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Mexico in 1910 was a country in despair. Foreign domination had been replaced by the tyranny of President Porfirio Diaz. Two-thirds of the people lived in abject poverty and slavery was growing at a faster rate than in the days of the Conquistadores. On Independence Day in 1910, President Diaz kept the Indians off the street so as not to mar the joyous festivities.
In the midst of this misery a small but significant intellectual community emerged. Three of its members - Antonios Curo, Alfonso Reyes, and Jose Vasconcelos - established an institute called The Athenaeum. These men were cultured and highly educated. On the one-hundredth birthday of Mexico's independence, they issued a manifesto. "The community that terrorizes over man forgets that men are 'persons,' not biological units".
Those words, along with the populist engravings of Jose Guadalupe Posada and the political zeal of the artist, Dr. Atl, influenced an entire generation of painters who were to change the face of Mexican art forever. Three artists would be at the forefront of this change - David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, and Jose Clemente Orozco. However, in 1910 the political revolution had just begun, and the country wasn't as yet ready for a cultural revolution.
Read the complete article . . . Plus view the photographs. |
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Miguel de Allende
