How Did Diego Rivera Influence The Mexican Revolution

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Diego Rivera was one of the most important artists of the Mexican Revolution. He played a crucial role in giving the public an opportunity to understand the events taking place during the Mexican Revolution. Diego Rivera was known for his murals and using them to convey his political view points. Rivera’s murals were loaded with details of the Mexican culture and history, which also included the harsh reality of the political struggles that Mexico went through. Rivera was a supporter of communism and Marxism. These political influences in Rivera’s art pieces made them unique along with them being quite controversial. Rivera grew up in the era of Porfirio Diaz’s dictatorship, this heavily influenced Rivera’s political standing. Diego Rivera …show more content…

The Mexican people were not the only ones to appreciate Rivera’s murals; many people in United States respected Rivera’s work and eventually commissioned him to do murals for them. One of these Americans includes the Rockefellers. Diego Rivera made a mural for the Rockerfeller Center, it was known as the Man at the Crossroads. Rockerfeller wanted this mural to be a way of showing the theme of hope and high vision during the Great Depression. Diego Rivera made a beautiful mural that portrayed hope and a better future but he included his own views as well. This is when the mural became controversial and people began debating whether it was right or wrong of Diego Rivera to do that. The mural included two sides, one displayed capitalism and the other was communism. Rivera drew the capitalism side as the chaotic and violent side. He included Rockerfeller Jr. drinking liquor and being surrounded by women. On the opposite side, he represented the communist side as peaceful and structured. Rivera included Vladimir Lenin, a Russian communist, on this side. The Rockerfellers found this to be disrespectful and asked Rivera to take Lenin off the mural. Given the rebellious and free-spirited personality of Rivera, he refused to take off Lenin and he destroyed the whole