To Diego Rivera, the crisis the world is going through leading up to World War II is a problem to be analyzed scientifically. The painter believes that Western culture is based on slavery, and presents a phenomenon that he calls “el cesarismo recurrente” [recurrent Caesarism]. Every time the West takes a step toward democracy, a Caesar rises to power. He describes different types of Caesarism that have occurred in Europe throughout history until it reached fascism, and he notes that these movements also prevailed in the United States. There, all the Indians who did not submit were killed, and thousands of African Negroes were bought as slaves, turning its democracy into a plutocracy. Rivera states that surely democracy was achieved in a strange way in the United States. On the other hand, democracy completely failed in Latin America because of the continent’s incapacity to educate a social class capable of exercising power as such. After independence was achieved throughout this continent, the only thing established was police-backed dictatorships at the service of U.S. and European economic interests. However, there is one positive situation in Latin America, which is the huge native and mestizo [intermingling] population whose culture has live, deep roots in Indianness. He tells the story of European revolutionary attempts in order to delineate two opposite cases: (1) Nazi Germany and (2) the Soviet Union, a marvelous land where the revolution of the proletariat was achieved. In Rivera’s opinion, Nazism/fascism is the result of an old culture based on slavery. The only chance of putting an end to slavery, he argues, is for the entire European continent to enter into a union with the Soviet Union. For its part, Latin America needs to unify as a matter of life and death, and there are two requirements to make this happen. The first is that it must eliminate racial discrimination and the belief in the superiority of the Caucasian races. Second, this Pan-American union must be formed around the native culture that persists primarily through its artwork and its realistic philosophy. Finally, Rivera sets forth his curious theory about human beings’ physiological need for art.

In 1943, under the motto “Libertad por el saber” [Freedom through Knowledge], the Colegio Nacional was founded for the purpose of creating a community with a culture of service to the society. To represent all currents of philosophical, artistic, and scientific thinking, this Colegio brought in the most outstanding personalities in Mexico. In the visual arts category, the artists invited to participate included Diego Rivera (1886–1957) and José Clemente Orozco (1883–1949). In July that year, Rivera began to teach his first course for this institution under the title: “The need for art and its importance for a Latin American union.” This article is the first of three texts published by Rivera based on lectures given at the Colegio. The thesis of these lectures is that if Latin America is not unified, it will be set on a path to extinction. To achieve unification, he puts forth art, a biological need of the human being and a focal point for union of the Continent, based on its racial roots and its subversive, liberating nature.