'America Tropical': A forgotten Siqueiros mural resurfaces in Los Angeles [Updated]

A significant artwork from the Mexican muralism movement has sat unseen for more than 70 years, whitewashed soon after it was completed to mask its political content, on a second-story exterior wall of a historic building in Los Angeles.

David Alfaro Siqueiros, like his Mexican contemporaries Jose Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera, traveled and painted north of the border while Mexican modernism flourished and grew an international profile in the early- and mid-20th century. He lived in L.A. for about seven months in 1932 and was commissioned to paint a mural on the old Italian Hall in the Olvera Street district. Siqueiros was asked to paint something celebrating "tropical America," part of efforts by a booster named Christine Sterling to transform the Olvera Street area into something like a stereotypical Mexican village.

The resulting mural, "America Tropical," scandalized L.A. elites who were perhaps expecting lush foilage and colorful birds. The centerpiece of Siqueiros's mural depicted an Indian peasant with an eagle -- symbolizing American imperialism -- bearing down from above. The mural was whitewashed, and Siqueiros was later deported from the U.S. after his visa ran out.

Siqueiros traveled on, and the mural was largely forgotten for decades.

Earlier this month, ground finally broke on a project that will see conservation of the mural and construction of an adjoining visitor center. The project, conceived as far back as the 1960s and expected to be completed by 2012 or 2013, will help fill in a key chapter in the long history of cultural and political exchange between Mexico and the United States, particularly in Los Angeles, professor and muralist Judy Baca notes in an essay for PBS.

Siqueiros experimented with a new technique while painting "America Tropical," reinterpreting the fresco approach on wet cement. He also seemed aware that the commission was an opportunity to "create a work of revolutionary character." Christopher Knight, art critic at The Times, elaborates at Culture Monster:

Siqueiros, of course, was profoundly influenced by Italian Renaissance frescoes -- he made studies of Masaccio's early 15th century Brancacci Chapel in Florence -- as well as by the fervent industrial motifs of early 20th century Italian Futurist painting. And he was partly inspired in this by the urging of Dr. Atl -- Gerardo Murillo -- the spiritual guide of Mexican Modernism, who had studied at the University of Rome. So a politically trenchant fresco of a crucified Indian peasant painted on an upstairs wall of El Pueblo's Italian Hall doesn't seem a stretch.

Author and professor Ruben Martinez, writing in our Opinion section, describes an intriguing family connection to Siqueiros' mural on Olvera Street, and argues:

During his stay in Los Angeles, Siqueiros, a lifelong revolutionary, absorbed the political moment. He painted on behalf of indigenous Mexicans, then as now among the most oppressed and rebellious of Latin America's peoples — and, by extension, Mexicans in America, then as now a disposable labor force that doubles as scapegoat in troubled economic times.

Interestingly, Martinez writes that during the era when his grandparents played music in a restaurant downstairs from where Siqueiros worked, some Olvera Street employees "were paid to assume 'sleepy Mexican' poses in shaded corners." (La Plaza believes it, but just can't imagine it.)

There are a variety of upcoming events and exhibitions in L.A. related to Siqueiros's work in southern California, including the exhibit "Siqueiros in Los Angeles: Censorship Defied," at the Autry National Center museum. The Getty Conservation Institute is performing the painstaking conservation work on the mural, as seen above, and shouldering $3.95 million of the $9 million overall cost.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

[Updated at 12:06 p.m.: A previous version of this post used the term restoration instead of conservation regarding work on the mural, and did not specify that the Getty Conservation Institute is contributing only $3.95 million of the overall project costs.]

Photos, from top: A man identified as Robert Bredecio, an assistant to muralist David Alfaro Siquieros, stands before the completed "America Tropical" mural. (Credit: Getty Conservation Institute); a view of "America Tropical," partly whitewashed. (Credit: PBS); Leslie Rainer, a Getty project specialist, working on "America Tropical." (Credit: Getty Conservation Institute)

Former Mexican president: Legalize drugs

Vicente Fox, the most recent former president of Mexico, is calling for the legalization of narcotics. In a post at his personal blog published over the weekend, the former president says: "We must legalize the production, distribution, and sale of drugs." Fox, whose election in 2000 ended more than 70 years of one-party rule in Mexico, argues that legalizing drugs would "strike and break" the economic power of drug-trafficking cartels operating in Mexico.

"We need to break the balance between criminals, markets, transfer routes, and criminal associations sheltered by corruption, intelligently, with much less doses of violence," Fox writes.

He also expresses support for the idea of state police forces to replace municipal police, which are plagued by corruption and often found to collude with organized crime groups. The military, the primary force currently deployed against the cartels, should be withdrawn due to rising allegations of human rights abuses, Fox also argues.

The post, in Spanish, is here. Here's an automated translation into English.

Fox is the immediate predecessor of President Felipe Calderon, who initiated a military-led campaign against traffickers in Mexico that has so far claimed more than 28,000 lives since he took office in December 2006. Under the Merida Initiative, the United States has promised Mexico millions of dollars in aid in its fight against the cartels, and in recent visits to Mexico, President Obama has praised Calderon's military strategy.

In a summit last week on the drug violence, Calderon offered a blunt assessment of the reach and power of the cartels, and said he would be open to a debate on legalization of drugs. His administration later clarified that Calderon is still opposed to legalization.

Both Fox and Calderon are members of the center-right National Action Party and are often singled out for criticism of Mexico's efforts against drug trafficking. Critics point out that drug violence grew under President Fox as a result of his strategy of arresting or killing top cartel leaders, which led groups to splinter and fight violent internal battles for control of drug routes. The violence has only surged under President Calderon, getting worse and worse by the year. Others have openly suggested two consecutive PAN administrations have applied justice unevenly against drug trafficking groups, "favoring" the Sinaloa cartel over its rivals -- despite several recent gains against major Sinaloa cartel figures. Calderon has said all cartels are treated equally in Mexico.

Fox's post over the weekend is not the first time he's publicly supported legalization of drugs in Mexico. He made the same basic argument during a U.S. media interview in May 2009. That year, Mexico quietly decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and LSD.

Fox now joins another former president of Mexico, Ernesto Zedillo, in support of some form of legalization of narcotics. Early last year, Zedillo and former leaders of Colombia and Brazil called for a "paradigm shift" in international drug policies.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: Former Mexican President Vicente Fox. Credit: UC Irvine

Argentina dispatches Mexico in World Cup -- again

To the left, the front page of La Prensa in Mexico City Monday, lamenting Mexico's World Cup loss against Argentina, 3-1, on Sunday in Johannesburg, South Africa. "Failure!" the headline reads, above a photo of forward Giovani Dos Santos with tears welling in his eyes.

Two crucial mistakes and a questionable goal from Argentina early in the match sealed Mexico's fate. The loss eliminated Mexico from contention for the Cup and repeated the squad's inelegant exit from the tournament in 2006, when Argentina took out El Tri, 2-1, in Germany.

"It was a team that was supposed to make history," Kevin Baxter writes in The Times. "Instead it only repeated it."

The match was rife with significance beyond the field. Mexico entered the tournament with high expectations, but Argentina came in as favorites to potentially win it all. Plus, they are coached in this World Cup by Diego Maradona, a legend to any soccer fan anywhere in the world. For Mexico, it's "more of the same," reflecting what some refer to as a nagging mentality of inferiority (link in Spanish).

Others see it as pure bad luck --  terrible, epic, awful luck. The Los Angeles soccer blog From a Left Wing put it this way: "It's become a World Cup scripted by Emile Zola."

Not for all the teams, of course. Latin American squads are faring well so far in South Africa, with six advancing to the Round of 16, matching six from Europe. With their wins, Argentina and Uruguay advance to the quarterfinals, and Brazil and Chile face off on Monday for their duel to advance.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico

Image: La Prensa

University student strike engrosses Puerto Rico

 

The University of Puerto Rico remains paralyzed by a student strike that has lasted more than five weeks, engrossing the entire island. Students shut down the campus on April 21 over austerity measures that university officials sought in order close a massive budget shortfall. The strike at the university, which serves 62,000 students, reflects wider economic troubles in Puerto Rico. The U.S. commonwealth is in the midst of a deep recession.

Students are reportedly barricaded behind campus gates under heavy police watch at 10 of the university's 11 campuses. Supporters have been hurling food and water over campus fences to reach the students, resulting in violent confrontations with police. In one widely reported incident, police beat and arrested a man who was attempting to deliver food to his son, a striking student.

Media reports say support for the strike is widespread on the island, but university officials disagree, saying it is being led by a small minority. Last year, discontent with the economic policies of Republican Gov. Luis Fortuño -- who sought to lay off thousands of government workers -- led to an island-wide national protest.

"Not since Puerto Rico rallied to chase the United States Navy out of Vieques a decade ago have so many different social sectors rallied around a single cause," reports the Miami Herald.

Striking students are keeping a live radio stream online, at Radio Huelga. Lively debate is heard among students over how to proceed. "The strike has not resolved anything," one student is heard saying on the radio stream. "We are only aggravating the university."

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: Students on strike at the University of Puerto Rico. Credit: Associated Press

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill, mapped over your city

Above, what the the Gulf of Mexico oil spill would look like if it were blanketed over Mexico City, as depicted in a Google Earth application found here. Awe-inspiring stuff. As you can see, the expanse of the spill would cover the entire Federal District plus parts of the states of Mexico, Morelos, Hidalgo, and Tlaxcala.

La Plaza found the application via the ex-pat blog Burro Hall, whose author placed the spill over his state of residence, Queretaro, shrouding it completely. If the Gulf spill has been an abstract, distant disaster to you, go in and try it for yourself, on Bogota, Sao Paolo, Buenos Aires, Santiago, or anywhere you choose.

The British Petroleum spill is emerging as the worst man-made ecological disaster since the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, an international crisis the likes of which the U.S. is only beginning to get a grasp on. You can follow developments on the spill at the L.A. Times blog Greenspace.

Mexico's Navy expects that the spill will not harm Mexican territorial waters, for now. The start of hurricane season could cause the expanding spill to shift in other directions, the Navy said. If that happens, the environmental secretary said, Mexico is prepared to sue.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Image: Google Earth.

A reawakening in Tijuana?

Is Tijuana making a comeback -- once again? Staff writer Richard Marosi, who covers the border city for The Times, makes the case that "TJ," as locals often call it, is reawakening after the arrest in January of a notorious drug lord:

Four months after the capture of the notorious crime boss Teodoro Garcia Simental, this border city is showing glimpses of its old, vibrant self. Like survivors of a Category 5 hurricane of crime, residents are emerging from their homes, wary but hopeful.

While clashes in other key drug-trafficking centers such as Juarez are reaching new heights of brutality, the uniquely savage violence that has plagued Tijuana during the government's three-year war on organized crime has declined dramatically since the January arrest.

Sixth Street, or La Sexta, in Tijuana's traditionally tourist-friendly downtown district is a good place to gauge the pick-up. A new arrival is La Mezcalera, a stylish bar specializing in mezcal, tequila's smokier cousin. Twenty- and thirty-something locals with whom La Plaza keeps in contact say La Mezcalera is the place to be for TJ's creative set. Down the block is the popular dancehall La Estrella, and across the street, the cantina Dandy del Sur.

The blog Turista Libre chronicles trips to Tijuana by San Diego adventure-seekers, and has this post on a recent excursion south to see a set by the internationally known Tijuana musicians Nortec Collective.

Yet as the scene in Tijuana picks up again, many longtime locals remain cautious. They know the threat of violence only too well.

To check out posts in La Plaza about Tijuana, check out our archive here.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo credit: Turista Libre

A blogger academy in Cuba

Blogger Yoani Sanchez is known around the world for her vivid and passionately oppositional account of life in Communist Cuba, but she is almost unknown on the island itself. Her blog, Generation Y, is blocked by the Castro government. In addition, Sanchez is not allowed an Internet connection at home. She posts from hotels and cybercafes.

Yet that apparently is not stopping Sanchez from spreading her blogging skills to others. The Global Post reports from Havana -- from Sanchez's living room, actually -- on the blogger's effort to pass along to other Cubans the ticks and tricks of Twitter and blogging platforms such as TypePad and WordPress:

"Today we're going to talk about Twitter," Sanchez began on a recent afternoon, quieting the room. The students ranged in age from early 20s to mid-50s. One man's late father had been a leader of the Cuban Revolution. Given the Castro government’s record of infiltrating opposition groups, it was also likely a few of the students were there to take notes on their classmates, not their coursework.

No one seemed too worried about that, though, and the atmosphere was friendly, almost festive.

A pro-government Internet writer, however,  sees ill intentions in Sanchez's school. Rosa Miriam Elizalde, editor of Cubadebate, says the blogger academy is "taking place in a framework of a U.S. policy of subversion and aggression."

To the students, the coursework appears enriching.

"There are people who think I’m doing something wrong by coming here, but I don’t think so,” a 53-year-old housewife (and debut blogger) tells the visiting reporter. "We're people who want change, and we want the current government to be an instrument of change."

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: Yoani Sanchez at the computer in her Havana apartment. Credit: GlobalPost.com.

 

Cuban 'ladies in white' stir solidarity protests in U.S.

Stirred by images of dissident "ladies in white" standing up to security agents in Communist-ruled Cuba, tens of thousands of Cuban exiles and supporters staged solidarity demonstrations over the weekend in Miami, Los Angeles, and New York. Pop singer Gloria Estefan led the biggest protest Friday in Miami's Little Havana, receiving news from a "damas en blanco" protest in progress in Havana via cell phone and relaying developments to the Miami crowd.

"At this moment, the Ladies in White are marching and are receiving violence again,'' Estefan said, according to the Miami Herald. "Ladies in White, we walk with you."

On Sunday, actor Andy Garcia led a similar march in Echo Park, Los Angeles' historic locus for Cuban immigrants. The neighborhood blog The Eastsider LA has photos and a brief report of a disturbance that took place across the street from Echo Park Lake over flags depicting Che Guevera. In the photo above, submitted to La Plaza by Echo Park resident Alexis Rivera, demonstrators are seen arguing or debating one another.

The Herald reports on the L.A. and New York rallies here.

Voices in the exile community in the United States are emphasizing their view that all Cubans, regardless of their often conflicting political views, are uniting behind the "damas en blanco" and the memory of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, the jailed dissident who died in February after a hunger strike. Could these demonstrations really be signaling a watershed moment for eventual reform in Communist Cuba?

The prominent blogger Yoani Sanchez thinks so. She tweeted from Havana on Sunday: "So many years of trying to divide Cubans and now with one blow fall all the borders, all the divisions, all the mistrust."

— Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

 Photo: Dissident Cuban rally in Echo Park, Los Angeles. Credit: Alexis Rivera.

 

New video: The incredible force of the Chile earthquake

Nearly a month after the Chile earthquake, a new video clip capturing the incredible force of the magnitude 8.8. quake has been made public. Watch above, from the 12th floor of a hotel in the city of Valdivia. Night-owl guests and workers struggle to remain standing as the buildings around them rock back and forth. Keep an eye on the swinging lamps in the upper portion of the screen. (Link via the blog Lat/Am Daily.)

In case it hasn't been made entirely clear how geologically significant the February quake was, NASA reports that the seismic event may have shorted the length of the day on Earth -- "by about 1.26 microseconds" -- and shifted the planet's axis -- "by 2.32 milliarcseconds (about 7 centimeters, or 2.76 inches)."

Several cities in Chile literally moved on the map after the shaking, notes Discovery News, citing research out of Ohio State University. Hard-hit Concepcion, for instance, moved about 10 feet to the west.

In The Times last Sunday, reporter Patrick McDonnell recounted the moving story of a firefighter and paramedic who lost his wife and daughter during the tsunami waves that hit Chile's coastal islands after the quake struck. "I thought for a moment that we were going to be spared, and we would have this story to tell when we were old," said Luis Gatica.

President Sebastian Pinera, responding to public anger at the lack of proper tsunami warnings after the quake, accepted an early-retirement recommendation for the captain in charge of the country's Navy Hydrological and Oceanographic Service. The story is in English at the CNN news blog.

Noted: Lat/Am Daily also posts on a growing batch of legal claims against the company behind a Concepcion residential building -- a new construction -- that split in two and collapsed during the quake.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Facebook group backs Chinese government's treatment of Mexicans

A Facebook group purportedly made up of Mexican nationals living in China has sprung up in support of the Chinese government's reaction to the H1N1 flu outbreak, part of which has included the quarantining of Mexicans.

The Facebook group claims that there is no discrimination taking place against Mexicans there, and claims that there is a lot of "media manipulation" on the issue.