Ramón Alva de la Canal
He was born Ramón Pascual Loreto José Alva de la Canal on August 29, 1892, in the Tacubaya, now a neighborhood of Mexico City.[1][2] He received his artistic training at the Academy of San Carlos and then at the Escuela de Pintural al Aire Libre in Coyoacán under Alfredo Ramos Martínez.[1] He began by joining the Sindicato de Obreros Técnicos, Pintores, Escultores y Grabadores (Technical workers, Painters, Sculptors and Engravers Union) in 1923 which had been convened by José Vasconcelos.[1][3] He was one of the pioneers of the Mexican muralism movement, especially frescos, recruited by Vasconcelos along with other muralists such as Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco, Jean Charlot, Fernando Leal, Fermín Revueltas, Emilio García Cahero, Xavier Guerrero and Carlos Mérida.[1] His largest and most important work was fifty-six fresco panels at the monument to José María Morelos in Janitzio, Michoacán in 1938 along with an artist called Pepe Díaz.