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How Mexico City's mural movement transformed walls into art

A century ago, artists in Mexico began transforming walls into works of art, fueling the country's burgeoning muralist movement

Y. Mara Teresa Hernndez
Saturday 06 May 2023 08:45 EDT

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Across the main entrance of a former Jesuit college in the heart of Mexico City, a bright-colored mural depicting Our Lady of Guadalupe represents both the Indigenous religiosity and the Christianity that shaped the culture of post-colonial Mexico.

The mural was created by Mexican artist FermĆ­n Revueltas between 1922 and 1923, when the walls of Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso became the canvases for the countryā€™s emerging muralist movement.

To honor the art of Revueltas, Diego Rivera and JosƩ Clemente Orozco, who among others led the artistic movement a century ago, the baroque building that currently serves as a museum hosts an exhibition that reflects on the significance of their monumental art.

The exhibit, which is regularly updated, recently welcomed a contemporary mural created by Mexican craftsmen who were inspired by the old masters and will run through June 12. That mural, called ā€œLa Muerte de las Culturasā€ (ā€œThe Death of Culturesā€), depicts how Mexicans of African descent struggled for freedom and equality, and how the communityā€™s identity was forged from that.

Jonatan ChƔvez, historian of San Ildefonso, said that muralism arose in a highly politicized context.

Many of the wall paintings criticize political leaders, inequality or the Catholic Church because the young muralists were influenced by revolutionary nationalism and academic scholarship that transformed their ideas about the Indigenous population.

Some artists expressed their social and political views by painting divine figures or religious references.

A 1924 fresco that JosĆ© Clemente Orozco titled ā€œLa AlcancĆ­aā€ (ā€œThe Piggy Bankā€) shows two slender hands depositing coins into a box that is open at the bottom and drops the money into another hand that looks more powerful and represents the Catholic Church.

For a few other muralists ā€“ such as Revueltas and Fernando Leal ā€“ the goal was to find new ways to portray what the military and spiritual conquest led by the Spaniards meant.

ā€œSan Ildefonso has that reminiscence where the religious is present because it is part of the cultural identity of the people,ā€ ChĆ”vez said.

It is no coincidence that muralism was born in this place. Hundreds of years before 1923, when the earliest murals were finished, this was the place where the Jesuits led their educational work.

The Jesuits arrived in the capital half a century after the Spanish conquest, in 1572, and a few years later they founded San Ildefonso, a school for seminarians and missionaries.ā€ÆTheir objective was to educate the descendants of Spaniards ā€“ the ā€œcriolloā€ ā€“ who were born in the colony, ChĆ”vez said.

Before they were expelled from the Spanish Empire in 1767, the Jesuits travelled extensively. According to ChĆ”vez, these priests visited remote towns and sought to understand the worldview of the ā€œcriolloā€ people,ā€Æwhose Indigenous spiritual practices intertwined with new Christian customs and beliefs.

ā€œThey went beyond these branches of spiritual identity or the diffusion of faith,ā€ ChĆ”vez said.

This dynamic allowed the Jesuits to teach the ā€œcriolloā€ arts and crafts, but it also strengthened the concept of ā€œcriolloā€ identity throughout the territory, a theme that muralists portrayed in the 20th century.

ā€œAlegorĆ­a de la Virgen de Guadalupeā€ (ā€œAllegory of the Virgin of Guadalupeā€) is an example. In the mural created by Revueltas, the Catholic image of Virgin Mary is in the top center and her children ā€“ men and women with different skin tones ā€“ pray around her.

The painting is not meant to inspire devotion, ChƔvez said, but to portray how Our Lady of Guadalupe unifies people of different races and origins.

A few steps away, two murals are in dialogue with each other and share a common theme.

On the right side of the main stairs of San Ildefonso, a piece by Jean Charlot illustrates the massacre that the Spaniards led in the most sacred site of the Aztec empire ā€“ Templo Mayor ā€“ in 1521. On the opposite wall, Leal portrays what came after the conquest and the imported Christianity of the Spanish: religious festivities where sacred and profane symbols blend.

In a recent article published in a digital magazine from the Universidad Nacional AutĆ³noma de MĆ©xico, art historians Rita Eder and Renato GonzĆ”lez explain that these murals praise the countryā€™s ancient cultures while strongly rejecting the violence brought by the Spanish conquest.

Artists like Charlot, the article says, ā€œidentify the Conquest as the most significant process in the history of Mexico, and its characterization as a struggle between civilization and barbarism (the latter, of course, represented by the armored attackers).ā€

According to ChƔvez, these murals will never lose relevance because they are a way to understand how history triggers a constant redefinition of spaces.

ā€œOur past is important because it speaks of our present,ā€ he said. ā€œThese murals tell a lot about who we are and what we are made of.ā€

ā€”ā€”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the APā€™s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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