In this article, the Chicano artist and poet Koyokuikatl (Carlos Cortez) considers the revolutionary spirit of Diego Rivera’s art on the occasion of an exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Art celebrating the centennial of Rivera’s birth (1886-1957). Cortez contends that, even though the Mexican Communist party criticized the muralist for accepting commissions from the U.S. government and wealthy capitalists, Rivera was a truly revolutionary artist. Ironically, Cortez emphasizes, the tycoon Edsel Ford commissioned his most revolutionary mural cycle for the Detroit Institute of Art. Cortez argues that although the murals were supposed to depict the auto industry and the contributions of the Ford family to art and culture, Rivera did a biting criticism on capitalism by juxtaposing what industry was like under capitalism with a far better vision of what it would be like under the workers’ control. Ford left the murals standing, Cortez writes, because he wisely realized that he would only draw more attention to their revolutionary content by removing them. Cortez concludes his text by praising both the “tenderness and compassion” Rivera elicits for the poor and working classes in his works, and by urging readers to visit the exhibition of Rivera’s works at the Detroit Institute of Art.

“Ours, Not Theirs,” this text by the Chicano artist and poet Carlos Cortez about Diego Rivera, appeared in the Industrial Worker in May of 1986. Writing under the pseudonym Koyokuikatl, Cortez comments on an exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Art celebrating the centennial of the birth of Mexican muralist Rivera, one of the so-called “tres grandes.” Although he considers the contested relationship Rivera had with the Communist party during his lifetime, Cortez nonetheless argues that Rivera’s art is revolutionary due to its critique of capitalism and its compassionate portrayal of the poor and working classes. A central figure in the Chicago art community during the second half of the twentieth century, Carlos Cortez (1923–2005) was an artist, cartoonist, printmaker, photographer, poet, and political activist. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Cortez’s father was an organizer for the industrial Workers of the World and his mother, who was German, was a socialist and a pacifist. Cortez spent his life in the Midwest, moving to Chicago in 1965. His graphic art addresses Chicano, Latino, and Native American issues; Mexican-American and Latino identity and culture; and workers' rights. This article addresses the theme Art, Activism, and Social Change because it offers an assessment of Rivera’s Detroit mural cycle that focused on aspects of social justice and the political context that fostered the murals.