Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This document is a letter sent by two Uruguayan intellectuals to David Alfaro Siqueiros, who had been held at Lecumberri jail in Mexico City since 1960; the letter was sent through the artist’s wife, Angélica Arenal. It was a message of solidarity [...]

After spending four years in prison in Mexico for an obscure “crime of social dissolution,” Siqueiros was released in July 1964. He then wrote this letter to all the friends in various parts of the world who had demanded his freedom. In [...]

In this letter, David Alfaro Siqueiros tells Blanca Luz Brum that the Troubadour—the ship on which he sailed from Buenos Aires in December 1933—had arrived in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Siqueiros talks about the book he wrote on the trip [...]

This is a typewritten copy of the lecture given by David Alfaro Siqueiros at the John Reed Club in Hollywood on September 2, 1932. Siqueiros talks about the creation of what he called the Los Angeles “Mural Painters’ Block” [BPM: Bloque de [...]

Joaquín Torres García gave this lecture on David Alfaro Siqueiros and his mural painting at a time when several Argentinean artists who had worked closely with the Mexican painter in 1933—in particular Antonio Berni and Demetrio Urruchúa—were [...]

On the occasion of a tribute to Mexico, Joaquín Torres García gives a talk at the Ateneo de Montevideo about the major Mexican artists. He mentions the group of artists who are commonly referred to as “Los Tres Grandes:” David Alfaro Siqueiros [...]

This article quotes comments made by David Alfaro Siqueiros about contemporary art (in 1940) that appeared in the Mexican magazine Romance (a popular magazine in Latin America). Seven years after his visit to the Río de la Plata region, Siqueiros [...]

The Argentinean visual artist Antonio Berni frequently visited the city of Montevideo from 1938, producing various exhibitions; in this article, he expressed his social and political vision of mural art, attributing it with a “constructive” [...]

Venezuelan curator Corina Michelena provides an overview of the graphic work of Mexican painter Rufino Tamayo, pointing out the similarities and differences between the media of painting and prints in his work. Michelena describes Tamayo’s [...]

The author notes a dual American inheritance from both indigenous and western cultures in the Rufino Tamayo paintings exhibited in Lima. Playing against what he calls “Americanism” or “absolute indigenous-ness,” Alejandro Lora Risco [...]

In search of an expression that would be authentically Latin American, Alejandro Lora Risco establishes the difference between American culture and reality, the latter referring to the material facts of life on the continent. Reflecting on his [...]

Commentary by essayist Alejandro Lora Risco on the Mexican art show organized in Lima by La Crónica newspaper. From within the event’s massive audience, the author highlights the presence of the individuals most likely to read his text: Peruvian [...]

In this text, critic Raúl Pereira asserts that the works by María Izquierdo on exhibit in Lima display “distinct personality, unquestionable artistic quality, and visual daring” as they delve into the motifs of Mexican folk art. The treatment [...]

This is a review of the exhibition of work by María Izquierdo at the ICPN (Instituto Cultural Peruano Norteamericano) in Lima. “Tiziano” [Titian] describes her exhibition as “an interesting spiritual message from the Aztec nation and a [...]

María Izquierdo is interviewed during her visit to Lima. The author of this article, known only by the pseudonym, “Tiziano” [Titian], considers the painter to be part of “the group of artists who are creating Mexican art based on an [...]

The author, Pedro Barrantes Castro, notes that since José Sabogal’s return to Peru—after a formative trip of twelve years through Spain, Italy and Argentina—he begins to paint “with an awareness of social circumstances,” something that has [...]

This is a review of the lecture given by David Alfaro Siqueiros—“La pintura mexicana moderna y el arte para la victoria”—at the ENBA (Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes) in Lima. It was billed as an explanation of the “true nature of the [...]

This is a newspaper review of “El arte para la victoria y la pintura mexicana moderna,” the lecture given by David Alfaro Siqueiros at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes de Lima in March 1943. The painter and political activist informed his [...]

According to the author, this exhibition heralds “a magnificent advance” in Julia Codesido’s painting because “a different spirit inspires her latest compositions.” In his opinion, 1931 marks the end of her earlier phase and the beginning [...]

This article by Gustavo Valcárcel reports on the award that David Alfaro Siqueiros received at the XXV Biennale di Venezia held in 1950. It was, in the author’s view, only due to “sentimental French chauvinism” that Henri Matisse received [...]

Commentary by Luis Miró Quesada Garland on the Mexican art exhibition organized by La Crónica newspaper. The author begins by recognizing the quality of the exhibition as a holistic view on Mexican painting within the last few years. Nevertheless, [...]

Last of the two articles by Sebastián Salazar Bondy, published under the pseudyonym “Juan Eye,” on the Mexican art exhibition organized by La Crónica newspaper. For the author, if Mexican painting has “laid the foundations for its own school [...]

This is the first of two articles by Sebastián Salazar Bondy, published under the pseudonym “Juan Eye,” on the Mexican art exhibition organized in Lima by La Crónica newspaper. The author believes the show is exceptional for its positive [...]

In this article, poet Alejandro Romualdo Valle expresses his opposition to abstract art. In his view, the formal explorations of Cubism—particularly of Picasso—have placed “modern painting or, rather, the French school” at a crossroads. [...]

Published in Lima-based newspaper La Prensa, this document is a compilation of reviews published in New York newspapers on the Julia Codesido exhibition held at Delphic Studios gallery, also in New York, in 1936. Howard Devree of The New York Times [...]

This document is an essay by Jacinto Quirarte outlining key moments in the history of modern Mexican and Mexican-American art in the United States. It begins with a discussion of the Mexican School, detailing central figures, sociopolitical [...]

In this 1997 catalogue essay, the Cuban-Mexican curator Osvaldo Sánchez attempts to characterize the emerging generation of Mexican artists, who came onto the artistic scene following the eruption of neo-mexicanismo [Neo-Mexicanism] in the 1980s. S [...]

In this 1986 essay, art historian Marcos Sanchez-Tranquilino discusses Mexican poet Octavio Paz’s (mis)representation of 1940s Mexican-American subculture, including the zoot suits worn by Chicano people. The writer states that in his book [...]

In “The Pachuco and Other Extremes,” the Mexican poet, writer, and diplomat Octavio Paz grapples with the issues related to the search for the national identity in post-revolutionary Mexico and, more broadly, the existential relationship [...]

In this article, art historian Robert Goldwater analyzes the life and work of Mexican painter Rufino Tamayo. Goldwater explains that although Tamayo is thought to have an individual style, when his works are assembled, it is apparent that his work is [...]

In this essay, Mexican poet, writer, and diplomat Octavio Paz analyzes Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo’s relationship with Mexican popular art and Pre-Columbian art. According to Tamayo, popular art should not be seen as art but as a functional [...]

This letter was written by the U.S. archaeologist and historian, Phillip Ainsworth Means, to the Peruvian Minister of Education in connection with the opening of a rug factory in Cotahuasi. Means points out “la vital importancia de la arqueología [...]

“El pabellón de Mexico en Sevilla,” by architect Manuel Amábilis, describes the Mexican pavilion at the 1930 Universal Exposition in Seville. In the prologue, Enrique González Martínez, the Mexican ambassador to Spain, explains that the [...]

The prologue to Forjando patria: pro nacionalismo, published in 1916 by leading Mexican anthropologist and archaeologist Manuel Gamio, compares the forging of metal out of an amalgam of bronze and steel to the ideal societal intermixing of Mexicans [...]

André Salmon introduces Lola Cueto’s work by referring to certain moments that he considers important. He suggests that Edouard Manet’s painting, La Muerte de Maximiliano [The Death of Maximilian], was Mexico’s debut in the visual arts. [...]

Martí Casanovas, a Catalan journalist who resided in Cuba, relates the resurgence of Indianism in Mexico with a modification in economic and social structures. Despite the opposition it faced in the late twenties, the Mexican Revolution progressed; [...]

In his capacity as President-elect of Colombia, Alfonso López Pumarejo traveled to Mexico in July 1934—when Lázaro Cárdenas was making a run for the presidency—to learn more about recent Mexican social and political innovations. Enthused by [...]

In this document, Margarita Nieto details the influence of the School of Mexican Painting on the artistic production in the United States during the twenty-year period preceding World War II. She argues that contact between the two countries during [...]

In this document, independent scholar Max Benavidez sets out to establish a working definition of post-Chicano art. He suggests that early on there were two commonly held views of Chicano identity articulated in visual production: one that glorified [...]

This document is a transcript of a conference presentation given by art historian Shifra M. Goldman. In her talk, she defends the validity of contemporary Latin American and Chicano art as fields of study for art historians, criticizing detractors [...]

In this document, Professor Amelia Malagamba discusses the practice of altar making, a traditional form of cultural production from Mexico that has been further developed by Chicano artists living in the United States. Her focus is on articulating a [...]

This a letter requesting support for the promotion of the first international conference of Chicano art, organized by Santa Barraza and Consuelo Avila in 1979. The stated objective of the conference is to provide an overview of the history and [...]

In this text, Teresa del Conde argues that the vast majority of what has been written about Francisco Toledo “ . . . highlights his magical qualities above the structural, compositional and iconographical aspects of his work.” Chronicling and [...]

In this interview, Marcos Raya expresses his belief that young artists must “get out of their mental and real ghetto, the Mexican ghetto,” in order to advance in their art. They must, he says, “be part of the whole city of Chicago and still be [...]

This text recounts an exhibition that Movimiento Artístico Chicano (MARCH) which was organized around Agustín V. Casasola’s memorable photographs of the 1910 Mexican Revolution. In this article, Mary Kay Vaughan recounts the films, lectures, and [...]

In this brief consideration of Alejandro Romero’s œuvre, author Victor A. Sorell discusses the impact of Chicago, Romero’s adopted home, on his works. Romero invokes the industrial ambience and architectural totems of this city in his pieces, [...]

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,” [...]

Mario Castillo, the distinguished Chicano/Mexican multimedia creator, writes in this artist statement that his work has always dealt with birth, life, death, and the afterlife, and that he has always tried to relate it to his Mexican heritage. He [...]

"Art Liberation Movement" is Mario Castillo’s personal manifesto, which appears on the artist’s website. The Chicano/Mexican artist who works from Chicago expresses in this statement his desire to liberate himself from "the aesthetic constraints [...]

This exhibition catalog, Chicago Latino, was part of an intercultural dialogue initiated by two “socially-minded arts groups,” the 369 Gallery of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the Near Northwest Arts Council of Chicago, Illinois. The exhibition [...]