Considering the social context, this art is amazing. A cowboy from rural, turn-of-the-century Mexico comes up to America, traveling through the growing metropolis of Los Angeles in the 30s and 40s, working on the railway. Eventually, jobless and homeless, he is found seemingly confused and unable or unwilling to speak English, so he is committed to a state mental institute for the last 20 years of his life, where his artistic career begins.

People talk about him as an outsider, but really, his perspective is of someone on the bottom looking up in hope, awe, and regret. His muteness, and foreignness, his isolation, his awe of the metropolis and the technology, the cars and the trains, are co...

Considering the social context, this art is amazing. A cowboy from rural, turn-of-the-century Mexico comes up to America, traveling through the growing metropolis of Los Angeles in the 30s and 40s, working on the railway. Eventually, jobless and homeless, he is found seemingly confused and unable or unwilling to speak English, so he is committed to a state mental institute for the last 20 years of his life, where his artistic career begins.

People talk about him as an outsider, but really, his perspective is of someone on the bottom looking up in hope, awe, and regret. His muteness, and foreignness, his isolation, his awe of the metropolis and the technology, the cars and the trains, are combined with his nostalgia for Mexico and his spiritual yearning.

The more I look into this artwork, the more I see the experience of immigrants how came to America expecting to make their fortunes in the land of prosperity, but discovering instead America is a real, and surreal place - complex and full of conflicting extremes. And ultimately, for many, whether they were born in America or came from abroad, America is impenetrable, a land of shimmering, paradisaical cities in the clouds and savage, unforgiving toils on the earth.