Discussion Board Post– Mexican Art & National Identity
The readings and paintings demonstrate the importance of race and culture in Mexico’s historic process of becoming a modern nation. Choose two paintings featured on the Whitney’s “Vida Americana” online exhibit or Diego Rivera’s
website and place them in the context of Mexico’s political and cultural history after the revolution. Utilize the chapter on Mexico (“Taming the Revolution”) and complementary essays to provide a historical context for the paintings.
This should address: (1) what were the competing views on race in Mexico, and particularly regarding Mexico’s
indigenous communities. (2) Where does the artist of your choice and their work fit into these historic debates?
Interpret and analyze two paintings and what they tell us about Mexican race/cultural relations during this period of
time.
(*) The posts must directly reference or utilizing relevant parts of the reading in the discussion post.
(in this case Chapter 3 and the Alan Knight article) * I will provide both readings in the files*
(*) Simply stating racism against Indian/indigenous peoples in Mexico is not sufficient. The post needs to describe the
issue of race/culture before the revolution (Porfiriato) and after the revolution.
This post is expected to be the equivalent of two double-spaced pages in Microsoft Word.
Weblink for paintings and materials:
https://whitney.org/exhibitions/vida-americana
https://www.diego-rivera-foundation.org/the-complete-works.html
*For this order to be completed, you must read a full chapter and an article that will tie back to the two paintings for the discussion post. I will also include a really quick power point presentation for more background information*