COMING to the second part of his project, the post-Columbian period, during which a new momentum in cultural changes introduced a new diversity and complexity in the civilization on this continent, Orozco stepped up his color key and quickened his tempo. As he approached the conclusion and brought his epic up to modern times, with their searing wars and ominous nationalistic conflicts, his closing panels reach a climax of negation which produces an effect of great positiveness. These panels suggest that Quetzalcoatl, the white messiah of peace and understanding, has not yet returned, as the natives believed he was returning with the arrival of the conquering Europeans. "The Return of Quetzalcoatl" is still a prophecy.

By one of those occasional coincidences of great historical moment, Cortez and his small band of adventurers arrived on the American continent at a time set by legendary prophecy for the return of the god Quetzalcoatl. The coincidence provides, in large degree, explanation of the historical marvel of the conquest of the native thousands by Cortez and his few hundred Spanish followers. In this panel the conquering figure of Cortez appears against the background of his burning ships, destroyed by himself, and of a stern cross both supporting and supported by an ascetic priest. Underfoot are ghastly heaps of slain and subjugated natives and the wreckage of a despoiled civilization. In the figures of both Cortez and the priest are represented the mixture of positive and negative values inherent in the conquering European culture. This theme of the coexistence of good and evil elements is apparent with particular force through the concluding portions of the work. This panel has also a minor thematic relationship to the conquering Aztec warrior panel in the corresponding position on the West wing wall.

This panel, symbolizing the white man's development of the resources of the continent, is an expressionistic interpretation of machinery. It depicts both constructive and destructive aspects of industrial development. The latter aspect provides a transition from the preceding panel, the bodies of the natives conquered by Cortez apparently being fed into the machines, giving perhaps a double meaning to this feature of the Cortez panel.

This panel was conceived by Orozco in close relationship to the next one, "Hispano-America". In these two panels, Orozco attempted to focus upon the distinct but complementary contributions to an as yet unrealized synthetic new world culture, of the English who settled in the north and the Latins who established themselves in the south. He selected and interpreted in his own way the town meeting and school teacher to represent Anglo-American attributes of cooperation, deliberation, reasonableness, discipline. He introduces as parts of the Anglo-American scene the red barn, the combination meeting-house and school-house, school children, a wheat-field.

Orozco represents in this panel the Latin-American peasant, self-sufficient and rebellious against imperialist oppression, as possessing attributes desirable in themselves and complementary to the attributes represented in the Anglo-American panel. He suggests here the "right to protest" as something close to the heart of a free people. There is a close color kinship with the preceding panel, most obviously apparent in the heap of coin which reflects the gold of the wheat-field.

Following through on the theme of the long-awaited return of the god Quetzalcoatl, who brought to the ancient Americans a new way of life and freedom from their superstitious bondage to the old idols, Orozco protests in this panel against the fetish worship of dead knowledge for its own sake. The panel is analogous to the fourth panel, depicting the gods of the ancient world who were displaced by Quetzalcoatl. Stillborn knowledge is shown being delivered from a skeleton parent, couched on ponderous tomes, by the pedantically solicitous hands of a skeletal obstetrician in academic gown. The "gods of the modern world" are pictured in the academic costume of various universities, European and American. A lurid background suggests a world aflame, whose salvation lies not in the exegeses of old thought. In the powerful negation of this mural, Orozco calls for a new positiveness in the creative use of knowledge. He conjures away the sterile ritual of dead things giving birth to dead things. Here he protests against intellectual bondage, as in the next two panels he protests against the political and spiritual bondage of our time. While thematically this panel is related to the fourth panel, with its pictures of the gods of the ancient world, it is tied up closely in color with the Cortez panel at the opposite end of this wall, the reiteration of the flame motif being especially striking.

Working towards dramatic climaxes in these concluding panels, and tying together the several themes of his symphonic composition, Orozco refers in this panel on the east end wall to the west end panel, "Ancient Human Sacrifice". Here an orator, under the auspices of blaring trumpets and a composite nationalistic flag, pontificates at the solemn ritual glorifying the human sacrifice to the modern god of war. Again in powerful negation, Orozco raises a positive cry for release from political and nationalistic bondage. The artist is protesting here against the hypocrisy of using the reverence accorded to the Unknown Soldier for nationalistic ends, leading to perpetuation of war and repetition of such sacrifices.

This panel is complementary to the first panel, which shows the physical migration of the tribes in quest of the "Promised Land". Here a militant Christ-figure is shown, axe in hand and his cross at his feet, symbolic of an aroused and aggressive spirituality. He stands against a great junk heap in which appear the destroyed symbols of antiquated creeds and of the confining forms of all religions. The release from spiritual bondage here symbolized becomes even larger in meaning in view of the destroyed war materials in the junk heap, representing the violence and hatred among men which is too often involed in the name of religion.