Accident in the Mine

"Accidente en la mina" can be seen as a critique of the working conditions of the miners engaged in the extraction of silver in Taxco, a city that was already well known for its wealth of the prestigious mineral. In a broader sense, the piece can be read as a critique of the idyllic construction of the Mexican natural landscape. Far from being an extensive, glorious and abundant panorama as it was elaborated by the painters and photographers of the time, the territory is stony and its interior is somber. Siqueiros portrayed the bodies of the three miners crouched diagonally, for the effect of greater movement. The sequential representation, as if the men were the same character captured at three different moments, refers to a cinematographic aspect that links Siqueiros to the work of Sergei Eisenstein, who stayed in Taxco that same year.