This drawing is a mechanical echo of what Diego Rivera (1886-1957) stated in his article on the front page of the publication. It refers to the essay by Pablo Picasso, which is also on the front page, though rather than being a review, its goal is to stigmatize pure art, indeed a genre closely associated with Picasso. The illustration by Jesús Guerrero Galván is a facile rehash of a tired, well-worn cliché. It shows a simpering artist, mouthing words by Picasso and holding a book by André Gide, standing with his back to a strong proletarian artist who is inspired by Marx. The former is painting a surreal scene with an indigenous look about it; the latter is creating a mural that portrays an armed worker and the idea of progress. The connotation at play is obvious: they convey an effeminate sense of “them” and a virile image of “us”.Choque [Shock], along with Juan Brochas [John Brushes], was the journal of the Alianza de Trabajadores de Artes (ATA) [Art Workers Alliance], sometimes also called the Alianza de Trabajadores de Artes Plásticas (ATAP) [Visual Art Workers Alliance]. The members of the ATA— Juan Manuel Anaya, Raúl Anguiano, Santos Balmori, Jesús Guerrero Galván, Máximo Pacheco, Roberto Reyes Pérez, Víctor M. Reyes, Rafael Valderrama, and Jorge Olvera—appealed to other artists to join the union in response to the unjustified dismissal of teachers in the fields of visual arts, music, and drama. As the magazine’s name suggests, Choque intended to confront and challenge the establishment and start a discussion; the overall goal of the editors and writers was to align themselves with the working class avant-garde and to address the class struggle through artistic expression.
