This paper uses the works of Saturnino Herran, Fernando Leal and Diego Rivera to highlight how the indigenous image was appropriated and idealized by artists of the Mexican Renaissance to create a strong sense of nationalism based on a specific mestizo identity. The lack of self-representation of the Indian in the consolidation of “Mexicanidad” reveals the complexity of establishing an identity founded in an imagined cultural heritage that rejected the Indian nation, while appropriating and idealizing its image. While there was a genuine effort to embrace the pre-Hispanic past to build on the greatness of the heritage of Mexico and its new mestizo race, this was a particular selective narrative that continued to reject and discriminate the indigenous communities.
The use of native figures and iconography helped idealized the native past as a strategy to root the new “Mexicanidad” within a powerful cultural heritage. With the promise of a progressive post-revolutionary future, Mexican Secretary of Public Education, Jose Vasconcelos, financed public art projects to reinforce the meaning of a new Mexican Identity.
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