Lost Identities: Miss Mexico 1928

Abstract

The case of Mar.a Teresa de Landa was an event

arousing considerable attention in its time. In 1928

she was the first “Miss Mexico” and, for the greater

glory of her country, was competing for the World

beauty title in Galveston, Texas. Her beauty, intelligence

and tenacity had won her the Mexican title.

A year later, however, she was arrested for the crime

of murder, having shot her bigamous husband general

Mois.s Vidal. The story has important implications

for history, not only for the social implications of both

circumstances, but also as something that throws into

vivid relief the situation of post-revolutionary society,

the encounters between the military and civil sectors,

social and cultural dissonances. It is also illustrative

of the way in which the legal system operated, in

the sense that no woman accused of murdering her

husband was condemned to imprisonment during

the 1920s. “Avengers of female destiny” was a phrase

applied by Aurelio de los Reyes, suggesting a history

of mentalities, a social and cultural history, but also a

history of gender in the process of construction and

salvage in its most intimate details. This text addresses

only a part of the many facets of that world that revealed

itself as crude, hard and subtly aggressive.