This article accompanies the fable
A Tale of Two Women


José Clemente Orozco’s The Franciscan



Is this a positive image or a predatory image?

Some critics view this image from the late 1920's as a nurturing image where the Franciscan father embraces the emaciated Indian - Orozco was more sympathetic than most to the early colonial Catholic priests and their mission to the Indians. Others see a more sinister motive at work, almost vampiric, and consistent with Orozco's habitual cynicism about all beliefs and ideologies.