Woman with Flag, Mexico City, 1928

A young indigenous woman walks along in front of a wall in this black and white photo. She is carrying a huge flag that half covers her upper body. Her gait looks determined, her posture is upright. The knee-length dress is simply cut and plain, her shoes are dusty. The only recognizable jewelry is earrings. The slicked-back hair reveals her striking face. Central to the image is clearly its political statement. This message is deciphered against the backdrop of Mexican history and the artist's biography. The painting was created in 1928 during a miners' strike in Jalisco. The miners there were resisting exploitation by industry. The photograph itself writes that women were treated like scalps. Their labor was cheaper than men's. In Jalisco, the workers' wives in particular rebelled against the supremacy of the Catholic Church. They had houses of worship closed and replaced religious symbols with communist ones. The conflict was exacerbated by Mexican revolution, repression of oppositionists, and the Great Depression. The photographer is Tina Modotti (real name Assunta Adelaide Luigia Modotti Mondini). The Italian made a name for herself not only as a photographer, but also as an actress and revolutionary. When the photograph was taken, she was 32 years old, a communist and part of the post-revolutionary bohemia in Mexico City. She sympathized with the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and was a lover of well-known revolutionaries such as Julio Antonio Mella. Tina Modotti was concerned not only with depicting a beautiful landscape or an aesthetic object. She wanted to depict the women in her country and their living conditions realistically and impressively. She was not interested in the rich and beautiful, but in the poor and working people. She wanted to show their dignity. With her concise and precise imagery she denounces injustice. This is very clear in this painting. The woman with the flag looks dignified and strong despite her plain clothes. It is a good example of Modotti's ability to combine her interest in people with a modern aesthetic. The clear political symbolism made it an icon of the revolution.

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Woman with Flag, Mexico City, 1928 by Tina Modotti
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