La Patria Mexicana Defendida por Sus Hijos

Inscriptions

In print, bottom left: Propaganda de la Secretaria de Educacion Publica.

Label

How does a government recruit soldiers for war? Here we see one possible answer: an appeal to patriotic sentiment.

This World War II-era recruiting poster shows two iconic Mexican national symbols: the Pyramid of the Sun, a temple located in the ancient Mesoamerican city of Teotihuacan, and the eagle grasping a snake, an image featured on the national flag of Mexico. A pair of hands holding a rifle symbolically protects these national symbols. This poster asks its intended viewer—the young man of fighting age—to see himself as an extension of these hands, and therefore to identify as a patriotic soldier selflessly serving his nation.

From the 2023 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 110, Constructing the Ideal Soldier, curated by Nathan Savo '24, Class of 1954 Intern

Course History

ARTH 16, Mexican Art, Mary Coffey, Fall 2012

ARTH 16, Mexican Art, Mary Coffey, Fall 2012

GOVT 49.04, LACS 52.01, WGSS 31.01, Sex and the State: Latin America, Lisa Baldez, Fall 2019

Exhibition History

A Space for Dialogue 110, Constructing the Ideal Soldier, Nathan Savo, Class of 2024, Curator, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, 7 January - 26 February 2023

On All Fronts: Posters from the World Wars in the Dartmouth Collection, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 30-July 4, 1999.

Publication History

Diane Miliotes, Nermina Zildzo, War Posters, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 1999, listed p.6.

Provenance

Acquired by either Willis Stetson Fitch (1896-1978) or Edward Tuck (1842-1938), date unknown; given to Special Collections, Baker Library, Dartmouth College, date unknown; transferred to present collection, 1987.

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Subject