Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

Using newspaper sources, Esther Acevedo explores the diverse ways in which different groups of artists and intellectuals arose during 1920-1924 around the concept of “what is national,” particularly in the visual arts. She also investigates the [...]

This article explains that only fools think culture is improvised. This is why the reconstruction plan proposed by the Secretaria de Educación Pública (SEP) [Ministry of Public Education] was based on the past with an eye on the future. The [...]

This article refers to the mural painted at the “Francisco Giner de los Ríos” primary school located in the central zone of Mexico City, and painted by Gabriel García Maroto. After forming a friendship with the Spanish poet, Federico García [...]

If the concept of socialist schools were to be fully implemented, appropriate facilities would be required. Special buildings were needed where security, spaciousness, ventilation, orientation, cleanliness and decoration would all create a [...]

The journalist mentions the bureaucratic maneuvering that allowed the SEP [Ministry of Public Education] to relinquish its position as keeper of the murals painted on the school walls and in 1963, pass the role on to the Centro Nacional de Conservaci [...]

This article discusses the plans proposed by the Central Department and the SEP [Ministry of Public Education] to address the matter of educating peasant children. There would be “simple buildings, spacious classrooms and playgrounds, plenty of [...]

David Alfaro Siqueiros sent a letter to the Minister of Public Education, José Manuel Puig Cassauranc, when he was dismissed from his ministry job as professor of drawing and manual works, for which he was paid three pesos a day. His dismissal was [...]

Though using a moderate tone–and even an admiring one when he refers to the continuity, sense of color and form, knowledge of the avant-garde, and diversity in the work—García Maroto was part of the debate, discussion, or situation regarding the [...]

Carlos Chávez tells the press that he had received an order not to exhibit the painting Pesadilla de guerra y sueño de paz [Nightmare of War and Dream of Peace]. As such he had only two choices: remove the painting or close the museum; he opted for [...]

In this article Jorge Cuesta writes about the difficulty in determining, at first sight, the artistic and educational value of the works in the exhibition of revolutionary posters organized by the Departmento de Bellas Artes de la SEP [Ministry of [...]

This article outlines writer Jorge Cuesta’s position on the establishment of new educational, cultural and artistic principles, allowing us to glimpse his critique of José Vasconcelos and his romantic ideas about a university for the people; the [...]

The author explains the plan for the escuelas funcionalistas [functionalistic schools], a joint initiative between Narciso Bassols, Minister of Public Education (1931-1934), and Juan O’Gorman, at the time Chief of Constructions in the same official [...]

Both Jorge Juan Crespo de la Serna and Luis Cardoza y Aragón agreed that the deliberations of the International Jury’s Panel (which had established the parameters for awarding the prizes) for the Bienal Interamericana de Pintura y Grabado [Inter- [...]

Published by a popular Mexican illustrated magazine Todo. La mejor revista de Mexico, this article highlights the leading role of the Secretaría de Educación Pública [SEP, Ministry of Public Education] and its leader Narciso Bassols in the recent [...]

The article reproduces a letter from David Alfaro Siqueiros to José Manuel Puig Casauranc, the Minister of Public Education (SEP) regarding the painter’s dismissal from his position as professor of drawing and manual crafts on June 10, 1925. [...]

This article denounces the director of the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria, Ángel Vallarino, for suspending, by order of the Secretario de Educación Pública [Minister of Public Education], a group of students. The students were suspended for [...]

In his article, Dr. Atl, does a broad study and recognition of the art movement in progress. Historically speaking, he says that there have been three ways to create art; one, which is that of folk art that has always been created; another is the [...]

Dr. Atl calls upon us to analyze the post-revolutionary movement from its beginnings in 1908, when the first effective revitalizing influences reached Mexico from Europe. To him, the administration of General Porfirio Díaz—with its socially [...]

In the newspaper El Mundo, an anonymous writer urges people to make clear what side they’re on: whether with the painters of the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria (ENP) or against the motifs and dimensions presented there. While the matter was treated [...]

In an unsigned article published in El Demócrata, a Mexico City morning newspaper, the anonymous author expresses his opinion about the proposals made by El Heraldo, which had launched an energetic campaign against the murals in the Escuela Nacional [...]

On the orders of the Mexican Under Secretary of Education, Bernardo J. Gastélum (the office manager), confirmed the dismissal of all the Etridentista painters who—led by Diego Rivera—had painted murals on the walls of the annex of the SEP, the [...]

José Vasconcelos, the Minister of Public Education, discusses why he did not take advantage of architects or engineers for projects such as El Estadio [The Stadium] or La Escuela Benito Juárez, a model for schools not just in Mexico, albeit [...]

In a brief speech, Antonio Caso, president of the Universidad Nacional de México, calls upon all men, from wherever they hail, to unite so that they can achieve the highest purposes of the Nation [...]

Renato Molina Enríquez praises the “mural decoration” that Carlos Mérida painted on the ground floor of the SEP (Ministry of Public Education), in the Biblioteca Infantil [Children’s Library] annex of the main library. The theme for the mural [...]

This is an announcement for the exhibition of Rafael García’s work, sponsored by the SEP (Ministry of Public Education). A small photo section at the bottom of the page shows images of the temple of Regina in the heart of Mexico City [...]

Ernestine Evans reviews Diego Rivera’s murals, referring to their artistic and political values. In this introductory essay she discusses the murals at the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria, the SEP (Ministry of Public Education), and the School of [...]

Once the Centro de Arte Realista was founded, David Alfaro Siqueiros refers to the successes of the last 40 days. He awaits the response from the opposition to the proposals made about “La Pintura Mexicana Moderna”. The Centro’s first success [...]

In El Machete, number 13 (September 11-18, 1924), Siqueiros rails against the recent desecration of Orozco and Rivera’s murals. He accuses as false revolutionaries those who minimize the problem and complains that reactionaries have free rein at [...]

Roberto de la Selva reviews Diego Rivera’s work and comments on the murals Rivera painted in the auditorium of the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria and at the SEP (Ministry of Public Education), both in Mexico City. De la Selva hints that these works [...]

This brief article reports on the Centro de Experimentación Socialista [Center for Socialist Experimentation], which was attended by proletarian children in Mexico during the presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas. With the pedagogical goal of achieving a [...]

This document contains a description of the inauguration of the 1935 poster exhibition in Morelia at the Centro Cultural Obrero [The Workers’ Cultural Center], which had previously been expropriated. It reproduces fragments of the speech by Roberto [...]

This document lists the activities of José Muñoz Cota, the director of the Department of Fine Arts for the SEP (Secretaría de Educación Pública) [Ministry of Public Education], as well as his aesthetic criteria for the visual and literary arts. [...]

In this document, Luna Arroyo analyzes the SEP (Secretaría de Educación Pública) Ministry of Public Education decree that created the Instituto Nacional Proletario [The National Proletariat Institute] for workers. He lists the institute’s [...]

Carlos Mérida considers that Mexican painting belongs to the Americas because the spirit of its ancestors floats anew all over the Indo-Hispanic land. The author believes that the development of Mexican painting is directed by traditional rules [...]

In “¿Hay problema indígena en México?” Mexican writer and anthropologist Manuel Gamio examines the “indigenous problem,” or the question of how to integrate indigenous Mexicans into Mexican society. Gamio argues that the government of the [...]

The poet Carlos Pellicer writes about a pair of Diego Rivera’s important works: the mural in the Auditorium at the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria, and the frescoes in the courtyard at the Palacio de Educación Pública. Rather than describe the [...]

This article reports on the number of cultural missionaries sent by the Secretaría de Educación Pública [SEP, Ministry of Public Education], as well as the costs and duties of the teachers, and the differences between the rural teachers, [...]

The writer Alejandro Núñez Alonso ironically comments on the restrictions imposed by the Secretaría de Educación Pública [Ministry of Public Education or SEP]. According to his comments, the visual artists will no longer receive a salary, nor [...]

Diego Rivera addresses certain architectural issues that complicated the installation of his murals at the Ministry of Public Education building (SEP), obliging him to resort to geometric solutions on some of the floors. He provides a somewhat [...]