Rivera’s Revolutionary Frescoes Are Mexico City’s Sistine Chapel

Diego Rivera took on a project that might have daunted even Michelangelo—to depict (in fresco) the entire history of the Mexican peoples.

Diego Rivera's "History of Mexico" adorns the walls of the National Palace in Mexico City. Photo courtesy of Jim Farber

In 1923, filled with political zeal following the victory of the Mexican Revolution, Diego Rivera took on a project that might have daunted even Michelangelo—to depict (in fresco) the entire history of the Mexican peoples.

The first of two sites allocated for this grand panorama was the former convent of Santa Maria de la Encarnacion del Divino Verbo. Founded in 1594, it was secularized in 1911. But after the revolution it became the Secretariat of Public Education Main Headquarters at the corner of San Ildefonso and Republica de Argentina streets at heart of Mexico City’s Zocalo district.