Ana Victoria Jiménez

The Memora Project worked for many years, specifically, until 2011, to turn Jiménez's most recognized work into, Archivo Ana Victoria Jiménez. This archive of hers is located in the Biblioteca Francisco Xavier Clavigero, of the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City. It was first integrated with the exhibition of ¿Mujeres? ¿y que más?: Reactivando el Archivo de Ana Victoria Jiménez, in 2011. The archive is a series, of over four-thousand pieces, of documented and collected photographs, flyers, and posters (collected between 1970-1990), that captured feminist protest and demonstrations in Mexico City. Gabriela Aceves Sepuvelda claims that Monica Mayer , whom was part of the Memora Project, was an important figure that helped transform Jiménez's collections into an archive.

Jiménez's first photographic essay was, Jiménez: 1985. This photographic essay, narrates a story in which a woman climbs up to a tree to speak of her youth, while also portraying wishes of getting married and fulfilling her dreams. The woman of this narrative, is eventually beaten by her husband and her children are taken away from her, resulting in her becoming crazy. According to Andrea Giunta, Jimenez's purpose of this photographic essay was to shed light on the influence that religion had on women in Mexico.

Other works she participated in were Encuentro Femenismo Arte y Mujer (1979) and the exposition of Colectiva Mujeres Artistas-Artistas Mujeres (presented in the Museo de Bellas Artes de Toluca, in 1984).

Jiménez began to create still photography in 1978, when she began to work with Cine Mujer, a collective which was founded by Rosa Martha Fernandez and Beatriz Mar. Cine Mujer was founded in 1975 with the purpose to create films that highlighted women's issues. Within Cine Mujer, Jiménez captured images for many films such as, Cosas de Mujeres 1975-1978 (Women's Matters). Cosas de Mujeres's objection was to reveal the abortion restrictions that women faced. The still images, which Jiménez created for the film, were presented in many campaigns that tried to decriminalize abortion. Another film that Jiménez created with Cine Mujer was, Rompiendo Silencio (Breaking the Silence), which was released in 1979 and centered on raped women. Both films, were captured in black and white, shot with 16mm, featured interviews, fictional narrative, still photography, and statistics. Gabriela Aceves claims that, Jiménez's still photography, showing demonstrations by feminist, contributed to placing Mexico's feminist movement in a state of credibility, and a place where they fought for global women issues.

Other photographic essays that she created were, "Ensayo Sobre Todo Trabajo Domestico" (Essay on All Domestic Work) and Cuaderno de Tareas. Ensayo Sobre Todo Trabajo Domestico, is a photographic essay on domestic work, from 1978, containing many photographs that capture the daily lives of domestic workers. Cuaderno de Tareas, is also a project in essay form, that documents (from 1978-1981) a domestic worker; Jiménez shadowed a specific female domestic worker. In this project, viewers can see the pictures of the domestic worker performing her paid job, such as cleaning and washing clothes. Jiménez decided to highlight "focus" on the worker's hands “as she cooked, cleaned the bathroom, washed by hand, folded clothes, wrote on her type writer, and used the sewing machine." Cecilia Fajardo-Hill claims, that Jiménez's work in this project was intended to “recognize” the “value of work in the home” which was an issue that many feminist wrote about during this time.

Much of her recognized photography is those photographed during Mexican Feminist Movement. Many of Jiménez's images portray activist during protest and events such as the March for Decriminalizing Abortion (1977), in front of Mexico's Angel of independence, and the protest in the National Auditorium against the ideas posed by the Miss Universe contest of Mexico. During the time that Ana Victoria Jiménez was dedicated to photography, she sold some of her work and was even asked to create images for store catalogues. Her photos of feminist demonstrations were many times featured in the newspapers and magazines, but were not given credit. Jiménez claims that she decided to leave photography when she realized that it was not her line of work, unlike her work as an editor. She did however, continue capturing photos until the 1990s.

Jiménez did not attain a high school diploma. However, she did attend, Sindicato de Pintores y Escultores, in Mexico, where she studied graphic arts. It was not until later of her photography career that she took an instructional class with well known photographer, Alicia D'Amico. In 1974-75, Jiménez decided to continue her photography education by enrolling in classes that would train her on technique.

Jiménez's active participation in Mexico's feminist movements, specifically during the post-revolution and second wave, allowed the activist to support feminist issues such as the legalization of abortion, equality, and recognition. Still considered a communist activist, Jiménez moved on to become member and founder of, Union Nacional de Mujeres Mexicanas (UNMM). During her time with the UNMM, she became the group's representative at the International Democratic Federation of Women (FDIM), which was stationed in Berlin. With the FDIM, Jiménez and others constantly worked on bulletins for the group. Then, in the late 1970s, she decided to form part of Mujeres en Acción Solidaria (Women in Solidarity Action). After becoming part of Mujeres en Acción Solidaria (MAS), Jiménez's activism began to shift focus onto feminism. Gabriela Aceves Sepulveda tells us that through Mujeres en Acción Solidaria, specifically after the march towards Mexico's Mother's Monument (May 9, 1971), a march which demanded a change in the manipulation of Mother's Day and women objectification of the media, Jiménez actively began documenting demonstrations. Another group that Jiménez decided to join, in 1972, was Movimiento Nacional de Mujeres (MNM). MNM was established by Esperanza Brito de Martí and other women, whom worked in broadcasting and print media industries such as Martha de la Lama.

Ana Victoria Jiménez's photographic style was highly associated with radical feminism by the end of the 1970s. According to Ana Victoria Jiménez, her style in photography was spontaneous when she first began to take photos. She utilized journals to read about techniques, but she did not know how to professionally handle a camera; she took photos as she pleased. After receiving some training in 1975, Jiménez claims to have known how to better handle a camera and take pictures. Before her training, she states that, she would capture images by a far distance because she was "afraid of the camera", but afterwards, she began to get close to the people she captured. During her time of working with collaborative groups, Jiménez built a dark room in her home, where she learned to develop photolithographs to produce negatives for print productions. She even experimented with photolithography to print her own photographs and works.

Jiménez's involvement in the feminist movement consisted of participating in events but, the majority was her documentation of demonstrations by the feminist. In fact, between 1964-1990, Jiménez was able to gather and photograph more than three-thousand of the feminist's actions and protest in photographs and documents such as flyers and posters. The collected photographs and documents, which Jiménez saved, came to interest a group of scholars and feminist artist in 2009. The group's objection was to bring the set of photos and documents back to the public view; their efforts to make this happen became known as the Memora Project.

Jiménez has been dedicated to activism since the 1960s. In the beginning of her activist career, she formed part of the Communist Party. Within the Communist Party, specifically the Communist Youth League, she was able to become the secretary of the party's, Comité Central (The central Committee). Also, during her participation in a communist party named, Central Campesina Independiente and Frente Electoral del Pueblo (Central Peasant Independent and Electoral Front of the People), Jiménez was arrested and detained during an operation by Mexico City police, which was organized with the intent of stopping radical activity by communist. Furthermore, due to her position as the secretary of the Comité Central, Jiménez was able to travel to the Soviet Union, and other countries, that formed part of the party.

Ana Victoria Jiménez (born August 31, 1941) is a Mexican feminist, photographer, editor, and activist, that actively participated in the second wave of Mexico's feminist movement. She is best known for her archive, Archivo Ana Victoria Jiménez, which contains photographs, posters, and flyers that demonstrated or related to women activism in Mexico.

Ana Victoria Jiménez was born in Mexico City, on August 31, 1941. Her parents were Ana Alvarez and Ramiro Jiménez. She began her activism at the young age of seventeen. In her house, during nineteen-fifties and nineteen-sixties, she and her family read many journals by Política and other newspapers, that informed on the political climate; she also had many friends that she would attend political conferences with. As most famously known for her photographs and archive, Jiménez's educational training did not involve photography. After finishing her studies at Sindicato de Pintores y Escultores, she worked as a typesetter in a print shop. Her job was to check for any spelling errors found in linotype presses. Years later, she worked for IBM where she spent much of her time utilizing a portable machine. Jiménez's activism and militancy was first enacted through the Communist Party in Mexico and later on, in Mexico's feminist movement. It wasn't until her involvement with the women's movement, that Jiménez began her work as a photographer and archivist. After participating and documenting in the movement for many years, Jiménez decided to begin her work as an independent editor, co-author, and desktop publisher. She focused her writing on the history of the Union Nacional de Mujeres Mexicanas (UNMM), its members, and artists. She also wrote through many Mexican journals, newspapers, and books, concentrating on themes such as: domestic work, women biographies, and campesinas (women peasants). In 2011, her documentations of the women's movement gained recognition and was exhibited as an archive at, the Universidad Iberoamericana. Since then, Ana Victoria Jiménez has formed part of important exhibitions in the United States and has continued her work as an editor and author in Mexico.