Raül Cervantes Ahumada
Abogado

Palma # 5-601,
México 1, D.F.

25 de agosto de 1952

Mr. Langston Hughes,
20 East 127th, Street
New York, 35, N. Y.-

Mi ilustre y admirado amigo :

He tenido mucho gusto al recibir "The Freedom Train". Además, nuestro -- mutuo amigo Manuel González Flores, me ha entregado el último libro de usted, que he tenido el gusto de admirar.

Creo que González Flores le habrá trasmitido mi cordial invitación de venir a México a pasar sus vacaciones. Tenemos un rancho cerca de -- Cuernavaca, donde usted podría pasar días tranquilos y en contacto con los campesinos mexicanos, en un hermoso paisaje y con un delicioso clima.

Tendré mucho gusto si usted acepta mi -- invitación.

Lo saludo muy cordialmente

Mexico City, June 22, 1949

Mr. Langston Hughes
c/o Tony Harper
634 St. Nicholas Avenue
New York, N.Y.

Esteemed Mr. Hughes:

I have the honor to send you the enclosed call and
initial list of sponsors of the Continental Congress for
Peace to be held in Mexico City on September 5th to the
10th.

At the present time, the delegates from national com-
mittees and groups of friends of peace, established in Mexico
City in order to work for the Congress, are sending the call
to leaders of public opinion in North and South America whom
we know are using their influence to work for world peace.
We feel that your name, known throughout the Americas should
be among those endorsing a Congress calling for peace in a
war-threatening world. We also hope it will be possible for
you to attend the Congress.

As we plan to publish the call with the complete
sponsor list by July 8th and time is short, I am enclosing
a form and envelope addressed to Maxine Wood who has agreed
to forward the names of the Americans who are endorsing the
Continental Congress for Peace. I trust that yours will be
among them.

I look forward to writing to you from time to time
to inform you of the preparations for the Congress and to
meeting you in Mexico City on September 5th.

Antonio Maceo #11
Tacubaya D.F.
Mexico, D.F.

INITIAL SPONSORS FOR THE AMERICAN CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
FOR WORLD PEACE.

FROM MEXICO:

Raul Anguiano
José Rogelio Alvarez
Narciso Bassols
Fernando Benítez
Dr. Carlos Graef Fernández
Gabriel Figueroa
Eulalia Guzman
Dr. Ignacio González Guzmán
Guillermo Haro
Andrés Henestrosa
Dr. Jesús Silva Herzog
José Mancisidor
Leopoldo Méndez
Dr. Isaac Ochterena
Dr. Luis Chávez Orozco
Diego Rivera
David Alfaro Siqueiros
Vicente Lombardo Toledano
Alfonso Villa Rojas
Enrique Yáñez

Painter
Journalist
Writer and Diplomat
Writer
Mathematician and Physicist
Camera-man
Archeologist
Hematologist
Astronomer
Writer
Economist
Writer
Engraver
Biologist
Historian
Painter
Painter
Trade-Union Leader
Anthropologist
Architect

FROM CUBA:

Dr. Gustavo Aldereguia
Dr. Manuel Bisbe

Tuberculosis specialist
Professor of Greek, Havana
University, Member of the House
of Representatives.
Lawyer-Former Attorney General
Poet
Anthropologist & archeologist
Professor of Economics Havana
University. President of the
National Constituent Assembly.
Catholic Theologian

Dr. A. Alberto Giraudy
Nicolas Guillén
Dr. Fernando Ortiz
Dr. Carlos Márquez Sterling

Dr. Domingo Villamil

FROM BRAZIL:

Col. Felicissimo Cardoso
Dr. Omar Catunda

Professor of Mathematics-Sao
Paulo University

Dr. Mario Fabio
Edoardo de Guarnieri
Paul Guimarens de Fonseca

Prof. of Medicine, Univ. of Brazil
Conductor and Composer
Professor of Chemistry-Sao
Paulo University

Oscar Niemeyer
Cândido Portinari
Graciliano Ramos
Mario Schemberg

Architect
Painter
Writer
Prof. of nuclear physics-S.Paulo
University

FROM COSTA RICA: Don Joaquín García Monge

Writer

FROM CHILE: Pablo Neruda

Poet

CALL TO THE AMERICAN CONTINENTAL CONGRESS FOR WORLD PEACE

We, the signers of this call, invite all men and women of good will of the Americas to attend the Continental Congress for Peace which will meet in Mexico City on September 5th to September 10th of this year.

The activities of those who would profit from another world war are being felt more intensely each day by the peoples of the Americas. The war-makers have started an armament race which already affects many nations of this continent. They have burdened the peoples with unbearable war budgets, have ignored the sovereignty of nations, have organized aggressive military blocs, have weakened the economic conditions of the people and have violated our sacred democratic rights.

The peoples of the Americas can not remain indifferent to these acts. While those who would benefit from war strive to take the nations of this continent along the road to misery, slavery and death, the peoples love and desire peace as the way to well-being and progress. But it is necessary that they unite to show their will and strength. This is our aim in calling the American Continental Congress.

We call upon all individuals and institutions throughout the Americas who want peace; we call upon all cultural, trade union, religious, women, youth, farm and fraternal organizations which are interested in freeing this continent from horrors of the new war. We call upon all men and women, regardless of their political and religious differences, who are ready to stop this drive towards war. We know the democratic and peace-loving traditions of our continent and we are sure that our voices will be heard.

We firmly believe that we, the peoples of the Americas, can guarantee our well-being and progress only by living together in peace and freedom in a free and peaceful world. Each country of the Americas needs to gear its life to the free, normal and increasing development of its natural resources without foreign interference or detrimental subordination. War preparations and accompanying anti-democratic measures hinder this. Therefore, the powerful demand for peace by the people from Alaske to Patagonia must be expressed at the Continental Congress in Mexico.

Peace is the road of liberty and greatness for the Americas.

Working for peace the Americas fulfil their highest destiny in the service of the world. We believe the presence and support of all will assure the realization of this destiny. We call, therefore, upon all the peoples of the Americas to respond to the historic date of September 5th in Mexico City.

México City, June 1949

December Sixth - 1955

My dear Lola:

It was my good fortune to get your address from Ruth Jody and to have news of you from her. Under separate cover I am sending you a copy of my new book, THE SWEET FLYPAPER OF LIFE, which is a wonderful photographic story of Harlem. It may be that you would like to arrange an exhibit of these photographs in Mexico. If so the photographer's address is:

Roy DeCarava
The Photographers Gallery
43 West 84 Street
New York, N. Y.

He has been exhibited in several cities in the U. S. and had four photographs in the recent Steichen FAMILY OF MAN show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

DeCarava also has an exhibition gallery of his own in New York, and I have told him of your wonderful pictures and those of Manuel, thinking he might arrange an exhibit of your work here in New York. If you would care to write him about this, I am sure he would be glad to hear from you.

Meanwhile I send you all my good wishes for very happy holidays and hope that all goes well with you.

Sra. Lola Alvarez Bravo
Galeria Moderna
Ambers 12
Mexico, D. F.

December 23, 1945

Dear Enrique:

I was very sorry to have word from Roy Blackburn telling me of the illness of Lola. I had written her two or three times during the year at Aztecas #4, but the letters always came back to me marked "no recalamado". Last New Year's I sent her a money order as a present, but it came back, too. However, I am writing her again now and sending it this time by registered mail. Please let me know the number of her apartment, or if I have this address wrong. I was just about to have my friend, Miguel Cavarrubias, the artist, try to find her address for me in Mexico City, as he has been visiting here in New York and is returning to Mexico soon.

How is your family and what is the news about yourseld?
Please write to me.

All good wishes to you for a happy new year.

Sincerely yours,

Enrique Tinado Chambon
Venusliano Carranza 56
Mexico, D. F.

Diseñador y artista mexicano, D.F. 10 de septiembre de 1951

Sr. Langston Huges
New York, N.Y.

Distinguido poeta:

Por encargo de nuestro común amigo Pedro Juan Labarthe,
envió a usted estas líneas y con ellas mi saludo, en espera de
afirmar con usted una buena, leal y larga amistad.

Sé que usted es gran amigo nuestro, que ha vivido en mi país y que lo ama sinceramente...qué podré decirle yo, que soy criolla hasta la médula, en correspondencia a su entusiasmo por México!

Dentro de unos breves días pasará a saludarle si es que el tiempo le alcanza para ello, el Sr. Fabriciano Sanz Guardado, Gerente de la Editorial Diana de aquí de México y para quien trabajo. Me ha prometido ir con usted y le ruego tenga con él un gran co intercambio de opiniones acerca de la posibilidad de los autores méxicano e hispano americanos en los Estados Unidos. Creo que sea usted la persona indicada para hacerlo por sus grandes conocimientos culturales en el vecino país. Me daría gusto que nosotros pudieramos iniciar aun en pequeña escala la difusión de nuestros valores en los E.U.

En breves días, y por encargo expreso de Labarthe, enviaré a usted mi último libro "Pueblo Olvidado" basado en viejas costumbres de nuestros indígenas. Me agradaría su sincera opinión sobre él. Uno mio anterior, "Umbral" tuvo la suerte de ser considerado como el libro del mes por The Spanish Month Club de Las Américas, que dirige Don Gaetano Massa de allí de Nueva York.

Concepto
San Ildefonso
México-D.F.

Mr. Langston Hughes
2256 E. 86th Street
Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland, Ohio

E. M. A.

Mexico City, August 9, 1950.

Dear sir Hughes:

A person who knows you and who has spoken very highly about you, has made me trust you a very delicate matter of which depends the entire future of my dear daughter, as well as my very existence.

I am in prison, sentenced for bankruptcy, and I wish to know if you are willing to help me to save the sum of $449,000.00 U. S. Cy. (FOUR HUNDRED FORTY NINE THOUSAND DOLLARS) which I have in bank bills hidden in a secret compartment of a trunk that is now deposited in a Customhouse in the United States.

As soon as I send you undeniable evidence, it is necessary that you come here and pay the expenses incurred in connection with my process, so the embargo on my suitcases can be lifted, one of which suitcases contains a baggage check which was given to me at the time of checking my trunk for North America and which trunk contains the sum above said. To compensate you for all your troubles, I will give you the THIRD PART OF SAID SUM.

Due to serious reasons which you will know later, please reply via AIRMAIL. I beg you to treat this matter with the utmost reserve and discretion. Fearing that this letter might have gone astray and not reach your hands, I will not sign my name until I hear from you, and then I will entrust you with all my secret. For the time being I am only signing "F".

Due to the fact that I am in charge of the prison School, I can write you like this and entirely at liberty.

I can not receive your reply directly in this prison, so in case you accept my proposition, please airmail your letter to a person of my entire trust who will deliver it to me and rapidly. This is his name and address:

Mariano Martin.
Paseo de la Reforma 237-11.
Mexico City, Mexico.

CONSULADO DEL ECUADOR

AV. 20 DE NOVIEMBRE No. 82-315

ERIC. 18-33-60 MEX. J-01-76

MEXICO, D. F.

ADDRESS )

Junio 18 de 1946

Dear Langston:

He tenido una gratisima sorpresa al recibir su amable carta. Paul Rogers, nuestro buen amigo, me dijo que usted hablaba español, y por eso le mande con el mi libro. Me dijo también que usted susle Menir, a veces, a Mexico, lo cual sería una maravillosa oportunidad para conocerlo. Puede que yo vaya también a New York, y entonces lo visitaré.

Será para mí un honor recibir su libro SHAKESPEARE IN HARLEM, y me gustaría tener otros más suyos, anteriores.

Con la presente carta, le incluyo dos libros míos: CAMI-NO Y PUERTO DE LA ANGUSTIA y mi novela premiada JUYUNGO.

Quiero al mismo tiempo, aprovechando su influencia valiosa en New York, pedirle un gran favor:

Como usted comprenderá, estoy muy interesado en conseguir traducciones, especialmente de mi novela JUYUNGO, que muchos críticos de habla española consideran entre las 3 o 4 mejores novelas latinoamericanas.

Hace algún tiempo, durante la guerra, la Editorial Mac Millan de New York, prometió traducirla al inglés, cuando la guerra terminara. Ahora que estox ha sucedido, yo le ruego a usted, se digne ver si es posible que dichos editores cumplan su promesa. O en otro caso, veo si hay algunas Empresas Editoras de motivos negros literarios, que se interesen en el asunto.

De todos modos, le agradeceré infinito, cualquier gestión que hiciere a mi favor.

Me despido de usted con un cordial abrazo, hasta recibir nuevas noticias suyas.

Eric. 10 19 21
Eric. 10 17 31
Mex. L 01 96
Eric. 13 04 27

PINEDO

MAYOREO
1. LA CATOLICA 78
MÉXICO, D. F.

Deportes, S. A.

BASE BALL
SOFT BALL
VOLLEY BALL
FOOTBALL Amer.
FOOTBALL SOCCER

BOX
TENNIS
FRONTON
FRONTENNIS
BADMINTON

ARQUERIA
NATACION
ATLETISMO
BASKET BALL
EXCURSIONISMO

PATINES
HOCKEY
CACERIA
ESGRIMA
PING-PONG

January 28th., 1946.

Mr. Langston Hughes.
Hallow Hills Farm.
Monterey, California.

Dear Langston:

Thank you for your letter December 28th.

A few days ago I had the visit of Lola Villaseñor, who showed me the letter you wrote her.

She was glad to have been able to contact you again and surely must have replied in the meantime.

I see that you have not forgotten your Spanish, and since you must be interested in our social and political problems, I sent you under separate cover, a volume on the History of Mexico. Mr. Vasconcelos is considered at times as a "reactionary". As such you may not agree with all of his opinions, but since the author tries to be unbiased, he touches all subjects of interest, and may be a source of information for you to better understand our country.

As far as personal affairs are concerned, I am happy to state that my business has prospered fairly well, and that my two girls are growing up to be señoritas, a sure sign that we are growing older.

With the best wishes for your happiness, and best regards from my wife, I am

July 18, 1961

Dr. Desiderio Marcias Silva
Guadalupe No. 6 - altos -
Aguascalientes, Ags.
MEXICO

Dear Dr. Silva:

I am indeed pleased to have your most interesting volume, VEREDICTOS DE POLOS, to add to my rather large collection of Latin-American literature.

I apologize for the long delay in acknowledging the book but I have been away from New York so much in the last two years - Europe, Africa, the West Indies - and this year on lecture tours to California and elsewhere - that my correspondence has suffered greatly. Just last week I completed my final lecture of the season at the Boston Arts Festival and now have a chance, finally, to try and catch up with my mail, much of it is many months late. So sorry.

With literary good wishes and cordial regards, I am

Sincerely yours,

Langston Hughes

JUSTICE FOR A MAN

By Alberto DOMINGO

From almost every corner of the planet a torrent of voices has rushed forth to ask for the freedom of a great artist.

Telegrams follow each other in a mighty river; letters accumulate in a high
mountain. The poets carve out verses; the workers show their fists. Posters,
manifestos, proclamations are issued ceaselessly. The fervent meeting and the
caustic document eloquently tell of the deep feeling with which the people protest
the jailing of the painter of genius.

But Gentlemen! Mark this well! Freedom for the painter Siqueiros is not mov-
ing forward!

Curious things are happening here.

For example: public gatherings are forbidden because they interfere with the
traffic regulations. It seems that the Revolution was made for the automobile own-
ers.

Freedom of criticism is denied.

The crime of social dissolution is attacked. But those who apply it are
praised.

And liberty for the painter is asked, is demanded, because his quality as
such is indubitably extraordinary. What if there were crimes against art and from
these only the noblest artists would be saved?

With such an extended criterion, what will happen to those who enter the pol-
itical struggle, the social combat without more art than that of the eternal poetry
of the blood?

Why ask, then, for the liberty of the painter Siqueiros?

Just as the clubs have not been invented that can smash ideas, so there are
no bars that can imprison art.

The painter cannot be imprisoned. His painting breaks the barriers of time
and space. The iron of the penitentiary cell is not able to silence him.

-2-

The one for whom liberty is urgent is the citizen, the politician, the man.

David Alfaro Siqueiros deserves it, not for the egregious dimension of his art, but for the simple truth of his innocence.

He could be liberated in a magnanimous gesture in honor of his quality as a great painter. But romantic generosity is not fitting where only strict honesty must prevail. Authority does not have the right to be generous. It only has the right to be just.

Didn't Siqueiros, they argue, dictate subversive directions to the striking teachers? They have not said where, when, nor how. One would have to ignore completely the democratic organization of the teachers' movement and the amazing human quality of its members in order to be able to believe that had such orders existed they would have been listened to. And furthermore, who has proved, who has even tried to prove that Siqueiros was the inspiration and the promoter of even one step of the fight of the teachers against the false and tyrannical union leaders?

They say that the ideas of Siqueiros were the direct cause of agitation and scandal - to use the gratuitous terms of McCarthyism that are wrapped in the flag. They say that he was the cause of social dissolution in one or another section of the people. By such criteria, the mere recollection of Madero's Plan of San Luis could bring punishment upon a luckless speaker.

Do I lie? It would be better to accept as liars those who try to forget that it is the misery of the many in front of the riches of a few that engenders social dissolution - so notorious and so useful!

The criminals of social dissolution are the murdering caciques whom the deputies--not the people--tolerate. And the blood sucking bankers. And the merchants whose prices starve the people. And the leaders that wallow in corruption up to their necks.

A weak argument, and an infantile one, is to say that public interest is damaged because "exotic" doctrines are advocated. It is not exotic to wish the greatest good for the greatest number. The anxiety of "proper" people does not matter. The sick man does not refuse penicillin because a foreign scientist gave it to the world—if Fleming can be considered a foreigner to anyone. To love the country is to embrace her with the wretchedness and the ulcers that she has and to work and fight to overcome them and cut them out of the body politic. One's country is

-3-

love and is above party; and the true country is to be found in every bit of earth
that is watered by the sweat of a honest man.

Whoever has investigated, even superficially, the case against Siqueiros will
have difficulty in finding the almost traitorous crimes which the mercenary press,
barking from a well fed belly, attributes to him.

Or is there some other fault, more or less hidden by a singular shame that
lies behind the charges on which he is held, for which he is shackled? Then open
up a trial that corresponds to reality! Do not play charades with the judicial
process! Do not gamble with the liberty of a man!

This is not the Siqueiros who fought as a true revolutionary soldier with Die-
guez. This is not the genial creator of "The Peasant Mother". This is not the
Republican colonel in martyred Spain. This is simply prisoner number 46788 in the
Mexico City jail.

And for him freedom must be demanded in a trial that must be held without
fraud, without weakness, without stain. Because on his liberty rests - like a
twin or a parallel - that of many other Mexicans, the companions of his fight.
That is to say the companions of victory or of defeat.

Is there blame? Let it be demonstrated clearly and not with the grinding of
a mill wheel!

The faith of the people in justice demands a verdict so that they will know
whether their faith is to stand or fall.

Ask, then, for the liberty of a man, (and not for him alone) before the great
poem of Neruda shall find us sunk in bitterness. A sea of regrets will be useless
then.

"IMPACTO" - No. 572.

NOTE from the National Committee for the liberation of political prisoners:

Siqueiros remains in prison. Now he has been jailed in the Black Palace of
Lecumberri for six months. Twenty seven leaders of the working class are enduring

-4-

the same arbitrary imprisonment.

We must renew the pressure! Immediate letters and telegrams of protest to the President of the Republic and to the Embassies and Consulates of Mexico!

Please acknowledge receipt to Angelica A. de Siqueiros, Tres Picoas 29, Rincón del Bosque, México 5, D. F.

Dear friends:

For making a political condemnation of the President of the Republic himself, cit-
ing him as directly responsible for the abandonment of many ideals of the revolution
(such as his own transgression of the fundamental law of the land); for not blaming
everything on the President's close official assistants as the demagogues usually have
done (and this is a regime where the federal executive has omniscient powers that the
laws concede to him in a failure of democracy, or powers that he simply has usurped);

For maintaining, with the wonderful potency of his creative power, the vigor of
Mexican mural painting (his colleagues Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco being dead);
maintaining it, furthermore, as an imperative public art, directed primarily to the people
in their struggle for their liberties and rights - all this against a strong cultural
offensive from Washington launched through the Organization of American States;

For acting, in all this, with the profound conviction that the Mexican Revolution
has been fundamentally frustrated by a real oligarchy of demagogues tainted by wrongdoing,
and therefore:

For asserting that only a new movement of the Mexican people, a revolution of a new
historical stage in our country led by the revolutionary working class, - is able to
complete the now incomplete revolution - to take up the tasks that have to be done in
the fight of all of us for authentic national independence, in the fight against the
hunger of the Mexican people which never has abated in these fifty years of grand
demagogy and insignificant reforms;

For demonstrating, in systematic form and with a multitude of proofs that this new
oligarchy which governs the country today works ever more closely with the imperialism
of the United States, thus betraying its daily, scandalous declarations as to its sup-
posed ultra-nationalistic political line;

Such are the irrefutable motives of the outrageous jailing of the painter David Al-
faro Siqueiros, whose militancy in the service of his country started in the year 1911.

What Mexican artist, or what Mexican intellectual of his generation (Siqueiros is
64 years old) can present such a record as a fighter for his country and his people, and
furthermore what artists or intellectuals of the whole world can present, day by day,
such a balance?

David Alfaro Siqueiros initiated his political struggles by participating in the
famous student's strike of Belles Artes in the year 1911; taking an intense part in the
student-worker's movement of 1913 in the Santa Anita school, - against the usurpation of

-2-

Victoriano Huerta's Government. He joined the revolutionary army, that is, the Consti-
tutionalist army at the end of 1913, where he received the rank of Second Captain in the
staff of General Manuel M. Dieguez. With some of his professional colleagues he created
"El Machete"; this newspaper acquired great prestige among the revolutionary workers in
Mexico as well as in all Latin American countries.

He initiated with Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Crozoc, Javier Guerrero, Fermin Re-
vuelta, Ramon Alba de la Canal, Fernando Leal and Emilio Garcia Cahero, the extraordin-
ary Mexican Mural Movement, which is considered the foundation of the International
Mural Art. One of the important achievements of the movement was to have restored to
the people political and social content in art.

He occupied the post of General Secretary of the Painter's Guild, which included
Mexican revolutionary painters and engravers. Continuing his union work he organized
the miner's guilds: Cinco Minas, La Mazata, Piedra Bola, El Amparo, etc. These unions
later constituted the base of a real and militant Miners' Federation. In 1927 he was
appointed General Secretary of the Workers' Confederation in Jalisco. This organiza-
tion later was to play a very important role favoring unions independent of the govern-
ment.

In 1929, when the First National Congress for the foundation of the United Confed-
eration of Unions was created, he was appointed General Secretary. At the end of this
same year he participated in the Continental Congress for the foundation of the Latin
America Workers' Confederation and was named a member of the Executive Committee in
Uruguay.

In 1930 he was imprisoned in the State Penitentiary (Mexico City) for his participa-
tion in the great workers' demonstration of that year against the President of the
Republic's dictatorial methods, (Pascual Ortiz Rubio).

In 1931 he was exiled and had to live and work in Los Angeles, California. In that
same year he painted the murals: "Assembly on the Street", "Tropical America", and
"Picture of Mexico under Calles". These works, besides their technical innovations that
produced great discussions all over the artistic world, represent the beginning of the
Exterior Murals of our time.

Ejected from the United States for the political contents of his works, he went to
Uruguay and Argentina. In Montevideo he did many of the paintings that today are part
of the Modern Art Museums' collection in New York or are in important private collec-
tions. In that city, he created the Writers' and Artists' League of Uruguay. Later he
visited Buenos Aires, where he presented several exhibitions and gave lectures to

-3-

"Friends of Art". He painted the mural "Plastic Exercise" in the town of Don Torcuato.

Back in the United States he presented a large exposition of his works at the Delphic Studio in New York City, and gave public lectures preparing the basis for the foundation of his experimental workshop in that city. Upon his return to Mexico, he organized "The National League Against War and Fascism". This organization rendered many services for two years. New persecutions and imprisonments forced him to emigrate once more, and back in New York, he concluded the formation of his workshop.

Then came a period of the most important experiments of our time in the use of new synthetic materials and in new conceptions of space and of perspective. But the soldier of the Mexican revolution could not be indifferent to the civil war in Spain and with the rank of Major, at the end of 1936, he joined the Spanish Republican Army, under General Lister.

Siqueiros took part in several war operations of Madrid's defense and received the direct command of the 82nd Brigade; later of the 46th Motorized Brigade; and finally the command of the 29th Brigade with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

Back in Mexico with 52 Mexican survivors, he received a commission to paint the mural "Portrait of the Bourgeoisie" in the building of the Electrician's Union (Mexico City).

Forced by political matters to leave his country, he resided as an exile in the Republic of Chile, where he painted a mural entitled: "Death to the Invader" (in a school named Mexico in the City of Chillan). This mural work has a surface of over 200 square meters and took two years for its completion. In the middle of the second World War, during the first months of 1943, he travelled all through Chile, Perú, Ecuador, Colombia, Panamá and Cuba in an intense campaign to create an organization named "Art Against Fascism".

At the beginning of 1943 he painted two murals in La Havana, Cuba, with the names of: "Equality of Races in Cuba" and "Two American Mountains: Lincoln and Martí"; again in Mexico, his country, he painted a mural named "Cuauhtemoc Against the Myth".

In the years of 44, 45, 46, he painted the following murals: "New Democracy", "War Victims", "Victims of Fascism", "Cuauhtemoc's Martyrdom", and "Cuauhtemoc's Apotheosis".

Later on he painted in the Politechnical Institute: "The Man is the Master and not the Slave of Technology". This work is painted over an aluminum surface. Almost at the same time he painted the first part of the exterior mural in the south side of the Rectory in the University City. This mural covers an area of 300 square meters. It is a sculptured painting covered with glass mosaic.

In 1952 he painted a mural named "For a Complete Social Security For All Mexicans" in the lobby of the Auditorium of Hospital Number One of the Mexican Institute of Social Security. In the last few years, that is, during the last Governmental period, he painted a mural for the Medical Center of Cancerology in Mexico City. This work is named; "Future Victory of Medical Science Over Cancer". Almost at the same time he created the great exposition of Bellas Artes and attained the highest honor of the Venice Bienal. In this festival, the famous French painter Henri Matisse also was honored.

His lectures and polemics in defense of the public and social Character of contemporary Mexican mural painting occupied a very long period of time and his canvass always has been on a continental and an international scale. To sum up: Siqueiros has not sacrificed his artistic creation to his political militancy nor vice-versa and in this respect it can be said that he has no equal among the intellectuals of his time. From this comes the profound hatred of the Yankee Department of State and its followers against him.

During 1959, a national and international scandal caused much publicity. The National Actor's Guild in Mexico City abruptly interrupted the creation of the mural on which Siqueiros was working. This mural is located in the theatre's lobby of this organization. In this mural, Siqueiros boldly dared to condemn the Mexican Government for its brutal aggression against the railway workers. It pictures the military forces of repression charging against a worker's demonstration. The central Committee of this Actor's Guild, abjectly submitted to the Government and ordered the banning of the mural. It was covered completely with a wooden fence. This caused violent protests from students, workers and intellectuals, but unfortunately up to date, nothing positive has been done to revoke such an anti-democratic and anti-cultural action.

At the beginning of this year, Siqueiros was especially invited by Cuba and by Venezuela to execute murals in those countries. While there he gave lectures in Universities and other cultural centers at the specific request of students and journalists. In these public lectures he had to answer many questions about the actual political situation in Mexico. His answers, as may be imagined, corresponded exactly to his well known political opinions. Upon his return to Mexico a public campaign was directed against him by Senators, Congressmen, union leaders, and, indirectly, by high public officials. It was one of the most violent and ferocious campaigns that Mexico has seen in recent years. Chorusing the ideology of a demagogic government, the daily press, perhaps the most reactionary and mercenary in the world today, slandered Siqueiros, calling him a traitor to his country and to the Mexican Revolution. Actually what he had done was the precise opposite. This trip and his activities caused Siqueiros to

-5-

publish a book of his speeches, entitled "The History of an Insidious Lie - My Answer".

When Siqueiros was arrested he was engaged in executing the most important mural of his career: a mural in the Hall of the Revolution in the Castle of Chapultepec. This mural is almost completed and should be presented to the public this coming November on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution. It is a monumental painting, covering more than 400 square meters and is divided in four sections dealing with different events preceding the revolution and with the people in arms.

On August 9th Siqueiros was arrested without any formal order for his apprehension. This unlawful act was preceded by a gangster-like attack on his person in which a bullet was fired into his car. The arrest was made by police who invaded the home of Doctor Alvaro Carrillo Gil, the great Mexican art collector of the works of Orozco, Rivera and Siqueiros.

Although everyone supposed that the President of Mexico would strongly condemn this act, that high dignitary permitted the Attorney General of the Federal District to conduct, just as in the case of the Railway Workers, unbelievable and vicious charges.

These facts cast an ominous shadow on the civic and cultural life of Mexico and constitute a most serious threat to freedom of public opinion.

I most earnestly beg of you that you demand that the Mexican Government free this famous artist and great patriot, whose art has contributed to the prestige of Mexico. And with his freedom should go the freedom of all the political prisoners and especially of the railroad workers who have been suffering imprisonment for a year and a half.

I beg this of you from my deep concern. For the past 24 years I have had the honor of being a companion to David Alfaro Siqueiros in all of his great struggles, political and artistic, and above everything else, I have witnessed his great and profound love for the people of his country, to whom he had dedicated with the greatest unselfishness, the best of his work and his life.

ANGELICA ARENAL DE SIQUEIROS.

## EPILOGUE

When the defense of the politically persecuted became imperative and no one could remain indifferent to the government's onslaught, David Alfaro Siqueiros took an important part in the organization of the Committee for Defense of the Political Prisoners and of Constitutional Guarantees. More than five thousand railroad workers had been arrested and put into barracks that were no better than concentration camps. Five thousand members of this same union, as well as other workers who had offered their solidarity had been dismissed from their jobs. Workers had been tortured and murdered by the police and by army officers. The new organization for their defense was composed of workers and intellectuals of many ideologies. It spread throughout the Republic and has been able to mobilize public opinion against the most savage repressions of the Lopez Mateos government. This Committee called a National Congress in which more than sixty unions were represented as well as Universities and societies of intellectuals. More than six hundred delegates elaborated a program which included a campaign to attain the liberation of the political prisoners and to defend the Constitutional guarantees, this to be carried out in August and September. And this was the act of solidarity that provoked the greatest fury of the government. Guilty as it is of innumerable violations of the most essential precepts of the Constitution, with its policy of repression of the workers, it brought about the arbitrary imprisonment of David Alfaro Siqueiros and Don Filomeno Mata.

In fact, the Mexican government has committed in this case the tremendous crime of immobilizing the defenders in order to further humiliate the defendants.

Deprived of liberty, the mural he was working on hidden away, faced with a judi-
cial proceeding that arbitrarily violates all legal forms, the painter David Alfaro
Siqueiros has been in the prison of Lecumberri of the Federal District for four months.
On December 19th he will be 64 years of age.

For more than seven days - for 150 hours - thirty-five political prisoners and union leaders maintained a hunger strike in this prison. They instituted the hunger strike in order to compel the authorities to act on their request for amparo(°) which has been delayed for a year and a half in spite of the juridical precept that justice must be given quickly and with dispatch. The strike was won by their sacrifice and with the anguish of their families; eight of the prisoners were freed. However, for the others, the confirmation of the McCarthy-like and unconstitutional charge of "social dissolution" will reaffirm their status as alleged criminals who should be jailed.

The painter David Alfaro Siqueiros, veteran of the struggles of his country, for the sake of respect for constitutional liberty for all citizens, for their right to work with decent pay and to clean and independent unions, for the sake of their real participation in union elections; for the sake of culture, for the sake of true progress for the majority of the people of the country, David Alfaro Siqueiros also participated in the hunger strike in spite of his age and the danger to his life inherent in this dramatic deed.

And now, will it be necessary for the twenty seven prisoners that remain in Lecumberri to repeat their terrible ordeal so that some of them can gain their liberty?

Such a thing will not happen, because the families of the prisoners would be fil-
led with shame, anxious as we are for love of them and for our respect for their polit-
ical convictions, to realize the impossible.

And above all it will not happen because an important intellectual sector of my
country knew how to respond to the recent hunger strike, protesting energetically to
the authorities, demanding freedom for Siqueiros and the rest of the political prison-
ers, to whom he, so generously, has given material and moral aid for a year and a half.

I know that these same citizens are preparing a tribute to Siqueiros, that by its
size and force, may gain his liberty. But if it does not immediately succeed, never-
theless it will constitute a public act of vindication that will do honor to his

(°) The amparo is a form of habeas corpus.

patriotism and to his generous contribution to universal culture. An act that will
go to his heart in the sad and critical moment of his captivity.

Writer, painter, scientist; students, workers, citizens of all countries and of
all latitudes, of free peoples or of peoples in struggle, in whatever place on this
planet you are yearning, like my husband, for equal opportunities for all men without
regard to race or class, and, like him, are pressing forward to gain them, WILL YOU
ADD TO THIS ACTION FOR HIS FREEDOM THAT HIS FRIENDS WILL CARRY OUT IN THE COMING DAYS?

WE AWAIT YOUR REPLY BY MEANS OF THE CONCERN FOR THIS CASE THAT YOU WILL COMMUNICATE AGAIN TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE MEXICAN REPUBLIC; THROUGH THE ACTS OF SYMPathy THAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO REALIZE IN YOUR COUNTRIES; AND THROUGH THE LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS THAT YOU CAN SEND TO THE ARTIST HIMSELF, IMPRISONED IN THE SHADOWS OF CELDA No. 38, CRUJIA 1, CARCEL DE LECUMBERRI, CIUDAD DE MEXICO.

Immensely grateful,

Angelica Arenal de Siqueiros.

Mexico, D. F., December 8th, 1960.

"LA SAMARITANA."

GRANDES ALMACENES
DE ROPA. EFECTOS EXTRANJEROS Y DEL PAIS.
VENTAS POR MAYOR Y MENOR

TOMAS VALERO

AV. JESUS CARRANZA No. 45.

TOLUCA, MEX.

Toluca, octubre 24 de 1921.

Mr. Lanjston Hughes,

New York.

Dear teacher:

I am angry with you because you did not say any thing when you go to that place, and you do not write to me. I think that do you not remeber you pupil and freind, and you have some reason because you are in a very good time with your sweetheart, this is so? but is good that you will have a little time for write to yours freinds or I am freindonly in Toluca? no this is not good Lanjston you need to write to me, and I hope this well tell me what is the matter with you and if you are happy.

Now I don't received English class because my teacher is not very good. this lady wants only money and for she is the same that the puplis know or not, and for this I don't want to received with she; the little English which I know is for you, because when I did' not know something and I say to she, she did say I don't care.

My brother came in September and I am talking with he, he can talk but he can't write so well.

In September and in the present month I am in a very good time.

Gran Almacén de Ropa.

Efectos Extranjeros
y del País.

‘LA SAMARITANA’,

TOMAS VALERO.

Av. Libertad 45.

Ventas por
Mayor y Menor.

Toluca, Méx.

File, S/n.

Toluca, July 15th/924.

Mr. Langston Hughes,
15 Rue Nollet,
Paris, France,

Dear Langston:-

I received your letter dated the 22nd
of June, and the surprise more agreeable pass for me;
immediately that I swa the envelope I did that it comes
from you, because I never forget to my best friend, and so
I can remember all the time his letter.

Oh Langston! what happy I am that you
spend your time in travels, because in a first time is
the best distraction and the best way to have a good
instruction; I can imagine how many lessons you took
of your travels, and for this I hope that you can give
me some advice, because I think that I must some, did you?

Well, my best wish is to write more, but
teacher, I forget many, many worths, and for this I stop,
hoping that some other time I will write more and best.

Your father is en México City as told me
Mondragón, is long time that don't see him.

My father and sister returns to you they
better wishies for the future and also I.

If you can send me some picture from

F. H. ZARZA
Dr. Lucio Nº 66
Mexico, D.F.

México, January 26, 1925

Mr. Langston Hughes.
1917 3rd. St.
Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. Hughes:-

For a long time I have been trying to locate
you but all efforts were fruitless. I wrote you last
year to the Columbia, address that you sent me in a
New Year's card about 1921 or 1922, and my letter was
returned as unclaimed

Really I was a damned fool not to have written
you in the following months from your departure from
Toluca, so as to keep on touch. I moved to Mexico City
since 1922, and got a job with the Mexican Light & Power
Co., even then.

Last week I went over Toluca and chanced to meet
Tom Valero, and gave me your address. I heard of your
trip to Europe, Italy, France, etc., you like a world-
rounder, don't you? I like you, I'd rather do the same.

Last year merely wrote you to comunicate my
trip to New York on November, and the pleasure of a meet-
ting, but this was lately postponed to March next, so
not keep much away and let me have your address each time,
perhaps we will meet some time in New York.

Our friend Millán still sticking up with that
turtle steps, and like other lot of old friends in Toluca.
Nothing is so pretty good for a young man's future than
a start abroad from home skirts. You know now are our boys
in Mexico, and specially at Toluca. These Millán, Laredo,
Izquierdo, etc. are rather thinking getting married than
making a start anyway.

I hope to get a letter from you in no long time and
some of your thereabouts.

August 10, 1964

Dear Manuel:

Iznaga in Havana wrote asking me for a book. But our Post Office here refused to accept parcels for Cuba, so I sent it on to you to kindly mail for me from Mexico.

I am flying in September to the Berlin Festival of the Arts where the theme for poetry this year centers on things African and Afro-American. On the way home in November, I hope to stop by Paris and London.

If you attend the World Assembly of the Mexican Education Academy in your city September 4-27, meet if you can two interesting teachers, Dorothy Hershenow, white but an authority on things Negro, from New York; and Margaret Burroughs, colored, who runs the Ebony Museum in Chicago, both friends of mine who tell me they are going to Mexico.

Un abrazo to your family, and best wishes ever,