BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Embassy of Mexico -- Mexican Cultural Institute

DC -- Embassy of Mexico -- Mexican Cultural Institute:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. MEXCI_130511_023.JPG: The Artist: Roberto Cueva del Rio (1908-1988) was born in in [sic] Puebla, Mexico. At age 15, he won a scholarship to the prestigious San Carlos Academy of Fine Arts in Mexico City, which permitted him to meet its then director Diego Rivera. Rivera subsequently gave him an effusive letter of recommendation to support his candidacy for the Embassy murals. Cueva del Rio started painting here in 1933, but left them unfinished when he returned to Mexico in 1935. He returned in 1941 to complete the murals. Themes and Styles: Cueva del Rio's murals tend to deal with historical scenes and portraits of heroes. He expresses his nationalism by portraying the uniqueness and diversity of Mexican culture, the dignity of ordinary men and women, and the progress of modern Mexico. When Cueva del Rio's painting style is very much in the Rivera tradition -- strongly modeled figures, bold colors, and heavy symbolism -- he tended to steer clear of the overt political commentary for which Rivera was famous. Among the individuals we recognize in the mural, the smiling face of the young Aztec mother (above) at the top of the third floor stairs stands out as Lupe Davila, niece of Ambassador Francisco Najera, seen here descending the Embassy stairs in 1944. Moreover, Emma Najera, the Ambassador's daughter (left), appears on horseback in the "Industrialization of Mexico" scene; here she's shown in a wedding announcement from 1942. Self-Portraiture: Cueva del Rio also painted himself into the murals (above the first floor stairs) and it has long been rumored that the artist had fallen in love with his painted counterpart at right, the ambassador's secretary. In fact, it is thought that his zeal for her was so strong that he painted her into each of the different scenes in the mural. While much of this may be the stuff of Embassy legend, a similar face does consistently appear throughout Cueva del Rio's work at the Institute.
2. MEXCI_130511_038.JPG: The Murals Festival de Las Flores: The murals' first scene depicts the annual Festival of the Flowers in Tehuantepee, a pre-Columbian tradition that continues in Oaxaca to this very day. A watercolor study of the "Tirada de las Flores," the memorable scene at the top of the stairs, served as cover for a 1933 edition of Town and Country; the Washington Post marveled at its "joyousness and gayety" in 1941. While the eye is most immediately drawn to the striking male in Pre-Columbian headdress at center, Cueva del Rio took care to paint his women in the traditional tehuana dress, which Mexican artist Frida Fahlo employed in her work as a symbol of solidarity with indigenous Mexican women in the 20th century. Rural Mexico: The festival scenes stand in stark contrast to the somber, quotidian second-floor, which features Mexico's legendary volcanoes, Iztaccihuatl and Popocatepetl, on the left and right, respectively. The mountains form a "most harmonious composition" with the elegantly-dressed Mexican paisanos, bringing wheat to market and making tortillas. Industrial Mexico: The following panel celebrates the arrival of a modern, industrialized Mexico, with rows of a modern, industrialized Mexico, with rows of men and women on horseback to symbolize the continuity of Mexico's old and new. While perhaps now as explicit as some of mentor Diego Rivera's work, the tank-like tractors and minatory plane formations recall the "uneasy synthesis of promise and threat" that Rivera associated with modern ... [???]
3. MEXCI_130511_206.JPG: Carlos Fuentes in Washington DC (1934-1939) The great Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes lived in DC when his father, Rafael Fuentes, was assigned to the Embassy as Counselor from 1934 to 1939. Living in a residential hotel on 16th Street, Carlos attended Henry D. Cooke Elementary School, where he learned English. Due to their presence at the Embassy, both Fuentes and his father appear in the mural: "I used to live here as a child. My father was Counselor at the Mexican Embassy -- right here on 16th Street -- and I used to come and play in this park. Those were exciting years, New Deal years, when the United States tried to solve problems by mobilizing its most precious resource: human capital, people... ... In 1938, it was a center of intense diplomatic activity. My father used to tell us about these affairs at dinnertime, instilling in each of us, our small Mexican family in Washington -- my father, my mother, my sister and I -- an intense interest and concern regarding what was going on in Mexico. The Mexican Revolution reached its peak during the presidency of L�zaro C�rdenas: Agrarian Reform redistributed land, returning land to the peasants; but this affected American interests a great deal and in March 1938, President C�rdenas nationalized Mexican oil. But this time, instead of sending his gunboats to Veracruz, President Franklin Roosevelt chose to respect Mexico's sovereign decision. Presidents C�rdenas and Roosevelt initiated a new stage in Mexico-U.S. relations: cooperation instead of confrontation, negotiation instead of intervention, which is all we've ever asked for in our relations with America. All this was celebrated here at the Embassy, in murals painted by Mexican artist Cueva del R�o. Latin America and North America shake hands under the approving gaze of Ju�rez, Lincoln and Bol�var. The new identity of Mexico as a modern nation is celebrated with airplanes, factories and tractors. The traditional spears of the charros became symbols of agrarian culture. This is my father, on horseback; even I, aged 9 back then, was included in this celebration. Yet many Americans were opposed to the Mexican Revolution. I lost a few friends at school. However, all this made me realize that I was a Mexican citizen, bearer of an identity different than that of America. Or as I began asking myself at the time, what was the identity of the United States? Were the United States just the neoclassic fa�ades of their public buildings? Or were they that multicultural river of many currents I'd met at school?" - Carlos Fuentes, The Buried Mirror
4. MEXCI_130511_229.JPG: The Murals The Panamerican Mural: Symbolizing friendship between the Americas, the Panamerican mural was in part inspired by the United States' Good Neighbor Policy, a 1930s initiative that reassured Latin American governments that the US would not intervene with their affairs. Notable historic leaders surround the friendly Americas, clockwise from upper right: Washington (US), Hidalgo (Mexico), Bolivar (Venezuela), Marti (Cuba), Lincoln (US), and Juarez (Mexico). The Landing of Columbus: In 1941, the Washington Post described this scene as one that "[completed] the designs and story of the old life of pagan ceremonies and modern changes" present in earlier panels, with Columbus planting flags of Castille and Aragon before the cross. While Columbus' historical reputation appears intact in the Post, we know that those of other conquistadores was beginning to suffer in Mexico. This particular portrait was originally meant for Hernan Cortes, the conquistador who brought much of Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile, but his reputation had fared poorly after the Mexican Revolution, whose ideals emphasized the achievement of the pre-Conquest native civilizations. Pre-Columbian Mexico: In contrast to Columbus' arrival, Cueva interprets the founding myth of Tenochtitian (now Mexico City), with peaceful idealism. According to legend, the Aztec people, then a nomadic tribe, were wandering throughout Mexico in search of a sign that would indicate the precise spot upon which they were to build their capital. A god had commanded them to find an eagle perched atop a prickly pear cactus (nopal in Spanish) growing on a rock submerged in a lake, which they found at Lake Texcoco, and began to settle what would later become the great city of Tenochtitlan.
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