Stridentism (estridentismo) is an artistic movement that revolutionized contemporary works through “interdisciplinary collaborations and experimental approaches.”[1] Originating in post-revolutionary Mexico, its origin dates back to 1921 when the poet Manuel Maples Arce published Actual No. 1. Arce’s work marks the start to Mexico’s first strident avant-garde. On January 1, 1923, there was a second Strident manifesto that solidified the movement in the city of Puebla. Artists from this period ranged from List Arzubide in Germany to Diego Rivera in Mexico, including a diverse list of art expressionists. Although stridentism has often been connected as a literary movement, a support for progressive redefinitions in the age of modernity unites the wide range of artists shaping art and literature producing the first generation of mural painters.

            There is a great sense of social responsibility and ethical awareness that is linked to this artistic revolution, an effect to the time frame it originated from. The 1920s was a period of great social change in Latin America and for a country that had just won a revolution; Mexico exemplified the rise of vanguard movements such as estridentismo. As the country sought to restructure itself, estridentismo embodied all of the change in the country from class struggle to industrial and technological modernization. In contrast to other movements, stridentists “sought to create art that would be relevant to a nation emerging from the turmoil of the Revolution and undergoing rapid change.” [2] This movement, which veered away from looking to Europe for intellectual leadership, developed a state-centered perspective where artists from Mexico “returned [to their home countries] with the explicit aim of revitalizing their national cultures.” [3]

            The work produced by stridentism marks a multifaceted range of activity that has changed the course of Mexican cultural history. The literature produced held a captivating graphic component as well as the work of its text. As a newspaper famously described the movement as a “strategic argument. A gesture. An onslaught,” the stridentists held a certain iconoclastic approach to their work that heavily resonates in the decades to come.

 

References

 

[1] Flores, Tatiana. Mexico's Revolutionary Avant-Gardes. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2013.

 

[2] Rashkin, Elissa. The Stridentist Movement in Mexico: The Avant-garde and Cultural Change in the 1920s. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2009.

 

[3] Ibid.