Over the winter intersession, I, along with other students from UMass and neighboring Boston and New England colleges were lucky enough to study Spanish abroad in Cuernavaca, Mexico. For over ten years now, UMB has sent students to the sunny and surreal city of Cuernavaca for intense study of the Spanish language and the political system of Mexico.
Even though students were expected to attend school for over five hours a day, Monday through Friday, not to mention several hours of studying each night, students still had plenty of time to visit many sites of Cuernevaca, as well as other historic sites throughout Mexico. Upon arriving in Mexico, one thing that immediately stood out to me was the abundance and appreciation of art. Art appeared to be a way of life in Mexico, and it was something that truly affected everyone.
I had never left the confines of the U.S. before this trip, and art had never seemed to effect me in my daily life the way it did when I was in Mexico. Walking through the streets of Boston and other U.S. cities I’ve lived in, I had never felt a sense of common pride in any art that existed in the cities, whether it was an architectural marvel, a mural, or a painting. Pride is taken in these things in America, but I never felt it quite like I did in Mexico. It seemed that the people I was exposed to south of the border were truly proud of their cities, artists, and their own daily contributions. When a beautiful piece of art is created in Mexico, everyone seems to feel a part of it. In the U.S., at least in my experience, this hasn’t been the case.
My knowledge of art, let alone Mexican art, was never very extensive. However, I learned a great deal about famous artists of the country, like Diego Rivera. I was fortunate enough to even see with my own eyes the timeless mural Diego Rivera painted on the Presidential Palace, located in the heart of Mexico City. The mural, which took Rivera six years to complete, spans a portion of the main entrance of the Presidential Palace. This mural, which happens to be my favorite piece of artwork, told the history of Mexico, beginning with the early days of the Aztec Empire and culminating with the spread of Marxism and Capitalism into the country in the mid 20th century.
The first section of this mural shows the Aztec Empire at the height of its power. It shows the magnificent pyramid temples they used to construct for sacrifices or places of worship. It shows Tenochtitlan, an ancient Aztec city, as thriving and orderly, the way it was before the conquests. The second major piece of the mural shows the introduction of the Spanish, the resulting conquests, and the introduction and spread of the Catholic Church. The third section shows Mexico after the 1910 revolution. In this section special attention is given to Marxism, since Rivera was sympathetic to that cause. Karl Marx can be seen instructing two Mexican workers as he holds a giant sheet of paper with words on it, representing his ideology. Also in this section, Vladimir Lenin can be seen shouting out to a group of Mexican peasants. This section also shows industrialization in Mexico and the resulting spread of capitalism.
Rivera, arguably Mexico’s greatest artist, was born in 1886. He is, of course, most well known for his murals, especially the one previously mentioned. He began painting large murals in the 1920’s, during a movement in Mexican art where known artists took to painting on large surfaces, usually walls. These paintings started out as frescos on large walls but then evolved, until Rivera made it his own. During his career, he was considered controversial for his radical leftist political beliefs and his verbal and artistic bashing of the Church and its clergy. Rivera’s themes, like the mural in the Presidential Palace, deal mainly with Mexican society and thought after the revolution of 1910.
Many have seen Rivera’s murals in books or on TV, yet to view one in real life is an something entirely different. No book or TV program could possibly capture the grandness of one. They, especially the mural in the Presidential Palace, are simply artistic phenomena that can only be felt in totality when viewed in person. I have never looked at art the same way since viewing Rivera’s masterpiece. As a result of this, I have begun to understand a little bit about what the people of Mexico feel towards their art.
“One of the things that stuck out were all the bright colors I saw everywhere,” spoke Jessica Walters, a student from Wellesley College and one of three students from that school to attend the program in Cuernavaca. “I visited Frida Kahlo’s house my first weekend in Mexico and the thing that kept striking me were the bright colors. After that experience, I began to notice the bright colors everywhere in Mexico City and Cuernavaca. It is a country of colors,” she further testified, summing up a major difference between the art in many places of the U.S. and that in Mexico. If you look at a row of houses in Cuernevaca, all of them will be painted in bright colors, like orange, blue, red, and, in some cases, purple. Color appeared to be something very special to the people of Mexico, and it would be impossible for me at this point to state why.
Mexico was an eye-opener to me, not only because it was the first time I stepped foot out of the U.S., but because it opened my eyes to things I’d never noticed while living in the States, namely art. If I ever evolve into someone who frequents galleries, exhibits, or the like, then I can attribute it to my experience in Mexico. Mexico isn’t as rich in many areas of life as it is here, yet everyone in Mexico seems to enjoy what they have all the more. The old Mexican saying of “having less but enjoying more” is true, from my perspective, and the people there enjoyed their country’s art like it was their own. I am envious of this part of their society and someday, hopefully after more travel around Mexico and other Latin American countries, I will be able to understand exactly why art affects their daily lives, because, by that point, maybe it will have the same impact on my life.