SECRETARIA DE EDUCACIÓN PÚBLICA

This neoclassical building with two patios, inaugurated in 1922, houses more than one hundred frescoes by Diego Rivera, from 1923 to 1928, under the direction of José Vasconcelos. Rivera was the main architect, with smaller works by David Alfaro Siqueiros, Roberto Montenegro, Amado de la Cueva, Jean Charlot, Erick Mosse and Federico Canessi. At the time, Vasconcelos was the Secretary of Public Education in Mexico and wanted to share with the Mexican people the glorious history of the country by representing its pre-Hispanic, colonial, revolutionary and industrial epics. Responding to an innovative revolutionary ideal of popular education, he would have all the walls of the building covered with paintings depicting individual scenes of Mexican life: popular celebrations, family meals, work in the fields, but also in the factories, workers' demonstrations and acts representing social struggles. Rivera, with great skill, also painted the main emblematic elements of indigenous societies. He also mocked outrageous capitalism, which he caricatured in several acts visibly focused on anti-Americanism, which he symbolized through characters such as John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Gloria Swanson and John Pierpont Morgan. The building also houses an exhibit on indigenous Mexican languages and several artifacts from the colonial era.