I. Authentic Art and Symbolism: The Revolutionary Root
The artists of the Mexican Revolution—Rivera, Orozco, Siqueiros, and others who came before and after with more silence and less muralism—did not destroy the past; they invoked it.
They took ancient cultures as foundations, not debris. Just as the Mexicas did not erase the peoples they subdued but absorbed them symbolically, true artists do not deny the past; they interpret and re-signify it.
II. The Current Simulacrum: Profane by the Market
What we see today is not revolution; it’s the demolition of anything that doesn’t fit the current script.
In many cases, the symbol has been replaced by a slogan: brief, viral, effective, but empty. And this is not dictated by artists; it’s dictated by politicians and their cultural operators.
When a revolution erases everything that came before, it’s not creating art; it’s establishing a new form of censorship under the guise of justice.
There’s much talk about dissent today. Those who call themselves “uncomfortable,” “subaltern,” or “outside the center” are given a platform, front-page coverage, and a microphone.
But the true discomfort isn’t the adjective; it’s discovering that there was a strategy, planning, and a niche behind the supposed marginalization.
Marketers have stolen the world from artists, and now everything is a product, not a sophisticated expression. It’s no longer about art; it’s about targeted marketing.
What matters now is if you can attract followers, if you represent a “marketable identity,” if your work serves a political purpose.
I know an editor—not just from hearsay, I know him—who resigned from a very famous publishing house because they no longer asked for quality but writers whose content would become algorithm fodder: those who could amass followers in large numbers on social media.
This is not dissent; it’s programmed performance. It’s sexual symbolism with a protest aesthetic. It’s propaganda with body but no symbolic body.
When art is constructed exclusively to fit a target audience, it’s not writing; it’s executing a brand strategy. And if questioned, it gets offended, using the trendy card: victimization.
Simulacra of thoughtful art, revolutionary. The “destruction” from the “neighborhood” is trendy. A supposed marginalization, dissent, and a simulated social class liberation.
These artists who hate capitalism and call established Mexican literature figures like Rosario Castellanos ‘privileged creoles’ (because they claim she “doesn’t represent them”)—though if she doesn’t represent you, it’s not a political party—are celebrated with bourgeois prizes and capitalist honey.
The female body has also been emptied by the logic of the cultural industry.
III. The Body as Merchandise: From Symbol to Emptiness
(The climax: the false sexual liberation and the final ennui)
Explicit sex is also in vogue. On social media, in the media, in new female bodies, in ‘subversive’ writings. Everything seems liberated. But it’s the same male fantasy, recycled.
Explicit sex that doesn’t liberate but reinforces patriarchal imagery through a market aesthetic. An aesthetic that, instead of subverting patriarchal imagery, replicates it from a new commercial wrapping.
Women’s liberation has been co-opted by the multibillion-dollar porn industry.
Pornography is a delirious cycle of repetitions: specific categories, tailored tastes. Over and over again, the same thing, leading to an absolute feeling of boredom, dissatisfaction, and impending depression.
The cycle of boredom.
And in the end, no one truly touches themselves. There’s only consumption without surprises, discoveries, or Eros. In its core, nothing shakes.
