This document should be analyzed in the context of David Alfaro Siqueiros’s visit to Buenos Aires, together with the debates and controversy he caused in Argentinean intellectual circles (see documents 733206, 734077, and 733182, among others). Nevertheless, this document can stand independently due to the publication’s widespread circulation throughout the continent.
Claridad [Clarity] (1922–41), run by Antonio Zamora, was created as a “platform for leftist thought.” Its objectives were the defense of Latin American socialist thinkingt and participation in social struggles. Young leftist intellectuals of Latin America collaborated on the publication. Leónidas Barletta and César Tiempo, who were linked to the Grupo de Boedo[Boedo—a proletarian district in Buenos Aires—Group], were its administrative officers. The Grupo de Boedo defended socially conscious literature; therefore, they supported the publications of Claridad, which was founded in 1922.
This text demonstrates the growing politicization of the art debates in 1930s Argentina as well as the attacks made upon the concept of an “artistic modernity” that did not account for social problems. This document demonstrates a change in the policy of representation for revolutionary art based on the policy of representation in the struggles of rural peoples. Later, this process would intensify even more when Moog became the spokesperson for Stalinist artistic policy.