Helena Brandon de González-Crussi
Friday, September 12, 2014
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| Helena Brandon de González-Crussi - Archivo Casasola 1915 |
One of my favourite
essayists is Mexican-born Federico González-Crussi. He is a retired pathologist.
He began his
career in 1967 in academic medicine in Canada,
at Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario), and moved to the United States in 1973. He was a
Professor of Pathology at Indiana University until 1978, when he relocated to Chicago; there to become Professor of Pathology at
Northwestern University School of Medicine and Head of Laboratories of
Children’s Memorial
Hospital until his
retirement in 2001.
Gonzalez-Crussi, writes in precise English
(his books are then translated into Spanish) and I have three of them: The Day
of the Dead and Other Mortal Reflections, On Being Born and Other Difficulties,
and On the Nature of Things Erotic.
González-Crussi was born in 1938. His father
was friends with pioneering Mexican photographer Agustín Ignacio Casasola (1874-1938).
Casasola started what really was the first ever photo agency and recorded and
catalogued the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920). Perhaps since one of Casasola’s
sons was called, Federico (Casasola Zapata) González-Crussi was named Federico.
I have in my memory that wonderful
photograph taken by Mathew Brady in the 1860s called Mrs. Brandon. There is no
other information on who she was or why she would have posed for Brady in his New York City studio. It would be too much of a coincidence to
connect her to Helena Brandon González-Crussi. I am also curious as to how Helena
was related to the retired pathologist/author. Perhaps I will never know. In
the museum of the Fototeca I was able to purchase a nice sepia-toned print of
the woman and here she is. Note the eyebrows on both women.
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| Mrs. Brandon - Mathew Brady circa 1860-1865 |
