Subject: Mexican laborers
Occasion: early 20th century Mexico, during the Mexican Revolution
Audience: the Mexican people and working class
Purpose: demonstrate a kinship with the Mexican working class, advocate Communist ideals
Speaker: member of the Mexican Communist movement, identifies with the plight of common Mexican laborers
Tone: dark, lifeless, mourning - the artist wants to portray the lack of appreciation at the individual level society pays the laborers
What's most notable about this painting is how the workers almost entirely blend in with their background and possess completely indistinguishable faces. Rivera painted the men this way to demonstrate how society treats commoners as less than human, faceless, with no individuality to tell one apart from the other. In addition, the workers' feet are not visible; they appear to be almost "planted" into the dirt. This represents how the laborers are locked into their life of poverty, unable to "walk" away from their hardships.
Excellent post. Your ideas are right on. Insightful connections to the real world and his life.
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