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A RANSOM NOTE IN SIX IMAGES, CONCERNING THE DECAPITATED HEADS OF THE MEXICAN REVOLUTIONARIES

Quintan Ana Wikswo

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These photographs and texts were created at the Alhóndiga de Granaditas in the Sierra Madre mining town of Guanajuato, Mexico where Mexican-born Spaniards, Mestizos, Zambos and Amerindians attacked the wealthy Spanish colonists during the Mexican War of Independence against Spain. During the siege, miner Juán José "El Pípila" Martínez strapped a boulder to his back for protection and crawled to the Granary's enormous wooden door with a flaming torch, burning it down and allowing the rebels to enter and massacre the Spaniards within. Nearly a year later, the leaders of the revolution were decapitated and their heads placed in iron birdcages on the four corners of the Alhóndiga de Granaditas. At the base of the city's monument to El Pípila is the following inscription: "...aun hay otras Alhóndigas por incendiar," "...there are still other Alhóndigas left to burn."

Wikswo's photographs are created using damaged battlefield cameras and altered vintage films, without any digital alteration.