Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This document, the flier handed out by the visual artists who, in August 1963, occupied the city of Montevideo’s Subte exhibition space, contains ideological developments of a local and an international nature. It recognizes the importance of [...]

In this text, artist and essayist Francisco Tomsich interviews Clemente Padín about his artistic career and the performance he did at the Boxing Club de Barrio Sur in Montevideo in 1987 in which he condemned the forced disappearance of individuals [...]

This short article lists forty drawings that were published in El Machete in 1924 along with their titles, original dimensions, and prices, although the names of the draftsmen or the techniques used were not given. The drawings would be exhibited on [...]

The Manifesto of the Sindicato de Obreros Técnicos Pintores y Escultores (SOTPE) [Technical Workers, Painters, and Sculptors Union] was published in El Machete toward the end of June 1924. It was an attempt to warn the proletariat and the indigenous [...]

The text “Meta-estéticas de disrupción” proposes an approach to the development of new social and power structures based on the dynamics of the production and distribution of knowledge worldwide. Its starting point is the proposal and [...]

This brief document outlines the history of the Mexican American Liberation Art Front (MALAF). Written collectively by the member artists, it details the mission and goals of the group, linking its development as a critical mouthpiece of the [...]

In 1948, many years after their relationship ended, Graciela Amador relates events from her life with David Alfaro Siqueiros in four articles. This fourth and last article tells how the governor of Jalisco, José Guadalupe Zuno invited Siqueiros to [...]

While living in exile on the Turkish island of Büyükada, Leon Trotsky writes to Diego Rivera, “a close friend of the left wing opposition,” in Mexico. In his letter, the Russian revolutionary recalls his first exposure to reproductions of [...]

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 the words of Diego Rivera, certain artists made use of the concepts of jingoism and patriotism in a manner that led to the creation of a completely bourgeois art form. He sees, as an example, the ghost of Nazism and the persecution of the Jews in [...]

This is a collection of articles by David Alfaro Siqueiros in which he restates the principles of an art about war, linking it to the great artistic traditions expressed in the work of artists such as Dr. Atl, José Clemente Orozco, and Diego Rivera [...]

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 [...]

This article reports on events that took place in 1933 at Columbia University in New York, where students went on strike to protest the dismissal of “an economics professor who had expressed radical ideas.” A meeting was arranged at which the [...]

In his essay written in the form of a letter, David Alfaro Siqueiros refers to four of José Clemente Orozco’s major areas of interest as he looks back on the life of the recently deceased painter, identifying him as an artist and a friend, and as [...]

In this text, the Mexican writer Julio Solórzano contextualizes a lecture that the Chicago mural painter and activist John Weber gave while in Mexico and includes a brief history of Latino murals in Chicago. Solarzano explains that the mural [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

In this essay, curator and art historian Susana Torruella Leval provides an overview of the development of Puerto Rican art institutions and artist activism in New York, from the 1950s to the 1990s. She argues that Puerto Rican artists have played [...]

This article describes the lyrical spirit—pervaded by a proletarian ideology—that characterizes the work of the poet, painter and Mexican worker Rosendo Salazar. The author considers his work part of the school that sees art as a powerful medium [...]

The author appeals to workers and peasants so that they may learn to carefully elect their representatives to the Lower House, and eliminate the thieves and lawmakers bon vivants who squander for their own benefit six and a half million pesos of [...]

The mural being painted by David Alfaro Siqueiros at the Escuela Universitaria de Bellas Artes in San Miguel Allende would be interrupted by disagreements with the school’s director, Alfredo Campanella. The director offers Siqueiros a change in his [...]

Marcos Dimas, an artist and cofounder of Taller Boricua [Puerto Rican Workshop], relates the early history and ideals of the Taller. The three main objectives of the artists who founded the collective were: 1) to create a forum for the artistic [...]

This text by writer Darío Ruiz Gómez was written on the occasion of an exhibition of prints by artists Umberto Giangrandi, Carlos Granada, and Fabio Rodríguez. Ruiz Gómez contrasts Colombian art’s widespread lack of commitment with the vitality [...]

In this essay, Rafael Montañez Ortiz, an artist of Puerto Rican descent born in the United States, relates his early history as an artist and activist working in New York City during the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s. He provides a firsthand account of [...]

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 [...]

This text by Elizam Escobar, a noted Puerto Rican nationalist, artist, and writer, is a largely autobiographical account of his artistic and political evolution in the island and the United States. Written in prison, the essay reflects on his [...]

Marcos Dimas, artista y cofundador del Taller Boricua, ofrece en este prefacio una breve perspectiva general de la evolución del Taller desde la década de setenta al año 2000. En el texto, Dimas describe las dificultades que tuvo que superar el [...]

In this issue of Caribe, dedicated to the New York-based activist group, the Young Lords Party, Dr. Marta Moreno Vega justifies their relevance to the mission of the Caribbean Cultural Center of improving the living conditions of Hispanics and people [...]

This article by Diego Rivera discusses the position of the artist in the Soviet Union. For Rivera, the most salient aspect of Soviet artistic production was the theater, which works for the masses and, in turn, the masses consume it. Western or [...]

This essay by Frances Flynn Paine covers the life and career of Diego Rivera, emphasizing its romantic aspects as well as his early vocation, his extraordinary imagination, his great intelligence, and his passionate temperament. The narrative is [...]

In this essay, poet and artist José Montoya elaborates on the crucial role of the media—especially for Chicanos who historically have been negatively portrayed in the United States. Switching seamlessly between Spanish and English, Montoya relates [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

This document is a letter from a group of Uruguayan intellectuals—among them eminent visual artists like Guillermo Laborde, Bernabé Michelena, Domingo Bazzurro, and Carlos Prevosti— to President Franklin D. Roosevelt joining in the international [...]

In this essay, Michael Crockford discusses how the artistic practices of Yolanda Lopez combine feminism, activism, and community building. He observes that Lopez challenges indeed lowly depictions of Mexican-Americans in the United States by [...]