La Jornada: The Estanquillo Museum will exhibit Elena Poniatowska’s personal archive

Understanding the “character dimension” is the main objective of Elena Poniatowska Love, personal archivean exhibition that deals with the career of the journalist and writer and that will be inaugurated on April 18 at the Museo del Estanquillo Colecciones Carlos Monsiváis, whose realization was possible thanks to the foundation that bears the name of the 2013 Cervantes Prize for Literature. This, on the eve of her 94th birthday, on May 19.

Through documents, photographs, recognitions and, of course, her books, the aim is to discover Elena’s “enormous and tireless career as a journalist, writer and social fighter,” says Moisés Rosas, a close friend of the honoree and curator of the exhibition together with Santiago Flores Chong and Saúl Daniel Jiménez Mancilla, historians and those responsible for managing the archive at the Elena Poniatowska Amor Foundation. Most of the material had never been made public.

The exhibition is presented as a retrospective of the “very extensive” work of Poniatowska, who published her first interview in 1953 and her most recent last weekend in the cultural section of The Day.

The sample is divided into several nuclei. The first, biographical, refers to her family, her arrival in Mexico in 1942, her marriage to Guillermo Haro, her children; In addition, it contains portraits that have been taken of him over time.

A second core, Cultural Journalism, includes a selection of images of the figures interviewed by the journalist, in the field of literature, visual arts, performing arts, sciences and humanities and entertainment.

Next, Literature and Social Memory gives an account of the dozens of texts of very diverse genres, such as chronicles, novels, poetry, fiction and children’s books that constitute a production of more than 50 titles, translated into several languages. Here Rosas emphasizes two: The night of Tlatelolco“emblematic book that will always be current”, and Sunrise in the Zócalo“story of when Andrés Manuel López Obrador took Plaza de la Constitución in 2006.” They are “two chronicles of history that present a social memory.”

A fourth section highlights the importance of women in the work of Doña Elena, who has dedicated a long list of books to them; For example The women of Juchitán, The soldaderas, The seven goats, Luz y luna, las lunitas, Tinísima, Leonora y Until I see you, my Jesus.

The exhibition closes with a look at the Elena Poniatowska Amor Archive. “We displayed some of her recognitions, such as the Belisario Domínguez medal, the 2013 Cervantes Prize for Literature and the 2002 National Prize for Sciences and Arts in the field of Linguistics and Literature. In addition, Elena and her family lent the dress with which she received some of these awards, which was made especially by women from Juchitán,” notes Rosas.

As a culmination, photographs taken by Poniatowska will be shown, as well as paintings by her, which promise to be a discovery for the public. “Elena’s is a very valuable archive. They have tried to buy it from the United States and until today it has not been sold. There are proposals to buy it with a lot of money. It is a well-made and quite organized archive,” says Rosas. Also included are two photographs from the collection of Carlos Monsiváis and two others that were loaned by Rafael Barajas. The Snooper.

To approach the project, the first thing Rosas did was “read Elena. He had read The Polish lover, Twice only y Leonoraamong others, but at different times. Now I had a wonderful advantage. As soon as I finished reading – for example, The train passes firstI would go to Elena and ask her how she had made the book. He not only told me about the play, but also about the characters, but as anecdotes. How he went to Oaxaca to see the train stations and see where Demetrio Vallejo was born.” Rosas realized that “many of the books are the product of journalistic work.”

Journalism and literature

In addition to being surprised by Poniatowska’s “enormous career,” the curator perceived “how journalism and literature are intertwined” in her texts. “Many of her books would not exist if she had not done interviews. They are basically books of interviews made into novels. Many people construct historical novels by taking certain data. Elena is a little-known woman in her role as a researcher. She has commented on Paseo de la Reformamore words, less words: ‘I am happy with this book because it is the only one for which I have not had to do research.’

“Elena’s books must be given the dimension and value that comes from the fact that a journalist, a writer, has an aspect that cannot be understood only by reading the texts, that she has carried out historical and documentary research.”

–What did this research teach you?

–I learned who the character is that people don’t perceive because not everyone reads the books. Monsiváis said: ‘everyone wants to take a photo with me, have me sign their books, but no one reads me.’ For me, Elena’s case is a bit the same. If I went out to the store with her right now, the place would be filled with people who would take her photo, but who has read it?

“Personally, I had read some of Elena’s texts; however, I had not understood the dimension of the character. Then, I learned to realize who she was. Thus, I recovered one of the most exceptional characters in the cultural life of contemporary Mexico, one of the most varied, one of the richest, and deeply hard-working.”

The exhibition Elena Poniatowska Love, personal archive It will be inaugurated on April 18 at 12 noon, at the Museo del Estanquillo Colecciones Carlos Monsiváis (Isabel la Católica 26, Centro Historico).