Becoming Pablo O'higgins

Becoming Pablo O'Higgins tells the intriguing story of how a blond-haired, blue-eyed Presbyterian from an upper middle-class family in Salt Lake City, Utah, became a celebrated Mexican muralist. Born Paul Higgins in 1904 into a Republican family of Mayflower English and Protestant Scots-Irish ancestry, O'Higgins boldly traveled to Mexico at age 20. He became an assistant to Diego Rivera, working with him on three of his most important murals. Rivera said if he had a son he'd want him to be like O'Higgins.

O'Higgins lived in Mexico for the rest of his life gaining a reputation as an artist "of the people" who dedicated his life to the struggle of Mexico's workers. He is well-known as a muralist and co-founder of Mexico's famous Taller de Gráfica Popular. In the U.S. he is an inspiration to Chicano artists: he appears in a mural in San Diego's Chicano Park alongside Mexico's revolutionary heroes.

The transformation of Paul Higgins to Pablo O'Higgins began under Rivera's political tutelage. O'Higgins joined the Communist Party just before its Sixth Congress when it began eliminating its "middle class element." To be accepted as a populist, he distanced himself from his upbringing, suggested native Irish heritage, and kept secret his father's role as a state attorney in the execution of miner and labor martyr Joe Hill.

As an artist promoting revolutionary ideals, O'Higgins was drawn into Mexico's volatile politics. He went into hiding when the Communist Party was illegal and the Cristero Rebellion was raging, as well as after an assassination attempt on Leon Trotsky. He followed radical photographer and fugitive Tina Modotti to Russia. He left the Communist Party in the late 1940s, yet landed on the U.S. attorney general's blacklist during the 1950s. In his later years, however, he isolated himself in his studio, creating stunning landscape paintings for wealthy collectors.

Becoming Pablo O'Higgins reveals O'Higgins as a complex person who sought to reconcile his U.S. citizenship (which he held onto for most of his life) and his blue-blood ancestry with his love of Mexico and his deep desire to be accepted as a Mexican. There was no dual citizenship during O'Higgins's lifetime; he essentially created it for himself. Today, O'Higgins is admired not only for his art but for his determination to bridge these two countries and their cultures.