Elena Huerta Múzquiz, also known as Elena Huerta de Arenal (born July 15, 1908 – death 1997) was a Mexican artist, she was best known for her mural work in her hometown of Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico. Most of her art career was dedicated to teaching, but she was one of the founders of the Compañía de Teatro Infantil with German Cueto, Lola Cueto, Angelina Beloff and Leopoldo Méndez, the Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios and a founding member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana.
She created three mural projects in Saltillo, with the last done when she was 65 years of age, the largest mural work created by a woman in Mexico.
Early life and education
The artist was born in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico into a powerful, traditional family with the name of Elena Enriqueta Huerta Muzquiz. Her father, Adolfo Huerta Vargas and her maternal grandfather, José María Múzquiz, were governors of the state of Coahuila from the late 19th into early 20th centuries. Nicknamed La Nena Huerta (English: "The Huerta Girl"), her artistic talents appeared in childhood. However, her father's death adversely affected the family's economic situation, and she had to work various jobs, such as telephone operator, to live and pay for her art education.
Huerta began this education in late 1920s, obtaining certification as a drawing teacher in her first year. Most of her formal art education was at the Saltillo Art Academy from the late 1920s to early 1930s, under Rubén Herrera. Herrera was a prominent artist and educator who has studied and worked in Italy until Mexican president Venustiano Carranza asked him to return to Mexico. Here Ruben founded and nurtured a movement called the Corriente Pictórica de Saltillo, of which Huerta would become be best known artist. Soon after finishing her studies in Saltillo, she moved to Mexico City, where she took a number of courses in painting and sculpture at the Academy of San Carlos.
Career
Huerta came of age during the time of the Mexican muralism movement. She was on good terms with painter Diego Rivera and became part of David Siqueiros’ family by marrying the brother of Siqueiros’ wife, Luis Leopoldo Arenal who Huerta knew through her own family as well as through the Mexican Communist Party. The couple had three children, one boy and two girls. Her daughter, Electa Arenal became a muralist and her daughter, Sandra Arenal Huerta was a known activist, feminist and writer.
Huerta became politically radicalized as a young woman, and she, her husband and their children were all leftist activists. Rivera called her and her daughter Electa, Las Rusitas ("the Little Russians"). She traveled on several occasions to the Soviet Union for both political and health reasons. During World War II, she traveled to Eastern Europe and spent most of the war years in the Soviet Union with her husband and children.
Much of Huerta's art career was dedicated to teaching, especially drawing, print and painting. This aspect of her career began in 1929, when she became an arts and crafts teacher with the then Department of Fine Arts, working in primary schools.
In 1931, she left teaching to work on a commission from the government Department of Theater to form a children's puppet theater company. With German Cueto, Lola Cueto, Angelina Beloff and Leopoldo Méndez, she founded the Compañía de Teatro Infantil, which inaugurated with the play El gigante Melchor. In 1935, the Ministry of Education accepted new works for the puppet theatre that focused on socialist ideas and reserved the right to censor and drastically change submissions. Elena submitted a play entitled Comino escudero de Don Quijote. Her work was rejected because it lacked 'clarity and force'. She continued this work until 1937, when she returned to teaching drawing, possibly because of her health.
In 1933, she became a co-founder of the Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios (LEAR).
Health concerns had her leave teaching in 1939 and become a guest artist at the Taller de Gráfica Popular. Two years later, she put her art career on hold, spending much of the 1940s in the Soviet Union for medical treatment. When she returned to Mexico in 1948, she had to work outside of her career for a time until she landed a position with the Museum of Fine Arts of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA). At this time she returned to working with the Taller de Gráfica Popular.