Diego Rivera Exhibition at the MoMa

Last Friday I was able to go to the MoMa to see the famous murals made by Diego Rivera and it was absolutely amazing! I am a huge fan of arts and museums, and the opportunity to see the work of Rivera was very special.
I was somewhat familiar with his work and his style before the museum trip. A couple years ago I watched Frida, played by Salma Hayek and I remember thinking she and Rivera had such a fascinating life history. I did some light research on their lives and art, but nothing too profound. Before going to the MoMa I was not even so sure about Rivera's painting style. I had an idea in my mind of his murals and the Mexican themes on it, but again I was not too familiar.
When I walked into the room the first mural I saw was the Agrarian Leader Zapata and as soon as I looked at it I suddenly felt like I knew so much about that picture and the history behind it! It was an amazing feeling, I really was able to relate all the Latin America history discussed in class to that painting. Emiliano Zapata an agrarian leader and key protagonist in the Mexican Revolution, it is a magnificent painting and it says so much too. The men with the farming tools and the dead men right on his feet. It is the exact picture of the history we discussed in class, the popular agrarian leader, the revolution of the lower agrarian classes.
I was not only interested on the Zapata painting but mostly by the "cartoon" version of it. To me that was just beautiful, it had no colors, but Rivera's skills were brilliant.  
The Agrarian Leader Zapata was not the only painting that I could relate to what we discussed in class. Rivera had some peculiar experiences and opinions related to politics, and his work represented his ideas. The idea if the people rebelling, revolutions influenced by Russian politics and regime, his debate between the rural and the industrial workers, all these issues were brilliantly represented on his murals.
One of my favorite parts of the exhibition were the small series of paintings were I could clearly notice the Russian influences on it. The paintings of the people revolting with a lot of red elements on it were a clear allusion to Russian politics and Rivera's radical political beliefs.

The Liberation of The Peon was also related to what we discussed in class, in that mural Rivera painted revolutionary soldiers and the Peon, which were the natives who were forced to work for the Spanish colonizers. The mural can also be seem as portraying social injustice due to the economic conditions that the Peons lived.
Finally I can say that the visit to the MoMa was a great experience, I felt very familiar with the history behind those murals and was able to understand more in depth the meaning of those images.

Cfr article and last class!

The article on Venezuela and the rise of Hugo Chavez discussed some various interesting facts about Chavez and his life in politics. In fact, I did not know so much about his early life, but it sport of reminded me a little of Lula’s life, as they were both activists since a young age. Obviously this is not a comparison, but in a sense they were very active with their own community, Lula with the Union labors and Chavez in the army.

Anyway, the article was brilliant on describing Chavez with 3 major influences in his life, which really relate to his current politics a lot. The influences by the Cuban Revolution, Simon Bolivar and joining the army in such an early age and actually being able to be a part of the leftist policies aimed by this military left, like land reform and nationalism.  This combination of influences screams “Chavismo” and it shows clearly how his influences and his revolutionary heroes are such present figure during his political career.

I also thought it was very interesting that while Venezuela was having so many conflicts on the streets, due to the many social problems, Chavez and the military left were planning a coup. This coup eventually failed but the interesting part in my opinion is that he got to go to jail and educate himself on politics. He really got the chance to learn from the best on how to succeed as a politician; most important he actually got advice to be elected through legitimate elections and not a coup. On top of that, when he went to jail he became well known, especially by the lower classes so I feel like this was a really important passage to his future in politics.

When elected he was really no surprise, it seems to me that it was really expected from him to impose his power all over the public and private sectors which is exactly what he did.  The controversial constitutional reform and concentration of power especially in the Supreme Court, clear influences from his experiences.

I also thought that somehow his transactions related to oil were not that bad, the reason I say this is because he did do some investments to bring medical help to the population mostly made possible by the oil business with Cuba in exchange for health professionals, but still valid to help the population. Pretty much a lot of good things can be made available to the population due to this partnership with Cuba and trade of oil, oil is definitely the reason of why Venezuela is and probably will be in a good economic situation for the next few years.