Alfonso Vila – Sketches from Latin American Life, 1949.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Panorama De Las Americas – An Elementary Spanish Reader | 1949
Woodcut illustrations by well-known Spanish artist, Alfonso Vila Franquesa, SHUM (1897–1967)

I recently plunked down 5¢ for this terrific 1949 hardback book at the thrift. These illustrations were the top reason I turned loose of my hard earned change.

SHUM: Artistic name adopted by the sketcher and painter Alfonso Vila; whose true name was Juan Acher Baptist. He was born in Lérida, Spain in 1897. At the age of fourteen he escaped to Barcelona and from there to Paris, the city where he managed to illustrate works of several writers and collaborate with several magazines as Monde of Henri Barbusse. In 1920, he was condemned to death by political crimes, but later, in 1924, he was pardoned. He lived in Santo Domingo, the place where he made several exhibitions before being transferred to Mexico. He died in Cuernavaca in 1967. –Latin Art Museum

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .