Ignacio Mendoza Rivera describes a conversation with José Vasconcelos, the former Minister of Public Education. In this interview, the religious convictions of Vasconcelos emerge through his belief that historically, there had always been a religious perspective underlying art. The “philosopher from Oaxaca,” as Mendoza calls him, shows his beliefs when he states that artists are the hand of the divinity. However, if artists lose this religious or mystic sense, they are faced with the superficiality and emptiness of contemporary art, as decadent as the art of France. In fact, Vasconcelos insists on presenting a sponsor, such as the Word Incarnate may be, while assuring Mendoza that the Church in Mexico had fewer reasons to finance art, given a secular State that persecuted it. Also, in the late post-World War I period, society had fallen into an “existentialist void” and a “historical materialism.” The former minister acknowledged he had become an art merchant; this was why he proposed that the State should finance painters in Mexico, which was a cultural experiment that was also a success in terms of collecting artworks. To Vasconcelos, solution lay with new generations of painters in Mexico, who would provide a radical change in art because they would be inspired by the religious resurgence that was giving the world hope at that time.