Germán
List Arzubide (May 31, 1898 - October 17, 1998) was a survivor.
He outlived the Mexican Revolution. A revolution he witnessed
come to life on the streets of his home town of Puebla on November
19, 1910. Germán, his brother and mother are forced to
view the lifeless body of Aquiles Serdán, the pro democracy
maderista patriot, as a warning against sedition. Three years
later , at the age of 15, he joins the carranzista forces of Col.
Gabriel Rojano, his high school English teacher. He outlived the
members of the native Mexican literary movement he helped start:
el estridentismo. And he was close to outliving the XX century.
List was on board the train spiriting the government under Carranza
away from the "Agua Prieta" rebellion in 1920 . When
the rails were cut by the rebels, he was left behind having not
the money nor the clout to commandeer a mount. Germán liked
to express, "what would my story be had I been given a horse?"
Carranza and many of those who ride off with him are gunned down
days later in the small hamlet of Tlaxcalantongo. .
In 1922, Germán joined the young lawyer poet
Manuel Maples Arce in launching Mexico's first native artistic
movement: "estridentismo", or Stridentism. The estridentistas
brought the recent revolution home to Mexican letters blowing
out the votive candles to the XIX Century with a Futurist blast.
Rivera, Siquieros, Tamayo and Charlot, names that would shortly
shine under the banner of Mexican Muralism, joined the estridentistas
-signing their manifestos, participating in their expositions
and lending works to be published in the movement's magazine "Horizonte",
of which Germán List was its editor.
In the 1930's Germán was a stalwart against
tyranny at home and from abroad. He was a founding member of the
League of Revolutionary Writers and Artists (known by its Spanish
acronym LEAR) that opposed the fascist ideology making headway
in the Americas at the time. List backed the cause of Veracruz
female coffee sorters in defying the wealthy coffee magnets, championing
their right to unionize. The resolution of the strike by the timely
out break of the de la Huerta rebellion in which the general in
the pay of the coffee magnets is executed before he could see
his order to shoot Germán carried out further contributed
to his legacy as a human rights activist as well as provided Fate
one more opportunity to come to his aid.
Germán List is a founder of the National Workers University.
He became the long-time editor of the magazine "Tiempo".
He brought from Russia puppetry techniques - and with Germán
Cueto, founded the Mexican "teatro guiñol". Germán
continued till the end of his fascinating life to write and publish
essays on literary subjects and social causes. Germán passed
away on Saturday October 17, 1998, at the age of 100 years and
139 days.
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