It took Diego Rivera over 6 years to complete the staircase murals in the National Palace in Mexico City. Painter depicted historical scenes and actual events to tell the History of Mexico. Piled-up figures help to tell the stories of the Spanish Conquest, oppression of Indians, Inquisition, the Independence, and finally the Mexican Revolution.
In 1933, Rivera painted Man at the Crossroads mural in in New York City's Rockefeller Center. The idea behind the fresco was to show the contrast between capitalism and communism. Diego Rivera who had communist views added images of Vladimir Lenin and a Soviet May Day parade. When asked to remove Lenin from the mural, he refused and his work was destroyed.
There is another mural in the United States. In 1932 Rivera was commissioned Detroit Industry Murals, twenty-seven panels depicting progress of industry at the Ford Motor Company and in Detroit.
