About the Artist

"Pablo O’Higgins (1904-1983) was born Paul Higgins Stevenson in Salt Lake City and attended the Academy of Arts in San Diego, where he met Diego Rivera. He assisted in the creation of Rivera’s murals at The National School of Agriculture and the Public Education Secretariat.

O’Higgins immigrated to Mexico permanently in 1924. He was a member of the communist party in Mexico from 1927-’47, and much of his work reflects his leftist philosophy: the enduring effects of poverty on the common man, woman, and child. He kept his U.S. citizenship until 1961, which allowed him to teach and work in both Mexico and the U.S. He formed strong ties with labor and longshoreman during the tumultuous 1940s on the U.S. West Coast. He painted murals for the Ship Scalers Union in Seattle and the International Longshoreman’s and Warehouseman’s Unions in Honolulu. He helped establish graphic art workshops in Mexico, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

With his passing in Mexico in 1983, the Mexican government gave him a state funeral in its famed Palacio de Belles Artes. During his life, and to this day, O’Higgins is inspiration for artists seeking to create socially conscious, community-based art. His portrait is included in a mural in Chicano Park in San Diego. He appears next to Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Pablo Picasso. Emilio Zapata, Che Guevarra and the Virgin of Guadalupe." Imagenes de Latin America