Art has always been an outlet to many. Something they could do to show what they could not say, to represent who they were/are as a person and to show what they believed in. Diego River is a great and inspiring Mexican Artist, whose paintings tell detailed aspects on how he saw things around him. As husband of one of the greatest woman artist in the Latino Culture, Frida Kahlo, he found ways to always incorporate his wife into his paintings, most commonly as the Calla Lilly. As beautiful as his paintings are they also have meanings behind them. Diego Rivera’s masterpieces interpret the way he saw society, his religious believes and his political views.

      To start out with, most of Rivera’s paintings show the life of the common people. First of all, many of his paintings incorporate the occupation of the common people in society. For instance, many of his paintings, such as : The flower vendor, The flower carrier, and el vendedor de Alcatraces, inferences that the common people were vendors they sold what they made. Also, many of his art works display the economic standards of the majority of the people. In his paintings one can tell that he concentrates on the poorer part of society. You can see this because in the art work the people are wearing clothing that is considered to be worn only by the poor. Last but not least, Diego’s work illustrates that a major part of the society consisted on working hard jobs that require a lot of manual labor. For example, a majority of his paintings show farmers plowing, people selling and making goods. One of his paintings, the weaver, there is a woman on her knees on the floor weaving what looks to be a blanket. In another one of his works, La Molendera , a woman is hard at work making tortillas.   All in all, Rivera’s art work displays the way he saw society around him.

            Adding on, many of his works involve is view on religion. To start out with, religion was already a touchy subject with Rivera. For example, he was part of the group of people who were Jewish but were forced into Catholicism. As Diego grew up he was aware of both his religions but proclaimed he was atheist. Adding on, he created a beautiful piece named The New Religion and the Inquisition, which’s perpose was to show how he saw being forced into a religion looked to him, or what the inquisition was to him. For those who don’t know at the time of Diego Rivera the Spanish Inquisition took place; this made millions of people under the Spanish rule to convert to Catholicism. In the picture you see people on their knees kissing, what I guess to be, a priest’s hands.  

 On the other hand, even though he claimed not to believe in any religion once he grew up; he did create pieces that symbolized religion in his culture. For instance, he created a piece called “Dia de los muertos” (Day of the Dead” which is a holiday celebrated by the Catholic Church. Concluding, for a person who believes he is atheist he did create art symbolic to the religion of his culture.  

            Lastly, Diego Rivera grew up around the time of the Mexican Revolution, and traveled to many places, throughout he painted piece that symbolize his political believes. Firstly, Diego was a communist and his views were shown in many of his murals. One of them being The Arsenal, which illustrates Diego’s wife passing out weapons to the communist soldiers. This of course was before Diego returned to Mexico. Once he came back he joined the Mexican communist party. Meanwhile, he believed in communism he created pieces that showed the new war he came back for, the Mexican Revolution. For instance, Diego created many portraits of Zapata, a famous revolutionary hero. Also, he created paintings that showed the violence that was  going on in the war. In conclusion, His political views governed some of his ideas for his paintings.

            In summery, a person’s art is governed by what they see and what they believe. Major things that are going on at the time inspire many artists. Not just that, but a persons own person believes and what they see happening in everyday life has an input on what gets painted on a canvas. For Diego Rivera it was many things, how he saw everyday life to be in Mexico, how religion had an impact on his own life, and his political views.