The Year of the Poet VIII April 2021

Foreword: Pablo O'HigginsThe Poetry Posse remembers the American-Mexican muralist whose works had influenced powerful instrument in the global context of defeating fascism and other forces of oppression. Pablo O'Higgins was born in Utah, grew in California and flourished in Mexico. He started his artistic training at the School of Fine Arts in San Diego, then moved to Mexico when he was 20. O' Higgins joined the circle of anti-fascist League of Revolutionary Artists and Writers (Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarias, or LEAR) including the master muralist Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siquerios, and later, he became Rivera's assistant. His obras expressed dramatic and monumental realism, which he adopted in depicting images of labor and local inhabitants. His works had intriguing history. He is considered as one of the most important muralists of its "second generation" of mural painters. Sources stated that O'Higgins became politically active in the post-revolution art movement in Mexico. He was the only non-native to be included in the historic 1940 exhibition at the New York Museum of Modern Art, "Twenty Centuries of Mexican Art. O'Higgins played a significant role in Mexican-US connections, thus, his contributions to the national arts and education had paved way to get an honorary Mexican citizenship in 1961. His sixty-foot long mural strong anti-racist, anti-discriminatory, politically rebellious mural entitled Ship Scalers Union Hall in Seattle is installed in Kane Hall, University of Washington, Seattle. The mural represents Seattle's Ship Scalers Union's (SSU) history in social politics. Pablo O'Higgins murals had etched inspirations in history of struggle for social change. Caroline Nazareno 'Ceri Naz' Gabis