Ramón Alva de la Canal

Ramón Alva de la Canal
"El desembarco de los españoles y la cruz plantada en tierras nuevas" at the College of San Ildefonso
Born	(1892-08-29)August 29, 1892 Mexico City
Died	April 4, 1985(1985-04-04) (aged 92) Mexico City
Nationality	Mexican
Education	Academia de San Carlos
Known for	painting, illustrations, panel painting, scenic painting
Movement	Mexican Muralism, Stridentism

Ramón Alva de la Canal (b. Mexico City, August 29, 1892 – d. Mexico City, April 4, 1985) was a Mexican painter, illustrator, and educator, one of the pioneers of the Mexican muralism movement.

He was born Ramón Pascual Loreto José Alva de la Canal on August 29, 1892 in the Tacubaya, now a neighborhood of Mexico City. He received his artistic training at the Academy of San Carlos and then at the Escuela de Pintural al Aire Libre in Coyoacán under Alfredo Ramos Martínez. He fought in the Mexican Revolution along with Dr Atl and Orozco.

During his career, he was a muralist, engraver, illustrator, theatre director and teacher. He began by joining the Sindicato de Obreros Técnicos, Pintores, Escultores y Grabadores (Technical workers, Painters, Sculptors and Engravers Union) in 1923 which had been convened by José Vasconcelos.

Most of Alva’s work was related to political and cultural movements, beginning with cultural initiatives from the Secretary of Education José Vasconcelos. He was a member of the Stridentist Movement with Leopoldo Mendez and Fermin Revueltas between 1921 and 1926, illustrating many of the publications of that movement. In 1928, he was one of the founding members of the Grupo Revolucionario de Pintores 30-30 along with Fermín Revueltas, Fernando Leal, Gabriel Fernández Ledesma and Cuban Martí Casanovas, which was linked to the Escuelas de Pinturas al Aire Libre movement.

He was one of the pioneers of the Mexican muralism movement, especially frescos, recruited by Vasconcelos along with other muralists such as Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco, Jean Charlot, Fernando Leal, Fermín Revueltas, Emilio García Cahero, Xavier Guerrero and Carlos Mérida. He created the first fresco of the 20th century in Mexico in 1922 with El desembarco de la cruz at the San Ildefonso College. He painted four murals for the Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional called La paz, La Guerra, El dolor Humano and La Victoria. His largest and most important work was fifty six fresco panels at the monument to José María Morelos in Janitzio, Michoacán in 1938 along with an artist called Pepe Díaz. He painted an unfinished mural called La justicia y la justicia at the law school of the Universidad Metropolitana Xalapa in 1938. In Coyuca de Catalán, Guerrero, he painted a mural called La enseñanza but it disappeared when an earthquake destroyed the school it was painted on.