“They were two soul mates.” This is how Alejandro Brito, director of the Museo del Estanquillo, defined yesterday the photographer Héctor García (1923-2012) and the writer Carlos Monsiváis (1938-2010), whose friendship allowed them to make visual and written chronicles of the social and cultural reality of the City of Mexico, from 1940 to 1980.
They were both in love with Mexico City, they liked to visit it, they knew it very well, they enjoyed the city’s nightlife and humor was the vital element of their work”, added the cultural promoter.
At a press conference, in the compound that guards the Monsiváis collection, Brito detailed the exhibition ¿Qué me ves? Héctor García, chronicler of the lens, which brings together close to 240 photographs and opens today, at noon, to commemorate the centenary of the photojournalist’s birth.
Héctor said that he chronicled with light and we can say that Monsiváis portrayed Mexican reality with his prose. They complemented each other a lot,” he added.
They did not live so far from each other and they frequented each other. They had many interests in common. They both loved the capital, they were born here, grew up here and were educated in popular neighborhoods; They had the same sensitivity.
«Sometimes, Monsiváis went to García’s house to eat, because he really liked the food that María (Héctor’s wife) made. He even talked to Maria and asked her ‘what did you make for lunch?’ and she asked him to invite him, ”he recounted.
Brito recalled that, on occasions, “Héctor acted as a driver, since Carlos never had a car, and he always took advantage of the rides. He didn’t know how to drive, but he knew the city like the best of taxi drivers.
This long friendship between the two creators, “vagos y amigueros”, enriched their work and their mutual admiration gave life to books such as Principalities and Powers (1969) and Días de guardar (1970), by Monsiváis.
During the tour of the sample, Ana Catalina Valenzuela explained that the graphics make up 11 thematic nuclei and that the Monsiváis collection houses 150 photographs, 109 of which make up the sample.
This is the first of nine exhibitions that will be presented at various venues, at the initiative of Héctor García Jr., also a photographer, in collaboration with the federal and capital secretariats of Culture and the María y Héctor García Foundation.