Pluma y plomo – Plomo y pluma

Pluma y plomo – Plomo y Pluma (2 volumes), texts by Luis Barjau and Christian Duverger and illustrations by Emiliano Gironella Parra. Heraldo Media Group, Mexico, November 2019. 

The feather and lead book project was born from the enthusiasm of a group of intellectuals who at the beginning of the year set the goal for themselves to highlighting the most important event of 2019: the 500th anniversary of the meeting between Emperor Moctezuma and Captain General Hernán Cortés, the beginning of the conquest of Tenochtitlan. “For this reason, throughout this year,” says Angel Mieres Zimmermann in his presentation, “Luis Barjau and Christian Duverger dragged their expertly trained pens across the pages of El Heraldo de México to recount the previous details of that historic meeting in a weekly column”…, Barjau from the perspective of Moctezuma, and Duverger from Cortés´ point of view. Eventually the essays were compiled under two titles: “Moctezuma. The Tragic” and “Cortés. From Santo Domingo to Mexico Tenochtitlan”. The double publication is designed express the parallel nature of two distinct visions: that of the emperor and that of the conqueror.

A prologue by Diego Prieto Hernández, “Mexico-Tenochtitlan: 500 years. Alliances, confrontation and conquest”, introduces the essays. 50 works by Gironella Parra (48 monotypes and two paintings made with mixed media on canvas) recreate and illustrate some of the passages described and analyzed in the texts.