Stopped by the triad of muralists, Diego Rivera, Alfaro Siqueiros and Clemente Orozco, María Izquierdo was denied the completion of her mural in 1945; On March 8th, a group of women decided to make it a reality

María Izquierdo, a Mexican artist, was commissioned in 1945 to create a fresco mural in the Government Palace of the then Federal District (today Mexico City). By then, Izquierdo was already a woman with a broad artistic career: she had been the first Mexican woman to exhibit in the United States, she studied at the National Academy of Fine Arts and was a columnist for Excélsior and Hoy magazine. Izquierdo worked hard on the sketch of her mural, and she raised the necessary material and personnel to carry out her work, which would consist of a scene of women and men working on the harvesting and processing of corn; the idea of the work responded to the request that the mural show the history and progress of the city.

However, Izquierdo would not see her project realized, stopped by whom she accused of being the “exhausting monopoly”: Diego Rivera, Alfaro Siqueiros and Clemente Orozco, among other artists. Izquierdo had already had differences with the group, denouncing them for hoarding all the murals in the country, without opportunity for other artists with a career like her. The “muralist triad” stopped the creation of Izquierdo's mural under the argument that the artist “did not master the fresco technique” and suggested that her mural be made in a “less important” space such as a school or a market. The constant insistence of the triad ended up frustrating the project, and María Izquierdo died in 1955 without carrying out her work.

These types of stories continue to happen in today's Mexico, where many women have a competitive disadvantage in their profession for the simple fact of being a woman. But the growing feminist sentiment has led new generations to fight for a new, fairer reality for women. This was the case of Dea López, a graduate of the Contemporary Art Degree from Ibero Puebla, who, upon learning the story of María Izquierdo, decided to work for retroactive justice for the late Mexican artist.

Dea, in coordination with Cassandra Sumano (also an art student) and Diana Cuellar (curator), invited more than 110 women, including artists and non-artists, to create María Izquierdo's mural, this time in the Jalatlaco neighborhood in the city of Oaxaca. The process of painting the work began on March 8, International Women's Day, and to carry it out some creative licenses were taken that responded to current needs and possibilities (they replaced the fresco technique with acrylics) and to the philosophy and group identity (peasant women were represented with typical textiles from Oaxaca). From then on, the group sought to preserve María Izquierdo's original idea and style as much as possible, following her original sketches.

During the making of the mural, women of different ages and profiles participated and supported in different ways in its creation; either by intervening directly on the mural or through donations of water, food, sunscreen, paint or more, as a community action in which everyone supported in different ways. The mural was completed on March 10, has a size of 7 meters wide by 4 meters high and has been titled “The mural that should have been.”

With this mural, a space has finally been granted for the work of María Izquierdo, but Dea López recognizes that the permanence of the mural is subject to the decision of the owner of the building, the wear and tear of climate and time, and other external factors. That is why López, along with Cassandra Sumano and the historian Mariana Zardain, are working on the possibility of the mural being made in the place for which it was originally intended; one of the walls of the steps of the Government Palace, which has not been painted since 1945.

Meanwhile, "The mural that should have been" is a tribute to the artistic career of María Izquierdo, a testimony of the capacity and sisterhood of women to fight for a more just reality, and an invitation to reflect on the history we know ( and we don't know) about our country.

With information from El País, Ibero Puebla, Santa Cultura and NSS Oaxaca.