 1 1. Guzmán wrote The Eagle and the Serpent during his second exile in Spain (1924–1935). Initially it was published in installments in El Universal, one of Mexico City’s daily newspapers, as soon as each chapter was written. It appeared in book form in 1928, and the first English translation was printed in New York in 1930. 2. Considering the involvement of the Ministry of Defense, it is not surprising that military figures from the various factions who distinguished themselves in these battles are named, and at times appear, in the film. 3. As Miquel indicates, this documentary is an updated version of La marcha del ejército constitucionalista por diversas poblaciones de la república y su entrada a Guadalajara y México y el viaje del señor Carranza a esta ciudad (The March of the Constitutionalist Army through Different Cities of the Republic and Its Entrance to Mexico City and Guadalajara, and the Trip of Mr. Carranza until His Arrival to This City [Veracruz]) exhibited in Veracruz in December 1914 (2005, 17). 4. An unrelated scene that shows Obregón participating in a corn harvest breaks the continuity of the sequence. Although the effect is disruptive, the markings on the existing print indicate that this scene was placed there to facilitate reel changes during projection. 5. Further research may expand these attributions and identify footage presumed to have been shot by other contemporary filmmakers, such as Julio Lamadrid , Guillermo Becerril, José Cava, and Indalcio Noriega (De los Reyes, 1996, 15–16). 6. The foundation has also facilitated investigation into the work of Toscano, and lately Abítia, by providing access to its extensive visual and paper holdings. It has been involved in film restoration and has distributed valuable research materials . In 2003 it produced the CD-Rom Un pionero del cine en México: Salvador Toscano y su colección de carteles (Salvador Toscano: A Pioneer of Cinema in Mexico and His Collection of Placards and Handbills) (in association with the Autonomous National University of Mexico) and a video documentary, La revoluci ón maderista: Un triunfo mediático. Investigación sobre el contexto político de las imágenes filmadas por Salvador Toscano (The Maderista Revolution: A Media Tri- umph. Investigation of the Political Content of the Images Filmed by Salvador Toscano) (with credits to Alejandra Moreno Toscano, researcher and writer, and Silvia Manuel Signoret, researcher and coordinator). 7. In addition to segments discussed below, it is worth mentioning those relative to the meetings of revolutionary leaders, including Pancho Villa, Pascual Orozco, and Venustiano Carranza, with Francisco I. Madero at a makeshift camp on the Rio Grande in the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez (1911); the battle of Bachimba in the state of Chihuahua where the Federal Army commanded by Victoriano Huerta defeated the Orozco rebellion (1912); the U.S. invasion of Veracruz (1914); the Zapata revolution in Morelos (1911–1914); the advance of the Constitutionalist armies and their arrival in Mexico City (1914); the assassinations and burials of Zapata and Carranza (1919, 1920); the Adolfo de la Huerta rebellion and the military campaigns of Obregón (1919, 1920); Villa’s rendition and murder (1920, 1923); and the 1821 Independence festivities presided over by Obregón (1921). 8. Comments on the film are based on the video rerelease of 1996, which opens with color views of the Toscano house and archive located in Ocoyoacac in the state of Mexico. chapter 2 1. The contract deposited in the Condumex Archives in Mexico City is fully reprinted in Delgadillo and Limongi, 2000, 163–173. 2. As Brownlow points out, this film was released under various titles, including The Tragedy in the Career of General Villa and The Tragic Early Life of General Villa (1979, 102). 3. The title of this section makes reference to the heading of the section on the Villa-Mutual deal in Terry Ramsaye’s A Million and One Nights: A History of the Motion Picture (1964, 670). I have chosen this heading to point out the systematic denigrating and racist attitudes exhibited by early film historians in their accounts of this deal. 4. I use quotation marks to distinguish the film-within-the-film from the actual film produced by Mutual, which no longer exists. 5. Reproductions can be found in De los Reyes ([1985] 1992, illus. no. 31, 135) and Brownlow (1979, 88–89). 6. This first edition consists of a series of twenty-five broadsheet-sized magazines . The image...