Word: aztec
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...with soldierly ferocity, quick-drying pyroxylin paint and a spray gun. The mural has more force than feeling, but it is clearly in line with Siqueiros' oft-repeated theory that the right, true end of art is propaganda. His subject this time is Cuauhtémoc-the Aztec hero who tried to defend Mexico City against Cortés after the death of Montezuma. One panel shows Cuauhtémoc being tortured by the Spaniards, along with a bleeding woman and a child with its hands chopped off. Morbid? Goodness, no, said Siqueiros, "unless paintings of Christ...
...mural's other panel, Cuauhtémoc appears as a conqueror (which he was not), dressed in the armor of the men who beat him and wearing an Aztec crown. "He's a fighting symbol of our national independence," Siqueiros said, "of independence not yet entirely won." Added Siqueiros, who keeps up to date on party literature even when busy with a spray gun: "I see in Cuauhtémoc [a prototype of] Mao Tse-tung of China, Luis Carlos Prestes of Brazil, the leaders of the Viet Minh and the fighters for the nationalization of Iran...
...Covarrubias have long been fascinated with the Aztec legend of the Four Suns. Chávez, in fact, composed an orchestral program piece about it in 1925. The legend: the earth was created and destroyed four times by each of the elements -water, air, fire and earth (through drought). Last fall, Covarrubias showed Dancer Limón some sketches for sets and costumes, convinced him he was just the man to do the choreography. Limón liked the subject, thought it might lead to "the kind of [dance] movement that is my meat...
...into line with the twinkling lights of Love Field's long north-south runway, lowered the wheels and wingflaps for landing. Suddenly the outboard right engine sputtered and died. The two good engines bellowed as he poured power to them to lengthen his glide, but the Aztec was caught-sluggish and vu'nerable-in the drag of her extended landing gear and flaps. "She's a goner." shouted First Officer Robert Lewis. The Aztec's nose went up as she shuddered in a stall. Her left wing dipped and she swirled drunkenly into the corrugated metal...
Pilot Claude, Copilot Lewis, their flight engineer and 15 of the Aztec's 41 passengers escaped from the white-hot pyre. When the wreckage had cooled, an American Airlines ground crewman stood sobbing as he kept count, in a little black notebook, of the bodies carried from the blackened metal. Total: 28. Three days later the heads of eleven major U.S. airlines were feted in Chicago at a luncheon (scheduled long before the crash) to honor commercial aviation's record for safety. Their statistics proved that IQ49, even including the Dallas crash, could still...