Abstract

MONROY NASR, Rebeca. Lost Identities: Miss Mexico 1928. An. Inst. Investig. Estét [online]. 2014, vol.36, n.104, pp.127-156. ISSN 0185-1276.

The case of María Teresa de Landa was an event arousing considerable attention in its time. In 1928 she was the first "Miss Mexico" and, for the greater glory of her country, was competing for the World beauty title in Galveston, Texas. Her beauty, intelligence and tenacity had won her the Mexican title. A year later, however, she was arrested for the crime of murder, having shot her bigamous husband general Moisés Vidal. The story has important implications for history, not only for the social implications of both circumstances, but also as something that throws into vivid relief the situation of post-revolutionary society, the encounters between the military and civil sectors, social and cultural dissonances. It is also illustrative of the way in which the legal system operated, in the sense that no woman accused of murdering her husband was condemned to imprisonment during the 1920s. "Avengers of female destiny" was a phrase applied by Aurelio de los Reyes, suggesting a history of mentalities, a social and cultural history, but also a history of gender in the process of construction and salvage in its most intimate details. This text addresses only a part of the many facets of that world that revealed itself as crude, hard and subtly aggressive.

Keywords : Mexican fotoperiodism; genre studies; posrevolution; Miss Mexico; 1928.

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