Restoration of Mural

By ignoring the history of David Alfaro Siqueiros’ 1932 mural, “Tropical America,” Michael Warder (Commentary, March 6) missed the fundamental reason for preserving the work. Armed peasants on the mural’s far right side, which was the only section of “Tropical America” seen from Olvera Street, were covered first, and the crucified peon on the double-cross was painted out several years later.

The depiction of armed peasants taking control of their own destiny conflicted with the image Christine Sterling was attempting to create in developing Olvera Street as a Mexican village. She wanted to portray Mexicans as backward and passive peasants, who knew their place in the social order. Indeed, it is ironic that Sterling’s prejudices saved the mural. Her order to paint it out protected it for nearly 40 years. The mural suffered major irreversible damage only when it was exposed to the sun after the whitewash began peeling away in the late 1960s.

By stabilizing the mural, the Getty and the El Pueblo Commission will help us and succeeding generations learn about the political and social context in which “Tropical America” was both created and covered up.

MICHAEL SEVERAL

Los Angeles

* It doesn’t matter what the background of the painter, the history of the advocate or the politics of the Getty are. Restoration of any fascist painting should be outlawed on any public space, or any space viewable from a public location. As Susan Sontag, an icon of the left, finally admitted, communism is fascism.

Would the Getty consider funding a Nazi painting of that era? Or one painted by Franco’s fascist Spain? If you hate Hitler’s Nazism, or Franco’s version, then Stalin’s fascism and the advocacy by his defenders and apostles should be denied public display and public funding. Let’s be consistent: No fascism in public spaces, whether from the left or the right.

STEVE G. FINEFROCK

Los Angeles

* In regard to Warder’s objection to restoring Siqueiros’ mural on Olvera Street: Nearly all “Nazi art” and “Soviet art” completely lacks aesthetic quality. To the extent that the work of great Mexican muralists (he’s one of Los Tres Grandes) expresses revolutionary ideals, the best of it represents the only “socialist art” that can be called “great.” Some of Siqueiros’ work can be obvious, trite, or garish, but the Olvera Street painting exhibits aesthetic control of power and passion to a degree that is rare among acknowledged masterpieces. It deserves restoration.

Warder is wrong about the “American ‘imperialist’ eagle.” That bird doesn’t look at all like our bald eagle, but very much like the golden eagle that flies over Mexico and California alike, and is featured on the Mexican flag, not on ours. Siqueiros, like other great artists, communicates here in universals, not in ideologically limited symbols.

ROBERT HANSEN

Carpinteria