Patrimonio artístico olvidado en las escuelas de educación básica de la SEP en la Ciudad de México
Manríquez Salazar, Leticia
The journalist mentions the bureaucratic maneuvering that allowed the SEP [Ministry of Public Education] to relinquish its position as keeper of the murals painted on the school walls and in 1963, pass the role on to the Centro Nacional de Conservación de Obra Artística [National Center for the Preservation of Artistic Works] (currently the Centro Nacional de Conservación y Registro del Patrimonio Artístico Mueble (CNCRPAM) [National Center for the Preservation and Registration of Works of Artistic Heritage]. For bureaucratic reasons, and in the absence of an accurate inventory or registry of buildings with murals on their walls, not to mention the lack of funds for preservation efforts, many works of art have been lost or destroyed—victims of abandonment or a lack of interest. Statistics for Mexico City alone identify some forty elementary schools with over a hundred and fifty murals (painted between 1910 and 1933), a little over half of which have disappeared or have been destroyed. Even worse, many of the murals that have survived have severely deteriorated.
The deterioration is visible in works by Ramón Alva Guadarrama and Gabriel García Maroto at the "Escuela Francisco Giner de los Ríos" (370, Isabel la Católica Street) that were painted in 1932. This school is in a deplorable state of decay due to lack of attention, vandalism and the separation of the plaster. Murals painted by Máximo Pacheco at the "Escuela Domingo F. Sarmiento" are in a similar condition. The two works that still retain some their original splendor are by Pablo O'Higgins: Vida y problemas sociales [Social Life and Problems] and La conquista contra la verdad y la realidad del trabajo y sus luchas [The Conquest of Truth and the Reality of Work and its Struggles], both painted at the "Escuela Emiliano Zapata" (179, Fundidora de Monterrey Street) in 1933. In that same year Julio Castellanos painted his al fresco work, Los niños y el diablo [The Children and the Devil]. He also painted Juego de niños [Children's Game] at the "Escuela Melchor Ocampo," currently referred to as "Héroes de Churubusco" (60, Hidalgo Avenue, in Coyoacán), all of which are in Mexico City.
Crónicas (México, D. F., México). -- No. 3-4 (Sep. 1998-Ago. 1999)
Centro Nacional de Conservación y Registro del Patrimonio Artístico Mueble (México)
Enciso, Jorge, 1879-1969
Pacheco, Máximo
Rivera, Diego, 1886-1957
Secretaría de Educación Pública (México)
Manríquez Salazar, Leticia. "Patrimonio artístico olvidado en las escuelas de educación básica de la SEP en la Ciudad de México." Crónicas (Mexico City), no.3-4 (September 1998-August 1999): 7-14.
Archivo personal Alejandro García
CURARE, Espacio Crítico para las Artes, Mexico City