Instruments in unifying the masses.

We have most likely heard of the supremacy that exists in the Latin American mural art that tells and represents the history of Latin America. However, what is the true role that these mural art pieces have in Latin America. How is it that the murals unify Latin America in just one culture?. The mural art is a present reality in Latin American culture that transcends borders, people, and dialects. But, why do we only find them on a larger scale more common in Latin American culture and not so much in other cultures? 

"Presencia de América Latina"

If I analyze the Mexican murals by Rivera with those that are found in Chile, I think that we find more than just a representation of identity.  The majority of the Mexican murals were painted after the Mexican revolution during a time when the people were extremely divided by history; a people who oppressed the workers and the farmers that fought to overcome the effects of the war, one being illiteracy.  Therefore, these murals had the intention to teach the story through images for those who did not know how to read.  Its main purpose was so that all would see it and come together again as a society after the division that the Revolution had produced.  In Chile, we find that most of the murals that were painted were done during the dictatorship as a manifestation of their disapproval of Pinochet’s regimen military.  These murals invited the unification of the people in order to defeat oppression. So, in both countries we find that after a period of division, murals begin to appear as instruments in unifying the masses.

Perhaps in Latin American history there have been great divisions among the people and that is why we find so many murals.  These divisions have been so profound that maybe that is where the idea of great murals comes from; murals that play a powerful role as a tool in unifying the people.