Anita (Hanna) Brenner was born on August 13, 1905, in Aguascalientes. Her father was a Jewish emigrant from Latvia. During her childhood (and the Mexican Revolution) Brenner's family moved back and forth between Texas and Mexico. She did return to Mexico at age 18, under the guidance of Frances Toor, and she became acquainted with artists and intellectuals in Mexico City.
Brenner became an influential journalist and an important spokesperson for the Mexican artistic community. Brenner was an advocate for making Mexican life/art known to the US. She took part in a cultural mission program in the 1920's and with photographers Tina Modotti and Edward Weston, traveled Mexico to document indigenous and decorative art. Her journals and the photographs were published after her death in a two volume chronicle.
In 1927 she left Mexico to study at Columbia University in New York and spent several years. Her first book on Mexican art "Idols and Altars" , (the first book to chronicle Mexican art from Pre-history to the 1920's) was published there. After successfully defending her Ph.D. dissertation she traveled to Europe on a Guggenheim Fellowship to investigate the "geographical extent of Aztec art in Mexico" at European museums. While in Europe she wrote hundreds of articles for various publications.
In 1940, Brenner returned to re-establish the family farm in Aguascalientes they had left all those years ago. There she continued to write and publish books, collaborated on children's books, and created the magazine "Mexico/This Month" in an effort (again) to make Mexico known to the English speaking public.
Sadly, Anita Brenner's life was cut short with her death at 69, in an auto accident.
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