CUERNAVACA, Mor. (APRO) – Jorge Zapata, grandson of General Emiliano Zapata, announced legal and social actions against the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature, as well as the painter Fabián Cháirez, for having “denigrated” the image of the Southern Caudillo, particularly with the painting in which the leader of the “Libertador del Sur” Army is observed riding a horse with an erection, while naked, with slippers and a pink hat.
At a press conference in Cuernavaca, he described it as a “burrada” (stupid act) to expose the image where he is painted as gay. “We are not going to allow that. That’s why they’re going to take legal action”. Zapata´s grandson stated
“We came here to exhibit the nonsense they did… to exhibit a photograph of our general (Emiliano Zapata) in Bellas Artes”. Zapata said.
Las diversas representaciones de Zapata a lo largo de 100 años son exploradas en Emiliano. #ZapataDespuésDeZapata, exposición que reúne 141 obras sobre el Caudillo del Sur provenientes de 70 colecciones nacionales e internacionales.
¡Visítala en el @mbellasartes! pic.twitter.com/rhx57xH8WF
— Secretaría de Cultura (@cultura_mx) December 6, 2019
“What could we call him? An unknown painter, who I think wants fame… he portrays general Zapata as, gay. So I believe that as a family, as a people, where we are clearly Zapatistas, we are not going to allow that,” he warned.
He said that “now we’ve done what’s right, we are going to sue them, and we´ll have demonstrations and hold press conferences. We are going to sue both the painter and the person in charge of Bellas Artes.” he said.
Fabián Cháirez is a Chiapas painter whose work is part of Neomexicanism. His pieces focus on portraying bodies and scenes that do not fit, differ or disobey archetypes of masculinity. The characters in Cháirez’s paintings blur the boundaries between masculinity and femininity and question the social impositions related to sexual difference and machismo.
His piece, “The Revolution” questions the macho stereotypes that make up the national identity and makes visible the movements of sexual diversity. This work currently exhibited in the Museo Palacio de Bellas Artes (Museum of the Palace of Fine Arts) in the exhibition “Emiliano Zapata after Zapata”, of which Cháirez’s work forms part and will be exhibited from November 27 to February 16, 2019.
The exhibition has generated enormous controversy in social networks over this week, the image has caused great offence among those who defend the memory of General Emiliano Zapata the “Caudillo del Sur” and reject the idea of portarying him as a homosexual.
The Yucatan Times
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