Mexico: Artist in Jail

Mexican President Adolfo López Mateos never says a word against Fidel Castro, and insists that in politics he is a leftist “within the constitution.” Yet López Mateos has not hesitated to come down hard on troublesome leftists at home. Last week his regime came down hard on Mexico’s No. 1 leftist (and No. 1 artist), David Alfaro Siqueiros. 65. The Communist painter, who has already been behind bars for 20 months, was sentenced to eight years in the federal penitentiary for “social dissolution”—i.e., troublemaking during student demonstrations in August 1960.

He had been picked up during the 1960 disturbances, but claimed he was miles away at the time, painting government-commissioned murals at Chapultepec Castle. The authorities threw him into Mexico City’s Lecumberri Prison anyway, and held him without trial. Whiling away the weeks, he painted scenery for prison theatricals, staged a brief hunger strike, and produced about 20 tiny paintings. He even managed to turn out murals on sections of plywood designed to be hinged together later.

Art lovers, leftists and believers in the rule of law both inside Mexico and from around the world protested; the López Mateos regime finally brought Siqueiros to trial in January. In a tiny, dingy courtroom the artist stole the show with a three-hour speech ranging from his youthful years in politics to the present panorama of Mexican art, to the endless betrayal of the 1910 Mexican revolution by every regime down to and including the present. It was a stirring offense, but not much of a defense, especially considering several personal insults Siqueiros aimed at the presiding judge himself.

For a personage of Siqueiros’ stature, last week’s sentence amounted to having the book thrown at him, even though the time he has already served counts against his sentence, and he may be paroled in two years.

Painting away in jail, Siqueiros seemed to be enjoying the martyrdom of it all. Asked about his chances for a presidential pardon, he took another dig at President López Mateos: “I suppose the President will have to ask the U.S. before he acts.”