Resources
Learn more about the Cristero War (1926-29)
Imágenes de la Guerra Cristera (1926-29), digital exhibition about the Cristero War curated by Lucy O’Sullivan for the digital platform México, haz memoria – Gobierno de México.
Teaching guide to accompany the above exhibition, aimed at secondary and preparatory level History students. Texts by Lucy O’Sullivan y Yves Solís Nicot: Guía didáctica.
Ugarte and his role in the Cultural Missions
Although Enrique Aguilar Ugarte Infante’s artistic work remains relatively unknown today, he was a contemporary of Leopoldo Méndez and mentored important artists such as Francisco Eppens. He was affiliated with important institutions such as the prestigious San Carlos Academy, the Chimamlistac School of Open-Air Painting, the National School of Fine Arts, the National School for Teachers and the Cultural Missions.
Aguilar Ugarte was born on the 7th April,1900 in Aguascalientes. He moved to Mexico City in 1917 as the Revolution was coming to a close and enrolled in the San Carlos Academy where he took courses in painting and engraving. In 1920, the director of the Academy of Fine Arts Alfredo Ramos Martínez opened the Chimamlistac School of Open-Air Painting which would later relocate to the ex-Hacienda of San Pedro in Coyoacán. Aguilar Ugarte or “el negro Ugarte” as he was known, studied under his supervision alongside other prominent and lesser-known post-revolutionary artists including Ramón Alva de la Canal, Francisco Díaz de León, Emilio García Cahero, Gabriel Fernández Vargas “the Bolshevik”, Mateo Bolaños, Fernando Leal, Fermín Revueltas, Leopoldo Méndez, Ramón Cano Manilla, Bulmaro Guzmán, Rafael Vera de Córdova, Rufino Tamayo, Edna Barocio, Fina Barocio and Rosario Cabrera. In June 1921, Aguilar Ugarte was appointed as assistant draughtsman for the Technical Department of the National Museum of Archaeology. Between 1922 and 1929 he worked as a specialist teacher at the National School of Fine Arts where he taught subjects including sketching, perspective and life drawing.
Aguilar Ugarte participated as a teacher in the Cultural Missions programme during the presidencies of Álvaro Obregón (1920-1924) and Plutarco Elías Calles (1924-1928). In 1928 the first two permanent Cultural Missions were established in San Diego Xocoyucan, Tlaxcala, and in Actopan, Hidalgo. This was followed by others in 1932, located in Oaxtepec, Morelos; Tlatlauquitepec, Puebla; Tuxtla, Guerrero; Río Verde, San Luis Potosí; Jaumave, Tamaulipas; Saláices, Chihuahua; Santa Lucía, Durango; Todos Santos, Baja California Sur; Jalisco; Nayarit; Río Grande, Zacatecas; Cerro Hueco en Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas and Hecelchakán, Campeche.
In 1929 Aguilar Ugarte was appointed as a Normal School teacher in Quintana Roo, on behalf of the Department of Rural Schools and joined the travelling Cultural Missions in 1930. Between 1931 and 1939 he continued to work as a missionary teacher for the Drawing and Visual Arts section of the Department of Fine Arts and the Department of Agricultural Teaching and Normal School. Between 1934 and 1936 he also participated in the Cultural Mission in Santa Lucía, Durango and from 1940 to 1944 worked as a teacher at the National School for Teachers.
Aguilar Ugarte’s educational work was wide-ranging, encompassing teaching roles at the Normal School for Teachers, the Normal School for Female Teachers, the Federal Institute for Teacher Training of the Department of Normal Education and the Department of Plastic Arts. In 1953 he was forced to retire due to Parkinson’s disease and died in Mexico City on the 17th of May 1981.
- Jacqueline Romero Yescas (Cenidiap), translated by Lucy O’Sullivan.
See Ugarte’s works at the Museo Nacional de Arte: https://munal.emuseum.com/people/397/enrique-aguilar-ugarte/objects
Learn more about the Cultural Missions:
Canal INEHRM - Misiones Culturales: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dhkZtsnMWs
Canal Once - Centenario SEP - Las misiones culturales (1923): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5__QitLWOA
Secondary Sources
Meyer, Jean. La Cristiada. México : Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 1974.
Misiones culturales: los años utópicos 1920-1938. México, D.F: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes: Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes : Museo Casa Estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo, 1999.
Navarro, Moisés González. Cristeros y Agraristas En Jalisco. 5 tomos. México, D.F. Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Históricos, 2000-2003.