Arts & International Affairs: Vol. 4, No. 3, Spring 2020 | Page 27

ARTS & INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
the deployment of xenophobic attitudes as a logic of deterrence against undocumented
immigrants.
These examples illuminate how borders are not completely communicatively effective at
primitive accumulation. “The technique of border circulation only have the strength that
society gives them” (Nail 2016:8). Chicano Park is an example of this, e.g. not accepting
the borders imposed by the city, i.e. the highway onramps and pylons, or the nefariously
planned Highway Patrol parking lot in what is now Chicano Park. While murals and
installations may not stop land dispossession north or south of the U.S.–Mexico border
they oppose the border’s communicative power of continuously bordering.
Neither these murals and installations, nor the artists that created them, may remain
revolutionary. One pertinent example of this is the career of the British muralist Frank
Brangwyn (1867–1956). He initially painted socialist murals, e.g. in the Old Cuyahoga
County Courthouse in Cleveland, Ohio, with socialist themed depictions of the signing
of The Magna Carta, but finished the left-wing Mexican muralist, Diego Riviera’s
murals at the Rockefeller Centre in kitsch terms based on red-scare politics after World
War II (Linebaugh 2008:224–225). In other words, the revolutionary, international
aspects of both socialism and Mexican muralism that pointed towards the commons
were snuffed out by the end of World War I. Given the militant anti-communism of
the post-World War II McCarthy era America, the choice to use Mexican mural styles
by Chicana/o muralists were revolutionary and like commoning, even if not directly
inspired by Marxist thought.
Though there is little evidence that the muralists at Chicano Park were Marxists, their
choice of subject matter�Pre-Columbian culture�pertains to the loss of common
lands wrought by international colonialism. In particular, the establishment of Spanish
colonies in Peru and Mexico brought about the loss of common lands and subsequent
severe loss of population of indigenous peoples (Frank 1978:43–49). However, this is
not simply a romantic, retro-theme. Some Pre-Columbian indigenous practices remain
in Latin America. Moreover, according to Acuna (2014), the purpose of referencing
Mexican and pre-Columbian history is explained by Immanuel Wallerstein’s World
Systems theory, i.e. the Aztec�Mexican governance structure once was and therefore
might again be dominant. Moreover, many indigenous women in Peru, rather than being
executed as witches for their indigenous knowledge of the land, absconded to remote
villages, thus partially preserving ancient indigenous knowledge�though at the expense
of communal practice (Federici 2004:231). Thus, by promoting Pre-Columbian
imagery, Chicano Park muralists promoted a sustained, albeit underground, pre-colonial,
pre-capitalist idea of communal land in opposition to global capital.
Concluding Thoughts: Murals as Time-Images
While the images do not suggest Mexican identity as a random result of juxtaposition,
or free play of imagery, their imagery does not communicate as directly as written words
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