The long arm of the wall: mural, myth, and memory in América Tropical

Abstract

In 1932, David Alfaro Siqueiros painted a dramatic mural that confronted Los Angeles with a powerful condemnation of imperialism. Although art historians have long treated the mural as a footnote in Siqueiros’s career, América Tropical: Oprimida y Destrozada por los Imperialismos (Tropical America: Oppressed and Destroyed by Imperialisms) stands out as one of his boldest political statements. The authorities responded by requiring Siqueiros to leave the United States and whitewashing the image. In the late 1960s, the whitewash began to peel, and América Tropical reemerged to contribute to the Chicano movement, another chapter in Mexican-Americans’ ongoing efforts to define their community’s identity and assume a place in Los Angeles’s power structure. Chicano activists embraced the mural, with its particular history and extraordinary content, as a symbol for their past and present struggles. América Tropical became part of Chicano mural iconography even as Chicanos worked to preserve its remains. Art historical scholarship on Siqueiros focuses on his politics and his innovative materials and techniques. América Tropical receives little attention. Chicana activist and art historian Shifra Goldman’s 1974 “Siqueiros and Three Early Murals in Los Angeles” includes the only formal analysis of the mural and the most comprehensive investigation of its making and destruction. Chicano art scholarship identifies Siqueiros, the only Mexican muralist alive and active in the late 1960s, as a particularly strong influence on the movement’s visual arts, but América Tropical amounts to an historical curiosity.My exploration of the relationship between América Tropical and Chicano activism relies on primary sources, including the Siqueiros Papers at the Getty Research Institute and Chicano artists’, activists’, and art historians’ archives. I first examine the environment that led to the 1932 mural’s creation. Part of this discussion challenges accepted accounts of the patrons’ intent as well as previous interpretations of the mural’s formal qualities and meaning. I then turn to the emergence of the Chicano movement and the events of the mural’s rediscovery to consider how América Tropical operated as an icon. Finally, I show how Chicanos preserved América Tropical’s legacy through their art and by returning the 1932 mural to public view.--Abstract.