Nacimiento de nuestra nacionalidad
Man, Controller of the UniverseApoteosis de Cuauhtémoc (detail)The Birth of Our Nation (detail)Carnival of Mexican Life: The Dictatorship (Detail)New DemocracyNacimiento de nuestra nacionalidadMurals of the Palacio de Bellas ArtesStained-Glass Dome, Palacio de Bellas ArtesArt Deco Ceiling and ColumnsDance of the Huichilobos (detail)Man, Controller of the Universe (detail)Grinning Dictator

Nacimiento de nuestra nacionalidadRufino Tamayo

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This 1952 abstract mural shows a Spanish conquistador riding through ruins as a woman gives birth—symbolizing Mexico’s mestizo origins. Tamayo responds to nationalist aesthetics with a lyrical, modernist vision: light, violence, and form collide to portray the nation’s birth as both rupture and fusion.