Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this text, Damián Bayón considers the question: What qualities make art produced by Latin American artists Latin American? He begins by declaring that the art of Latin America becomes Latin American when an artist—because of his or her [...]

In this essay, Octavio Ignacio Romano argues that three main philosophical orientations shape contemporary Mexican American identity, and that their formation occurred in Mexico during the era of the Mexican Revolution. Romano identifies these [...]

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 [...]

In his introduction to Método de Dibujo [Drafting Method], José Juan Tablada identifies it as a weapon in the struggle to establish harmony and democracy amid the chaos and authoritarianism in the artistic milieu. He states that the process at work [...]

Leobardo Reynoso, the representative for the Partido Revolucionario Mexicano (PRM) [Mexican Revolutionary Party], questions the president concerning any Communist influence in the government. President Lázaro Cárdenas replies that there is not and [...]

In this text, Victor Alejandro Sorell writes that Chicago State University observed the 66th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution with a dedication of an eight-panel portable mural by Raymond Patlan entitled El Grito de la Raza Cósmica, [The Cry of [...]

During the inaugural ceremony for Diego Rivera’s mural, La creación [Creation], the poet Manuel Maples Arce described the painter as the prototype of the Estridentista artist who would lead the charge on behalf of the insurrection of the visual [...]

This short article discusses the mural work of Fernando Leal, who has just completed the fresco El triunfo de la locomotora [The Triumph of the Locomotive] at the railroad station in San Luis Potosí. The writer painter María Izquierdo is amazed [...]

This is an article directed to José Vasconcelos, the ex-minister of Public Education during the Obregón administration (1920–24) and a patron of the Muralist movement from inception in 1921. In the article, the author questions him on his [...]

Xavier Moyssén writes about mural painting’s nineteenth-century precedents, in private houses and in pulquerías [agave sap saloons,] and works painted by nineteenth-century students at the Academia; the artists, he includes, are José Obregón, [...]

The Confederación Regional Obrera [Regional Workers Confederation] became involved in the dismissal of Vicente [Lombardo] Toledano, who was at that time Director of the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria [National Preparatory School] and a member of the [...]

José Juan Tablada believes that art has become the “most powerful and effective” force, and is capable of finally securing Mexico’s well-being because it has been the single most influential factor in terms of strengthening political, cultural [...]

This article contains concise reports on Mexican history regarding the intellectual ideas that brought about the principle episodes of Mexico’s independent era. After a quick summary of the imposition of Catholicism on the indigenous peoples, it [...]

In this article, art critic Jorge Juan Crespo de la Serna wrote about mural painting and its importance in the evolution of Mexican art. He believed the murals should be intimately connected to the life of the country that produces them given their [...]

This article attacks the José Vasconcelos candidacy within the context of the 1929 presidential campaign. The author mocks the campaign tours on which he implies that Vasconcelos spoke only to ladies, students, the “bourgeois” and “reactionary [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

This article describes in detail the creation of the National Stadium—inaugurated a month earlier—completed by the initiative of the Minister of Public Education José Vasconcelos (1921-1924). The text reproduces his statements as he mentions the [...]

In this interview, the Minister of Public Education points out some of the aspects he considers fundamental in the promotion of art and culture, aside from the fact that this campaign is of the utmost importance for the Mexican people. José [...]

In this lengthy article, Fausto Ramírez discusses the importance of paying attention to the creative work of men of art and science as one contemplates the future of the world, as was done at the New School for Social Research (1930). This topic was [...]

In a retrospective article written in 1962, Justino Fernández discusses Roberto Montenegro, the man and the painter. As he reviews Montenegro’s art, he compares the latter’s studio to the portrait painter’s room where someone poses, someone [...]

Fernando Leal’s article talks about the dearth of art criticism, which uses different names to describe the movement: “al fresco decorations,” “national art,” “Cubism,” “revolutionary art,” “academic art,” and “Renaissance [...]

In this piece, Febronio Ortega gathered a variety of opinions from the art world. Among them, he recalled Diego Rivera’s description of his visit to the “Museo de Mediocridades” [Museum of Mediocrities]—Rivera’s characterization of the [...]

This article conveys the opinions expressed by a variety of institutions in response to José Vasconcelos’ resignation in late 1923 as a result of the crimes committed a few days earlier, particularly the death of Francisco Field Jurado, the [...]

Diego Rivera’s mural La Creación [The Creation] was unveiled during a showing at the amphitheater of the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria de México—with the assistance of the painter and the Minister of Public Education, José Vasconcelos. After [...]

The intention of the writer, José Corral Rigand, was to create a written portrait of Roberto Montenegro. He visited Montenegro accompanied by Juan José Tablada (a poet) and Juan Sánchez Azora. Right beside the artist was his painting, Hembra [...]

In this article, Enrique Molina, President of the Universidad de Concepción in Chile, compares the negative impact of World War I with the educational reconstruction undertaken by José Vasconcelos in Mexico, which he refers to as a time of [...]

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 [...]

This article by Carlos Mérida begins by citing Raynolds Maryland, who stated in a text published in the New York Herald, that Mexico was experiencing a birth and not a renaissance, with reference to Mexican art. This birth resulted in a discovery [...]

Baciu produces a panorama of the work by French painter Jean Charlot, from his early links to his country’s avant-garde and his integration into the first Mexican muralist movement, through to his relationships with the Estridentista movement and [...]