Ethnography

1936–1937

The Siqueiros Experimental Workshop in New York

In 1936 Siqueiros ran a political art workshop in New York, the Siqueiros Experimental Workshop, which produced floats, posters and other ephemeral works for the CPUSA and other anti-fascist organisations in preparation for the General Strike for Peace and the May Day parade. The workshop lasted a little over a year, until he left for the Spanish Civil War in April 1937.

from April 1937 until 1938

On the fronts of the Spanish Civil War

In April 1937 Siqueiros went to Spain to support the Spanish Republic against Franco’s forces with his art, but volunteered and served in frontline combat as a lieutenant colonel in the Army of the Republic through 1938, before returning to Mexico City.

1940

Months on the run disguised as a peasant

Hiding from the police, Siqueiros fled to Guadalajara, to the house of his old friend José Guadalupe Zuno, and then to the mountain town of Hostotipaquillo, where he lived with Angélica Arenal disguised as a peasant under the name Macario Huízar; after several months on the run he was apprehended by the Jalisco police.

24 May 1940

The attack on Trotsky’s house in Coyoacán

In the early morning of 24 May 1940 Siqueiros led an attack on Leon Trotsky’s house in the Mexico City suburb of Coyoacán; the party consisted of men who had served under him in the Spanish Civil War and of miners from his union. The house was raked with machine-gun fire and explosives, but Trotsky was unhurt and only his 14-year-old grandson was shot; the police later found in a shallow grave the body of Robert Sheldon Harte, an American communist and Trotsky’s bodyguard, executed by one shot to the head.

4 October 1940

Arrested at the end of the investigation into the attack

As a result of the investigation into the attack on Trotsky, Siqueiros was arrested on 4 October 1940.

28 April 1941

Expelled from Mexico to Chile

On 28 April 1941 Siqueiros was expelled from Mexico to Chile.