Dolores del Río was born into one of the wealthiest families in Mexico, yet rather than remain in her home country, she chose to move to the U.S. and become an actress. She was featured in a number of successful movies in the late 1920s, including “Resurrection,” “Ramona,” and “Evangeline.” She became a queen of the silent film era and the first major female Latin American movie star. Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw once said, “The two most beautiful things in the world are the Taj Mahal and Dolores del Río.” Her Hollywood career began to fade by the early 1940s and she returned to Mexico, where she continued her influence as a leading star of the golden age of Mexican cinema. 

Ai Weiwei is an artist of undoubted renown, but he’s arguably just as well known as a cultural and social activist — someone who takes action through art. His work, which is often provocative and subversive, reflects his staunch political views — something that hasn’t exactly endeared him to the authorities of his homeland, China. But Ai is nothing if not a person of principle. As he told “The Guardian” in 2020, “An artist must also be an activist — aesthetically, morally, or philosophically … Without that kind of consciousness — to be blind to human struggle — one cannot even be called an artist.”