Title: The History of Mexico (mural) - Wikipedia
Headings: The History of Mexico
(mural)

The History of Mexico (mural)
Contents
The artist: Diego Rivera
Background for the mural
Description of the mural
North wall
West (main) wall
South wall
Interpretation
References

Content: In addition to murals, Rivera was a prolific painter. The main subjects of his paintings were Cubist portraits of human figures, self-portraits, native Mexican culture and traditions, flowers and nature, landscapes, and scenes from everyday life. Background for the mural
Rivera was a leader in a government-sponsored mural project in the 1920s, soon after the official end of the Mexican Revolution. The project was intended to not only justify the revolution, but to promote the current government as the guarantor of the new life promised by the revolution. Murals were produced mainly in Mexico City and surrounding areas between 1923 and 1939. In August 1929, Rivera began painting his huge mural in the large stairways and stairwells of the National Palace, the center of the Mexican government and nation. The National Palace is located on the Zocalo, the central plaza in Mexico City, the place where Moctezuma, the Aztec king ruled Mexico before the arrival of the Spanish. The Mexican government commissioned Rivera and other famous Mexican artists including José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros to paint scenes about Mexican history. Rivera was hired by the government to portray native people in a better light, and to criticize the Spaniards. They did this to celebrate the Mexican Revolution, the overthrow of the Porfirio Diaz dictatorship, and the new government.