Born Paul Higgins in Salt Lake City in 1904, O’Higgins is believed to have had some painting instruction in high school from LeConte Stewart. At age 20, he traveled to Mexico and became an assistant to Diego Rivera. The transformation of Paul Higgins to Pablo O’Higgins began under Rivera’s political tutelage. He joined the Communist Party, distanced himself from his upbringing, suggested native Irish heritage, and kept secret his father’s role as a state attorney in the execution of miner and labor martyr Joe Hill. He co-founded the world-famous graphic art workshop, the Taller de Gráfica Popular. During his active and turbulent life in Mexico, the blonde, blue-eyed O’Higgins produced more than a dozen murals there, and two in the U.S. (Seattle and Hawaii). When he died, the Mexican government gave him a state funeral.

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