The cultural guild recalls the teachings of the "generous" Rodrigo Moya

▲ Rodrigo Moya at the opening of the exhibition Cuba 1964: The Revolution in Progress , at the Tlalpan History Museum, Mexico City, 2018. Photo by Roberto García Ortiz

Daniel López Aguilar

La Jornada Newspaper, Friday, August 1, 2025, p. 5

As expressions of grief continue to grow in the cultural sphere following the death of Rodrigo Moya, his son Pablo confirmed that the photographer was cremated this Thursday morning, in accordance with his wishes.

Although a wake was not held, the family is preparing an intimate gathering to say goodbye: After these stormy days, we are going to organize something at his house to welcome his friends and say goodbye together .

Pablo Moya added that, while some organizations have expressed their condolences, he hopes that over time they will show interest in the archive his father built over decades, which constitutes an essential testimony to the history of Mexico and Latin America.

The archive is in very good condition and well organized. Susan Flaherty, his wife, will continue to manage it, safeguarding and caring for it, surely with the same love and dedication she has shown since they started it together 25 years ago .

Although it is premature to talk about future plans, he assured that everything possible will be done to keep the archive alive and active .

One of the most touching testimonies was shared by Colombian photographer, documentary filmmaker, and film critic Guillermo Angulo, who described Moya as his best friend and disciple.

"I am deeply saddened by the passing of Rodrigo Moya. He leaves behind a series of negative aspects that are part of the history of Mexico and part of Latin America.

"He never renounced his position as a man of the left, always on the side of the weak, as reflected in his photographs, true masterpieces. A prime example: his extraordinary piece entitled Guerrillas in the Fog .

The Mexican government should do something to preserve Moya's valuable collection of negatives, which are of great importance to the country's art.

In an interview with La Jornada , Angulo recalled that they met in the 1950s, when he was chief photographer for Impacto magazine, directed by Regino Hernández Llergo, and Moya worked in television.

“We decided to share our knowledge: he showed me how a television camera worked, and I showed him how to develop negatives and make prints. He was amazed when he dipped a piece of photographic paper in the developing liquid and the image of his sister, a dancer, appeared.

With excessive generosity, he said in almost every interview that I had been his teacher, and I argued that he hadn't, because photography is a personal way of seeing the world, and that can't be taught.

Messages also came from various institutional fronts that underscored the significance of his legacy. The federal Ministry of Culture recognized him as an essential figure in Latin American photojournalism , whose camera captured the social inequalities, popular struggles, and revolutionary movements of the 1950s and 1960s .

UNAM Culture remembered one of his most intimate phrases: Photography was for me the most intense approach to life, to the nature of the world, to the beings and things that entered through my lens and are still there, populating memory and the small surface of photographic paper, refusing to die, looking at me with the same eyes with which they looked at me decades ago .

Moya died last Wednesday at his home in Cuernavaca, Morelos, after convalescing from surgery.

Angel Vargas

La Jornada Newspaper, Friday, August 1, 2025, p. 5

At the age of 82, Argentine psychoanalyst Mara La Madrid, widow of poet Juan Gelman (1930-2014), passed away yesterday. She was widely recognized for her commitment to the best causes and her professional performance.

His death occurred in the early morning hours due to natural causes at his home in Mexico City, where funeral services were held hours later in accordance with his last wishes. His remains will be cremated this Friday, and his ashes will remain in the country, Verónica Moore and María Inés Roqué announced on behalf of the family.

It is the end of an unclassifiable and very full life, with all the great difficulties she lived through, but also with the enormous strength and sensitivity she had , expressed Moisés Hernández, her friend and colleague, member along with her and Gabriel Meraz of the editorial board of Epeele (psychoanalytic publishing house of the AC letter).

Born in the Argentine capital on August 22, 1942, Mara La Madrid studied psychology at the University of Buenos Aires. Since the early 1970s, she participated in study and reading groups on the works of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan.

He was a member of the École Lacanienne de Psychanalyse and part of the editorial committee of the Spanish version of Litoral —when the journal published by that school moved from Argentina to Mexico—as well as of Epeele—as already mentioned, a publishing house founded in 1991 to disseminate the contributions of Lacan's teaching in Spanish.

A romantic partner of Juan Gelman for the last 25 years of his life, she has also been recognized for her active role in the search for the poet's granddaughter, Macarena Gelman, born in captivity during the Argentine military dictatorship.

Missing in Argentina

She supported various causes. One of the most important was that of the disappeared in Argentina. She played a very active and key role in that issue, particularly in the search for Macarena. She and Juan were also very close to and supportive of the Zapatista movement in Mexico , said psychoanalyst Gabriel Meraz.

Juan would not have been able to do it without her (finding his granddaughter in 2000) , add Verónica Moore and María Inés Roqué, who remember that the poet and the psychoanalyst are co-authors of the book, Ni el flaco perdón de Dios , in which they summarize and tell the story of that feat.

According to Moisés Hernández and Gabriel Meraz, Mara La Madrid was always aware of the political situation in Mexico and around the world, and also showed solidarity with various causes and social movements, such as the feminist movement, in which she participated.

He had a deep sensitivity to social, political, and justice issues. He was completely supportive of the causes of the LGBT+ community. In that sense, he was ahead of his time, because he showed openness to this topic long before other psychoanalysts and everyone else .

Beyond her social commitment, according to both specialists, her main contribution is in the field of psychoanalysis and therapy. Mara was liberated territory for many people , adds Verónica Moore, as her work saved many people's emotional and professional lives.

Mara La Madrid arrived in exile in Mexico in the mid-1970s accompanied by her first husband, Enrico Stefani, and her two daughters. From then on, according to Verónica Moore and María Inés Roqué, she forged a strong network of friendship and solidarity with other exiles and psychoanalysts from around the world, which extended over the 25 years of her relationship with Juan Gelman to include artists and intellectuals.

Among them were the writers José Emilio and Cristina Pacheco, Carlos Monsiváis, the poet Alí Chumacero, the painters Arturo Rivera and Gabriel Macotela, and the Spanish singer-songwriter Joaquín Sabina, to name a few.

Gelman dedicated to him what would be his posthumous work, Amaramara , published four months after the author's death, consisting of 26 poems, most of them unpublished, and 23 paintings by Arturo Rivera.