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

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

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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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_220820_058.JPG: Raymundo Sesma Noche Signica
2. MEXCI_220820_262.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 men and women on horseback to symbolize the continuity of Mexico's old and new, while the tank-like tractors, and minatory plane formations point to the panel about Pre-Columbian Mexico.
3. MEXCI_220820_270.JPG: Fuentes in Washington
4. MEXCI_220820_275.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.
5. MEXCI_220820_286.JPG: Cueva del Rio 1941
6. MEXCI_220820_303.JPG: Cueva del Rio pinto 1935
7. MEXCI_220820_347.JPG: Roberto Cueva Del Rio: The Heritage of Mexican Muralism in Washington DC: Robert Cueva del Rio (1908-1988) was born in Puebla, Mexico. At age 15, he became an illustrator at the newspaper Excelsior. His newspaper caricatures won him a scholarship to the prestigious San Carlos Academy of Fine Arts in Mexico City, which permitted him to travel through Mexico. In January 1930, Diego Rivera, then Director of the Academy, gave him an effusive letter of recommendation to travel to the United States. Cueva del Rio started painting the Embassy murals in 1933, but left them unfinished when he returned to Mexico in 1935. In 1941 he came back to complete the murals. Cueva del Rio's public 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, the beauty of the countryside, the great events and heroes of Mexico's long history, and the progress of modern Mexico. Cueva del Rio's painting style is very much in the Rivera tradition: strongly modeled figures, bold colors, and heavy symbolism. We can see in a photo of the artist at work that he achieved these bold, simplified shapes by using a black outline technique. Water colors were applied al fresco, that is, on wet plaster. Cueva del Rio worked with his left hand only, as his right hand was disabled. The Models of the Mural: Some of the characters of the murals were generic ethnic or social types; others were individuals who lived at the Embassy or visited it frequently, such as six year old Carlos Fuentes. We can also recognize the smiling face of the young Aztec mother (left) at the top of the third floor stairs, just to the left of the doorframe, as Lupe Davile (above), niece of Ambassador Francisco Najera, seen descending the Embassy stairs with her schoolbooks in an article that appeared in the January 15, 1944, Christian Science Monitor. Erma Najera (right), the Ambassador's daughter, as she appeared in her bridal gown in an announcement of her wedding to Capt. Manuel Casto in the December 6, 1942, Washington Star.
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