In this brief article, the Argentine poet and journalist, Raúl González Tuñón, talks about the Argentine visit of the Mexican artist, David Alfaro Siqueiros. The writer states that while Siqueiros was stirring up debate in Buenos Aires, none of his detractors dared to confront him. He goes on to say that shortly after Siqueiros left Argentina, painters such as Mario Canale came out with attacks on the work and ideology of Siqueiros—in his absence. González Tuñón concludes with the speculation that, should Siqueiros return to Argentina, all the artists who attacked his reputation while he was away would not have the courage to confront him. 

After he was deported from the United States, David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896–1974) traveled to Montevideo in February 1933 and on to Buenos Aires, where he set up a studio in late May. In the River Plate, he conducted technical testing and engaged in polemics based on his lecture, Los vehículos de la pintura dialéctico-subversiva [The Vehicles of Dialectical/Subversive Painting], drafted on his last trip to the United States.In the Argentine capital, Siqueiros showed his work at Amigos del Arte [Friends of Art Association], a liberal institution that sought to modernize the arts. His controversial lectures polarized the art world between the defenders of arte puro [art for art’s sake] and those who defended arte político [political art]. He contributed to the daily newspaper, Crítica, whose editor, Natalio Botana, commissioned him to create Ejercicio Plástico [Plastic Exercise] (1933). The mural was to be executed in Don Torcuato, in the vicinity of Buenos Aires, by the Equipo Poligráfico Ejecutor [Graphic Work Team], whose members were Siqueiros, Antonio Berni (1905–81), Lino Enea Spilimbergo (1896–1964), Juan Carlos Castagnino (1908–72), and Enrique Lázaro. This document is part of a set of the articles published in Contra. La revista de los francotiradores [Contra: the Magazine for Snipers]. The Contra editor was poet Raúl González Tuñón (1905–1974), a communist who did not adhere to the cultural directives of the Communist Party. This enabled Contra to function as a leftist publication that stimulated political debate among the literary and political avant-garde. It was published between April and September 1933, more or less the same months when Siqueiros was in Buenos Aires. The presence of the Mexican artist became a central theme in the publication, most of whose contributors had worked for the daily newspaper Crítica.This document shows the repercussions of the article written by critic Mario A. Canale in Momento Plástico [Art Today]. According to Canale, the defense of the Mexican artist descended into mere political rhetoric without the local content proposed by Canale.