GODS OF THE MODERN WORLD - JOSE CLEMENTE OROZCO

José Clemente Orozco was a Mexican muralist who was born in Zapotlán, Mexico in 1883. He was a very important artist that made Mexican pictorial art to get known, as he joined the Mexican muralist movement with Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros. The purpose of this movement was to put into action the "street art" conception, puting it into a left side ideology.

Dioses del Mundo Moderno

Dioses del mundo moderno (Gods of the Modern World) is a mural painted by José Clemente Orozco. By "gods" he refers to the capitalism chiefs and the destruction that they carry on. Ethics and morality are the main characters in this mural. The message he wants to communicate is about death and the lack of good.

All of this is related to José Vasconcelos, because without him, it could not be possible to express the Mexican thoughts, critiques and emotions. He was an important initiador of this movement, as he was an intellectual that pushed the cultural nationalism in Mexico after the Revolution. He wrote the book Raza Cósmica, in which he expresses his opinion about mestizaje and the hispanian unity.

In my opinion, this mural could be interpreted as power, because as we can see, there are only "people" that used to have power in those years. We can observe a priest, graduates and a minister. They were people that were able to read, and that was such an important quality for them to be an important person. This could be associated with the categorized races, as in the mural we can see that only powerful people are involved in important activities, and not the people that could not read or be part of the government. Vasconcelos leaves behind the indios and negros (As they were considered as slaves), they were not taken in count by society, and that is what José Clemente Orozco is representing.

"De tal suerte se hizo el bando latino lo que nadie ni pensó hacer en el continente sajón. Allí siguió imperando la tesis contraria, el propósito confesado o tácito de limpiar la tierra de indios, mogoles y negros, para mayor gloria y ventura del blanco. En realidad, desde aquella época quedaron bien definidos los sistemas que, perdurando hasta la fecha, colocan en campos sociológicos opuestos a las dos civilizaciones: la que quiere el predominio exclusivo del blanco, y la que está formando una raza nueva, raza de síntesis, que aspira a englobar y expresar todo lo humano en maneras de constante superación".

References:

• Ruiza, M., Fernández, T., Tamaro, E., & Durán, M. (n.d.). José Clemente Orozco. Retrieved February 8, 2019, from https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/o/orozco.htm