Envisioning the Revolution: Art and the Creation of Mexico’s Communist Party

This article analyzes the interactions of artists, Mexico’s Communist Party, or the Partido Comunista Mexicano (pcm), and the Mexican state within the context of Mexico’s vibrant post-revolutionary era. Although during these early years the Party’s official membership numbers remained relatively minimal, this article argues that the extraordinary influence of Mexico’s creative participants on the politics of the period was significant. During the 1920s the pcm derived a great deal of prestige from its association with art and the muralists, including Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, and as a result Mexico’s lively political and artistic scene attracted the attention of writers, photographers, artists, and intellectuals from all over the world. Art and politics intertwined as artists played major roles in political affairs, and politicians appropriated the arts to transmit the “official” national history. Indeed, during these exhilarating years, the artists and the pcm built a powerful coalition, and one whose influence endured long beyond the 1920s.