My amateur analysis 

Wednesday, September 25, 2019 // The Statement
4B
5B
Wednesday, September 25, 2019 // The Statement

I

t is said that Frida Khalo despised gringolandia, 
otherwise known as the United States. She was 
deeply discomforted by what she called the 
frivolous gringo culture, and passed most of her time in 
the country feeling isolated and unfulfilled. 
In 1932, during the time she spent in Detroit while 
her husband, Diego Rivera, painted his famous “Detroit 
Industry Murals,” she created her “Self Portrait Along 
the Border Line Between Mexico and the United States.”
The composition shows her at the fringes of two 
opposing cultures, one grey and grounded on machinery 
and constant innovation, and the other organic and 
held by tradition and the elements. It is in this contrast 
between nature and industry that she expressed her 
discomfort with the forged and poised gringo culture 
and favored what seemed natural to her, Mexican 
tradition.
On one side of the canvas, the Mexico side, Kahlo 
painted two storming clouds. In one she depicted the 
moon and, in the other, the sun. They touched in the 
middle and created a storm, a natural phenomenon that 
brings both life and destruction. On the American side, 
she drew no clouds, only a thick fog of emissions that 
radiated from a Ford factory. In this fog, she painted the 
American flag.
This idea of exalting a country and its principles at 
the expense of nature and personal joy was running 
through my head as I entered the Rivera Court at the 
Detroit Institute of Arts. I had been living in the United 
States for over five years, and thought I had had enough 
exposure to gringo culture to know that I agreed with 
Kahlo.
All I could think about as I sat on a bench in the corner 
of the Rivera Court was my experience as a Mexican in 
the United States. I recalled the jarring culture shock 
that came when I was introduced to a society that 
seemed to only be preoccupied by hard work, on-paper 
accomplishments and material possessions.
I went through junior high and high school filling out 
one application after another, constantly trying to prove 
to my classmates and teachers that I belonged and I was 
not to be discarded; that I could adjust my way of being 
to fit their rigid norms of acceptability.

I polished my image and self-expression in accordance 
to the American code. I practiced, got rid of my accent, 
dressed in American brands and followed typical 
American teen rituals. I joined the dance team, dated 
a football player and mostly spent all of my time trying 
to do the “right” things to boost my college applications 
— trying to be a productive and obedient member of the 
American society because I felt it was the only way to 
achieve “success.”
Those years made me feel like Kahlo in her self-
portrait. I was stuck in the middle of two cultures, not 
really belonging to either, but striving to assimilate into 
one and forget the other. I thought a definitive decision 
had to be made. I was either going to become American, 
which meant hiding my “Mexicaness,” or I was going 
to be Mexican, which meant always being labeled as 
different or incompatible.
It was this perceived rigidity of culture that led me 
to sacrifice my Mexican mannerisms and traditions, so 
I made a choice. It was a decision I saw as absolute and 
necessary at the time. Like Kahlo, I felt like it had to be 
either-or because they were so different, a clear line 
separated them.
But when I came to the University of Michigan, 
traveled to Detroit and inspected the little seed of my 
culture that was planted there by Diego Rivera in 1933, 
I realized that I did not completely agree with Kahlo’s 
depiction of gringo culture. A lot of my ambivalence and 
feelings of alienation remained, but Rivera managed to 
make me feel included in his Mexican depiction of an 
American narrative.
The Detroit Industry Murals were breathtaking. I 
spent almost all of my time at the museum sitting on that 
corner bench, looking at every face and detail in each of 
the 27 frescoes painted by Rivera. 
The North Wall, which contains three of the most 
famous panels, shows the connections between nature 
and technology. The story these three panels tell is 
grounded in a common link, the only thing that is capable 
of both tradition and innovation: the human mind.
The panel closest to the ceiling shows human hands 
holding and extracting prime natural resources from the 
earth. The middle panel shows these natural resources 

being transformed by heat and funneled into the furnace 
of the bottom panel, which depicts a Ford factory.
The Ford factory panel, at bottom panel of the North 
Wall, depicts an echelon of contradictions. At the 
very top is the burning furnace. It appears small in 
the background, but it is connected to the rest of the 
depictions in the panel by snakelike conveyor belts that 
weave from side to side, separating various situations. 
On the left side, the conveyor belt encases an 
assembly line of glowing, green men who are seemingly 
affected by the toxic chemicals they are forced to work 
in. Automotive parts move in and out of their line 
through suspended crates, but workers are unaffected. 
Surrounded by heavy and dangerous looking machinery 
and toxic chemicals, all they seem to worry about is their 
work.
There is a clock in the background, near the top right 
corner. It depicts the passage of time, but nobody seems 
to be looking at it, as if their time was not their own.
Near the bottom is another assembly line, but this 
one depicts workers that were drawn by Rivera without 
sparing any details. They are focused and go on without 
talking. They pull and push auto parts together, oblivious 
to any danger and without risking a single, independent 
thought. 
At the very bottom, Rivera painted a series of grey 
panels showing small figures in line. He drew lines 
of people that form as they enter the factory, lines of 
furnaces emitting clouds of pollution into the air, lines 
of cars in parking lots and lines of men operating heavy 
machinery.
This panel depicts the American industry and the 
success driven Americans who work endlessly to make 
it happen. In the back, like a tiny red dot, is the finished 
product. The process seems to be more important 
here than the car itself. Through this, and through his 
multiracial depictions of the workers, Rivera emphasizes 
gringo culture values as attempting to be diverse and 
inclusive.
Rivera seemed to be a firm believer of the American 
Dream — of the Mexican American dream.
The vertical flow that bridges the top panel to the 
bottom one alludes to a linear narrative that connects 

BY ANDREA PÉREZ-BALDERRAMA MANAGING STATEMENT EDITOR

See DIEGO, Page 6B

of Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry Murals

PHOTOS BY ANDREA PÉREZ-BALDERAMA

