Terrorist innocence, fragment of the monumental mural Revolutions and elements, by Vladimir Kibálchich, Vlady, painted in the Miguel Lerdo de Tejada Library, inspired Ángel Aurelio González Amozorrutia, a specialist in archives and cultural management, to write his first novel.
Fiction of innocence (Ediciones Odradek, 2024) recreates two stories: that of a man who observes a young woman contemplating the mural, in which the painter, in turn, portrays himself looking at the naked body of a girl with her face veiled and a gun hidden behind her back. The other story is that of the muralist’s model, a member of the 23rd of September Communist League, killed in Ciudad Universitaria (CU) by an armed commando of the White Brigade.
This novel is not a historical document, but a story that It allowed me to realize a certain moment in time and a generation that participated in armed movements, although in parallel there was a context in which art never ceased to be a fundamental part
the author expresses to The Day.
When he came to work at the Miguel Lerdo de Tejada Library in 2001, González Amozorrutia was impressed by Vlady’s work (1920-20) as a whole, although in particular the fragment Terrorist innocence: Over time, together with researcher Claudio Albertani, we unveiled the origin that motivated Vlady to do it.
.
The work painted in oil and tempera refers to the execution of Teresa Hernández Antonio, alias Alejandra, On June 15, 1975 in the green area, or gardens, known as the islands
from CU, on Sunday, during a dog show. The news deeply impacted Vlady
to the point that he not only took it to the wall, but also left testimonies in drawings and in his notebooks.”
The artist began to paint Revolutions and the elements in 1972 and finished it in 1982 with Terrorist innocence. One always wonders if the painter knew Alejandra. González Amozorrutia observes that his It is not a faithful portrait of her. The model is another. Vlady took the idea of this figure because he felt identified with the history of his family and the approach to the movements
. However, He makes a different treatment of the fact itself, an interpretation from his point of view
.
Through the novel, the author “reconstructs the characters in a context without radically breaking with historical facts. I do not give a literal account of the character of Alejandra –Tania, in the book–, but a literary interpretation very close to her, something possible within a novel.”
A specialist in the Generation of the Rupture and the work of Juan García Ponce, González Amozorrutia did not want to separate the political context, the armed movements, from the cultural life of the country that was taking place in parallel. In the 50s the Generation of Rupture burst forth, in which Vlady was a protagonist
. From there he introduced into the text figures such as Vicente Rojo, José Luis Cuevas, Juan José Gurrola, Roger von Gunten; even the atmosphere of the Casa del Lago, in addition to the literary work of García Ponce.
The images accompanying the text are by photographer Monica McCumber. They do not illustrate it, but rather are equivalent to a parallel discourse to the literary work, says the author.
Fiction of innocence will be presented today at 5 pm at the Bonilla bookstore (Miguel Ángel de Quevedo 477, Coyoacán).