The press and revolution in Mexico: la vanguardia, 1915

La Vanguardia, 1915

Abstract

The newspaper La Vanguardia emerged during a crucial stage of the Mexican Revolution as a news and propaganda vehicle for the Constitutionalist forces led by Venustiano Carranza. Directed by the painter Dr. Atl, La Vanguardia was published for four months during 1915 in Orizaba, Veracruz, with the objective of "transforming national journalism's modes of expression" and "bringing to the press the high moral criteria and new force of our great Revolution." In spite of its short duration, the project represented a culturally important convergence of different social sectors: workers, political leaders, intellectuals and artists, among these José Clemente Orozco, the paper's cartoonist. This paper presents an analysis of La Vanguardia focusing on its content both written and visual- and on its complex historical context. Taking the paper's inaugural program as a point of departure, it analyzes the objectives, accomplishments, contradictions and obstacles faced by this notable effort to carry out a new kind of journalism during a time of conflict and change.