The Taller de Gráfica Popular (Popular Graphic Workshop) was founded in 1937 by Leopoldo Méndez, Luis Arenal, and Pablo O'Higgins. The workshop was created because of a growing common interest in building a Mexican national identity, and its artists employed images from Mexican history including the Mexican Revolution of 1911. The workshop remained committed to the struggle of the Mexican people for "Land and Liberty." The artists completed many works at the request of trade unions, schools, and political parties, and encouraged individuals to use their facilities.

Beginning in 1967, Lorenzo Homar, an important figure in Puerto Rican art, led the Graphic Arts Workshop. Homar was responsible for fostering the talents of artists who would come to define the print movement in Puerto Rico, many of whom are represented in this exhibition. These artists include Antonio Martorell, José Alicea, and Myrna Báez. Homar is especially noted for skillfully balancing powerful social messages with striking aesthetics.

El Taller Alma Boricua (The Puerto Rican Workshop), now known as Taller Boricua, was founded in 1969 at a time when Latinos demanded involvement in decisions affecting social conditions and cultural identity in New York's Puerto Rican community. The founding artists were concerned with addressing problems related to housing, health, education and employment. The workshop became, according to Marcos Dimas, a founding artist and current co-director, "a forum on culture and the arts, where artists could share ideas, workspace and materials… We adapted and personalized Taíno images, which became insignias that symbolically linked us with our ancestral root culture." After 27 years, the Taller continues to be linked with the community of East Harlem, el Barrio, serving as a place for young artists to develop their talents. It is a center for community art education.