El pueblo oprimido
Estampas de la Revolución mejicana

Artist name

Jesús Alvarez Amaya

Artist year born

1925

Artist year deceased

2010

Artwork make date

1974

Artwork title translation

The People are oppressed
Prints of the Mexican Revolution

Artwork material

woodcut
paper

Artwork dimensions

height: 20cm
width: 29cm

Artwork type (categories)

Print

Accession method

Donated by the School of Philosophy and Art History, University of Essex 2001

Accession number

3:4-2001

Label text

During the tyrannical dictatorship of the Mexican president Porfirio Díaz, which lasted from 1876 to 1911, the peasant and working class citizens of Mexico suffered greatly. Díaz undermined what little power these groups had by taking away their land and basic human rights. Families struggled to feed themselves as the land on which they survived was now given away to friends of Díaz and his supporters. Censorship prevailed and many lost their lives for speaking out against Díaz and their hardships. El pueblo oprimido depicts the American author and banking expert, Charles A. Conant, looming over a landscape with people forced off their land, carrying their possessions on their heads. A soldier, and therefore government agent, wields his sword, while a peasant falls back against a wooden fence. Traces of a hurried exodus are seen in the foreground in the form of small articles of clothing. Conant helped to build irrigation canals in the state of Sonora; all of the land used for the canals was seized by the government from the indigenous Yaqui. The land was then sold to settlers for a low price. Conant would have had no problems taking native lands for such a project as he believed imperialism was a positive outcome of capitalism.
Collins, Caitlyn

Last updated date

2008