IV.

Arts

Mexican culture is a fascinating blend of Native American traditions and Spanish colonial influences. Long before the Spaniards arrived in the 16th century, the indigenous civilizations of Mexico had developed arts such as ceramics, music, poetry, sculpture, and weaving. After the conquest, the intricate designs and bright colors of many Native American arts were often mixed with European techniques and religious themes to create a hybrid and uniquely Mexican artistic style. Numerous churches constructed during the colonial era reflect the blending of Spanish architectural designs with the handiwork of Native American workers who built and decorated the buildings. Many of Mexico’s most popular modern crafts—such as textiles, pottery, and furniture making—borrow designs and techniques from Native American culture. Mexican painting and music have also been shaped by this heritage.

Indigenous influences were given a tremendous boost by the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920). During and immediately after the revolution, many Mexican artists celebrated the nation’s unique mixture of races and cultures in their work. Political and social themes from the revolution—such as efforts at land reform and the right of common Mexicans to participate in the nation’s government—were also reflected in the arts.

Immediate postrevolutionary governments supported the arts and contributed to efforts to make them more accessible to average Mexicans, especially in the 1920s and 1930s. The individual most responsible for this support was José Vasconcelos, a leading intellectual who served as secretary of education in the first postrevolutionary government. The government was especially influential in promoting mural painting, commissioning artists to paint murals depicting Mexican history on public buildings. During the 1930s, painters came to Mexico from the United States to study the mural movement. Many people from Europe, the United States, and Latin America also visited Mexico as tourists in the 1930s and 1940s, increasing the popularity of native arts such as the making of silver jewelry.

A.

Literature

Mexican literature boasts a long and distinguished history. Notable pre-Columbian works include the Maya Chilam Balam and Popol-Vuh, which provide many insights into the origins of the myths and legends of the Maya. The Spanish conquest is described by Hernán Cortés in Cartas de Relación (first translated into English as Letters from Mexico in 1908), a collection of letters he wrote to the Spanish crown in the early 1500s. A detailed history of the conquest of Mexico, Historia Verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España (True History of the Conquest of New Spain) was written by Spanish conqueror and author Bernal Díaz del Castillo in the 16th century. The book—started in 1568, published in three volumes in 1632, and translated into English in 1800—is famed for the objectivity of the writing. During the colonial period, Juana Inés de la Cruz, a female intellectual of considerable talent, contributed an extraordinary array of work, including lyrical poetry, plays, and mythology.

It was during the revolutionary period, however, that important groups of intellectuals, poets, and novelists began to develop significant literary movements in Mexico. The “generation of 1915” was one of the most important; many of this group became distinguished figures in public life. Mariano Azuela, a physician who participated in the Mexican Revolution under General Francisco “Pancho” Villa, authored the most widely read novel of that violent period: Los de Abajo (1916; translated as The Underdogs in 1929). The book portrayed the revolution in discouraging terms and is widely considered to be the best Mexican novel of that era.

Mexico has produced numerous writers, essayists, and poets of international renown, including Octavio Paz, who in 1990 became the first Mexican to receive the Nobel Prize in literature. Carlos Fuentes is another Mexican writer whose fiction is widely read in Europe and the United States. He often writes about social issues in contemporary Mexico, but his best-known work deals with the decades that followed the Mexican Revolution. See also Latin American Literature.

B.

Art

Mexican arts, with the exception of folk arts, generally followed European patterns during the colonial period and the 19th century. The Mexican Revolution was instrumental in fostering a new sense of nationalism and experimentation at the School of Fine Arts in Mexico City. Artists such as David Alfaro Siqueiros belonged to a group of painters who decided that content and form were as important as aesthetics. A number of these artists, including Siqueiros, were political activists as well as artists who aimed to inspire the lower classes in Mexico by creating paintings that dealt with revolutionary themes. They encouraged the development of public murals, so that ordinary Mexicans could view the work of leading artists. Painting with a permanent medium on large walls, these muralists—including Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and Juan O’Gorman—dominated the Mexican art world in the 1920s and 1930s.

Other artists pursued a different tack. Frida Kahlo painted numerous small self-portraits which captured her own vision in strange, often surrealistic presentations. Kahlo fractured her spine and pelvis in a traffic accident as a teenager and began to paint while recovering from her accident. The constant pain Kahlo suffered due to her injuries, as well as her sadness over being unable to bear a child, are reflected in much of her work.

In the 1930s Rufino Tamayo combined native folk themes with European art forms such as cubism. His work reached a much larger foreign audience than that of other Mexican artists, particularly in Europe and New York City. Tamayo was an outspoken opponent of the painting style of the revolutionary muralists, arguing that their focus on political and social themes came at the expense of artistic quality. The intense colors of many of Tamayo’s paintings and his use of flattened two-dimensional figures—a style that is common in Mexican folk or pre-Columbian art—gave his work a distinctly Mexican flavor.

Manuel Alvarez Bravo, who associated with some of the leading creative photographers in the United States, such as Edward Weston and Tina Modetti, became the first Mexican photographer to reach a large international audience. He was influential in promoting photography as an art form in Mexico. See also Latin American Painting; Latin American Sculpture.

C.

Architecture

From the 16th through the 18th centuries, architecture overshadowed other forms of art in Mexico. The early buildings of the Spaniards tended to be simple and practical. In the 17th and 18th centuries, however, architecture in Mexico became highly decorative and elaborate. It was during this period that many of the country’s famous churches were built, including the Cathedral of Mexico in Mexico City. Examples of Spanish colonial architecture are found throughout Mexico.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the French splendors of the Second Empire style were introduced in Mexico City. This trend began under Emperor Maximilian, who ruled Mexico briefly during the 1860s, and later under President Porfirio Díaz. Díaz commissioned the ornate Palace of Fine Arts, which was completed in the 1930s. Since the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), many outstanding examples of modern architecture have been built in Mexico. The National Autonomous University of Mexico contains many spectacular modern buildings that feature murals in fresco and mosaic. It includes a multistory library almost completely covered by mosaics designed by Juan O’Gorman. Another Mexican architect, Félix Candela, created highly original concrete shell designs for several churches and for the sports palace at the 1968 Olympic Games. One of Mexico’s most internationally admired architects, Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, designed the renowned Museum of Anthropology and History in downtown Mexico City. See also Latin American Architecture.

D.

Music and Dance

Music and dance were affected by the same European and indigenous currents that influenced painting and literature. The Ballet Folklórico de México, a folk-dance group based in Mexico City, has integrated folk music with classical music. The group tours the world and works to preserve authentic folk dance in Mexico.

Carlos Chávez, Mexico’s best-known composer, is remembered for his Sinfonia India (1935). A close friend of the painter Diego Rivera, Chávez wanted to employ Native American themes in his music, just as the Mexican muralists had done with their paintings. Chávez introduced 82 Mexican works as conductor of the National Symphony from 1928 to 1949. He studied piano under Manuel M. Ponce, another major figure in Mexican music, who founded the Academy of Music in Mexico City in 1911. Ponce served as a mentor to generations of Mexican musicians. Another figure in Mexican music, originally from Spain, was Rodolfo Halffter, who did much to encourage new students as a professor at the National Conservatory of Music.

Mexican popular music, in the form of ballads and sidewalk performances, has contributed significantly to popular music in the United States. Examples include “La Bamba,” a Mexican folk song that was recorded in a rock-and-roll style by American singer Ritchie Valens in 1959, and the work of the Tijuana Brass in the 1960s and 1970s.

E.

Theater and Film

As in literature and art, Mexico’s motion pictures and theater have long dealt with social themes. A leading figure in the film industry was Emilio “El Indio” Fernández, whose first movie, The Isle of Passion, appeared in 1941. Fernández’s work won several international awards.

Since the 1940s refugees from the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) have contributed significantly to the expansion and quality of motion pictures in Mexico. Among the exiles working in the country, Luis Buñuel was one of the best known. His film Los Olvidados (The Forgotten, 1950), a film about juvenile delinquents in Mexican slums, is considered a classic. Although most Mexican films have not received widespread distribution outside of Mexico, some more recent work has achieved considerable international attention. Like Water for Chocolate (1992)—a film directed and produced by Alfonso Arau and adapted from the novel of the same name written by Laura Esquivel—was a hit in the United States and became one of the most successful films in Mexican history.

Theater also has a long tradition extending back to the colonial period, including the work of Juana Inés de la Cruz. Many of Mexico’s important directors and playwrights have been supported by various groups at the National University in Mexico City (now National Autonomous University of Mexico).

F.

Libraries and Museums

Mexico City is home to the country’s most important museums and libraries, due largely to the concentration of intellectual activity in the capital. Many good libraries in Mexico are found within the university system. The National Library, which houses a collection of rare documents, is affiliated with the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City. Other important libraries include the Archivo General de la Nación (National Archives), the library at the Colegio de México, and numerous government libraries connected with various ministries.

Mexico City boasts several world-famous museums, noted not only for the quality of their collections but also for the architecture of the buildings themselves. The National Museum of Anthropology, designed by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, exhibits a striking array of archaeological discoveries from Mexico’s pre-Columbian era. The Museum of Mexico City is an excellent source of historical and archaeological information on the capital itself. The National Museum of History, devoted to history since the Spanish conquest, is located nearby in Chapultepec Park. The Museum of Modern Art, also located in the park, contains the finest collection of Mexican painting from the 19th and 20th centuries, including the work of internationally known masters such as Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Rufino Tamayo. Shortly before his death, Tamayo donated his personal collection of European and Mexican works, as well as many of his own paintings, to the Museum of Modern Art.