These murals from around Mexico, mostly from the walls of the schools we visited, show various aspects of Mexican culture. There are old gods, kings, presidents, and revolutionaries. Revolutionaries stand strong despite injury, or hang together, or ride through the chaos of battle. Jose Clemente Orozco shows us omniscience. There is even an exhortation that road-building leads to environmental devastation, a sentiment shared by many a norte-americano. These fifteen selected pictures show a small slice of the culture in about as efficient a way as possible.
This leads to two thoughts. First, there are probably murals as interesting as these in SLC if you know where to look. Why not look? Second, if I want my students to communicate with me and with each other, maybe I should encourage them to construct great sweeping murals in my classroom? If I have a smartboard, I could even give each student their own artspace, to fill as they see fit, and load and reload whenever they want. How better to learn about my students and their culture?
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| Primary school in Amatlan |
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| Middle school in Cuernavaca, Secundaria General no2 "Francisco Gonzalez Bocanegra" The man in the yellow hat leads the revolution. Those red spots appear to be bullet holes. |
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| Normal School (Teacher's College) in Cuernavaca, Escuela Particular Normal Superior Lic. Benito Juarez Emiliano Zapata leads the revolution |
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| BJns Benito Juarez says "Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace." |
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| In a restaurant in Mexico City, this Orozco mural, "omnisciencia," fills the stairwell. |
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| In Tepoztlan, this mural encourages solidarity. The pixelated parts that look like beads are pictures of the tops of candles. |
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| CGE headquarters, Cuernavaca. Cultural hegemony leaps from Tim's ear like Athena from the head of Zeus. |
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| FGBms, Your guess is as good as mine. |
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| FGBms, The Mexican national symbol is covered with anti-drug propaganda |
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| FGBms, Tim and Kathryn about to be swallowed by Jaguar |
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| FGBms, Quetzalcoatl, feathered serpent, welcomes students to the best decorated history classroom ever. |
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| FGBms, Rey Pakal, king of the Mayan city of Palenque, turns away from the teacher |
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| Tepoztlan mural triptych 1 "building better roads is the same as devastation and urbanization." |
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| Tepoztlan mural triptych 2 |
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| Tepoztlan mural triptych 3 |
