LOOKING AT THE ADAMS’ MURALS IN 2002
America’s face in the Thirties was the face of a white Protestant male
caring the spear of progress, of science and industry, into the bright future
ahead. The ugly American was a tall, blond, handsome young man (even if he
was old) with positive thoughts about his less fortunate countrymen with different
shades of skin than his. Actually, he was not white; his skin was pink due
to a pigment deficiency which caused him to be susceptible to the light of
the sun. But the color white suited him better, he thought. It fitted into
his Protestant ideology of good and bad, light and darkness, white and black,
God and Satan. He wanted to do good for those less fortunate than him and
show them how they too can attain the same dream that he had, the American
dream. He told his darker brothers: you can be just like me and I’ll
show you how. This paradise is big enough and affluent enough for all those
who dare to leave their excess baggage behind and to join America’s melting
pot. Just look at me and do what I do! Enter my garden and enjoy this paradise
with me! In fact, you can help me work these beautiful fields that are plowed
and cultivated in straight lines by modern machines that can do the work for
us. I’ll even let you drive these machines and teach you how to keep
them running. After all, deep within we are all the same. We are children
of God and deserve to enjoy His creation to the fullest. When He created,
He created enough for everyone.
The religion of America of the Thirties was that of science and modern medicine.
Its temples were sterile scientific laboratories and operation theaters where
only the initiates might enter. Priests attired with robes were busy serving
progress in halls of knowledge heavily guarded from foreign influences behind
barred windows. The arcanas of the High Priestess and the Magician come to
mind, but in this instance we have a male High Priest. The masked faceless
priest with head covered and wearing white robes is attending a central cubical
altar – the altar of science. The realms of the sun and the moon and
the stars are his. In his hands he holds a newborn baby; a new generation
is being sacrificed on that altar to the god of progress. On both sides of
the high priest, lower in hierarchical rank, are his two helpers, his lab
assistants. They are gowned in green robes and are busy with their instruments,
looking for new powers from unseen worlds. A woman is allowed into the level
of priest’s assistant and she is white, as is everyone else in the lab.
It is all done with cubes and squares. Knowledge and new information are being
dissected and classified into small chunks and are being put into cubicles
and containers. Things are separated from other things with clear borders
and dividing lines to fragment reality.
Progress is brought as a gift and an assistance to the primitive cultures
of New Mexico. The extended hand (of white-man or Mr. Anglo from the first
scene) is stretched to help and change the situations of those still looking
backward to the past. Those are female dominated cultures where people must
to work hard with their hands and bodies to obtain their basic provisions.
Cultural borders divide the people into isolated realities that do not meet.
The gifts of the melting pot and the American dream have not reached here
yet (but, by golly they will!) The forces of the old religions and traditions
are still centrally strong and unshackled. The window overlooking the church
is still unbarred, allowing the domination of primitive feminine influences.
Two Spanish women with their faces to the past, to the church, are busy in
their attempt to cover up the emerging world of cubes and squares with their
adobe mud but maybe they are not successful. A single Spanish man, marginalized
out in the fields, pushing a plow behind an invisible ox, has already turned
his face halfway toward the future, toward progress (probably wishing that
he had a tractor). The two Indian men, the farmer and the herdsman, likewise
have started to turn. The Indian women, in contrast, are looking backwards
and down into the earth, concentrating on their traditional crafts, which
are central to their culture. The men, marginalized in their culture, are
looking sideways, getting ready to look up to their white brother (from the
first mural) for a helping hand and guidance into the Brave New World.