A Retired Teacher in Mexico City: The World's Largest Mural

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

The World's Largest Mural

From my apartment building I can see Mexico City's third tallest skyscraper, the World Trade Center Mexico. I had never been there even though the complex includes an important work by the famous muralist David Siqueiros. So, I decided that should be on my sightseeing itinerary.

I walked a few blocks to Avenida Insurgentes, a major thoroughfare which stretches from north to south across the entire city. It is supposedly the longest avenue in the world. I was going to take the "Metrobus" which travels down Insurgentes, but when I realized that the World Trade Center was only two stops away, and I saw how crowded the bus was, I decided to walk.

The building which today is the World Trade Center was built in the 1970's as the Hotel de México. It was planned as a huge hotel and cultural center, but the project never got off the ground. For years the skyscraper stood empty. Finally in the 1990's the building was refurbished as an office tower and shopping center and opened in 1995 as the World Trade Center Mexico. The shopping center includes a multiplex movie theater, various restaurants, and a large Sears department store that is much more upscale than any Sears that I have seen back home in the States.

The one portion of the Hotel de México project that was completed as planned was the cultural center, known as the Polyforum Siqueiros. The center includes a theater, two art galleries, and a large octagonal shaped hall called the Foro Universal. The painter David Siqueiros, one of the Big Three of Mexican mural painting (the other two were Diego Rivera and José Orozco), was commissioned to paint the exterior of the Polyforum and the interior of the Foro. Taken together, the exterior and interior murals constitute the largest mural painting in the world. The interior mural, called "The March of Humanity" represents the struggle of the human race against misery and oppression in search of a better society. It is an example of his 3-D style of painting in which the shapes project from the surface of the walls. Siqueiros has never been a favorite of mine, but I have to admit to having a "Wow!" moment as I entered the Foro, and saw the walls and ceiling of that huge hall completely covered with his art.