Beautiful Pictorial Map of Uruapan, Michoacan
The pictorial map of Uruapan, which is very handsomely done, was created in 1933 by Justino Fernandez, who based it on an 1897 plan of the city, with the addition of current street names and colonias. The contrast of the red-roofed houses and buildings with the lush green landscaping has a marvelous effect. A train and biplane can be seen in the right side near the town's train station and airport (campo de aviación). Several neighborhoods are named: Colonia Ramón Farias, Colonia Morelos, Fraccionamiento Calvillo, San Pedro, among others. La Charanda is shown at the top of the map. An elegant typographical legend surrounds the pictorial map:
Esta es la imagen de San Francisco Uruapan de Michoacan que no existia antes de la Conquista y fue fundado en 1540 por el religioso Franciscano Fr. Juan de S. Miguel quien escogio el sitio, hizo la traza, levanto templos, enseño las artes a los indigenas y los defendio de los conquistadores.
The city was originally laid out in 1534 by Friar Juan de San Miguel, who is pictured in the the lower left corner of the map sheet. The monograph accompanying the map includes a nice history of the city, including notes on traditional foods of the region: buñuelos; pozole; and churipo, a stew of chile and white rice. Mention is also made of the excelllent coffee of Uruapan. The introduction is by Manuel Toussaint, a noted Mexican art historian and intellectual who wrote about Mexican maps, among other topics.
Rarity
While well represented in institutional collections, this book is rarely found with the pictorial map in such perfect condition.
Justino Fernández García (September 28, 1904 – December 12, 1972) was a researcher, historian and art critic who is particularly known for his work documenting and critiquing Mexican art of the 20th century.
Fernandez studied and developed his career with the National Autonomous University of Mexico, as a protégé of Manuel Toussaint. After Toussaint's death in 1955, Fernandez took over as head of the Aesthetic Research Institute at UNAM, where he would perform writing and research until his death. Fernandez’s work was recognized by the Mexican government with the Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes in 1969.
Justino Fernandez Garcia was born on September 28, 1904 in Mexico City. He was grandson of Lic. Tomas Reyes Retana senator of Mexico during "El Porfiriato" and Loreto Najera Nader. His father was Justino Fernandez Mondoño, one of the delegates of the congress that created the 1857 Constitution of Mexico. His father was originally from Mexico City. His mother was Sergia Garcia, originally from Valladolid, Spain. His sister was Leonor Nicaela Fernandez García, who maries José Ignacio de la Luz Federico Reyes-Retana y Najera a Colonel from the Mexican Army.
Justino began school at the Colegio Francés de la Perpetua, but in 1910, he was sent to the United States to avoid the Mexican Revolution. He returned to Mexico in 1923, at the time when the Mexican muralism movement was being established.
He did all of his undergraduate and graduate work at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). As an undergrad, he studied under José Gaos and Juan David García Bacca, who introduced him to German philosophy and that of José Ortega y Gasset. He earned his master's degree in 1953 and his doctorate the following year with a thesis entitled “Coatlicue: estética de arte indígena antiguo” (Coatlicue, the aesthetics of ancient indigenous art)
Before he was established as a writer and researcher, he had a number of jobs, including working as an assistant of an architect.
Career
While still a student, in 1932 he founded the Editorial Alcancía publishing concern with Juan O'Gorman which operated until 1959.
As a graduate student, he was a protégé of well-known researcher, historian and critic Manuel Toussaint, becoming his assistant when he founded the Aesthetic Research Institute at UNAM in 1936. The following year he began teaching summer classes at the university in art history.
He remained with this institution until his death, and concentrated most of his research and art criticism here. In this way, he continued the work of his mentor, Toussaint.
Influenced by positivism, he is best known as a specialist in modern (20th century) Mexican art, in both its documentation and interpretation, relating it to art movements in the rest of the world. He particularly wrote about Mexican muralism, especially the work of José Clemente Orozco. However, he also did research work in both colonial period and 19th century Mexican art, writing an important work on the Altar of the Kings at the Mexico City Cathedral and studied the work of José María Velasco .
When Toussaint died in 1955, Fernandez became the interim director of the Aesthetic Research Institute with the position becoming permanent the following year. He remained as such until 1968. In 1969 UNAM named him a researcher emeritus. From 1970 to 1972, he served as member of the governing board of UNAM.
Other important associations included being a member of the Academia Mexicana de la Historia (as liaison to the Academia Real in Madrid) in 1965 and was a founding member of the Academia de Artes.
His highest award was the Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes from the Mexican government in 1969. Publications about the writer include: Homenaje a Justino Fernández en sus 60 años, Del arte. Homenaje a Justino Fernández and Bibliografía sobre arte colonial de Justino Fernández.
Major publications
Recuerdo de Tasco (1934)
Morelia (1936).
Pátzcuaro (1936).
Uruapan (1936).
El arte moderno en México (1937).
La danza de los Concheros de San Miguel Allende (with Vicente T. Mendoza, 1941)
Orozco: forma e idea (1942).
Prometeo: ensayo sobre pintura contemporánea; Gaugin, Matisse, Rousseau, Cézanne, Braque, Picasso, Dada, Breton, Dalí, Rivera, Orozco (1945).
Arte moderno y contemporáneo de México (1952).
Coatlicue: estética del arte indígena antiguo (1954).
El retablo de los reyes: estética del arte de la Nueva España (1959).
El hombre: estética del arte moderno y contemporáneo (1962).
Miguel Ángel: de su alma (1964).
El arte del siglo XIX en México (1967).
Pedro Coronel, pintor y escultor (1971).
Estética del arte mexicano (1972).
Arte mexicano: de sus orígenes a nuestros días (1958, republished in 1975) .