MUSEO MURAL DIEGO RIVERA

As many of you may know by now, I prefer to use ToursByLocals or Context when booking a guide; for our visit to Mexico City, we booked Murals, Art and Architecture Tour in Mexico City led by ToursByLocals guide Jose Luis C.; he was fantastic. While we covered some highlights of archictecture in the City Center, we had an in depth art history mini seminar on the murals of Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros.

In 1946, architect Carlos Obregón Santacilia commissioned Diego Rivera to create a mural for the Versalles dining room of the Hotel del Prado. The mural's theme was the Alameda Central, located across the street from the hotel. Rivera painted a fresco measuring 4.70 x 15.6 m, completed in 1947. The mural features over 150 figures, including prominent figures from Mexican history such as Hernán Cortés, Benito Juárez, Maximiliano de Habsburgo, Francisco I. Madero, and Porfirio Díaz. It also depicts individuals from various social classes, like street vendors and revolutionaries, as well as Frida Kahlo and other wives of the artist, along with some of his daughters. The Alameda Central itself is visible in the background. The painter stated: "[The mural] is composed of memories from my life, childhood, and youth, covering the years from 1895 to 1910. All the figures are dreaming, with some asleep on benches while others walk and converse."

It was formerly located at the Hotel del Prado, which suffered severe damage in the 1985 Mexico City earthquake.

To move the mural from the hotel, the wall it was on was cut; subsequently, a metal structure was used to support its 15-ton weight, which remains intact to this day. The museum's building and its facilities were constructed around the mural after it was relocated to its current site. The museum opened on February 19, 1988.

I think we must have spent almost an hour in front of this one mural as Jose Luis shared with us some of the biography of Diego Rivera; he was a complicated guy, married 4 times (twice to Frida Kahlo), and shaped by numerous artists in the early 20th century spent in Paris. He became a member of the Mexican Communist Party in 1922 and his fervent sympathy with the downtrodden masses comes through as a recurrent theme in his murals. There is much written on him and his works which I would recommend you explore at your leisure.