![]() Secretary Dulles also has one hand on a nuclear bomb with Eisenhower’s laughing face on it. Rivera paints Dulles with an expression of idiocy to demonstrate how he was too ignorant to understand the terrible chain of events he had sparked. In the center of the mural, secretary of state John Foster Dulles is seen shaking hands with military commander and now president Castillo Armas. Because many important American political and business figures had strong interests in the United Fruit Company, the United States decided to intervene. The UFC, however, valued the land more than any monetary compensation and refused to comply. These laws stipulated that the Guatemalan government would seize and redistribute any uncultivated land and grant monetary compensation to the people from whom the land was taken. The United States removed Guzmán from power and replaced him with a dictatorial military commander because Guzmán threatened the landholdings of the United Fruit Company with his agrarian reform laws. ![]() Glorious Victory is a critical and condemnatory view of the 1954 CIA coup of Guatemala’s democratically elected president Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán. His use of bright color and symbolism bring some of the blackest stains of history to life. While it is important to note the leftist bias in his works like Glorious Victory, one can still extract extremely important messages concerning social strife and ethical wrongs. The mural style was also his way of repudiating the elite walls of galleries and museums. The frescoes’ grand size and public accessibility made it the perfect medium for Rivera to spread his political and social vision. He was also an outspoken Marxist with strong ties to the Soviet Union. He used the painting technique of Italian fresco to address often controversial themes like social inequality, industrialization, and imperialism. He was among the leading members of the Mexican muralist movement and an artistic revolutionary. Rivera was an incredibly complex individual both politically and artistically. ![]() I chose my first post to address this piece because of its strong social undertones and historical relevance. Painted in 1954, the mockingly titled work has its subject as the infamous CIA coup of Guatemala’s democratically elected government. Diego Rivera, the famous 20th century Mexican muralist, however, paints a more cynical picture of the United States in his mural Gloriosa Victoria, or Glorious Victory. The statue of liberty is a symbol of hope and the star spangled banner is an emblem of progress. The United States is often seen as a beacon of democracy, freedom, and human rights.
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