‘32 Siqueiros Mural Looks for New Life

After years of abuse and neglect, a controversial 1932 mural by the late Mexican artist David Alfaro Siqueiros is being brought back to life on Olvera Street.

Project leaders estimate that they will be able to capture nearly 70% of the visual impact of the original Siqueiros mural, “America Tropical.” Funding for the remaining work must still be secured, but the leaders hope the mural will be open for public viewing as early as September, 1991.

“Some people will say, ‘Well, you lost 30%,’ but it’s still going to be an incredibly vibrant statement,” said Miguel Angel Corzo, president of the Friends of the Arts of Mexico, one of the leaders in the effort to restore the mural.

“The question is,” Corzo said, “ ‘Would you rather have nothing or, to the extent that the rescue is possible, the 70%?’ It does not mean that it will be as strong as (other works by Siqueiros), but still it is a very valuable work. It shows the influence and the presence of Mexican art in the context of the history of the United States.”

The 80-by-16-foot mural of a Mexican Indian peon in loincloth hanging on a double cross was immediately controversial when Siqueiros unveiled his work on Oct. 9, 1932. Strong colors defined the pyramid behind the Indian figure, a screaming American eagle perched atop the cross, with thick, dark tree branches on either side of the pyramid, and sharpshooters are perched at the right top corner with their rifles menacing the eagle. Symbols of various Mexican influences, such as Aztec, Toltec and Olmec, are interspersed throughout the work.

“It was a dark era in which he painted the mural,” said Jean Bruce Poole, curator of El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Park, which oversees the preservation of Olvera Street. The mural is on the exterior second-story wall of Italian Hall on Olvera Street.

Siqueiros tried to reflect the political turmoil of the period in his artwork, Poole said. He had just escaped persecution for Communist Party activities in Mexico and landed square in the middle of this country’s Great Depression. He was known to be outraged at the treatment of migrant workers in California and the mass deportations of Mexican nationals, and he tried to reflect that in his works, Poole said.

“I painted a man . . . crucified on a double cross which had, proudly perched on the top, the eagle of North American coins,” Siqueiros wrote in 1960.

Siqueiros, who died in 1974, apparently never separated the aesthetics of his art from the politics of the day. In 1922, Siqueiros wrote that artists must try to create relevant works with “beauty that enlightens and stirs to struggle.”

When referring to “America Tropical,” Siqueiros said, “My mural was the mural of a painter who had fought in the revolution.”

Over the years, more people have become interested in saving the mural because of a renewed interest in the history of Latinos in this area, Poole said. “The thing is, today it’s a symbol of Mexican pride and also it’s considered an important piece of artwork.”

Immediately after its unveiling, Olvera Street founder Christine Sterling ordered the right one-third of it whitewashed. She wanted to hide it from view of patrons because she interpreted the work as “anti-American” and felt it did not fit in with the flavor of Olvera Street, Poole said.

Ironically, this third of the mural is better preserved than the other part, which was whitewashed in the next year by Francis K. Ferencz, an artist whose studio occupied the second story of the building at the time Siqueiros painted the mural. Poole believes that Ferencz, who had commissioned the work, was pressured into covering it up.

By the time Ferencz completed the whitewashing, the mural had already faded from exposure to the sun, wind and rain. He also used a type of paint that was more damaging than the whitewash used on the first portion, although Poole believes he thought it would better preserve the work.

Many of the details were lost in the whitewashing, in some places leaving little more than outlines of the figures. The colors will be “rescued,” however, said Corzo. Agustin Espinosa of Mexico, one of the world’s foremost experts in mural restoration, will lead an effort called chromatic restoration painting, which involves the painting of very fine vertical lines directly onto the mural.

The workers will use watercolors that will not wash away with rain, but could be removed with a special solvent in the event a better technique is devised in the future. Corzo said it will be obvious from close up that the lines are not Siqueiros’ original work, but from afar, such as from a viewing platform, the eye will not be able to distinguish the lines. The method is used to return as much color to the mural as possible. The trick, Corzo said, will be to keep the new colors from overpowering some of the areas of the mural that will not be painted because they were not too badly damaged.

From the street today, onlookers can see only a narrow, wooden “shed” built in 1982 to protect the mural from further damage from the elements.

Espinosa and other experts this year cleaned off the white paint and dirt, and injected the wall with a sealant to make the paint and plaster Siqueiros originally applied adhere to the wall.

This summer, workers completed seismic stabilization on the building with the help of a $100,000 grant from state park bonds financing.

Poole and Corzo estimate that the remaining conservation work will cost nearly $250,000, most of which must still be raised. It will include the chromatic restoration painting--to begin in January--and installation of a permanent protective cover to provide protection from the sun and to be lifted for viewing.

They have not come up with a cost estimate yet for the final phase, in which they hope to build a platform for public viewing, set up a room in the nearby Sepulveda House with information displays on Siqueiros and eventually make the platform handicapped-accessible.

While the wall “heals” from the conservation work performed on it earlier this year, Corzo and Poole have their sights set on fund-raising for the project.

The Olvera Street Merchants Assn. last year raised $5,000 for the mural project. But, according to President Vivien Bonzo, association leaders are withholding the money because they have been excluded from planning.

The Olvera Merchants Assn. has also been involved in a controversy with city officials concerning the approach and scope of a long-awaited renovation of Olvera Street. But there is a consensus that the Siqueiros mural restoration should move forward.

Siqueiros was one of “Los Tres Grandes” of Mexico, which also included muralists Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco, who provided innovative techniques in creating murals. They experimented with cements, plasters and paints. Siqueiros used an airbrush for applying his paints.

In addition to “America Tropical,” Siqueiros painted “Street Meeting” at the Chouinard Art School in Los Angeles. The mural, which depicted an orator haranguing hungry people, including a black man and a white woman, each with a child, no longer exists. It is not known whether the work was intentionally destroyed or fell apart because of poor construction, Poole said.

Siqueiros’ third mural in Los Angeles, “Portrait of Mexico Today” (originally, “Delivery of the Mexican Bourgeoisie Born of the Revolution into the Hands of Imperialism”), still exists in a private home in Pacific Palisades, Poole said.