ustxtxb_obs_1962_08_03_50_00006-00000_000.pdf

THE WEEK’S HEADLINES Worker Falls Into Acid VatBurned Houston Press Connally, Cox Warn Legion Of Red Threat Star-Telegram J1111101 4111111111111, 1.44,#44.4.40#~4~~#4W4W44 CITROEN DEALER Service on AU Make Cars Jesse James Smith Service Center Foreign-Made Cars New and Used 2800 Guadalupe Austin ihsee~4~444~~~.~N##t MEXICAN ART AND THE ACADEMY OF SAN CAR-LOS, 1785-1915, by Jean Charlot, University of Texas Press, 1962, 177 pages, $4.50. TAMING .THE NUECES STRIP: THE STORY OF MoNELLY’S RANGERS, by George Durham, as told to Clyde Wantland, University of Texas Press, 1962, 178 pages, $4.50. AUSTIN These two books have virtually nothing in common, except that they are the same slender size, of similar design, and are published simultaneously by the University of Texas Press. And they bothin their widely separated and very special fields make contributions to knowledge; both are cleanly written, good reading. The University of Texas Press deserves applause for producing this strikingly contrasted pair of thoroughbreds. ANYONE who is interested in rl Mexican painting, even if the interest is confined to the recent, should relish the history by Jean Chariot of the Academy of San Carlos, which dominated Mexican art throughout the nineteenth century. The afeccionado of the recent and flamboyant who thinks that the post-revolutionary masters made a clean break with the academic past will be startled by this glimpse of the San Carlos “Academy in exile,” when it followed beaten Carranza to provincial Orizaba, where he holed up after Pancho Villa entered Mexico City in triumph: “Dr. Atl, a staunch foe of art for art’s sake, saw to it that the students missed nothing of the horrors that were a daliy fare. Carranza mostly fought the agrarian hordes of Zapata. A daily batch of prisonersIndian farmers turned warriors, in white calzones and wide-brimmed hats was brought in from the battlefields and shot in the city square in the early dawn. The sacked church, which was to the artists a combination dormitory, studio and pressroom, faced that square. It was Orozco’s job to toll the church bells to call his colleagues to breakfast. Presumably, it was the dawn shootings that awoke him in turn. Siquieros felt quite at ease with this strong fare. . . .” The history is drawn, in the main, from archives long buried in the basement of the Academy, and could have been deadly dull. That it is lively reading, and reflects iridescently many aspects of the Mexican background that are not solely concerned with esthetics, we owe to Chariot’s resilient and inquisitive mind and illuminating style. Too intelligent, perhaps, to be a great painter, this Frenchman took part in the artistic uproar of the post-revolutionary era, but has done his work lately in the United States; he is now in Hawaii. In a foreword, Elizabeth Wilder Weismann writes a brilliant little essay on the impact of international neo-classicism to the “backward” countries in the past century. But her summing up of this book,. it seems to me, misses the point. For instance, she says: “In the end, the struggle was drawn in Mexico between classical tradition and the necessity of making an art for themselves, and it was this choice that was fought out in the Academia de San Carlos in New Spain between 1785 and 1915. BOOK REVIEW “Like everything in Mexico, the conflict is wonderfully overt, a reduction to essentials, almost under laboratory conditions of the complex elements of cultural growth . . . The change in the Academy was effected by the great political and sociological tides of the times: the forces which destroyed it also describe the fallacy of an art which disregarded them.” IDO NOT find any such overt struggle in the pages of this book. The conflict, to begin with, was between native-born and European artists, to see who would get the salaried jobs. Nobody, for a long time, wanted to paint local subjects: they would have starved to death if they did. There seems to be a great temptation, among Yanqui intellectuals, to give oversimple explanations for everything in Mexico, perhaps because everything there is so, confusingly complex. No cultural trait is entirely lost in Mexico, but new traits are continually being superimposed on the old. The rigid caste system of the Aztec is retained but French ideas of equality and Yanqui ideas of democracy receive an official blessing. A favorite notion of the American intellectual is that the revolution changed everything. The Academy of San Carlos was not “destroyed.” Even before the revolution, changes in it were effected by changes in international taste. Do you explain Cezanne by “the great political and sociological tides of the times?” Another favorite notion is that Orozco, Rivera, and Siquieros are popular painters, beloved by the masses. It would be interesting to know what proportion of Mexicans, of any class, if asked to choose between any of the academic paint tings reproduced in this book and any painting by Orozco, would choose the Orozco. We find Rivera himself, as a student of the Academy, in 1904, complaining that a sulking professor has deprived the life class of a splendid collection of costumes: poor Diego was forced to draw the model “just as he happens to be; that is, in the clothing of the lower classes to which he belongs.” ONE THING the Academy did achieve, with fair consistency: it taught its students how to draw. The many superb drawings reproduced here are proof of this achievement. Is it pure accident that all three of the famed post-revolu. Unary trinity, Orozco, Rivera’, and Siquieros, were trained by the Academy? Chariot sums up his own book best, when he says: “I believe that, by providing a locus where the young could be taught, where the older artist was assured of a living, and by acting as a showcase for living art, the Academy’s role has been beneficial.” Taming the Nueces Strip is the story of Lee McNelly’s Texas Rangers, as told by the sole survivor of the band about a quarter of a century ago to Clyde Wantland, San Antonio newspaper writer. This turns out to be perhaps the most successful narraitve of its kind in all Texana. Shaped by a professional hand, it is trim, clear, straightforward, without the bumbling prolixities of tales told by untrained witnesses, no matter how honest. It appears to be a reliable, although one-sided, account of McNelly’s ruthless war on border warfare in the years 1875 and ’76. McNelly was active only those two years, but it was sufficient. He disarmed the Texan ranchers and murdered or dismayed the Mexican marauders. “He was a born partisan fighter if there ever was one,” says Walter P. Webb in his preface to this book. McNELLY presented a fascinating figure to the student of psychology. Perhaps, if we could understand him, we could understand other Scotch Presbyterians. He shows a striking resemblance, in his combination of ruthlessness and righteousness, to Stonewall Jackson, another Virginian of the same stock and creed. But McNelly, it must be admitted, is somewhat repugnant in his subservience to wealth and power, which he seemed to regard as decency and respectability raised to a high degree. He was glad to let himself be outfitted by Captain King, of the famed King Ranch, and to serve the cattleman’s private ends. But was that cattleman really a paragon of decency? What about those Mexican ranches he is said to have resolated and annexed not, of course, in any history subsidized by his heirs? In spite of the worshipful attitude of the narrator toward his chief, the reader is never quite convinced that the Mexican ranchers who were shot up by McNelly, some of them citizens of Brownsville, were not just as legitimate as the Texans he protected. And then, there was his monstrous custom of turning over his captives, after torturing them to extract information, to a maniac who popped off their heads by lashing their necks to a tree and their feet to a horse. CHARLES RAMSDELL ADVERTISING BOOK MATCHES stem total $34.95, no extras at all. Glamor Girl, Hillbilly covers and plain white or tint. Rush ! This offer shipped transportation free thru July 31 to your office. Save $6.00 by sending $9.50 deposit; balance $26.45 C.O.D., or order on open account. Advertising calendars & Give-Aways. F. HORSFALL 705 Christopher Austin 4, Texas Alliance for Progress Sirs: When the United States gave Marshall Plan aid to Europe, it demanded that all countries receiving aid admit American tourists without requiring visas. As a result of this wise policy, the tourist trade grew by leaps and bounds and is now among the largest earners of foreign exchange for these countries. In contrast, some of the most backward countries in the world are the most difficult for an American to visit. Their bureaucrats justify their salaries by harrassing the tourist with questionnaires, demands for numerous photographs and other busy work. The result is to discourage visits to their country and the loss of business. This does not trouble the bureaucrats at all because they can always as for more American aid to meet their deficits. Besides, a job lording it over foreigners in a government office is much better than one serving them in a hotel. The Alliance for Progress is based on the principle that U.S. help will depend on reform in those countries receiving aid. A good place to begin would be to require freedom of government for American tourists so that the travel business can grow. George M. Korb, 1414 E. 59th, Chicago. As We Lay Dying Sirs: Many important things have been happening in Texas graveyards lately. The Marshall case in Franklin involved exhumation and autopsy. One of the East Texas oil drillers, as the Observer reported, deviated a well under the cemetery. Now we are told. in stories out of Washington, that Billie Sol may have buried several million greenbacks in the grave of a phony pauper. All this, of course, is good for Texas tourism, a boon to undertaking, and a right promising suggestion of that confining decadence which is the glory and myth of the Old Confederacy. Let us have more reports in your fine journal from Texas graveyards. Arch Dugan, Houston. Startling Facts Staff Legal Office USNTC July 25, 1962 Bainbridge, Maryland Sirs: Mr. Jones of the Republican Party’s Research and Legislative Division has apprised the Texas electorate of some startling First, if Mr. Cox belongs to this notable legend of Republicanism of which Mr. Rockefeller is also a member one should inform the Texas candidate for governor of such. Even more important one should relate this timely disclosure to Mr. Rockefeller immediately. Furthermore, it is sugegsted that the Republican Research and Legislative Division be staffed more copiously, for the onus of Mr. Jones’ position has apparently become too much for him. One must marvel at the researcher’s scholarship when he reveals that Earl Warren and Jack Cox stand side by side in the unfolding panorama of modern Republicanism. But then perhaps Mr. Cox would add substance to his campaign if he donned heavy black beard in order to place his platform in the proper chronological and historical perspective. No doubt, too, that Mr. Cox is now intently studying TVA in the hopes that the brainchild of George Norris may give him fuel for a political broadside on Texas’ Pedernales River problem! Jerry Covington, Staff Legal Office, USNTC, Bainbridge, Md. Hoot Him Out Sirs: I would like to keep a little list of self-titled “loyal” Democrats who urge support of Cox, et al. Then when one, just one, inveighs against deserting the national GOP slate I would return to Texas, organize a laugh-orama, and hoot him plum out of the state. Parker Woods, Ralispell, Montana. Mrs. Carter Praised Sirs: The steering committee of the Tarrant County Democratic Organizing Committee recently voted to commend the editor for his outstanding article on Mrs. Mrs. Carter will find the time to answer questions and assist any good Democrat who seeks her advice. She has amassed a card file that is famous throughout the country. Her dignified leadership is admired and respected by all who know her. We are grateful that you have brought her to the attention of people throughout the state. Mrs. Jesse Baker, secretary, Tarrant County Democratic Organizing Committee, Fort Worth. Moody Quoted Sirs: Willie Morris’ accurate account of my loose-jointed conversation has convinced me that I was born thirty years too late. Dwight L. Moody, who died before I was born, was the man who was misquoted. What he said was: “It doesn’t take much of a man to be a Christian, but it takes all there is of him.” Mrs. Margaret Carter, Fort Worth. Case Against Connally Sirs: I am 83 years old, a liberal Democrat, and have never failed to vote for the Democratic nominee regardless of whether he was conservative or liberal, but in the gubernatorial race between Connally and Cox I find myself