Charlot and O'Higgins had a long-lasting friendship, sharing their interest on each other's work even after Charlot went with his mother to live in New York in 1928. When in Mexico City, Charlot would stay in a humble room Pablo rented in downtown Mexico City on the roof of a dilapidated building on the street of Belisario Dominguez. In December 1930, to prepare for his solo exhibit in early 1931 at the John Levy Gallery in New York, O'Higgins lived with Charlot for six months in his small unheated apartment on Union Square and 14th Street, near the Art Students League, where Charlot was teaching. At the same time, mid-January 1931, a few blocks away, José Clemente Orozco was painting murals for The New School at 66 West 12th Street. Charlot and Orozco had maintained frequent correspondence in previous years.