Tinisima Book

Tinisima tells the tumultuous, tragic story of the notorious Tina Modotti, an Italian refugee in the United States who went from working as a seamstress at I. Magnin's to acting in Hollywood, where she was known as "the exotic." Brilliant, beautiful, passionate, and promiscuous, Modotti modeled for Edward Weston, became his lover, and lived with him during the 1920s in Mexico. An accomplished photographer herself, she was committed to the cause of the working class, and turned into a militant member of the Mexican Communist Party. When she was accused of the murder of another lover, Cuban Julio Antonio Mella, she was made an instant cause celebre. The press dubbed her "the Mata Hari of the Comintern" and published nude photographs of her along with sensationalized accounts of her love affairs. Diego Rivera, who had also painted her nude in his murals, stepped forward to defend her. Deported from Mexico, Modotti fled to the U.S.S.R., where she forsook photography for politics and turned secret agent for the international revolutionary organization Red Aid.