Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this 1920 article published in Trabajo, a conduit for the Escuela de Industrias, painter and printmaker Guillermo Rodríguez places emphasis on the practical nature of drawing instruction at industrial schools—an approach advocated by the Unión [...]

The art critic Fernando García Esteban analyses the difference between an “opinion” on the Visual Arts and the qualified judgment that should be issued by the art critic. It reflects the enormous difference between the artistic ideals that [...]

This essay is on the author of the speech delivered at the Ateneo de Montevideo, Antonio Miguel Grompone, on “the culture of liberation,” where he highlights the cultural and political importance of the “peoples” universities or adult [...]

This essay is a transcript of a speech given by the politician and writer Justino Zavala Muniz during a session of the Uruguayan senate in 1944. It began with a reflection on the difficulties in evaluating works of art by the state and the [...]

This article discusses the rise of universities of popular education in a situation of political and social crisis in the Oriental Republic of Uruguay. The idea of the popular university looks to experiences in Latin America starting in the late [...]

The deterioration of the site occupied by the Taller Libre de Arte (TLA) [(in Caracas)] was evident in this [March 4, 1967] news item. The news piece reported on an order to repair the sanitary facilities and electrical system of the workshop and the [...]

Arteología: serie de eventos informacionales [Artology: A Series of Informational Events], is a dossier of six texts by Marco Antonio Ettedgui, the Venezuelan performance artist, that provides information on the purpose and structure of his series [...]

Ventura García Calderón asserts in this prologue that, in Latin America, the Spanish and Indian races did not mix and that the former ignored the latter even though it was, in his view, “one of the most perfect civilizations in the world.” He [...]

This essay by writer and thinker José Carlos Mariátegui formed part of the “Peruanicemos al Perú” series published by Mundial magazine. In this text on the problem of art education in Peru, the author criticizes the neglect of art in public [...]

This prologue to the published Viracocha notebooks was written in 1923 by the president of the Argentinean Comisión Nacional de Bellas Artes, Martín Noel. The Viracocha sketchbooks were a collection of drawings inspired by themes and motifs in the [...]

Art critic Mário Pedrosa wrote this text for the catalogue of the Exposição Infantil held at the MAM-RJ (Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro) in 1952, which he based on the work regarding the creative potential of children conducted at the end [...]

The question that constitutes the title of this article is posed as a challenge not only to intellectuals, but to society as a whole. In its attempt to answer that question, Revista Flash decided to interview individuals in the art world, despite the [...]

This list, which was compiled in December 1971, enumerates the eighty films that had been produced by the Sección de Cinema of the División de Educación de la Comunidad (DIVEDCO). It includes the title and length of each film, as well as a brief [...]

This guide, which was put out by the División de Educación de la Comunidad, Departamento de Instrucción Pública of the Puerto Rico government, was geared to organizers in each community. It explains how to present community educational issues and [...]

María Fernanda Palacios and Gego spoke about the problems at the Instituto de Diseño [Design Institute] in Caracas. They discussed the teaching-learning process in the field of design as well as the concept and functions of this discipline, which [...]

According to author Augusto Salazar Bondy, the definition of culture in the dictionary of the French Academy is valuable because it contains specific references that clarify diverse definitions of the word “culture” and because it formulates “ [...]

This is the program for the dedication of three murals in the Puerto Rican neighborhood of Humboldt Park in Chicago. The murals were painted by artists and community residents during the summer of 1971 and speak about their history and the problems [...]

In this passage, Manoel Bomfim advocates the importance of education for the development of Latin American countries. According to Bomfim, instruction, especially of the lower classes, was the only possible path to progress. He starts the text with [...]

Golpe, the journal of the Federación de Escritores y Artistas Proletarios (FEAP) [Federation of Proletarian Writers and Artists] published an editorial in which members of the Federation expressed their opinions on the issue of socialist education. [...]

Uruguayan artist and critic Luis Camnitzer asserts that the authorities that control the government of a colonized country determine its art and also dictate the principles underlying its education; any opposition is disregarded. During certain [...]

In this text, North American educator Fred Wale and his Puerto Rican counterpart Carmen Isales present an extensive report on the community development project, which began in 1949 under the administration of Luis Muñoz Marín (1949–65). This [...]

Arlene Alvarez claims that the visual arts had a strong impact on rural Puerto Rican communities during the 1940s and 1950s. She notes that artists and social workers traveled to rural areas to introduce farmers to modern modes of health care, [...]

A committee was formed to call for the construction of schools due to the lack of educational institutions and the dearth of jobs and opportunities for the teachers who had recently graduated, as well as the older, unemployed educators. The plan was [...]

In this article, the Uruguayan painter Pedro Figari (1868-1938) criticized the educational system in Argentina, and consequently all of Latin America, because it does not provide the practical, scientific, or industrial training that is necessary for [...]

This text is the monthly bulletin of the Sociedade Pro Arte which includes the list for the catalogue of works presented at the III Salão da Pro Arte, a few of which it reproduces within. The following artists participated in the exhibition: Alberto [...]

On February 9, 1944, Dr. Gustavo Baz was the director of the “Festival en el Museo de Higiene” [Festival at the Museum of Hygiene]—as it was referred to in the national press—when it opened to the public in the old convent of Corpus Christi, [...]

The colonial building that housed the Museo de Higiene [Hygiene Museum], inaugurated on February 6, 1944, was the former Convent of the Nuns of Corpus Christi. After religious orders were expelled from Mexican territory, the building had different [...]

The Museo de Higiene [Museum of Hygiene] consisted of different “circuits” that replaced, by name at least, traditional exhibition rooms. The exhibition presented three variations on the theme of hygiene as applied to food, oral care and the home [...]

This article primarily focuses on the activities of the Centro Escolar Revolución [Revolutionary Educational Center], which was emblematically inaugurated on November 20, 1934, by President Abelardo L. Rodríguez. The article highlights the [...]

The article describes the artistic production achieved in these institutions, the evening schools, which received great support during the final years of the Maximato (1928-1934) and the Lázaro Cárdenas administration (1934-1940). It mainly [...]

Published by a popular Mexican illustrated magazine Todo. La mejor revista de Mexico, this article highlights the leading role of the Secretaría de Educación Pública [SEP, Ministry of Public Education] and its leader Narciso Bassols in the recent [...]

Daniel Cosío Villegas wonders why the natural order of having better writers than artists—painters, to be more precise—has been inverted in Mexico. He concludes that there are many reasons: an intense nationalism in politics as well as in [...]

In this article, Enrique Molina, President of the Universidad de Concepción in Chile, compares the negative impact of World War I with the educational reconstruction undertaken by José Vasconcelos in Mexico, which he refers to as a time of [...]

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 [...]

Using the post-revolutionary education project in Mexico as a starting point, this article describes its functionalist schools and the reaction of the students. Santiago Larín compares the current pedagogical system with the one that existed during [...]

In this document, Ermilo Abreu Gómez reviews a book written by Antonio Luna Arroyo on the educational and cultural work of Narciso Bassols, who served as minister of Public Education at SEP (Secretaría de Educación Pública). In agreement with the [...]

This is a list of the seminars presented by CAyC’s Escuela de Altos Estudios [School of Higher Education] in August and September 1973, and of the names of the presenters [...]

The text describes both the nature and the objectives of the Escuela de Altos Estudios [School of Higher Education]: “It is an interdisciplinary group created to promote the development of relevant intelligence that, using the most advanced [...]

This document lists the seminars that were scheduled by the CAyC [Art and Communication Center] in May 1973, taught by the following scholars: Eduardo Lipovetzky (Semiology), Armando Levoratti (Linguistics), Carlos Espartaco (Art), and Agustín [...]

This article reports on the number of cultural missionaries sent by the Secretaría de Educación Pública [SEP, Ministry of Public Education], as well as the costs and duties of the teachers, and the differences between the rural teachers, [...]

José Vasconcelos calls upon Mexican intellectuals to travel to the backlands to share the hardships of the poor in order to learn from the experience. His challenge extends to young and cultured teachers, writers, poets and artists. Vasconcelos also [...]

Uruguayan painter Pedro Figari criticizes the educational system of South American countries for not providing people the necessary skills for industrial development, an aspect considered essential to the development of a nation [...]

Evar Méndez maintains that the “imposition of a foreign intellectual meridian on the Argentines, whose young culture and nascent art just needs time to grow and assert itself until it achieves its own, unique identity […], is ridiculous and [...]