Curso de Verão. Mural signed by three artists commemorating the first Summer Course for Landless activists, 1990.
This 1990 mural, painted by three artists for a summer course of study for Landless activists, is divided into 4 sections, each representing a component of the MST’s curriculum: in the upper left, the political history of Latin America, with an explicit reference to the U.S. military intervention to defeat the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in El Salvador; the upper right refers to grassroots activism and the training necessary to lead land occupations and the establishment of Landless camps and settlements; in the lower right, an abundance of fruits, vegetables, grains, and fish represents the MST’s technical training in diverse areas of agriculture and pisciculture; finally, the lower left presents an allegory of Brazilian popular culture, with its multi-ethnic foundations. At the center, overlapping these four pedagogical components is an allegory of service and solidarity -- the washing of another’s feet.