ABSTRACT
A favorite depiction of Mexican rural women is Diego Rivera’s painting of a dark-skinned, braided “torteadora” (tortilla maker) kneeling over a stone metate, grinding maize for tortillas. Her plump yet strong arms press forcefully to produce the smooth dough, part of which she has already made into perfectly round tortillas and has placed on a makeshift griddle. The brightcolored artwork clearly bears notions of local knowledge and traditional ways as well as indigenous beauty. The artist might not have intended to convey the now common interpretation of these women as thriving in solidarity, rich folklore, and true experience, uncontaminated by capitalist ways of life and harmoniously linked to nature, but this is certainly what comes across to many viewers, who, in good will, might desire to help women such as these stand against the incursion of the “outside” world. Their traditions must be rescued and their social organization preserved. Their future lies in the retrieval of their past.
