The two front courtyards (on the opposite side of the building from the entrance off Plaza Santo Domingo) here are lined with 120 fresco panels painted by Diego Rivera in the 1920s. Together they form a tableau of ‘the very life of the people,’ in the artist’s words.
Each courtyard is thematically distinct: the one on the east end deals with labor, industry and agriculture, while the interior one depicts traditions and festivals. On the latter’s top level is a series on proletarian and agrarian revolution, underneath a continuous red banner emblazoned with a Mexican corrido (folk song). The likeness of Frida Kahlo appears in the first panel as an arsenal worker.
