Celebrating Socialism: The International Path of Muralist Rina Lazo

Volume 23, March 2026
by Marisol Villela Balderrama


Article Description

In this essay, Marisol Villela Balderrama examines the transnational history of Venceremos (1959) by Rina Lazo, situating the portable mural within mid-twentieth-century socialist and anti-imperialist networks. Balderrama traces Lazo’s collaborations with Diego Rivera, her travels to North Korea, China, and international youth festivals, and the artwork’s dialogue with events in Guatemala and Korea. This essay reframes Lazo as an influential modernist, highlighting women artists’ global mobility and recovering a marginalized, feminist socialist art history.


Related Keywords

Marisol Villela Balderrama, Rina Lazo, Venceremos (We will Win), large- scale tempera painting, Guatemala, Korea, portable mural, Diego Rivera, anti-imperialism, feminist socialist art history, marginalization, the 2025 symposium Art, War, and Revolution: Lee Qoede and the Global Currents of Muralism in Asia