Nopalera

Guillermo Meza, a Tlaxcalan Indian, belonged to a group of young Mexican artists who emerged on the international stage both in the wake of, and thanks to, the renown of Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros. As with Rivera's work, Meza's Nopalera can be viewed as an attempt to craft a Mexican national identity by uniting the land with the people closest to it. By composing a figure that shares both the structural and color characteristics of the surrounding nopal pads, Meza coalesces the human into the stand of cacti. The figure's elongated neck and dramatic posture, set among repeated vertical cactus pads, create a sense that the person and nopal thrive as one; together, they grow and endure the harsh, aging, conditions inherent in the painting's dusty desert colors. Meza's subject provides keen insight into the conditions of a life rooted in the land, one shared by many rural Mexican people.