Mexico, The Water Towers of Los Remedios

Max Pollak

Max Pollak was born in Czechoslovakia and raised in Vienna, Austria. A printmaker with a long and productive career, his intaglio subjects included genre, land and cityscapes, and portraits from throughout Europe, the Holy Land, the United States, and Latin America.

In the early 1940s, the Pollaks traveled throughout Mexico and Latin America where Max recorded the everyday life of the residents and the architecture and landscapes of the regions, often using his favorite medium, etching and aquatint, the color for which he generally applied 'a la poupée.'

This image features the mountainous landscape of Los Remedios in the locality of Naucalpan, north of Mexico City. His viewpoint is from a hillside, looking down from a water tower, across the aqueduct, town, and arid valley to the water tower on the next hillside. Two small figures in the foreground go about their activities. The size of the figures gives the viewer a sense of the scale of the composition and the water towers. The aqueduct below, consisting of 50 arches, brings water to the Sanctuary of Los Remedios from a spring at the village of San Francisco Chimalpa. At the left of the arid landscape are large maguey agave which is used by the people for the making of clothing, medicine, shelter, fuel, alcohol, and tools.

The construction of the aqueduct of Los Remedios was begun in 1620. The seventy-four-foot tall water towers on either end were to regulate the pressure and allow the conveyance of water uphill. The project was abandoned until the 18th century when new technology solved the earlier problems and the aqueduct was completed in 1765. Today, the area is known as Los Remedios National Park.