Images of the Mexican Revolution in the Broadsheets Published by Antonio Vanegas Arroyo (1910-1917): Uses, Sources, and Changes

Abstract

This paper presents a study of the images found in popular prints depicting characters or events related to the Mexican Revolution, published by editor Antonio Vanegas Arroyo in Mexico City between 1910 and 1917. The analysis explores the relationship between image and text, as well as the decisions behind the representation of certain events and figures. The study reveals that these images served multiple purposes, which are discussed in three sections. The first examines the recurring reuse of engravings and the adaptations that arose from this practice, as well as the inaugural image of the revolutionary struggle, which establishes a recurring tension between text and image in later prints. The second section explores the dialogues between José Guadalupe Posada’s engravings and photography, the latter serving as a source for the representation of figures such as Francisco I. Madero, Emiliano Zapata, and Esperanza Chavarría. Notably, the engraver’s graphic feats often proved more effective in narrative terms than photography itself. Finally, the third section addresses changes in the function of images after 1914, when visual expressions became more generic, less specific, and more ornamental. This shift anticipates the most common page layouts in subsequent decades and is explained not only by Posada’s death in 1913 but also by transformations in the functions, uses, and consumption of Mexican popular prints during the first half of the twentieth century.