I have been wanting to see the murals of Diego Rivera's in the National Palace

in Mexico City like forever

they did not disappoint

in fact they were more wonderful and amazing than I had imagined!!

the building, the Palacio Nacional, in itself was amazing

most of the mural is on this giant stairway

the scope is huge, hard to get a photo of the shear size of it

so I included this photo from the internet that gives you some idea

the mural wrapped around both sides of the stairway

Diego painted these murals between 1929 and 1935

the panels on the stairway reveal his vision of Mexican history

chronologically right to left

on the walls of the second story corridor
he painted 8 more panels between 1941 and 1952
he died in 1957

showing imagined life in pre-Hispanic Mexico

amazing detail

beautiful colors

  

this is where Frida Kahlo met Diego

the story goes that he was up on a scaffolding and she yelled up to him

and caught his attention

this very stairway!!

she would be shocked at how Frida mania has taken over Mexico

if her image or one of the ones she created

can be put on something - it is

bags, shirts, jewelry, magnets, cards, notebooks, pottery

reproductions of her work are everywhere

it just goes to show you, in her time, he was the great and famous artist

people said, all she paints is herself, she answered - that is what I know

Diego himself is reported to have said

that he thought she was the better artist
she died in 1954

I was so happy to finally be on that stairway

a funny thing happened on the way out....

first, on the way in, you go through security, this is the national palace

and the home of the president, thought he usually lives in Los Pinos in the Bosque de Chapuletepec

there were armed guards all over the place

when Betsy went through security, they made her throw her cigarettes and lighter away

when we came out she wanted to go back through and get her smokes

I am like, are you crazy, they are never going to let you go through the garbage

well, they did!

the smokes were not there though, imagine that...

another interesting fact is that the National Palace was once the house of Hernan Cortes

he left it to his son, Martin Cortes

who sold it to the Spanish Crown in 1562

early real estate

 the Zocalo, the heart of Mexico City

the Palacio Nacional is the long building on the right

the Cathedral on the left

 on our last day in the city, la ultima dia, I did get to see some paintings of Mr. Rivera's

but did not get to see any of Frida's

the museum that had Diego's and said that they had Frida's actually did not have any..

there were some interesting statues there though

this is for you Eduardo

 and this one is for you Willie

Next stop - Cuyutlan!