Diego Rivera Meets Homer Simpson

Recently, I had the opportunity to go to Mexico, both to Mexico City and then to the Servite mission in the mountains.  During this time, I was able to visit the Palacio de las Bellas Artes in Mexico City where a number of the works of Mexico's great muralists are displayed, several being of Diego Rivera.

One of Diego Rivera murals displayed there was of the famous Man at a Crossroads, which he originally was painting on contract in 1933 for the Rockefellers for Rockefeller Center in New York.  When it was discovered what he was painting, Rivera was fired and the mural destroyed.  The following year, the Mexican government hired him to paint a second version of the mural in its Palacio de las Bellas Artes.  It's an awesome and certainly propagandistic piece of work.  And yet nearly 80 years later, the problems it sought to address have not gone away.

Anyway, looking at the mural, I could not help myself to wish to "add" to this mural, perhaps explaining why ;-)

I certainly would not want to be labeled a Communist.  I have way too many members of my family who suffered and were even killed during by the Communists during the Communist era in Russia / Eastern-Central Europe to go that way.  On the other side, I would not want my editorializing to be taken as a specific insult to the working class.  Instead, I do think that this perhaps where we are.  From Communists to humanists in general to say nothing of politicians around election time, all love to lift up "the common man" as an ideal. Well, what if the common man really is ... Homer Simpson?  Do we really want _him_ to be guiding the destiny of our world?  Thoughts?  Comments?