Abelardo L. Rodriguez Market

The Abelardo L. Rodriguez Market is a traditional public market located in the historic center of Mexico City, northeast of the main plaza, or Zocalo. It was built in 1934 as a prototype for a more modern marketplace and has a number of unusual features such as day care and an auditorium. However, the market's most distinctive feature is the approximately 1,450 square metres of wall and ceiling space covered in murals. These murals were painted by muralists, some former Diego Rivera helpers. Rivera had a role in approving artist designs, but little else. The works mostly reflect socialist themes, such as the exploitation of workers, peasants and miners, the fight against Nazism and fascism, and racial discrimination. Earthquakes, time, humidity and vandalism took their toll on the murals from the time they were painted until restoration began in January 2009. Restoration work is expected to take almost two years.

The market was constructed in 1934 in what was part of the grounds of the San Pedro y San Pablo College. The architect was Antonio Muñoz, who mixed Baroque, Belle Époque, Art Nouveau and Art Deco elements into the building. The market has an area of 12,450 square metres and is the main market for foodstuffs in this part of the city. Upon completion, it was named after the president of Mexico who ordered the complex built. Eventually, the area around this market became known as “Abelardo.”

This market was the second major market built in Mexico City in the first decades of the 20th century, after the Dos de Abril Market built in 1912. Like its predecessor, the Abelard L. Rodriguez market was intended to be a prototype for a new, more modern popular marketplace, first for the large size of the market and second for a number of extra services offered within the building, such as day care centers, youth centers and libraries.

The Abelardo L. Rodriguez market has four large entrances on República de Venezuela, República de Colombia, Del Carmen and Rodríguez Puebla streets respectively. One unusual feature of the building is the metal roof that covers the central patio area. Its most distinctive service is the Teatro del Pueblo (Theatre of the Town) auditorium, which is located on the upper floor. A number of the services and features of this market were copied in markets built as much as twenty years later, such as the markets of La Lagunilla, Tepito and La Merced.

However, the market's most distinctive feature is the approximately 1,450 square meters of wall and ceiling space covering in murals. These murals were painted by students of Diego Rivera and under his direction. Six of the ten painters involved with the project were Mexican, three were American and one was Japanese, working to “bring art to the people” and paid 13.50 pesos (3.75 U.S. dollars approximately) for each square meter painted. The murals are located in the main entrances, vestibules, patios and hallways of the market.

These murals include: Los mercados by Ángel Bracho, Influencia de las vitaminas by Antonio Pujol, Los alimentos y los problemas del obrero by Pedro Rendón, Escenas populares by Ramón Alva Guadarrama, Las labores del campo by Grace Greenwood Ames, La minería by Marion Greenwood, La industrialización del campo and Mercado maya by Raúl Gamboa as well as the copper-plated relief called Historia de México, by Isamu Noguchi. The murals reflect socialist themes in part due to the policies of the Mexican government to promote the benefits of the 1910 Mexican Revolution. They also reflect the concerns of these artists during this time period, leading to themes such as the exploitation of workers, peasants and miners, the fight against Nazism and fascism, and racial discrimination. On the upper floor, Noguchi created a wall sculpture combined wit

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