Wings of Change: A Visual and Cultural Analysis of Mujer Angel

In the middle of the twentieth century, Mexico sought to reestablish its national identity. Following on the heels of the Mexican Revolution, an extended period of social upheaval and regional conflicts that transformed the country, artists and visionaries alike struggled to determine how the reborn nation would distinguish itself. While many movements in this period looked towards the future and sought utopia, there was one which concentrated instead on exploring the precolonial past and distilling the essence of “Mexicanity\u27\u27 from there. This movement was known as the Mexicanidad in Spanish; or, in the precolonial Nahuatl language, the Mexicayotl. In particular, the Mexicanidad believed that surviving indigenous civilizations had maintained a cultural identity which was independent of and reclaimed from the aggressive industrialization and de facto despotism that preceded the revolution, and thus ought to serve as a template for Mexico’s modern identity