he most significant event in the Latin American folk art program occurred when approximately 2500 pieces from the collection of the late Nelson A. Rockefeller were given to the museum by his daughter, Ann Rockefeller Roberts, in 1985. This extraordinary collection spans almost 50 years of devotion by Nelson A. Rockefeller and is one of the most significant of its kind in the world. After her father's death, Ann R. Roberts carried out his vision by finding permanent homes for the works in his folk art collection. She selected two institutions: The San Antonio Museum of Art and The Mexican Museum, San Francisco.

Nelson Rockefeller first went to Mexico in 1933. He became totally captivated by Mexican markets and local popular arts. With characteristic zeal and energy, he embarked on excursions into the hinterlands with others who shared his enthusiasm for folk art and his respect for artists. He also toured Mayan ruins and spent many hours studying pre-Columbian art. Influential figures including William Spratling, who was largely responsible for rejuvenating silver arts in Taxco, painter Roberto Montenegro, and writer/caricaturist Miguel Covarrubias served as Rockefeller's mentors during those early years. Nelson Rockefeller continued to travel to Mexico off and on for the next 40 years, establishing and maintaining personal friendships with local folk artists. His last collecting trip to Mexico took place in 1978, several months before his death.

In 1937 Rockefeller made a three month-long tour of Latin America. He was fascinated by the people he met, by their culture, and their art. At the same time he was distressed by the poor economic conditions he saw. He developed a philosophy that long term global peace, security and prosperity could be achieved through improved understanding between peoples, rather than just between governments, and through the elimination of economic misery in underdeveloped countries. During the next fifteen years Rockefeller devoted nearly all of his time to improving relations among the people of the Western Hemisphere and to improving economic standards in Latin America. As president of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Rockefeller had the museum exhibit 5,000 works of art borrowed from Mexican institutions to create a better understanding of the people and culture of Mexico. He established MoMA's Inter-American Fund to purchase Latin American art for the museum's permanent collection.

In 1940 Rockefeller suggested to President Franklin D. Roosevelt a program of US cooperation and assistance to improve inter-American relations and to raise living standards in Latin America in order to counteract growing Nazi influence in the region. President Roosevelt responded by appointing Rockefeller to head the newly formed Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs. The agency coordinated the strategic defense of the region in the information, economic, health, agricultural, transportation and cultural fields. During World War II Rockefeller also served as Co-Chairman of the Mexican-American Development Commission which helped Mexico emerge as an industrial nation in the transition from war to peace.

In 1944 Rockefeller was promoted to Assistant Secretary of State for American Republic Affairs. In that post, he served as a member of the US delegation to the United Nations Conference in International Organization at San Francisco. He successfully argued the need for regional defense pacts within the framework of the UN. His success later permitted the formation of NATO, SEATO, and the Rio Pact without subverting the UN.

After the war, and out of government service, Rockefeller established two private international development agencies to continue the work he had begun. The American International Association for Economic and Social Development, a philanthropy, and the International Basic Economy Association, a for-profit business, together helped the peoples of Latin America combat poverty, disease and illiteracy, and stimulated economic development with technical expertise and capital. He established model farms in Venezuela, Ecuador and Brazil to introduce new agricultural methods. He maintained a home at Monte Sacro, his farm in Venezuela.

In 1950 President Harry S. Truman appointed Rockefeller as Chairman of the International Development Advisory Board, charged with developing a plan for implementing the president's Point IV initiative of foreign economic assistance. The board's recommendations, and later programs of US foreign aid, drew heavily on Rockefeller's experiences in Latin America.

Upon his election in 1952, Dwight D. Eisenhower asked Rockefeller to head a committee to reorganize the executive branch of the federal government. Rockefeller later served as Under Secretary of the newly formed Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and served for a year as Special Assistant to President Eisenhower for foreign affairs. Beginning in 1958 Rockefeller was elected to four, four-year terms as governor of New York, the first governor of any state to achieve such a record. Among his many accomplishments as governor was the establishment of the New York State Council on the Arts, the first agency on the state level for the support of the arts. It served as a model for similar agencies in other states and for the National Endowment for the Arts. Rockefeller concluded his public service career as Vice President of the United States under President Gerald R. Ford.

The rarity of many of the Rockefeller pieces distinguishes his collection from others of its type. Because it covers almost fifty years, it offers an extraordinary opportunity to observe continuity and change in Mexican folk art. The collection is broad and contains excellent examples from all over the Republic. It has a distinct personality, is intensely human, and speaks of the culture that produced it. For Rockefeller, a focus for collecting included aesthetic appreciation and the opportunity to understand the nature of the people who made, used and sold folk art.