The soul of this movement is found in Horizonte magazine
Estridentismo is an avant-garde movement that emerged in Mexico that encompassed different artistic disciplines. Its formal birth is linked to the presentation of a manifesto by the writer Manuel Maples Arce (1900-1981), an event that took place in December 1921 .
Beginnings of stridentism
Influenced by avant-garde currents in Europe such as futurism and cubism , Maples Arce and other intellectuals - among them Germán List Arzubide (1898-1998) and Arqueles Vela (1899-1977) - launched stridentism with the publication of a newspaper mural ( “Current” ). Then they edited the magazines “Irradiador” and “Horizonte” .
Although stridentism began in Mexico City , its development occurred above all in Xalapa . This particularity is associated with the support given to him by the university faculty of Veracruz .
In Xalapa this movement was linked to a large number of activities, such as exhibitions, events of cultural interest, the publication of works of a political, fiction and popular nature, and even the founding of the magazine Horizonte , the one that achieved the most importance. within stridentism. Such was the impact that this municipality gave to estridentismo that it became known by the name of Estridentópolis .
Goals and interests
Stridentism is understood as a reaction to the political and social changes that occurred within the framework of the Mexican Revolution . Maples Arce invited youth to celebrate modernity and confront nineteenth-century cultural manifestations and academicism.
The poets of Stridentism, in this framework, highlighted the beauty of technological advances and praised machinery . They also made mocking expressions against the poetry and literature that had prevailed until then.
In the magazine Horizonte we find a synthesis of the ideals that Stridentism pursued, starting from a clear inclination towards the avant-garde , as can already be seen in the Actual manifesto, mentioned above.
From the revolution , stridentism inherited the provocative attitude and drive for social agitation. The movement sought to promote a cultural and aesthetic renewal to get closer to the cosmopolitan.
Your background
The industrial revolution marked a before and after in the history of humanity: it was a process that transformed the economy, society and, of course, technology, starting in the second part of the 18th century. In the midst of these changes in daily life, stridentism emerged.
Let's say that society was in full swing, with new ideas and points of view about issues that until then had been believed to be immutable, and for this reason it was necessary to make this nascent conception of life in general known. To do this, they used the printed media, particularly magazines with illustrations, where they spread their ideas.
The transformative power of the industrial revolution promoted stridentism
It was thanks to these publications that they were able to speak in a timely manner about the most relevant problems of society, fusing graphic arts with literature in an innovative and impactful way. After all, what better way to disseminate the changes brought about by the industrial revolution than by taking advantage of the new possibilities it offered to the publishing field?
A multidisciplinary movement
It is important to keep in mind that, in addition to the poets, playwrights and essayists, musicians, photographers, painters and other artists were added. Thus stridentism became multidisciplinary .
In addition to Maples Arce and List Arzubide, we can mention the poets Salvador Gallardo and Humberto Rivas . On the other hand, the journalists and prose writers Carlos Noriega Hope, Luis Marín Loya, Armando Zegrí, Xavier Icaza and Febronio Ortega were involved.
Among the visual artists , Ramón Alva de la Canal, Fermín Revueltas, Fernando Leal, Emilio Amero, Leopoldo Méndez, Jean Charlot and Guillermo Ruiz stood out. Nor should we leave out the names of Edward Weston and Tina Modotti , photographers.