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Masthead from 'El Machete'

1924
Not on view
El Machete grew out of the Union of Technical Workers, Painters, and Sculptors. First published in early 1924 to support the popular classes in their struggle, it became the official newspaper of the Mexican Communist Party. The newspaper pioneered the graphic representation of the worker and reflected the cultural politics of labor and artistic innovations of the period. The black and red masthead shows a hand holding a machete, with a text below it by Graciela Amador, Siqueiros’s spouse: "The Machete serves to cut cane, open trails in shady woods, behead serpents, lop off bad weeds, and humiliate the arrogance of the impious rich." The criticisms voiced in El Machete were so vehement that the government demanded it closed, and the newspaper was short-lived.



El Machete nació del Sindicato de Obreros Técnicos, Pintores y Escultores de México. Tras publicar su primer número a principios de 1924 para apoyar la lucha de las clases populares, se convirtió en el periódico oficial del Partido Comunista Mexicano. Abanderó la representación gráfica del obrero y reflejó la política cultural del trabajo y las innovaciones artísticas del periodo. La cabecera en negro y rojo muestra una mano que sostiene un machete, debajo del cual se puede leer un texto de la esposa de Siqueiros, Graciela Amador: «El machete sirve para cortar la caña, para abrir las veredas en bosques umbríos, decapitar culebras, tronchar toda cizaña, y humillar la soberbia de los ricos impíos». Las críticas vertidas en El Machete eran tan vehementes que el Gobierno exigió su cierre, con lo que la publicación tuvo una vida corta.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Masthead from 'El Machete'
  • Artist: David Alfaro Siqueiros (Mexican, Camargo 1896–1974 Cuernevaca)
  • Date: 1924
  • Medium: Photo-relief and letterpress
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 9 3/16 × 18 5/16 in. (23.3 × 46.5 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Gift of Jean Charlot, 1930
  • Object Number: 30.14.13
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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Seated girl (Tehuantepec Bather), David Alfaro Siqueiros Mexican, Lithograph (offset)
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Emilio Zapata on horseback, David Alfaro Siqueiros Mexican, Lithograph
Emilio Zapata on horseback
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Head of a woman facing right
David Alfaro Siqueiros
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'One consequence', two men, possibly fighting, from the folio '13 Grabados', David Alfaro Siqueiros Mexican, Woodcut on orange paper
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David Alfaro Siqueiros
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'One recourse, prostitution', a woman and a young girl, from the folio '13 Grabados', David Alfaro Siqueiros Mexican, Woodcut on orange paper
'One recourse, prostitution', a woman and a young girl, from the folio '13 Grabados'
David Alfaro Siqueiros
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