Guatemalan Muralist Rina Lazo's Legacy Shines in Mexico

On her 96th birthday, Rina Lazo finished painting her final mural depicting the Maya underworld, then passed away peacefully in her sleep. It was 2019, and the Guatemalan artist had just completed what friends believed was her way of painting her own afterlife.

Lazo holds a unique place in Mexican art history. She remains the only woman with a mural in the Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City's grand palace of fine arts where the country's most celebrated artists are displayed.

Her journey began in Guatemala, where she grew up visiting the Maya city of Cobán. The ancient ceramic pieces discovered there, covered in Indigenous imagery, sparked a lifelong passion. "I was born in the most beautiful country in the world," she once said, describing Guatemala's volcanoes, lakes and lush landscapes.

In the 1940s, young Lazo earned a scholarship to study mural art in Mexico City at La Esmeralda, the National School of Art. Her talent caught the attention of Diego Rivera's assistants, who invited her to work on "Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Central," a 50-foot masterpiece that would become one of Mexico's most iconic murals.

She started grinding pigments but quickly advanced to painting details. Rivera was so impressed that Lazo became his apprentice for the next decade until his death in 1957. Her name now appears alongside his on the famous mural.

Why This Inspires

Lazo's biggest breakthrough came in 1966 when she won a commission to recreate ancient Maya murals from Bonampak for Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology. She spent three months alone in the Chiapas jungle, studying the originals and teaching herself centuries-old techniques. The project launched her independent career.

Throughout her life, Lazo called herself Mesoamerican, embracing both her Guatemalan roots and adopted Mexican home. She joined a broader Latin American movement celebrating pre-Hispanic heritage as a source of artistic pride and renewal.

Her work always returned to Maya cosmology and Indigenous themes. Years after Bonampak, she created "The Venerable Grandfather Corn" for the same museum, depicting the Maya creation story. Her final piece, "Xibalbá, the Underworld of the Mayas," now hangs in the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

Lazo believed that true artists are born with their calling. "That's something you're born with," she said. "It's just a matter of will."

Her murals continue celebrating the beauty and wisdom of Mesoamerican culture, ensuring that Indigenous stories remain visible in Mexico's most important cultural spaces.

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