◊ Diego Rivera ◊
Today I was walking by a government building and saw the most beautiful mural. There were so many bright colors and the people really looked real. I was so impressed that I stopped to talk to a girl selling jewelry nearby to get the history of this beautiful art. Her name is Lola and she is from Juarez, Mexico. Juarez is on the border between the United States and Mexico. To my surprise, she spoke English and Spanish. She’s bilingual too!
Lola began telling me about the Mexican revolution. It began in 1910, and it transformed society in Mexico. An artistic movement called “Muralism” was born during the Mexican revolution and lasted until the 1960’s. The idea of Muralism was to connect all people with art. Before the revolution, only people with money were able to see and appreciate art, so the government’s idea was to make art accessible to everyone in the country. They contracted artists to paint murals on both the exterior and interior walls of public places like schools or government buildings, so that all Mexicans could appreciate art.
I was completely fascinated by her knowledge of history. She started telling me about the artists of the movement. The first mural to start this movement was painted by Gerardo Murillo from Guadalajara. His work was based on the idea that Mexican Muralism should reflect Mexican life, just like in the time of the ancient Aztecs and Mayans, who also painted daily scenes on their walls. I was excited to learn that I’d heard of the three most important artists in this movement, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros.
After about ten minutes of talking Lola’s mom came up and introduced herself. Her name is Maria Eugenia and she made all of jewelry that Lola was selling. How talented! When Lola told her mother what we were talking about, her mother was happy to tell me what she knew. She said that both José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros did work in the United States. At one point both were jailed for their open criticism against the Mexican government during the Revolution. Siqueiros even had to wait until after he was released to finish his uncompleted murals. Talk about fighting for what you believe in.
We continued talking for about an hour until I realized the sun was going down and I had to get back to the hotel. I thanked Lola and Maria Eugenia, took a long gaze at the wall again, and headed for the hotel. I’ll never forget my new friends or the wall that sparked our newfound friendship.