After finishing my work in Piaxtla in 2009, I decided to continue the project as a chain of interpretation. I found out that the first person to emigrate from this place was a lady that in 1952 went to work in Washington, D.C., moving later to Connecticut and New York, to eventually go back to her town. I connected this case with a film that had become one of the most relevant references for me at the time, Two Lane Blacktop (Monte Hellman, 1971). The film develops as a car race in a similar route to that taken by Maurilia Arriaga. That’s how I planned a journey by car from Piaxtla to Connecticut.
During the 35-day trip, I followed the path of Maurilia Arriaga, documenting in a drawing log the places where scenes from Hellman’s film could be re-enacted.
On my return, writer Élmer Mendoza wrote a film script titled El Cuarto Camino (The Fourth Path), based on Two Lane Blacktop, the drawings from both phases of the project, the stories I told him, and the characters that I met.
Selection of 52 drawings, 21 x 29.7 cm each
photographic and xerographic prints and diverse material
With the collaboration of Élmer Mendoza
and the assistance of Enrique Arriaga.
Produced by Programa Bancomer MACG,
Arte Actual, Mexico and Cajasol, Spain.