Tinisima

by Elena Poniatowska, Katherine Silver (Translator)

Overview

For this fictionalized account of the life of Tina Modotti (1896-1942), Elena Poniatowska devoted ten years of research to fully understand the woman who was so caught up in the social and political turbulence of the pre-World War II decades.

At different times in her life, Modotti was a silent screen actress, a model for Diego Rivera's murals, and a lover of photographer Edward Weston. She was also a champion for the Mexican people who lovingly referred to her as Tinisima.

In 1929, Modotti was accused of the murder of Julio Antonio Mella, her Cuban lover. She fled to the U.S.S.R. to escape the Mexican press and then to Europe, where she became a Soviet secret agent and a nurse under an assumed name, returning to Mexico to meet an early death at the age of forty-five.

"Poniatowska has made an art form of blending journalism and fiction. She tells this novel in an urgent present tense, segueing among short, vivid scenes with cinematic virtuosity. Ten years of research and a thorough knowledge of the currents of history contribute to this portrait, but equally important is Poniatowska's intuitive appreciation of a woman shaped and destroyed by her tumultuous times."—Publishers Weekly

"Poniatowska's profoundly moving evocation of her heroine's boundless soul flows like blood through the carefully erected factual structure of the real Modotti's astonishing life story. . . . A tour de force, Tinisima is a work to treasure."—Booklist

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826341235
Publisher:	University of New Mexico Press
Publication date:	09/01/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	365
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Elena Poniatowska is the award-winning author of over fifty books. Born in France to a Mexican citizen of French ancestry, she now lives in Mexico City. In 2004, she was honored with the Legion de Honor del Gobierno de Francia. Poniatowska has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Emeritus Fellowship from Mexico's National Council of Culture and Arts. In 1979, she became the first woman to win the Mexican National Award for Journalism.

What People are Saying About This

Isabel Allende

"The great Mexican writer Elena Poniatowska using her imagination and skills as a journalist to recreate Tina Modatti's life, conveying not only the character of that wild and sensuous Italian refugee, her notorious love affaris, alleged crimes, and leftist politics, but also the twenties, a vibrant time of change, revolutions and art."

Ana Castillo

"Modatti's life was made of the stuff of legendary heroines and Poniatowska has rendered it unforgettably so."

Ariel Dorfman

"A tumultuous story of photographer-turned-radical Tina Modatti - reinvented by one of the most original and daring voices of the Americas."

Editorial Reviews

An intensely imagined, sensuously detailed account of the extraordinary life of photographer and militant revolutionary Tina Modotti (1896-1942), this compelling novel reflects the political and social turbulence of the 1920s through the '40s as experienced by a brave and vibrant woman who was an intimate of some of the leading poets, writers, artists and politicians of her time. Modotti lived various roles in her passionate life: she was a seamstress in San Francisco, an actress in silent films, a student and lover of photographer Edward Weston, a model for Diego Rivera's murals, an agent for the Soviet Union and always a cultural, intellectual and political vivant whose sensuous spirit captivated men and, for a time, the entire Mexican population (they called her Tinisima, a diminutive of her name but also an endearment). Tracing Modotti's footsteps to California, Mexico, Berlin, Moscow and Spain, Poniatowska adroitly interprets history without marginalizing the lyricism of Modotti's tragic quest for identity and true love. In Mexico in 1929, young Cuban revolutionary Julio Antonio Mella is assassinated while walking arm-in-arm with Modotti. Eager to rid the country of communist sympathizers, the government accuses Tina of his murder. Rivera and other prominent Mexican intelligentsia eventually help win her freedom. Expelled from Mexico, Modotti lives for a time in Moscow, becomes an agent for Red Aid, the international revolutionary organization, and works for the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War. Tired and ill, in 1939 she returns to Mexico, where she remains unrecognized until her death, when Pablo Neruda immortalizes her in a poem. One of Mexico's leading writers, Poniatowska (Dear Diego) has made an art form of blending journalism and fiction. She tells this novel in an urgent present tense, segueing among short, vivid scenes with cinematic virtuosity. Ten years of research and a thorough knowledge of the currents of history contribute to this portrait, but equally important is Poniatowska's intuitive appreciation of a woman shaped and destroyed by her tumultuous times. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Noteworthy Mexican novelist Poniatowska and Tina Modotti, the radical photographer linked to Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Edward Weston, would seem a potent combination. Though this novel indeed probes powerfully into the psyche of Tinisima, as she is called by murdered lover Julio Antonio Mella, this novel does not quite ignite as it should. As she moves from the murder of Mella, of which Tinisima is accused in an obvious setup because of the couple's Communist activities, through the trial, the liaison with Weston, and on to Europe for more politcal activity, the reader has a slight, much-regretted sense of plodding. This is too bad, since Tinisima is herself such a dynamic subject. There is evocative writing here, and plenty of rich detail, but it should have been better. For literary collections.Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"

Library Journal