The images in this section include a number of prints depicting issues related to the political and social life of the Spanish Second Republic and Civil War. Most of the images included here were printed in Mexico City. The government of Mexican President Lázaro Cardenas supported the Republicans throughout the war. Though Mexico was unable to provide the Republicans with men and matriel, sponsorship of the wartime printing needs of propagandists fulfilled a critical need of the Republicans.

Several themes make recurrent appearances in the images of this section. Having retained neutrality throughout the First World War, the Civil War marked Spain’s as the first full-scale confrontation with mechanized warfare. The images below feature cannons, machinery, and even a prosthetic arm, which are suggestive of the modern aspect of the war, telling portrayals of the Spanish people’s sudden confrontation with total war.

A sharp division between the constituent social strata of Spain pervades the focus and message of several pieces. In one image, a physical boundary of both stone and men separate the wealthy from the poor. In another, the implicit ills of wealth tie exploitative foreign capitalists and the Spanish financial elite together in a feast on the bodies of workers.

Associated to a certain degree with the class divide noted above, a negative view of the military and Church on the part of the Republicans finds potent expression here. These two groups, often associated with the ruling aristocracy, were blamed for the origins of the armed insurrection. Their presence below serves to characterize the nature of the Nationalist's cause as the provenance of a select few, and not that of the masses exemplified by the Republicans.