[The Third Fall]/[La Tercera Caída]

From the Getty Museum record

*I do not know if you have been absent: I lie down with you, I rise up with you, In my dreams you are with me. If my teardrops tremble within my eyes, I know it is you moving my heart.* Like this Aztec poem, the image of an isolated figure lying exposed and vulnerable on a city street evokes feelings of anguish, longing, and departure. Mexican mythology rests heavily upon ideas of death, considered a constant companion to every man, woman, and child. Manuel Alvarez Bravo explored this theme in his work as a mean of analyzing his own culture. The title, *The Third Fall,*alludes to the prayer Christians offer at the ninth Station of the Cross: "My Jesus, by all the bitter woes Thou didst endure when for the third time the heavy cross bowed Thee to the earth, never, I beseech Thee, let me fall again into sin." Lying as if at the feet of the viewer, the faceless individual embodies the fall into misery that has plagued Mexico's people.