The Art of Politics: Diego Rivera

Diego Riverawas born December 8, 1886, in Guanajuato in Mexico, to Diego and Maria Barrientos Rivera. Being a family of rather modest means, they lived in Guanajuato until 1892, when they moved to Mexico City. At the age of ten Diego Rivera was doing well in school, and, passionately fond of drawing from an early age, started taking evening painting classes at the San Carlos Academy. In 1898 he enrolled there as a full time student, and in 1906, at the annual show, he exhibited for the first time, with 26 works. Thus at age twenty Diego Rivera was established as a painter.

Diego's father was a municipal councellor in Guanajuato, and was a liberal and anticlerical man. Diego's two aunts, who lived with the family, were rather religious. Diego was interested in military issues, and he was especially fascinated by the Russian army and the conflict it was facing; the Tsar and the Orthodox Church versus Marxist Revolutionaries.