LAist + KCET ARTBOUND Screening Series: América Tropical: The Martyr Mural of Siqueiros
- The Crawford, 474 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena
LAist + KCET ARTBOUND Screening Series continues with the premiere of América Tropical: The Martyr Mural of Siqueiros. This new documentary will delve into the story of América Tropical, a large-scale outdoor mural painted by David Alfaro Sisqueiros. Originally unveiled in 1932, the mural was eventually white-washed after drawing the ire of Olvera Street officials. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion led by Antonia Cereijido (she/her), host of the Imperfect Paradise podcast from LAist Studios. From 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., purchase classic dumplings or katsu sandwiches from Bling Bling Dumpling.
SPECIAL GUESTS
- José Figueroa (he/him), filmmaker, co-founder - Dignicraft
- Oscar Magallanes (he/him), artist, co-founder - 3B Collective
- Rebecca Zamora (she/her), independent scholar, arts professional
Learn more about the mural and its restoration in this story from NPR.
ABOUT THE FILM
“América Tropical: The Martyr Mural of Siqueiros” – Premieres Wed., Oct. 11 at 9 p.m. on KCET / Fri., Oct. 13 at 8 p.m. on PBS SoCal
Mexican social realist painter David Alfaro Siqueiros created Olvera Street’s popular “América Tropical”, introducing an innovative and unprecedented technique to muralism that required revolutionary techniques and materials. “America Tropical” is considered the most studied white-washed mural in the United States. The mural and Siqueiros inspired many contemporary muralists working today profiled in the film including 3B Collective, Erin Yoshi and Fabian Debora (Homeboy Art Academy). The film also features commentary from Rubén Ortiz-Torres, Harry Gamboa Jr., Isabel Rojas-Williams and more.
ARTBOUND is supported in part by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture and Creative Recovery LA, the National Endowment for the Arts, and other generous institutional funders.
ABOUT REBECCA ZAMORA
Rebecca Zamora (she/her) was born and raised in Los Angeles and has held positions at several arts and philanthropic organizations. She is an independent scholar, who graduated with a Master’s Degree in Latin American Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. Most recently, she was a project specialist, volume editor, and researcher for Talking to Action: Art, Pedagogy, and Activism in the Americas (2017) at the Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis College of Art and Design as part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, an initiative of the Getty. She has worked on and contributed to two additional exhibitions and their catalogues, The Color of Life (J. Paul Getty Museum, 2008) and Farewell to Surrealism: The Dyn Circle in Mexico (Getty Research Institute, 2012). Expanding upon her Master’s thesis, she has published “Preserving a Legacy: Shifra Goldman and David Alfaro Siqueiros’s América Tropical,” Getty Research Journal no. 6 (2014) and “Siqueiros and Los Angeles: A Legacy Interrupted” in Redes Intelectuales: Arte y Política en América Latina (Bogotá: Uniandes, 2015).
ABOUT OSCAR MAGALLANES
Oscar Magallanes holds an MFA from the University of California, San Diego (2021), and a BA from the University of California, Los Angeles (2016).
Los Angeles-based artist Magallanes specializes in painting, sculpture, and mixed media, drawing inspiration from his Mexican-American upbringing in East Los Angeles. At the age of fifteen, he was expelled from high school but was accepted into the Ryman Arts program at the Otis College campus, which encouraged him to become a professional artist. His work often touches down at the intersections of cultural iconography, the folkloric, and the aesthetics of propaganda.
Magallanes' art has been featured in museums across the United States and Mexico, including the North Carolina Museum of Art, Museo CEART de Baja California, the National Museum of Mexican American Art in Chicago, and the McNay Museum in San Antonio. His work is part of the permanent collections of institutions like the Museum of Latin American Art, the National Museum of Mexican Art, and La Salle University: Art Museum and is working on a significant work for the Century City Metro Station slated to open in 2025.
A co-founder of the 3B Collective, that focuses on large-scale, site-specific public works. They have created works for institutions such as Museo Infantil Oaxaca, the University of California Los Angeles and San Diego, and California State University Stanislaus. Currently, the collective is engaged in public art installations, including a project in collaboration with the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. They have collaborated with artist like LaPistola and Sonia Romero and have done installations for LAXART and Barbara Kruger.
In addition to his artistic work, Magallanes served as an Associate Instructor in the Environmental Studies Program at the University of California, San Diego. He has been actively involved in arts education organizations, including Ryman Arts and Self Help Graphics and Art, where he served as a Board Member. Magallanes has curated exhibitions, including Barrio Logos for LA/LA, a Getty initiative for the Pacific Standard Time series.
ABOUT JOSÉ FIGUEROA AND DIGNICRAFT
We are a hybrid of a film production company, art collective and distributor of cultural goods, inspired by human dignity and justice, the process of artisanal creation and the potential offered by collaboration to achieve the common good. Our work revolves around collaboration, handicrafts, migration, documentary films and indigenous communities, and has been broadcast in Mexico and the United States on KCET-Link, Canal 22 CONACULTA, Canal 52 MX of MVS and Univision San Diego. And it has been exhibited in film festivals, museums, galleries and universities throughout Europe, Asia and America. We have received awards and recognitions for our documentaries such as the Los Angeles Area Emmy in the arts category; 1st place for documentary feature film at the 63rd SoCal Journalism Awards and the 61st SoCal Journalism Awards awarded by the prestigious Los Angeles Press Club; 2nd place for Best Short Documentary, 10th National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards; Grand Prix - Ateliers d’Art de France at the 8th International Film Festival on Clay and Glass, France; Best Film, International Indigenous Film and Video Festival, Mexico; and the Material Culture and Archeology Film Prize, from the 13th RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film, Scotland. Our artistic practice consists of fostering encounters that normally do not occur between people from different backgrounds. We do this by producing documentaries; distributing cultural goods, such as movies and handicrafts with a great history behind them; teaching collaborative workshops as part of a contemporary art project; or doing cultural exchange activities in Basalto, our artistic space located in Santa Catarina Ayotzingo, State of Mexico. The results of these encounters enrich the quality of human relationships between the participants and their respective communities. Dignicraft was born from the evolution of collective work started by Paola Rodríguez, José Luis Figueroa, Omar Foglio, Blanca O. España, David Figueroa and Araceli Blancarte, since 2000, under the name Bulbo y Galatea audio/visual.
ABOUT ARTBOUND
ARTBOUND is the award-winning series that captures the spirit of the arts and culture community in Southern California and beyond. The Original series explores and illuminates the cultural issues of our times, providing critical in-depth analysis of how arts and culture affect society. ARTBOUND recognizes the need for access to the arts, arts education and connecting local artists with audiences and in fact, acts as Southern California’s largest stage. Utilizing public media as a space to find quality arts and culture programming, ARTBOUND reveals cultural touchstones that have shaped the fabric of the region’s communities and a nation whose story is indelibly linked to the arts.
ABOUT PBS SOCAL and KCET
PBS SoCal and KCET are both part of the donor-supported community institution, the Public Media Group of Southern California. PBS SoCal is the flagship PBS station for diverse people across California and delivers content and experiences that inspire, inform and educate. PBS SoCal offers the full slate of beloved PBS programs including MASTERPIECE, NOVA, PBS NewsHour, FRONTLINE, and a broad library of documentary films with works from Ken Burns; as well as educational content including PBS KIDS programs like DANIEL TIGER’S NEIGHBORHOOD and CURIOUS GEORGE. KCET showcases the best of PBS and is a leading source for arts, culture, and news in Southern California. Through innovative storytelling, KCET explores and expresses our dynamic local communities helping residents understand and connect with the region's diverse communities and ideas. For additional information about both KCET and PBS SoCal productions, web-exclusive content, programming schedules and community events, please visit kcet.org and pbssocal.org KCET Originals and PBS programming are available to stream on the FREE PBS App on iOS and Android devices, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO SmartCast TV. KCET is also available to watch live on YouTube TV.
ABOUT ANTONIA CEREIJIDO
Antonia Cereijido has served as Executive Producer at LAist Studios and was the host of the LAist podcast Norco '80. She was a producer for six years on NPR’s Latino USA and hosted her own segment, The Breakdown. She has hosted podcasts for Mic and Slate. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, NPR’s Code Switch, and All Things Considered.
ACCOMMODATIONS
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