Art as Activism Section Panels
Women in Mexico’s Revolutionary History
Women had significant roles throughout Mexico’s revolutionary history. Not only did
they care for the soldiers in their family, they also assumed leadership in moments of
intense conflict. Their presence in the battlefield was critical; many of them fought
alongside the soldiers, while others provided care for the wounded and transported
provisions to those in combat. Women also served as strategists who hosted clandestine
meetings of the insurgent movements in the various wars since the Spanish conquest,
aided in the communications among factions, served as nurses and in some cases
offered their lives to protect the soldiers. Accounts of women’s involvement in Mexico’s
revolutionary history also reveal instances in which they were exploited and abused as
smugglers or prostitutes.
Mexican War of Independence (1810-1821)
Two years before the Mexican War of Independence began, in 1808, Napoleon
Bonaparte occupied Spain, removed King Charles IV from the throne and installed his
brother Joseph Bonaparte as head of state. These events, which gave way to the
Peninsular War, weakened Mexico’s colonial government, then known as the Viceroyalty
of New Spain. Political and social instability undermined its local structure while
opposing factions strengthened. In this volatile political climate, several figures became
icons for the emerging Mexican independence movement, such as Father Miguel
Hidalgo y Costilla (1753-1811) and José María Morelos (1765-1815). Aztec rulers and
Mayan revolutionary leaders were often evoked in political discourse as exemplary
figures who died defending their land from greedy conquistadors.
With increasing political upheaval in Spain in the 1820s, conservative groups in Mexico
strived to achieve independence from the metropolis. The Treaty of Cordoba (1821)
marked the beginning of Mexican independence and the first Mexican Empire. Shortly
after, the country was declared a republic. Today independence is celebrated on
September 16th, the day in which Father Hidalgo issued the Grito de Dolores in 1810.
Mexican-American War (1846-1848)
In 1845 the US incorporated Texas as its 28th state, an event that marked the beginning
of increasing tension with Mexico. The latter’s loss of Texas was a geopolitical defeat
that signaled a divided and weakened state. As frictions continued over where to
establish the Texas border, following the annexation of the territory, the MexicanAmerican War (1846-1848) erupted. The victory over Mexico was a triumph for
Democratic President James Polk, whose belief in the Doctrine of Manifest Destiny (the
idea that the United States was meant to expand the entire territory of North America)
guided his ambitious political agenda to annex more land. As a result of the war, Mexico
ceded Arizona, parts of present day California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah
and Wyoming in exchange for $15 million. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848),
which marked the official end of the Mexican-American War, established the conditions
for the annexation of the newly incorporated land, the boundaries between the US and
Mexico and stipulated the protection as well as the civil rights of Mexican nationals
living in the incorporated territories. The devastating defeat in this conflict gave way to a
new period of reforms in Mexico and further internal conflict, leading up to a civil war at
the end of the 1850s.
Franco-Mexican War (1861-1867)
In the late 1850s Mexico’s political arena was divided between liberal reformists, led by
President Benito Juárez (1806-1872), and conservatives. Juárez’s government, which
was recognized by the US in 1859, eventually gained control of Mexico City and
weakened the conservative factions. Because of Mexico’s overwhelming foreign debt at
the time, Juárez decided to stop payment to the country’s debtors —Great Britain,
France and Spain. These governments issued the Treaty of London in 1861, in which
they agreed to invade Mexico to gain control of the country’s resources. The Second
French Empire had the most prominent role in the Franco-Mexican War (1862-1867).
After the conflict Napoleón III appointed Maximilian of Habsburg, Archduke of Austria,
as Emperor of Mexico. Pockets of resistance impeded the conservative emperor from
controlling the entire country. The American Civil War prevented the US from getting
involved
in
the
Franco-Mexican
conflict
despite
President
James
Monroe’s
pronouncements against European intervention in the Americas. Interested in
maintaining good relations with the US, Napoleon III began withdrawing his troops
from Mexico in 1866. Relations between the allies, the liberals and the conservatives
deteriorated quickly, leading to the Batalla de Puebla (Battle of Puebla), on May 5,
1862. The conflict, which resulted in the withdrawal of the French army, was a triumph
for President Juárez.
Mexican Revolution (1910-1920)
The Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) set in motion a period of tremendous social,
political and cultural change. President Porfirio Díaz (1830-1915), a dictator who served
as a commander in Benito Juárez’s army against the French, had ruled the country
seven different times between 1876 and 1911. His contested agenda favored a small class
of wealthy landowners, put Mexico’s resources in the hands of foreign investors and
downplayed the country’s indigenous heritage in favor of its Europeanization.
In 1910, Francisco Madero (1873-1913), a Mexican statesman, writer and revolutionary,
led an uprising against President Díaz that quickly became Mexico’s famous Revolution.
Madero’s followers, known as maderistas, took arms against Díaz removing him from
power in 1910. Madero was elected president a year after the Revolution began, and
served until his assassination in 1913. From 1917 the country’s political agenda, would
be regulated by a new constitution that prioritized the nationalization of land, water and
oil, the implementation of a national literacy program, and the improvement of labor
conditions for the nation’s workers.
Porfirio Díaz (1830-1915)
Porfirio Díaz’s political and military trajectory was decisive in the events leading up to
the Mexican Revolution. He had been a commander in Benito Juárez’s army and
became a war hero in the fight against the French occupation in the 1860s. After leading
several revolts in an attempt to seize power, Díaz defeated federal troops in 1876 and
declared himself president. He would serve seven terms for a total of 30 years. His
presidency was characterized by corruption, violence against the poor, appropriation of
land from peasants and for downplaying the significance of Mexico’s indigenous cultural
heritage. Francisco Madero’s supporters, known as Maderistas, took arms against Díaz
in 1910 and removed him from power in Ciudad Juárez. Madero spared his life and
forced him into exile. Díaz left Mexico for Paris, where he died in 1915 at age 84.
Francisco Madero and Victoriano Huerta
Francisco Madero (1873-1913) was a key leader of the revolutionary movement that in
1910 overthrew dictator Porfirio Díaz from power. A political moderate, Madero
advocated for social justice and democracy; he was president of Mexico from 1911 until
his assassination in 1913. His successor, Victoriano Huerta (1850-1916), who served in
Madero’s army and fought against the Zapatistas, supporters of revolutionary Emiliano
Zapata, to protect his government. When the relationship between Madero and Huerta
deteriorated, Huerta organized a coup to overthrow Madero with the help of US
ambassador to Mexico, Henry Lane Wilson, and Porfirio Díaz’s nephew Félix Díaz. This
period of intense instability that began on February 9, 1913, and in which Huerta
assumed power is known as La decena trágica (Ten Tragic Days). Huerta held Madero
and his ex Vice-President Pino Suárez under arrest until February 22, when they both
were assassinated. After seizing control, Huerta dissolved the Congress and became
President. He was ousted in July 1914, by the Constitutionalists Venustiano Carranza,
Emiliano Zapata and Francisco “Pancho” Villa who, with the help of a revolutionary
army, forced him subsequently to exile.
Emiliano Zapata (1879-1919)
Born in the current state of Morelos, a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution,
Emiliano Zapata (1879-1919) head the Liberation Army of the South, a group of
revolutionary peasants known as Zapatistas who fought for agrarian reform and
opposed land appropriation under the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz. Following Francisco
Madero’s ascent to power, Zapata supported the new president’s anti-reelectionist
movement. However, he was loyal to the peasants, who were disenfranchised during the
Porfiriato. Along with Francisco “Pancho” Villa, Zapata strived for advancing the causes
of indigenous peoples. Such pursuit drove both to denounce Madero’s inaction
regarding the agrarian reform and, later, to oppose President Huerta. Zapata’s army
consisted of thousands of peasant-soldiers for whom he was a heroic figure. On orders
of President Venustiano Carranza, Zapata was ambushed and killed on April 10, 1919.
Cristeros and the Catholic Church
An achievement of the Mexican Revolution, the Constitution of 1917 established the
separation between the Catholic Church and the state, and limited the rights of the
clergy. The Cristero Rebellion (1926-1929) was an attempt by Catholic priests to
overthrow the ideas of the Revolution. A Catholic armed insurrection ensued in 1926 in
which its protagonists fought against the secularization of education, and in favor of
freedom of worship. The revolt was carried out in the name of Cristo Rey or Christ King,
thus the name Cristeros. Thousands were killed during the three years of the conflict.
Following the intervention of the Holy See, the Mexican government and the rebels
reached an amnesty in 1929.
Protests and Strikes
The TGP produced posters, leaflets, illustrations and other materials to support the
government’s efforts to eradicate illiteracy and improve existing infrastructure,
objectives that they shared. Realistic and direct, these works were often accompanied by
propaganda slogans; they were pasted on the city’s walls, given to workers at
demonstrations and circulated among the masses. The purpose of such production was
to educate, promote awareness of social issues and, ultimately, motivate collective
action. Contemporary artistic trends such as abstraction and surrealism, they argued,
would not be easily understood by the masses and, as a result, would not have the
didactic effect they expected from their work.
International Politics
During the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) and World War II (1939-1945), an influx of
European artists and intellectual exiles in Mexico invigorated the Taller’s progressive
causes. This international presence was critical to decrying fascism and Nazism. For
instance, German exiles formed the Liga Pro Cultura Alemana (Pro German Culture
League), which censured Nazism in Europe. Under the auspices of Mexican President
Ávila Camacho, they published El libro negro del terror nazi en Europa (The Little
Black Book of Nazi Terror in Europe), which included one of the first images of the
Holocaust produced in the Americas. The Taller also published a portfolio in support of
the Republican faction that confronted General Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil
War.
Education
One of the consequences of the Mexican Revolution was the improvement of the
education system in Mexico. In 1921, under the presidency of Álvaro Obregón, the
Ministry of Public Education was established. This ministry launched a literacy
campaign aimed at providing education in rural areas. Subsequent administrations built
on Obregón efforts to eradicate analphabetism well into the 1940s. Presidents Manuel
Ávila Camacho and Miguel Alemán devoted their agendas to implement literacy
programs in rural areas. Alemán was criticized for investing considerably more efforts
and resources to build the National Autonomous University of Mexico than to
strengthen elementary education in poor towns and villages.
The Press
During the Porfirio Díaz regime, which lasted almost three decades in the late 19 th
century, the government controlled the press. Newspapers and informational flyers were
banned in many indigenous areas to keep their population from accessing information
about current events. The Constitution of 1917, enacted under the leadership of
President Venustiano Carranza, reinstated freedom of press in Mexico for the first time
since the Porfirato.
Nationalization of Resources
During his six-year term in office from 1934 to 1940, President Lázaro Cárdenas
enforced the basic principles of the Mexican Revolution, especially those concerned with
economic progress and industrialization. Agrarian Reform became a priority for
Cárdenas, who redistributed more than one million acres of land that were expropriated
from American companies. He helped peasants obtain property rights through credit,
offered them technical training, education, and better water and sanitary systems. These
changes contributed to improve the quality of life in rural areas, broaden the national
market and pave the way for significant economic growth.
Library of Jiquilpán
In 1940 President Lázaro Cárdenas commissioned renowned artist José Clemente
Orozco a series of ten murals in the Gabino Ortíz Public Library in the town of
Jiquilpán, in Michoacán. Cárdenas, who was born in Jiquilpán, wanted to decorate the
library with images alluding to the Mexican Revolution. There are a total of eight murals
on either side of the nave and two color frescoes on its apse and entrance. Once
completed, Clemente Orozco created a series of eight lithographs, exhibited here, which
reproduce the murals he painted at the library. The images depict key aspects of the
Revolution, such as the power of the masses, the unjustified assassination of opposition
rebels, and the violent seizing of land from indigenous groups. With this project,
Clemente Orozco resorted to muralism and printmaking, the two most successful art
media in the first half of the 20th century in Mexico.
José Guadalupe Posada
The aesthetic of the Taller’s artistic production evoked that of Mexican printmaker José
Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913). His work articulated a satirical social critique which was
easy to convey to a mostly illiterate audience. Since the Revolution, Mexico developed a
solid practice of printmaking; the use of art as a tool for social change would be at the
core of this historical moment and the decades that followed. Painters such as Diego
Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros championed this
understanding of social art on a large scale by creating murals for public buildings.
Through their art, they denounced injustice and encouraged a new social order.
Meanwhile, Taller printmakers spread the discourse of a renewed society throughout
urban and rural areas.