Woman from Tehuantepec

Many Mexican artists active in the first decades of the twentieth century portrayed Tehuana women from Oaxaca, as well as women from other regions, wearing traditional Indigenous attire, which operated as a symbol of national identity. Diego Rivera painted many such images for, among other projects, the murals at the Secretaría de Educación Pública in Mexico City (1923–1928). This painting by Miguel Covarrubias also champions Mexican- ness, but in the framework of anthropological research on Zapotec culture. The figure in "Mujer de Tehuantepec" is carrying a basket, perhaps full of flowers, on her head; in her hand is a clay vessel. She is standing before a columned building that might be the city hall of Tehuantepec, Juchitán, or another city on the isthmus. Covarrubias produced many images of Tehuana women carrying flowers in recipients and baskets in techniques like painting, drawing, and woodcuts. Indeed, an oil-on-linen version of this scene forms part of the San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas collection.