Mexico City 17 – Tomb of Diego Rivera

Posted on February 10, 2003 in Photos

The taxi driver outside of the National Museum of Anthropology thought we were crazy and wouldn’t take us there. What business did we have going to the Panteon National de Dolores? We tried to walk there and got lost in Chapulpetec Park. Finally, when I saw that we’d circled nearly back to the National Museum, we crossed under a street and approached the drivers who were waiting outside one of the hotels in the Pocona district. This one not only did not balk, but he arranged to meet us in a hour.

Mexicans, I have found, hold pretty much the same range of attitudes about cemeteries as Americans: some think it profane to take pictures of the lands of the dead and others share the fascination. An employee of the memorial park cheerfully directed us to the Rotunda of Illustrious Men where Rivera, Orozco, Siquieros, and others are buried.

The first of this series shows a man I have come to admire more and more for his art and less and less for his personal life: Diego Rivera.