ABSTRACT
Sueno de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central In 1947 Diego R iv era was invited to paint a mural in the dining room of the Hotel Del Prado, on Juarez street across from the Alameda, downtown Mexico City’s city centre park. The side wall that Rivera was offered was 15 metres by almost 5 metres, giving him the possibility of creating a vast scene of the Alameda that he remembered from his boyhood (in English, Dream of a Sunday After noon on the Alameda). He represented himself as a boy in short pants, holding the hand of an extravagantly dressed calavera (skeleton), in the tradition of Jose Guadalupe Posada, with his future wife, Frida K ahlo, standing behind them (already an adult, although in reality she was younger than Rivera). Others in the crowded park included the Cuban poet and patriot Jose Marti, Mexican political figures Benito Juarez and Porfirio Diaz, and many others. The mural was controversial at the time because one of the nineteenth-century liberals, Ignacio Ramirez, was painted holding a sign that said ‘Dios no existe’ (God does not Exist). A great ruckus ensued, causing the owner of the hotel to cover the mural with a screen for a time.
