This painting depicts the 1954 Guatemalan Coup. In its center, white Americans shake hands and pass money to Guatemalan officials. On the left, bananas are carried onto a US ship by people in tattered clothes. On the right Guatemalans are jailed and killed. Notable is the skin tone of the Guatemalans, where those doing business with the Americans are whiter, the people forced into work or being jailed are of a distinctly darker tone.
This document is important to my research because it serves as a clear picture of the negative image the coup had in Latin America.
“Gloriosa Victoria” (Glorious Victory) – Diego Rivera. Oil on linen. 1954. Collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, Russia.