Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This militant text, published about a week after the inauguration of the exhibition sharing the title with the journal—1927, justifies the program of the radical artistic renewal that both the show and 1927: revista de avance proposed. The author, [...]

The year 1945 witnessed the founding of the journal Removedor, the published vehicle for the Taller Torres García (TTG) and its practices. From the beginning, it set out to be a journal “in combat,” willing to dive headlong into [...]

“No sean majaderos” [don’t be idiots] is an example of the hostile, scornful tone that Joaquín Torres-García adopted in the latter years of his life to address colleagues and art critics who rejected or objected to the [...]

In the Montevidean press, the controversy between the writer Juan Carlos Somma and the art critic Fernando García Esteban developed and was published in installments. It revolved around the governmental and private decisions that were made in [...]

This article by Fernando García Esteban appeared in the weekly journal Marcha and is part of a controversy with the writer Juan Carlos Somma. All in all, the critic’s rant revealed behavior and decisions, both governmental and private, when he was [...]

This essay by the Spanish writer Guillermo de Torre is divided into two separate sections. The first is about the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (located in Mexico City, in Valle del Pedregal de San Ángel), a project in which several [...]

This article in the Revista Semana discusses the research and sketches being done by Santiago Martínez Delgado in order to portray the congressional session in Cúcuta when the Liberator, Simón Bolívar, and General Francisco Santander took office [...]

This document consists of paragraph-long statements by three members of Mujeres Muralistas. The first one is by Consuelo Mendez, who identifies herself as an artist-worker. She articulates her reasons for being a muralist and the importance of having [...]

This document involves a brief article published in the Los Angeles Times in late 1973 that reports on the early developments in Chicano muralism, focusing on the large-scale mural project at the Estrada Courts Housing Project in East L.A. It begins [...]

This press release, issued by the Provisional Committee to Better our Community, announces a press conference on March 31, 1978, at which the East Humboldt Park Community would call for the city of Chicago to halt its plans to demolish a residential [...]

In this text, art historian and activist Victor Alejandro Sorell ponders on arguments for designating Chicano people a nation: the history of the twelfth-century Aztec homeland Aztlán, —located in the U.S. Southwest,— included; the seizure of [...]

In this text, Victor A. Sorell considers the works of the three Chicago-based, Mexican muralists Aurelio Díaz Alfaro, Marcos Raya, and Vicente Mendoza through the prism of what he characterizes as three language types—“private,” “public,” [...]

This newspaper article describes how residents of Chicago’s Humboldt Park community kept a 24-hour watch over the building that housed the mural Breaking the Chains (1971 by John Weber and collaborators) in order to prevent it from being razed by [...]

The journalist Sonia Cordero tells us that the mural commissioned by the Universidad de Puerto Rico (UPR) from the Mexican artist, Rufino Tamayo, was mounted in the General Library on the Rio Piedras Campus in 1957. Cordero mentions the materials [...]

Journalist Samuel E. de la Rosa explains that in the late 1950s, the management of the company, Fomento Industrial de Puerto Rico, took the initiative to install prefabricated murals in factories. The purpose of these installations was to awaken [...]

This essay by Margarita Nieto details the history of Chicano art in Los Angeles and broader California. Nieto focuses on the artworks and activism of sixteen prominent artists, including Carlos Almaraz, Gronk, Patssi Valdez, Luis Jimenez, and others [...]

In this document, Guisela Latorre examines the emergence of a Chicana muralist program that developed in response to the unequal treatment of women within national Chicano political and artistic movements, which often regarded their participation as [...]

Geronimo Garduño’s essay details the evolution and achievements of the Chicano mural collective, Artes Guadalupanos de Aztlán, which was formed in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Garduño enumerates the factors that led to the group’s creation in 1971; [...]

In this document, muralist Judith Baca discusses the development of the Chicano mural movement, brought to light in conditions of unrest and injustice in Los Angeles. Baca underlines the unique physical characteristics of Los Angeles that facilitated [...]

In this document Chicana art critic Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano analyzes important works by two prominent Chicana visual artists, Ester Hernández and Yolanda López in order to show how both women subvert popular imagery and iconography to reclaim it [...]

This essay by art historian and critic Shifra M. Goldman is a review of two Chicano group exhibitions held in 1981: Califas: An Exhibition of Chicano Artists in California and Murals of Aztlán: Street Painters of East Los Angeles. The former was [...]

This letter by the art historian and critic Shifra M. Goldman responds to a letter from the Chicana artist Judithe Hernandez. The latter’s letter was responding to Goldman’s review of the exhibition Murals of Aztlán: Street Painters of East Los [...]

In this essay, Manuel J. Martinez discusses the origins of Chicano art and proposes that it is an art of social protest at all. According to him, Chicano art is influenced by three sources: indigenous, colonial Spanish, and modern Mexican (or mestizo [...]

This document by artist Carlos Almaraz looks at the relationship between art (namely muralism) and social inequality, with specific attention paid to the potential role of the political image in empowering marginalized groups and challenging accepted [...]

In this lecture, Martí Casanovas distinguishes the activities of the group of artists in the exhibition 1927 from those of other contemporary progressives by arguing that their art seeks to convey humanistic and collective meanings to a broad and [...]

In this essay, Shifra M. Goldman discusses the inextricable link between the politics and art of the Chicano movement. Political and social rifts of the 1980s were echoed within the Chicano art world. The main point of contention in both realms was [...]

This essay by Kathy L. Valadez focuses on Chicano artist Alfred Quiroz’s opinion of what constitutes Chicano art and how Mexican mural techniques should be applied to Chicano art. Quiroz defines Chicano art as an art that contains an immediately [...]

In this Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) thesis, Salvador Torres presents the theoretical foundation for his project that traces the development of the United Farm Workers’ Huelga (Strike) banner through a series of six paintings and six drawings. [...]

In this essay, artist and author Rupert Garcia focuses on two related modes of Chicano art: the mural and the poster. Garcia maintains that Chicano-Latino mural and poster art were both born out of the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s. Both [...]

This document is a brief manifesto written by the women’s mural collective Mujeres Muralistas. It states the principles behind their practice of mural painting, emphasizing the importance of collectivity and collaboration to their mission. [...]

In this essay, muralist Judy Baca details the development of the contemporary Chicano mural movement that began in the 1960s, focusing on Los Angeles as the site of some of the most prolific and innovative mural projects. Baca underscores the deep [...]

This document is an interview between Ralph Maradiaga and Chicano muralist Chuy Campusano. It centers on the relationship between the Mexican and Chicano mural movements, their similarities and differences, as well as the influence of famous Mexican [...]

In this candid interview in Abrazo, Chicago-based Chicano sculptor Alex Garza discusses his development and process, and voices his thoughts on public art and the Chicano community. Garza reflects on his involvement with ALBA (Association of the [...]

In this essay, Marcos Sánchez-Tranquilino maps out the differences and points of contact between murals linked to the Chicano Movement of the 1970s and graffiti by Mexican-American youth, specifically youth gang culture. For this essay he uses [...]

This essay by Chicano artist Rupert Garcia explores the use of the term “the other” in order to define and separate minority groups within mainstream Western culture and how this is reflected in art. The catalyst for this discussion is an exhibit [...]

Alicia María González’s recount of the Chicano mural movement in Southern California sketches the social and political circumstances in the U.S. during the 1960s and ‘70s that generated the mural movement, as well as the ones that led to its [...]

This is an account of the occasion when Admiral Emilio Eduardo Massera, a member of the ruling military junta, visited the Galerías Pacífico in Buenos Aires in 1978, to observe the mural restoration project in which Antonio Berni was engaged [...]

The text Cry for Justice is composed of three parts: a statement entitled “To Listen and to Act,” photographs with extended captions of murals in Chicago since 1967, and an essay entitled “Museum of the Streets.” In the first part, the civil [...]

In this text, Jesse Gonzales presents an overview of Latino art in Michigan, from the nineteenth-century to the time when he published this essay, touching upon key moments from the 1920s to the 1990s. Gonzales features early fiestas patrias [ [...]

The article refers to the “revolutionary painter brigades” commissioned by the Departamento de Bellas Artes to represent “the Mexican socialist struggle” and the “philosophy of the new teaching” in various murals within official schools [...]

This author describes the mural commission for the functionalist education center in Mexico City, with images accompanying his review. He emphasizes the collective nature of the works as well as the paintings’ subjects. The author applauds the [...]

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 [...]

During the construction of Mexico City’s UNAM campus, which was begun in 1950, architects and artists worked together to create buildings with murals on exterior walls. In this lengthy lecture, David Alfaro Siqueiros outlines the history of [...]

Nemesio Antúnez shares his thoughts and discusses his printmaking experiences and his training under William Hayter. He recalls incidents with famous artists at the Atelier 17 and the circumstances that led him to set up the Taller 99 in his [...]

Artist Jean Charlot suggests that murals in “pulquerías” [agave sap saloons] and butcher shops are genuine works of art because of their superior aesthetic level. He remarks that, aesthetically speaking, Mexico is like Pompeii, Italy, in terms [...]

The chronicle shows the impact in the local media of the lectures on mural painting by David Alfaro Siqueiros, including discussions about the political function of art, the organization of artists, and mural painting. These lectures have created [...]

This document reports on the prohibition of David Alfaro Siqueiros’s third lecture at Amigos del Arte [Friends of Art Association] in Buenos Aires. The article mentions the part played by writer Victoria Ocampo. It also discusses the content of the [...]

Julio E. Payró critiques the work of David Alfaro Siqueiros, particularly the subject matter of his murals, proposing that there is a larger universality to these works, and the consideration that “beauty” is the true function of the artist. [...]

The Argentine poet and journalist, Raúl González Tuñón, mounts a defense of the work of the Mexican artist, David Alfaro Siqueiros, supporting his position of taking artwork to the street. The writer comments on Siqueiros’s lectures at the [...]

Indeed, by way of a manifesto, this document is signed by the Equipo Poligráfico Ejecutor [Polygraphic Work Team], made up of David Alfaro Siqueiros, Lino Enea Spilimbergo, Enrique Lázaro, Juan C. Castagnino, and Antonio Berni. The article [...]