Images From Mexican Revolution at Kristoffer’s Café
Carl Vogel
Published: October 2, 2009
Emiliano Zapata, on the wall at Kristoffer's
There, looking you in the face, is history. From nearly a century ago, rare photographs from the era of the Mexican Revolution are now on display at Kristoffer’s Café & Bakery.
“You hear about Pancho Villa or [Emiliano] Zapata, but to see them face-to-face, in photographs from that era—that’s about as real as it gets,” says Carlos Chavarria, the café’s owner. “These are the people that played a huge role in creating modern Mexico, the culture, the history.”
The nearly two dozen photos at Kristoffer’s, 1733 S Halsted, are pat of “The World of Casasola: An Era of Historic Mexico,” an exhibit that opened on September 11th and runs through October 6. The shots capture everything from children huddled together sleeping on the street to triumphant parades of revolutionary armies.
Historic Photos
Francisco "Pancho" Villa
The photographs are all by Agustin Victor Casasola, arguably the best known photographer of the era in Mexico. A former portrait photographer, Casasola was the founding president of Mexico's first press photographers' association, and his images of the 1910 revolution and life in Mexico were widely printed in newspapers in Mexico and the U.S.
Chavarria’s café has rotated art exhibits on the walls of the café, for the last six years—more than 50 shows in all—and when he heard about the opportunity to show these rare images, he jumped at the chance. “These are first-generation prints,” he says. “I have a friend who has a connection in Mexico City that was able to secure the rights to have and display these prints from [Casasola’s] family.”
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