Anita Brenner

Anita Brenner
Born
Hanna Brenner

(1905-08-13)13 August 1905
Aguascalientes, Mexico
Died1 December 1974(1974-12-01) (aged 69)
Ojuelos de Jalisco, Mexico
NationalityMexico
United States
Occupation(s)Writer, anthropologist
Spouse
David Glusker
​
​
(m. 1930; sep. 1951)​
Children2

Anita Brenner (born Hanna Brenner; 13 August 1905 – 1 December 1974) was a transnational Jewish scholar and intellectual,[1] who wrote extensively in English about the art, culture, and history of Mexico.[2] She was born in Mexico, and raised and educated in the United States. She returned to Mexico in the 1920s following the Mexican Revolution. She coined the term 'Mexican Renaissance',[3] "to describe the cultural florescence [that] emerged from the revolution."[4] As a child of immigrants, Brenner's heritage caused her to experience both antisemitism and acceptance. Fleeing discrimination in Texas, she found mentors and colleagues among the European Jewish diaspora living in both Mexico and New York,[5] but Mexico, not the US or Europe, held her loyalty and enduring interest.[6] She was part of the post-Revolutionary art movement known for its indigenista ideology.

Brenner earned a PhD in anthropology at Columbia University and her first book, Idols Behind Altars was the first book to document the artworks, styles and artists of Mexico from Prehistory through the 1920s.[7] It was widely considered her most important work[8] and was filled with photographs by renowned photographers and interviews with the most influential and prolific artists of the period.[9] Her fourth published book was The Wind That Swept Mexico; The History of the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1942, having in between printed a guidebook and a children's story. The first book to give a complete account in either English or Spanish on the Mexican Revolution,[10] it was the first to retell the events from a Mexican perspective.[11]

  1. ^ Rick A. López, "Anita Brenner and the Jewish Roots of Mexico's Postrevolutionary National Identity," in Open Borders to a Revolution: culture, Politics, and Migration, edited by Jaime Marroquín Arredondo, Adela Pineda Franco, and Magdalena Mieri. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press 2013, p. 125.
  2. ^ John A. Britton, "Anita Brenner" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, vol. 1, p. 467. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1996.
  3. ^ Anita Brenner, "A Mexican Renascence." Arts 12 (September 1925): 127-50
  4. ^ López, "Anita Brenner", p. 123.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Lopez (2013) was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Diario Judío (2014) was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Aguas was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Villela (2012) was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Porter (1991) was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kolb/Wind (1999) was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference UT was invoked but never defined (see the help page).