The illustrations in the book emphasize the monumental scale of a great urban center: the skyscrapers and the factory chimneys, in contrast with the rhythmic movement of the telegraph poles. Estridentismo is an early Mexican avant-garde movement which originated in 1921, parallel to the muralist movement. Its creator, and for some time only member, was Manuel Maples Arce (1898-1981), a poet from Veracruz who rebelled against modernist poets and academic painting. Related to Dadaism, Futurism, Ultraism, and Creationism—in both its European and Latin American manifestations—Estridentismo was a movement centered on agitprop strategies, and unrestricted allegiance to mechanical aesthetics. The followers of the movement inspired a new urban sensory perception, in which experiences accumulate in simultaneity, at the rhythm and speed of modern life. The very name of the movement refers to urban noise and at their wish to be heard because of their embedded transgressions and excesses.As a movement by artists devoted to literature, music, painting, engraving, photography, and sculpture, estridentismo had its center of operations at El Café de Nadie in Mexico City. Later on, it relocated to the city of Xalapa (Veracruz) where its members became involved in an educational revolution. It counted on several information disseminating sources, such as the magazines: Ser, Irradiador and Horizonte.