Tina Modotti - La Tecnica - Mella's Typewriter

TINA MODOTTI
La Tecnica - Mella's Typewriter, Mexico City, 1929
Image size: 23,5 x 18 cm Sheet size: 30,5 x 24 cm

This print was produced in the context of the first German Modotti exhibition, organized by NGBK Berlin, 1989 and with the collaboration of the Museum of Photography of the National Photograph Library in Pachuca, Mexico in charge of the Modotti negatives provided by Vittorio Vidali, Trieste, through Carlos Vidali.
The catalog is titled :"Tina Modotti. Photographien & Dokumente."
January 1, 1989. It is still available from a few antiquarian dealers.
The exhibition has been on tour ever since always in updated format
as recently shown at Museo Cerralbo, Madrid, PHotoESPAÑA 2022 and subsequent places.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrKmxgnf3pI&t=44s

Julio Antonio Mella McPartland (born Nicanor McPartland; 25 March 1903 – 10 January 1929) was a Cuban political activist, journalist, communist revolutionary, and one of the founders of the original Communist Party of Cuba.
Mella studied law at the University of Havana but was expelled in 1925. He fled Machado's repression in Cuba. He escaped through Cienfuegos, Cuba, reaching Honduras in 1926. He traveled from there through Guatemala and into Mexico, settling in Mexico City. In Mexico, he wrote for a number of newspapers: Cuba Libre, El Libertador, Tren Blindado ("The Armored Train", a Trotskyist symbol), El Machete, and the Boletín del Torcedor (which is published in Havana). Additionally, in 1926, he founded the Asociación de Nuevos Emigrados Revolucionarios Cubanos.
Death
At the time of his murder, he was working as a Cuban Marxist revolutionary in Mexico. He worked with other exiles and supporters to organize the overthrow of the Cuban government of General Gerardo Machado. This cause was an embarrassment to the Cuban Communist Party, which was trying to gain power by establishing a modus vivendi with Machado. Cuban communists were also disturbed by suspecting that Mella had fallen under the influence of former Soviet leader Leon Trotsky. Mella was assassinated on 10 January 1929, while walking home late at night with photographer Tina Modotti.
The Mexican government tried to implicate Modotti in the murder, publishing nude photographs of her by American Edward Weston in an attempt to generate public opinion against her. Muralist Diego Rivera was highly active in defending her and exposing the Mexican government's crude attempt to frame her. Analysts have not reached consensus on the parties responsible for Mella's assassination: the dictatorial Cuban government; the result of Trotsky-Stalin Communist Party feuding; or by a combination of these interests. While two known criminals were charged with his murder, there was still speculation.