Antonieta 1982

Anna, a modern-day Parisian psychologist, studies cases of women who took their own lives in the 20th century. She becomes fascinated by the life of Antonieta Rivas Mercado, a Mexican writer and social activist who died by suicide inside Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. To uncover more about this remarkable woman, Anna travels to Mexico and speaks with people who knew her well. The first clues come from Juana, a Mexican librarian who frames Antonieta’s life within the stormy period of Mexico’s history—the turbulent decades of the 1910s and 1920s.

Antonieta’s life unfolds with equal drama: she is the daughter of a famous architect, and as a child she even posed for the golden angel atop the Column of Independence in Mexico City, a detail that hints at the early public gaze she attracted. The narrative moves back and forth between present and past as Vargas, a poet, recounts the life of the woman he once knew when he met Anna.

As a young woman, Antonieta marries but later leaves her husband and falls madly in love with Manuel Rodríguez Lozano, a painter who was married and whom many believed to be homosexual. Their relationship remains deeply platonic, lasting for several years, during which she writes him many passionate letters that would later be published in a book.

Leon, a Mexican historian, provides further context to Antonieta’s life for Anna, helping illuminate the pressures and expectations she faced. Still in love with the painter, Antonieta meets José Vasconcelos, a Mexican intellectual who is running for President on a platform of offering education to the masses. Antonieta becomes Vasconcelos’ lover and one of his closest advisers, entwining her personal longing with his political ambitions.

After Vasconcelos is politically defeated, she accompanies him into exile to Paris. The two have drifted from their earlier idealism, and she questions whether she still has a place in his world. He replies, in effect, that no one truly needs anyone—except perhaps God—a line that echoes through the tangled loyalties of their era.

In the end, the story culminates in a stark, devastating moment: Antonieta, feeling the weight of history and personal longing, presses a pistol to her heart in the pews of Notre Dame, a final act that resonates as a tragedy at the crossroads of art, politics, and memory.