Doves and Machetes: Rina Lazo's Portable Mural Venceremos (1959) in Guatemala, North Korea, and Beyond

Abstract

The portable mural Venceremos (We Will Win, 1959) by Guatemalan-born Rina Lazo (1923–2019) draws rarely seen parallels between the United States’ imperialist actions in North Korea and Guatemala during the 1950s. Using tactics and strategies of modern Mexican muralism, which she learned as an assistant to Diego Rivera, Lazo attempted to encourage Guatemalans to follow the North Korean example to overcome the US. This essay considers the qualities of Venceremos as a portable mural. As a work in progress, Venceremos functioned as a passport that allowed Lazo and her partner, Mexican artist Arturo García Bustos, to travel to Asia and Europe through the network of socialist nations in the 1950s. After its purchase by a Mexican politician in 1960, Venceremos was considered lost and remained out of view until 2010. This purchase functioned as an act of censorship that thwarted the revolutionary agency of Venceremos for half a century.