Medical representations in Mexican muralism. Medical-historical analysis of the murals at La Raza National Medical Center General Hospital

Rebeca Vargas-Olmos, Programa de Maestría y Doctorado en Ciencias Médicas Odontológicas y de la Salud, Historia de las Ciencias de la Salud, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, México
Martha E. Rodríguez-Pérez, Departamento de Historia y Filosofía de la Medicina. Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, México

Background: In 1944, the call for the construction of “La Raza” Hospital in Mexico City was launched. The project included the proposal to create two murals, and the artists who were invited to participate were Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, who, with their work, bore testimony to the advent of modern medicine and the construction of the social security model in force in Mexico. Objective: To determine how mural art is historically linked to medicine in Mexico and how they complement each other, considering two works carried out at the same time and in the same hospital. Material and methods: Analysis of the historical context and iconographic and iconological analysis of “La Raza” Hospital murals. Results: It was possible to clarify the relationship of the artists with medicine and the role murals play within the modern vision of medicine. Conclusions: Mural art is intertwined with medicine because it bears witness to the advent of the construction of the social security model currently in force in Mexico, since hospitals became social achievements of the State and were to be known as symbols of welfare and modernity in Mexico.

Keywords: Hospitals. Medicine. Muralism.