Race and Mexican Art of the Late Colonial and Early National Periods

01:04:48
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcHc8rRtZWs

Summary

TLDRThe presentation highlights the role and visibility of Afro-Mexicans in both official Mexican history and popular culture. Dr. Ray explores the representation of racialized subjects, specifically focusing on Afro-Mexicans, and discusses how they have been historically marginalized in official national narratives but persist in popular cultural forms. Art institutionally produced by the Academy of San Carlos primarily reflected European ideals, sidelining local racial narratives. The talk also delves into Mexican art's engagement with race, the existing historical erasure, and emerging scholarly interest in acknowledging African influences and Afro-Mexican contributions. Through historical figures like Juan Garrido and Gaspar Yanga, the complex racial dynamics and evolving recognition of these communities are considered.

Takeaways

  • 🎨 The Academy of San Carlos aimed to Europeanize Mexican art.
  • 📚 Racial representations were absent from academic art in Mexico.
  • 👥 Afro-Mexicans have been underrepresented in official narratives.
  • 🇲🇽 Afro-Mexican history is being increasingly recognized today.
  • 🖼️ Pinturas de casta depicted racial mixtures in colonial Mexico.
  • 🎭 Popular culture preserved Afro-Mexican presence historically.
  • 🏛️ Art institutions historically avoided racial topics.
  • 🗺️ Mexico's diverse demographic included varied racial groups.
  • 🤝 LAII promotes studies in Latin America and Iberia.
  • 📉 Art focusing on local subjects wasn't part of the academy's focus.

Timeline

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    The introduction highlights the LAII's role in advancing interdisciplinary research and engagement concerning Latin America and Iberia, focusing on the university's role and acknowledgment of indigenous peoples whose homelands the university sits on.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    The speaker introduces Dr. Ray, a professor with a focus on Spanish colonial art, discussing his extensive background in the art of Mexico, Spain, and U.S. Latinx communities.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:15:00

    Dr. Ray's reflections on race in Mexican art reveal the marginalization of the Afro-Mexican subjects and the erasure of their representation in national contexts, contrasting with his primary research interests in 18th and 19th-century art.

  • 00:15:00 - 00:20:00

    As Dr. Ray traces the depiction of racialized subjects in Mexican art, he discusses how imagery of Afro-Mexicans is obscured or underrepresented while indigenous figures are more prevalent in scholarship and art.

  • 00:20:00 - 00:25:00

    The speaker highlights significant Afro-Mexican and African figures in Mexican history, such as Juan Garrido and Gaspar Yanga, emphasizing their roles and adaptation in colonial Mexican contexts.

  • 00:25:00 - 00:30:00

    Dr. Ray addresses the increasing academic interest in Afro-Mexican communities, illustrating initiatives that highlight their cultural and historical presence, emphasizing the need for continued scholarly attention to these communities.

  • 00:30:00 - 00:35:00

    Afro-Mexican cultural impact is noted across music, food, and visual culture, with a call for more research into the art made by black Mexicans. The speaker identifies gaps in art historical research, especially regarding Afro-Mexican artists.

  • 00:35:00 - 00:40:00

    Artists like Orozco capture ethnic types and folklore, reflecting localized Mexican scenes that mainstream academic art often overlooked, revealing cultural and racial dynamics through non-academic venues.

  • 00:40:00 - 00:45:00

    Through cinematic and popular cultural lenses, racial stereotypes and influential black Mexican figures showcase both cultural integration and challenges in representation, demonstrating broader societal views.

  • 00:45:00 - 00:50:00

    The Academy of San Carlos emerges as a pivotal institution for artistic development in the Americas, possessing socio-political influence and shedding light on the colonial dynamics wherein racial hierarchies were institutionalized.

  • 00:50:00 - 00:55:00

    The Academy, through political and educational shifts, reflects the complex racial matrix of free and enslaved black individuals in Mexico, highlighting the need for scholarly attention to race in Mexican art history.

  • 00:55:00 - 01:04:48

    Dr. Ray concludes by illustrating the institutional neglect of Afro-Mexican representation, pointing towards how these gaps echo historical and ongoing cultural narratives in Mexico's self-definition.

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Mind Map

Video Q&A

  • What is the focus of Dr. Ray's presentation?

    The focus is on racial representation in Mexican art, particularly the image of the Afro-Mexican in official and popular culture.

  • Who is Dr. Ray?

    Dr. Ray is a professor of Spanish Colonial Art History at UNM, specializing in art from New Spain, Mexico, and the U.S. Southwest.

  • What does LAII support?

    LAII promotes interdisciplinary teaching, research, and public engagement related to Latin America and Iberia.

  • Who are some historical Afro-Mexican figures mentioned?

    Juan Garrido and Gaspar Yanga were notable historical Afro-Mexican figures.

  • What is the purpose of the Academy of San Carlos?

    The academy aimed to modernize and Europeanize art in Mexico by introducing neoclassical styles.

  • How are Afro-Mexicans represented in Mexican visual culture?

    Afro-Mexicans have been underrepresented in official depictions but appear more in popular culture.

  • Who is Juan Correa?

    Juan Correa was a prominent black painter in late 17th century Mexico City.

  • What are "pinturas de casta"?

    They are 18th-century paintings depicting racial mixtures in New Spain, often misunderstood as demographic records.

  • What role did Afro-Mexicans play in Mexican history?

    Afro-Mexicans contributed to Mexico's independence and cultural history, with figures like Vicente Guerrero playing significant roles.

  • What was the outcome of the Mexican census of 2020?

    The census included Afro-Mexicans for the first time, recognizing their presence officially.

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  • 00:00:08
    the laii as we call it
  • 00:00:10
    promotes and supports interdisciplinary
  • 00:00:11
    teaching research and meaningful public
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    engagement
  • 00:00:14
    to advance the production and
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    dissemination of knowledge about latin
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    america and iberia
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    latin america is designated as one of
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    seven priority areas of research for unm
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    and we proudly contribute to both the
  • 00:00:25
    university's intellectual community
  • 00:00:27
    as well as global discourse through our
  • 00:00:28
    public programming
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    we'd like to take a moment to recognize
  • 00:00:32
    the traditional homelands of the pueblo
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    of sandia on which unm sits
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    the original peoples of new mexico
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    pueblo navajo and apache have deep
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    connections to the land
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    and have made significant contributions
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    to the broader community
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    statewide we honor the land itself and
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    those who remain stewards of this land
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    throughout the generations and also
  • 00:00:50
    acknowledge our committed relationship
  • 00:00:51
    to indigenous peoples and now i have the
  • 00:00:55
    honor of introducing our speaker today
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    dr ray is currently a professor of
  • 00:00:59
    spanish colonial art history in the
  • 00:01:01
    department of art at unm
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    outside of his colonial art classes he
  • 00:01:05
    teaches arts of 19th century in mexico
  • 00:01:07
    baroque art and architecture
  • 00:01:09
    arts of spain u.s latin x art african
  • 00:01:11
    art and museum studies
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    his research specializations are
  • 00:01:15
    grounded geographically in new mexico
  • 00:01:18
    i'm sorry new spain mexico and the u.s
  • 00:01:20
    southwest
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    and historically in the 18th and 19th
  • 00:01:23
    centuries his book the academy of san
  • 00:01:25
    carlos
  • 00:01:26
    and mexican art history politics history
  • 00:01:28
    and art in 19th century mexico
  • 00:01:30
    will be followed by two publications a
  • 00:01:32
    historiography of colonial art in mexico
  • 00:01:34
    circa 1855 through 1934
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    and a root ledge company into u.s latinx
  • 00:01:40
    art
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    for which he was invited to serve as
  • 00:01:42
    editor in addition to his book projects
  • 00:01:44
    he's currently co-curating an
  • 00:01:46
    exhibition of chicano and chicana
  • 00:01:47
    artists who were part of the early
  • 00:01:49
    modimiento in new mexico
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    from 1970 to 1980 and developing an
  • 00:01:53
    article on tejano artist vincent valdez
  • 00:01:55
    great vision of his great grandfather
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    excuse me who was a painter working in
  • 00:01:59
    san antonio texas
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    in the 1930s and 1940s uh please join me
  • 00:02:04
    in welcoming dr nem
  • 00:02:09
    um good afternoon um thank you
  • 00:02:12
    uh to the laii uh and especially to
  • 00:02:15
    krista savoka
  • 00:02:16
    who's not here with us today who first
  • 00:02:18
    extended the invitation
  • 00:02:20
    uh to me to uh present on any projects
  • 00:02:24
    or any aspect of the work that i
  • 00:02:25
    i'm working on right now uh so it's a
  • 00:02:28
    pleasure uh to be here with all of you
  • 00:02:30
    i'm glad to see
  • 00:02:31
    uh all of you join us this afternoon and
  • 00:02:33
    as i was mentioning a little while ago
  • 00:02:35
    um
  • 00:02:36
    the topic that i'm presenting on today
  • 00:02:38
    which looks at race
  • 00:02:40
    uh particularly uh in terms of how in
  • 00:02:43
    mexico
  • 00:02:44
    uh the image of the indian gets
  • 00:02:46
    transformed it gets changed
  • 00:02:48
    and the image or representation of the
  • 00:02:51
    afro-mexican the black subject
  • 00:02:53
    uh gets erased uh at least from uh
  • 00:02:55
    political and national representations
  • 00:02:58
    uh as i started looking at this and the
  • 00:03:01
    whole reason that i started looking off
  • 00:03:02
    this
  • 00:03:02
    is this is not my main area of research
  • 00:03:05
    uh
  • 00:03:06
    if you look at my publications uh they
  • 00:03:09
    break down
  • 00:03:09
    into either articles uh on publications
  • 00:03:12
    on 18th century painting
  • 00:03:14
    or 19th century museology
  • 00:03:17
    musiography and historiography but back
  • 00:03:20
    in 2018 i was invited
  • 00:03:22
    to participate in a symposium that was
  • 00:03:24
    going to be held at the courthold
  • 00:03:26
    art institute in london the symposium
  • 00:03:29
    was focused on race
  • 00:03:30
    and art institutions in the 18th and
  • 00:03:33
    19th centuries and they invited me
  • 00:03:35
    to come and present on the mexican art
  • 00:03:38
    academy
  • 00:03:39
    the academy of san carlos which is one
  • 00:03:40
    of my areas of specialization
  • 00:03:42
    and i was mentioning earlier how
  • 00:03:44
    although i've done a lot of work on the
  • 00:03:46
    academy
  • 00:03:46
    i've never really looked at it through
  • 00:03:48
    the lens of race and racial
  • 00:03:49
    representation so this was an exciting
  • 00:03:51
    new way
  • 00:03:52
    to kind of approach this material uh uh
  • 00:03:54
    in the late 18th and early 19th
  • 00:03:56
    centuries
  • 00:03:57
    so i gave my presentation in london
  • 00:03:59
    where it was well received
  • 00:04:01
    and then when i was contacted by the
  • 00:04:02
    liii uh
  • 00:04:04
    to give a presentation i thought i'd
  • 00:04:06
    revisit that research and i expanded it
  • 00:04:08
    i i'm adding some new introductory
  • 00:04:11
    material to kind of set up
  • 00:04:12
    or set the stage for the more formal
  • 00:04:15
    presentation so with that said
  • 00:04:17
    if i can i'm going to go ahead and share
  • 00:04:19
    screen and get the presentation started
  • 00:04:22
    so race and mexican art of the late
  • 00:04:24
    colonial and early national periods
  • 00:04:30
    so there we go so uh in
  • 00:04:33
    for today's presentation i've divided it
  • 00:04:35
    into two parts
  • 00:04:37
    uh the first part which is a newer
  • 00:04:39
    material
  • 00:04:40
    that i added to uh uh this earlier work
  • 00:04:44
    were are gonna be informal remarks or
  • 00:04:46
    observations about representations of
  • 00:04:48
    racialized subjects in mexico
  • 00:04:50
    uh and uh this is going to kind of set
  • 00:04:53
    the scene
  • 00:04:53
    uh provide the background for uh the
  • 00:04:56
    more formal research project
  • 00:04:58
    that i have been working on which
  • 00:05:00
    focuses on the academy of san carlos
  • 00:05:03
    from the late colonial
  • 00:05:04
    through the early national periods
  • 00:05:08
    um one of the things i'd like to say is
  • 00:05:11
    at this point is that when
  • 00:05:14
    we talk on this just general comments
  • 00:05:16
    about uh studies that focus on race
  • 00:05:19
    in contexts like new spain or colonial
  • 00:05:21
    mexico
  • 00:05:22
    is that um typically the focus is on
  • 00:05:26
    racialized subjects that are considered
  • 00:05:27
    non-white
  • 00:05:29
    or non-spanish so we talk about indians
  • 00:05:32
    our natives the indigenous population we
  • 00:05:34
    talk about the black subject we can talk
  • 00:05:36
    about asian
  • 00:05:37
    presence or gustas the mixtures of these
  • 00:05:40
    various groups etc
  • 00:05:42
    but it's equally important to keep in
  • 00:05:44
    mind
  • 00:05:45
    that white subjectivity which in the
  • 00:05:48
    colonial context is
  • 00:05:50
    associated with the terms creole or
  • 00:05:53
    peninsular peninsular
  • 00:05:54
    spanish is also a racial formation
  • 00:05:57
    and that it develops in concert with
  • 00:06:01
    these other racial formations you know
  • 00:06:03
    so uh
  • 00:06:04
    in terms of the larger conversation
  • 00:06:06
    around race
  • 00:06:07
    and racial representations uh in the
  • 00:06:10
    colonial context
  • 00:06:11
    you know it's just as important to keep
  • 00:06:13
    in mind that whiteness
  • 00:06:14
    is itself is a construct within the
  • 00:06:17
    colonial context
  • 00:06:18
    another thing that i try to keep in mind
  • 00:06:20
    too is that we need to be careful
  • 00:06:23
    not to inordinately or uncritically
  • 00:06:25
    impose
  • 00:06:26
    our contemporary ideas about race and
  • 00:06:29
    ethnicity
  • 00:06:30
    coming from the united states our
  • 00:06:33
    concepts of race and ethnicity are tied
  • 00:06:35
    to an anglophone
  • 00:06:36
    us experience and that is very different
  • 00:06:40
    than the way race is constructed and
  • 00:06:42
    represented in the spanish colonial
  • 00:06:45
    context
  • 00:06:46
    okay the uh uh approaches policies to
  • 00:06:49
    dealing with indigenous communities is
  • 00:06:51
    different
  • 00:06:52
    between the anglo-british u.s context
  • 00:06:54
    and the spanish
  • 00:06:55
    uh uh the the experience of blackness
  • 00:06:58
    in the spanish territories is different
  • 00:07:00
    than it is again
  • 00:07:02
    in the anglo-british context and it's
  • 00:07:03
    just important for us just to keep in
  • 00:07:05
    mind
  • 00:07:06
    if we're looking back at history to
  • 00:07:09
    not necessarily impose our understanding
  • 00:07:12
    of race
  • 00:07:13
    uh onto a context where these formations
  • 00:07:16
    develop
  • 00:07:17
    along slightly different lines
  • 00:07:20
    but in any case with that said you know
  • 00:07:22
    when we talk about racialized subjects
  • 00:07:24
    as i mentioned
  • 00:07:25
    uh the ubiquitous focus tends to be the
  • 00:07:27
    indigenous population
  • 00:07:29
    i mean we're dealing with the americas
  • 00:07:30
    and the colonial period
  • 00:07:32
    so indigenous communities the indigenous
  • 00:07:34
    subject is found
  • 00:07:35
    you know throughout the scholarship
  • 00:07:37
    across disciplines uh what i'd like to
  • 00:07:39
    focus on today for the most part
  • 00:07:41
    is on the afro-mexican or black subjects
  • 00:07:44
    and this is an area that really needs a
  • 00:07:46
    lot of work
  • 00:07:47
    uh and there's so many conversations
  • 00:07:49
    that have been developing
  • 00:07:50
    really uh recently just over the last
  • 00:07:52
    two decades
  • 00:07:53
    is when i first started hearing about
  • 00:07:55
    the black presence in mexico
  • 00:07:56
    at least from scholars uh and really in
  • 00:07:59
    recent years
  • 00:08:00
    uh kind of reflecting in part that the
  • 00:08:02
    changes and developments that we're
  • 00:08:04
    seeing here in the united states
  • 00:08:06
    so with that said i'm going to start
  • 00:08:09
    with this quote
  • 00:08:11
    we exist we're here we occupy this area
  • 00:08:15
    we have a culture and we proudly say
  • 00:08:17
    that we're mexicans
  • 00:08:19
    end quote this is a comment that was
  • 00:08:21
    made by a
  • 00:08:22
    gentleman bulmaro garcia who's an
  • 00:08:25
    afro-mexican man
  • 00:08:26
    from costa chica in the pacific state of
  • 00:08:28
    guerrero
  • 00:08:29
    in mexico and it's an excerpt taken from
  • 00:08:32
    an article that was published just last
  • 00:08:34
    spring
  • 00:08:34
    march 19 2020 in the guardian that was
  • 00:08:37
    an article by david agreen
  • 00:08:38
    titled we exist we're here afro-mexicans
  • 00:08:41
    make the census
  • 00:08:42
    after long struggle for recognition okay
  • 00:08:47
    now unlike brazil cuba panama or
  • 00:08:50
    colombia
  • 00:08:51
    mexico is not typically a latin american
  • 00:08:54
    country one associates with the black
  • 00:08:56
    presence
  • 00:08:57
    you know and that's kind of shocking
  • 00:09:00
    when you look at the reality but then as
  • 00:09:02
    i'm gonna present
  • 00:09:03
    today we begin to understand how and why
  • 00:09:05
    this happened
  • 00:09:06
    uh the when you look at hard data an
  • 00:09:09
    estimated 1.3 to 2 million mexicans who
  • 00:09:12
    identify as
  • 00:09:13
    negro or negra afromexicano mexicana and
  • 00:09:17
    or afro descendant live in mexico
  • 00:09:19
    the largest concentrations of black
  • 00:09:21
    mexicans they're afro-mexicans found
  • 00:09:23
    throughout the country
  • 00:09:24
    but the largest concentrations of
  • 00:09:26
    afro-mexicans or black mexicans are
  • 00:09:28
    found in guerrero
  • 00:09:30
    along the pacific coast oaxaca also on
  • 00:09:32
    the pacific coast in veracruz and the
  • 00:09:34
    gulf coast uh
  • 00:09:36
    shockingly the 2020 mexican census uh
  • 00:09:39
    will count afro-mexicans for the first
  • 00:09:41
    time in its modern history
  • 00:09:43
    uh when we look at the growing interest
  • 00:09:46
    in the black presence in mexico
  • 00:09:48
    uh this interest in the afro-mexican
  • 00:09:50
    experience so far seems to come
  • 00:09:51
    primarily from two sources
  • 00:09:54
    outside of mexico from the u.s and from
  • 00:09:57
    afro-mexican communities
  • 00:09:59
    themselves an example of this
  • 00:10:02
    is the work being done by a member of
  • 00:10:05
    the faculty in the department of spanish
  • 00:10:07
    at north carolina central university
  • 00:10:10
    associate professor marco polo hernandez
  • 00:10:12
    who's afro-mexican uh in 2005
  • 00:10:15
    he founded the mexican institute of
  • 00:10:17
    africana studies in veracruz mexico
  • 00:10:20
    and his research informed an exhibition
  • 00:10:22
    that was put together
  • 00:10:24
    in chicago at the national museum of
  • 00:10:26
    mexican arts
  • 00:10:28
    an exhibition titled the african
  • 00:10:30
    presence in mexico from yanga
  • 00:10:32
    to the present which was open to the
  • 00:10:35
    public in 2006.
  • 00:10:37
    so they consulted with marco polo when
  • 00:10:40
    they were working on this exhibition
  • 00:10:42
    and uh based on a recent interview that
  • 00:10:45
    he gave
  • 00:10:46
    he mentioned that he plans on founding
  • 00:10:48
    uh a center
  • 00:10:49
    for afro-hispanic studies at his home
  • 00:10:52
    institution
  • 00:10:53
    in north carolina so we're seeing this
  • 00:10:56
    kind of movement
  • 00:10:57
    in terms of questions about uh black
  • 00:10:59
    subjects in mexico afro-mexicans
  • 00:11:01
    uh it's very much welcome uh so there is
  • 00:11:04
    current and growing interest
  • 00:11:06
    uh in the afro-latin american
  • 00:11:08
    afro-mexican u.s afro-latinx experience
  • 00:11:11
    besides brazil cuba panama colombia now
  • 00:11:14
    we're seeing work done in mexico
  • 00:11:15
    chile and argentina uh and you know most
  • 00:11:18
    of us are
  • 00:11:19
    probably unfamiliar with the fact that
  • 00:11:20
    there are black communities in
  • 00:11:23
    these countries throughout south america
  • 00:11:25
    not just in the northern
  • 00:11:26
    or coastal regions uh last year
  • 00:11:30
    uh when i attended the college art
  • 00:11:32
    association conference
  • 00:11:33
    which was held in chicago in 2020 i was
  • 00:11:36
    invited to participate in the caa
  • 00:11:38
    getty international program where they
  • 00:11:41
    invite scholars
  • 00:11:42
    from uh typically marginal countries
  • 00:11:45
    that don't have representation at the
  • 00:11:47
    conference
  • 00:11:47
    and they appoint hosts and i was invited
  • 00:11:50
    to serve as a host
  • 00:11:52
    for a a scholar jean arsene
  • 00:11:55
    yao who's a a professor at a university
  • 00:11:59
    in
  • 00:11:59
    the cote d'ivoire in west africa and his
  • 00:12:02
    research is looking at the black
  • 00:12:04
    communities in
  • 00:12:05
    argentina we had some really rich
  • 00:12:07
    conversations and i learned a lot
  • 00:12:09
    about the black presence in argentina
  • 00:12:11
    again argentina another country
  • 00:12:13
    that normally is not associated with the
  • 00:12:15
    black presence
  • 00:12:17
    a lot of the work that i've come across
  • 00:12:19
    sadly is not coming out of my field
  • 00:12:21
    art history is kind of just starting to
  • 00:12:23
    enter into the conversation
  • 00:12:25
    uh most of the scholarship that i have
  • 00:12:28
    found
  • 00:12:28
    comes out of anthropology linguistics
  • 00:12:31
    and history
  • 00:12:32
    and in terms of cultural production what
  • 00:12:34
    i have found
  • 00:12:35
    is sort of scholarship looking and
  • 00:12:37
    african influences
  • 00:12:39
    uh or the african afro-mexican cultural
  • 00:12:41
    production in terms of music
  • 00:12:43
    uh dance textiles language
  • 00:12:46
    and culinary traditions i mean here at
  • 00:12:49
    unm
  • 00:12:50
    in the department of chicano and chicano
  • 00:12:51
    studies for instance my colleague
  • 00:12:53
    doris cariaga who is afro-mexican and
  • 00:12:56
    from veracruz
  • 00:12:57
    uh her work primarily focuses on
  • 00:12:59
    afro-mexican cooking traditions
  • 00:13:02
    uh and foods so these are the primary
  • 00:13:04
    areas where we see it so where is art
  • 00:13:06
    history what about art
  • 00:13:08
    you know we're starting to see work a
  • 00:13:10
    kind of focus on the subject and a
  • 00:13:12
    recent publication is by the art
  • 00:13:13
    historian elena fitzpatrick sifford
  • 00:13:16
    who published the article titled mexican
  • 00:13:18
    manuscripts
  • 00:13:19
    and the first images of africans in the
  • 00:13:21
    americas which was published in the duke
  • 00:13:23
    university journal ethno history
  • 00:13:26
    uh just two years ago
  • 00:13:29
    so we're starting to see developments
  • 00:13:31
    you know but like i said art history we
  • 00:13:33
    still have to catch
  • 00:13:34
    up you know this is something that's
  • 00:13:35
    brand new in terms
  • 00:13:37
    of uh scholarly attention uh from art
  • 00:13:40
    historians who look at visual
  • 00:13:42
    and material culture when we think about
  • 00:13:46
    this broader question of race and art in
  • 00:13:49
    mexico
  • 00:13:50
    and focusing as i'm doing right now on
  • 00:13:52
    the black presence and the visual
  • 00:13:53
    material record there are three ways to
  • 00:13:55
    approach this
  • 00:13:56
    one is african influences in mexican art
  • 00:13:59
    and culture production
  • 00:14:00
    which is reflected in the work i was
  • 00:14:02
    just talking about that we see coming
  • 00:14:03
    out of anthropology and linguistics
  • 00:14:05
    looking at dance and music and food
  • 00:14:08
    uh the other two uh perspectives mexican
  • 00:14:10
    art made by
  • 00:14:12
    black artists in mexico this is
  • 00:14:14
    something no one has really looked at
  • 00:14:16
    uh and for the colonial period uh there
  • 00:14:18
    have been
  • 00:14:19
    many debates and conversations about
  • 00:14:21
    artists who
  • 00:14:22
    according to comments and descriptions
  • 00:14:25
    made in the colonial
  • 00:14:26
    documents suggest that they're not white
  • 00:14:28
    or spanish
  • 00:14:30
    oftentimes they might be mestizo or
  • 00:14:32
    endicona a couple of artists have been
  • 00:14:34
    identified as possibly black
  • 00:14:36
    you know so just the whole project of
  • 00:14:38
    identifying where are the black artists
  • 00:14:40
    in mexican art is something that needs
  • 00:14:42
    to happen it hasn't happened yet
  • 00:14:44
    with very few exceptions and then the
  • 00:14:46
    third perspective would be the black
  • 00:14:48
    subject
  • 00:14:48
    in mexican art that is the
  • 00:14:50
    representation of these
  • 00:14:52
    racialized subjects and in today's talk
  • 00:14:55
    i'm going to be primarily talking about
  • 00:14:56
    that third
  • 00:14:58
    approach
  • 00:15:01
    when we talk about the black presence
  • 00:15:03
    the afromexican presence or the black
  • 00:15:05
    presence is evident it's there it's in
  • 00:15:07
    the historical record
  • 00:15:08
    so i'm going to just briefly show you a
  • 00:15:10
    few documents
  • 00:15:12
    that uh represent or talk about the
  • 00:15:15
    black presence
  • 00:15:16
    uh what i'm showing you here is a folio
  • 00:15:19
    it's actually
  • 00:15:19
    a folio 23 from the codex ascatidlan
  • 00:15:24
    unidentified artist unattributed uh it's
  • 00:15:26
    been given the title the march of the
  • 00:15:28
    spaniards
  • 00:15:29
    into tenochtitlan it's dated around 1530
  • 00:15:33
    pigment on paper uh uh it's very typical
  • 00:15:36
    of early colonial mexican manuscript
  • 00:15:38
    production uh
  • 00:15:40
    some of these manuscripts document the
  • 00:15:42
    conquest events
  • 00:15:43
    that's part of the history uh and what's
  • 00:15:46
    of interest here if you look at
  • 00:15:48
    the image we see the spaniards of course
  • 00:15:50
    they're unmistakable dressed in their
  • 00:15:52
    armor
  • 00:15:53
    we have indigenous laborers who are
  • 00:15:55
    carrying supplies
  • 00:15:56
    uh the tamemes and here is cortes
  • 00:15:59
    clearly identified he's with a beard and
  • 00:16:01
    a mustache and next to him is dona
  • 00:16:03
    marina
  • 00:16:04
    also known as la malinche who's his
  • 00:16:06
    primary interpreter although there were
  • 00:16:08
    other interpreters she's usually
  • 00:16:09
    represented as the
  • 00:16:10
    main interpreter but right to
  • 00:16:13
    cortez's right is a man identified as
  • 00:16:16
    black
  • 00:16:17
    by his skin color and his hair and this
  • 00:16:20
    individual has been identified as juan
  • 00:16:21
    garrido
  • 00:16:22
    and juan garrido was actually born in
  • 00:16:25
    central africa
  • 00:16:27
    in a region where the portuguese had
  • 00:16:30
    established
  • 00:16:32
    trading relations with african african
  • 00:16:35
    communities in this area
  • 00:16:36
    and i believe it's through that
  • 00:16:38
    connection he wound up in portugal
  • 00:16:40
    and then he went to seville and while he
  • 00:16:42
    was in seville he converted to
  • 00:16:44
    catholicism
  • 00:16:45
    and he joined he was a free black man
  • 00:16:47
    you know he joined
  • 00:16:49
    the expeditions to the americas and uh
  • 00:16:52
    based on uh records documents it looks
  • 00:16:54
    like he arrived
  • 00:16:56
    in the city of santo domingo what today
  • 00:16:58
    is the capital of the dominican republic
  • 00:17:00
    uh during this period the island was
  • 00:17:02
    under spanish control and known as
  • 00:17:04
    espanola
  • 00:17:05
    records show that he arrived sometime
  • 00:17:07
    around 1502-1503
  • 00:17:10
    and he was one of the conquistadors he
  • 00:17:12
    joined the expeditions that
  • 00:17:14
    uh took over puerto rico cuba and then
  • 00:17:17
    he was part of
  • 00:17:18
    uh the contingent that cortes hernan
  • 00:17:20
    cortes had put together
  • 00:17:21
    so he was one of the members of cortes
  • 00:17:24
    contingent that marched into
  • 00:17:25
    tenochtitlan
  • 00:17:26
    and conquered uh tenochtitlan for the
  • 00:17:29
    spanish crown
  • 00:17:30
    he wound up settling in mexico city he
  • 00:17:33
    married he had children
  • 00:17:34
    and the historian matthew ristol if
  • 00:17:37
    you're interested in reading more about
  • 00:17:39
    juan garrido
  • 00:17:40
    look at the work of matthew rostall
  • 00:17:42
    matthew rustal
  • 00:17:43
    notes or credits juan garrido with being
  • 00:17:46
    the first person to introduce
  • 00:17:48
    wheat farming to the americas he worked
  • 00:17:50
    as a farmer
  • 00:17:51
    and apparently uh uh uh grew wheat so
  • 00:17:54
    he's credited as being the first
  • 00:17:56
    individual to introduce wheat farming
  • 00:17:58
    uh the americas living
  • 00:18:01
    in central new spain in the 16th century
  • 00:18:05
    we also have gasparian there's been a
  • 00:18:07
    lot of attention on this particular
  • 00:18:09
    figure
  • 00:18:09
    uh this is uh an unattributed i couldn't
  • 00:18:12
    find the name of the artist who
  • 00:18:13
    constructed this sculpture it's a public
  • 00:18:15
    monument
  • 00:18:16
    to yanga that was put up around 2010
  • 00:18:20
    in a town called yanga after him in the
  • 00:18:22
    state of veracruz
  • 00:18:24
    in guerrero on the west coast where we
  • 00:18:26
    see concentration
  • 00:18:27
    of afro-mexicans and after mexican
  • 00:18:30
    communities
  • 00:18:31
    gasparinda was also born in central
  • 00:18:33
    africa but unlike garrido
  • 00:18:36
    he was enslaved and was brought to new
  • 00:18:39
    spain
  • 00:18:39
    as a slave along the coast where like
  • 00:18:42
    the plantations were located
  • 00:18:44
    and uh he led a revolt
  • 00:18:47
    of slaves and he formed a settlement
  • 00:18:50
    of free or escaped slaves what that was
  • 00:18:53
    known as san lorenzo de los negros
  • 00:18:56
    this is in the 16th century and after
  • 00:18:59
    years of conflicts between
  • 00:19:01
    san lorenzo the town of escaped
  • 00:19:04
    slaves after years of conflict between
  • 00:19:08
    this community and the colonial
  • 00:19:09
    government the colonial government
  • 00:19:11
    signs a treaty they develop a treaty
  • 00:19:14
    with the community recognizing it as a
  • 00:19:16
    free town
  • 00:19:17
    of free blacks which is really stunning
  • 00:19:20
    you know that this is a town of free
  • 00:19:22
    blacks in the 16th century
  • 00:19:24
    on the gulf coast of new spain today
  • 00:19:27
    mexico
  • 00:19:27
    and that town that he founded is the
  • 00:19:29
    town of yanga
  • 00:19:30
    where this monument is located
  • 00:19:33
    interestingly
  • 00:19:34
    in 1871 thanks to the work of mexican
  • 00:19:37
    historian
  • 00:19:38
    uh palacio riva uh he was declared
  • 00:19:42
    uh a hero of mexico and the first
  • 00:19:45
    liberator of the americas
  • 00:19:47
    you know this is really interesting i
  • 00:19:49
    want kind of remember what i'm talking
  • 00:19:51
    about here this very important
  • 00:19:52
    historical figure
  • 00:19:55
    this is a a very famous painting from
  • 00:19:58
    the 19th century by an atleto
  • 00:20:00
    it's a posthumous portrait of vicente
  • 00:20:02
    ramon guerrero saldana
  • 00:20:05
    most commonly known as vicente guerrero
  • 00:20:07
    uh he lived from 1782-1831
  • 00:20:10
    uh he was one of the heroes of mexican
  • 00:20:13
    independence
  • 00:20:14
    uh this is a posthumous painting so it
  • 00:20:16
    was produced sometime around 1850 the
  • 00:20:18
    date's a little hazy oil on canvas
  • 00:20:21
    and although there are although his uh
  • 00:20:24
    racial identity hasn't been entirely
  • 00:20:25
    confirmed
  • 00:20:26
    uh descriptions by his contemporaries
  • 00:20:29
    described his darker skin and his hair
  • 00:20:31
    and then you look at this painting and
  • 00:20:33
    uh it's generally accepted
  • 00:20:36
    that he was mixed with some black
  • 00:20:39
    uh derivation or black background uh and
  • 00:20:42
    he
  • 00:20:42
    uh was one of the the leaders of the
  • 00:20:44
    mexican independence movement
  • 00:20:46
    he joins the army uh jose maria
  • 00:20:49
    morelos uh he becomes a
  • 00:20:51
    commander-in-chief
  • 00:20:53
    of uh the rebel troops and it's believed
  • 00:20:56
    that he
  • 00:20:56
    convinces agustin agustin
  • 00:21:00
    there was an upper-class creole who was
  • 00:21:02
    on the spanish side
  • 00:21:03
    of the battle he was a royalist and it's
  • 00:21:06
    believed that it was vicente guerrero
  • 00:21:08
    that convinced
  • 00:21:09
    i would seem they would either to leave
  • 00:21:11
    his royalist tendencies and join
  • 00:21:13
    the insurgents which agustin
  • 00:21:16
    you know uh so together they allied uh
  • 00:21:19
    and
  • 00:21:20
    formed the army of the three guarantees
  • 00:21:22
    under the guidance of the plan the
  • 00:21:24
    iguala
  • 00:21:25
    this was a plan that they had set up for
  • 00:21:27
    the new independent nation
  • 00:21:28
    and one of the principles of the plan
  • 00:21:30
    the iwalla
  • 00:21:31
    was to abolish the racialized system of
  • 00:21:35
    estas that had dominated during the
  • 00:21:37
    colonial period
  • 00:21:38
    of course agustin de turbide shortly
  • 00:21:40
    after mexico declares its independence
  • 00:21:42
    is appointed the first leader of
  • 00:21:44
    independent mexico he's the emperor
  • 00:21:46
    of an independent mexico he eventually
  • 00:21:48
    is deposed and executed
  • 00:21:50
    uh guerrero is one of the people that
  • 00:21:52
    stands up against it
  • 00:21:54
    it's a very chaotic period in terms of
  • 00:21:57
    the history of mexican leadership
  • 00:21:59
    guerrero is elected president in 1828
  • 00:22:03
    but then he only lasts a year before
  • 00:22:06
    he's deposed and then executed
  • 00:22:07
    but while he's president one of the
  • 00:22:09
    things that the mexican government does
  • 00:22:11
    in 1829 is they abolished slavery
  • 00:22:13
    in mexico very interesting conversation
  • 00:22:16
    there
  • 00:22:17
    about the abolishing of slavery and then
  • 00:22:19
    what happens just a few years later in
  • 00:22:20
    texas
  • 00:22:21
    um something that sets up the civil war
  • 00:22:24
    in the u.s actually
  • 00:22:26
    now if we talk about the black subject
  • 00:22:28
    in the visual culture so we just looked
  • 00:22:30
    at a few
  • 00:22:31
    uh black or afro-mexican historical
  • 00:22:33
    figures if we talk about the black
  • 00:22:35
    subject
  • 00:22:35
    in visual culture there are a couple of
  • 00:22:37
    examples that i pulled up
  • 00:22:38
    of course when we talk about the
  • 00:22:39
    colonial period the go-to's are pinturas
  • 00:22:42
    de questa
  • 00:22:43
    and i feel that a lot of people
  • 00:22:44
    misunderstand or misrepresent pinturas
  • 00:22:47
    de gusta
  • 00:22:48
    you know you can't use these paintings
  • 00:22:50
    as documents to illustrate racing
  • 00:22:52
    that's not what they are okay they are
  • 00:22:54
    highly mediated
  • 00:22:56
    and don't talk about demographics as
  • 00:22:59
    much
  • 00:22:59
    as the dilution of spanish blood and all
  • 00:23:02
    of the assumptions related to character
  • 00:23:05
    entailed by that dilution of spanish
  • 00:23:07
    blood
  • 00:23:08
    okay uh i could go and give a whole
  • 00:23:10
    lecture
  • 00:23:11
    caster is one of my areas of expertise
  • 00:23:14
    but i need to get the show on the road
  • 00:23:15
    so
  • 00:23:16
    i just wanted to show you that in terms
  • 00:23:18
    of the colonial period
  • 00:23:19
    this is one of the areas in terms of
  • 00:23:21
    visual culture are
  • 00:23:22
    but we see black subjects uh and
  • 00:23:24
    pinturas de gusta i'm assuming most if
  • 00:23:26
    not all people have some familiarity
  • 00:23:28
    with this
  • 00:23:28
    but typically they represent the racial
  • 00:23:30
    mixtures between what are considered to
  • 00:23:32
    be the
  • 00:23:33
    three parent groups of new spain
  • 00:23:36
    that is the white spaniard the
  • 00:23:38
    indigenous and the african
  • 00:23:41
    that already is sort of clueing us in
  • 00:23:44
    that the black
  • 00:23:45
    presence is recognized okay in the
  • 00:23:47
    colonial period
  • 00:23:48
    and i'm showing you on the left uh costa
  • 00:23:51
    paintings take one of two forms
  • 00:23:53
    they're usually six stan they show 16
  • 00:23:56
    racial mixtures
  • 00:23:57
    and one format is all 16
  • 00:24:00
    mixtures on one canvas like a taxonomy
  • 00:24:02
    like a chart
  • 00:24:03
    which is what we're seeing on the left
  • 00:24:05
    if you have the money
  • 00:24:06
    and the space you commission an artist
  • 00:24:08
    to paint separate portraits
  • 00:24:10
    for each of these mixtures so the image
  • 00:24:13
    on the left is unidentified
  • 00:24:14
    it's anonymous 18th century but the one
  • 00:24:16
    on the right by the famous
  • 00:24:18
    18th century painter miguel cabrera and
  • 00:24:20
    you know
  • 00:24:21
    writing colo there's writing all over
  • 00:24:23
    everything in the colonial period
  • 00:24:24
    text is just as important as images and
  • 00:24:27
    the gusta paintings have text to
  • 00:24:29
    identify what it is you're looking at
  • 00:24:31
    it says the espanol
  • 00:24:34
    from a spaniard and a black woman a
  • 00:24:36
    mulatta child
  • 00:24:38
    and it's numbered number four so this
  • 00:24:40
    tells us that this is the fourth
  • 00:24:42
    panel in a series probably of 16. we
  • 00:24:44
    only have a few that survive
  • 00:24:46
    not all of them are intact and these are
  • 00:24:47
    primarily found in spain
  • 00:24:49
    so pinturas de gusta when we look at the
  • 00:24:52
    19th century
  • 00:24:54
    i'm going to talk about these in my
  • 00:24:55
    presentation shortly
  • 00:24:57
    we have the influence of costumbrismo
  • 00:25:00
    this is like genre painting the
  • 00:25:02
    depiction of ethnic types
  • 00:25:04
    or or you know racial types this is
  • 00:25:07
    something that's
  • 00:25:08
    been happening in europe for the last
  • 00:25:10
    two centuries and it's introduced by
  • 00:25:12
    european artists
  • 00:25:13
    to mexico after independence
  • 00:25:16
    after mexico declares its independence
  • 00:25:18
    and the borders open up
  • 00:25:20
    there's a lot of curiosity about the
  • 00:25:22
    americas you have
  • 00:25:24
    tourists visitors flooding in from
  • 00:25:26
    europe britain
  • 00:25:28
    france germany from the us wanting to
  • 00:25:32
    explore
  • 00:25:33
    and see what mexico is all about and
  • 00:25:35
    some of these visitors are artists
  • 00:25:37
    as well as natural scientists and
  • 00:25:39
    illustrators and these european
  • 00:25:41
    artists uh uh document they're very
  • 00:25:44
    interested in the local landscape the
  • 00:25:45
    local flora and fauna
  • 00:25:47
    on the archaeological remains of ancient
  • 00:25:49
    civilizations and they're interested in
  • 00:25:51
    local ethnic mexican types
  • 00:25:53
    so mexican artists who really weren't
  • 00:25:56
    representing
  • 00:25:57
    the world around them quite yet see what
  • 00:25:59
    these european artists are doing and
  • 00:26:00
    then they get inspired
  • 00:26:02
    uh to paint the people in the world
  • 00:26:04
    around them
  • 00:26:05
    which leads us to the development of
  • 00:26:06
    pintura costumbrista
  • 00:26:08
    and one of the leading artists is jose
  • 00:26:11
    agustinarieta
  • 00:26:12
    who produced numerous costumerista
  • 00:26:14
    paintings
  • 00:26:15
    uh a couple of years ago this painting
  • 00:26:18
    on the right
  • 00:26:19
    which is el costena boy from the coast
  • 00:26:22
    an afro-mexican boy from the coast
  • 00:26:24
    probably the pacific coast
  • 00:26:25
    this painting was here in albuquerque it
  • 00:26:27
    was on view at the albuquerque museum
  • 00:26:29
    there was a show
  • 00:26:31
    of spanish art coming from the
  • 00:26:34
    hispanic society of americas in new york
  • 00:26:37
    uh
  • 00:26:37
    they were remodeling their building and
  • 00:26:39
    they're very smart
  • 00:26:40
    they're like we have to take everything
  • 00:26:41
    out to remodel so let's like make some
  • 00:26:43
    money
  • 00:26:44
    off our collection so they toured it and
  • 00:26:46
    you have to pay
  • 00:26:47
    to bring it and the albuquerque museum
  • 00:26:48
    brought uh the show
  • 00:26:50
    and they it was mostly spanish art but
  • 00:26:53
    they had a gallery of
  • 00:26:54
    colonial art and mexican art and this is
  • 00:26:57
    one of the paintings that was in the
  • 00:26:58
    show
  • 00:26:59
    spectacular painting again that evinces
  • 00:27:01
    the presence of afro-mexicans
  • 00:27:04
    and a figure that is not mexican or
  • 00:27:07
    noble hispanic but peruvian
  • 00:27:09
    uh is of course san martin de porres and
  • 00:27:12
    if we're talking about the black
  • 00:27:13
    presence
  • 00:27:14
    in mexican visual culture i grew up with
  • 00:27:17
    my mother had an advocation for san
  • 00:27:19
    martin de porres he's a black saint from
  • 00:27:21
    lima peru
  • 00:27:22
    uh he lived during the colonial period
  • 00:27:24
    he was a lay brother of the dominican
  • 00:27:26
    order
  • 00:27:27
    uh he gets beatified in 1837 and then
  • 00:27:30
    canonized in 1962
  • 00:27:32
    and his images everywhere in mexico like
  • 00:27:35
    i said i grew up with an image of san
  • 00:27:36
    martin de boris in my home on my
  • 00:27:38
    mother's altar
  • 00:27:39
    uh so even though he's not mexican his
  • 00:27:42
    image proliferates and is part
  • 00:27:44
    of mexican visual culture
  • 00:27:47
    moving outside of art to movies and
  • 00:27:50
    television and music
  • 00:27:52
    a major figure that stands out that i
  • 00:27:54
    grew up with as well my father was a
  • 00:27:56
    musician
  • 00:27:56
    it was antonia del carmen peregrino
  • 00:27:58
    alvarez known as tonya la
  • 00:28:01
    she lived from 1912 to 1982 i think most
  • 00:28:04
    of us of a certain age are familiar with
  • 00:28:06
    her music
  • 00:28:07
    you know she was born in venacruz where
  • 00:28:10
    we have a concentration of afro-mexican
  • 00:28:12
    communities
  • 00:28:13
    and she worked from 1932 up until 1982
  • 00:28:17
    she was a singer she recorded numerous
  • 00:28:19
    records but she also appeared in movies
  • 00:28:22
    and she collaborated uh quite actively
  • 00:28:24
    with the famous
  • 00:28:26
    mexican singer composer actor agustin
  • 00:28:28
    lara
  • 00:28:29
    again in her name she's identified it as
  • 00:28:32
    black
  • 00:28:32
    in her name and she was one of the most
  • 00:28:35
    famous
  • 00:28:36
    performers in mexico uh in the mid 20th
  • 00:28:39
    century
  • 00:28:41
    if we're talking about popular culture
  • 00:28:43
    we have to talk about movies
  • 00:28:45
    and comics and this is where we run into
  • 00:28:47
    stereotypes
  • 00:28:48
    and racist imagery uh when i was really
  • 00:28:51
    little in san antonio texas
  • 00:28:53
    my mother who was mexican would take me
  • 00:28:55
    downtown to this beautiful theater
  • 00:28:57
    called the alameda theater
  • 00:28:59
    that was one of these theaters
  • 00:29:00
    constructed in the 30s with
  • 00:29:02
    very elaborate architecture it had a
  • 00:29:04
    ceiling with moving clouds i loved that
  • 00:29:06
    when i was a little kid
  • 00:29:07
    but that became the theater for the
  • 00:29:09
    mexicans you know we had our own parts
  • 00:29:11
    of downtown
  • 00:29:12
    so when i was little my mother would
  • 00:29:13
    take me to the alameda because they
  • 00:29:14
    would show
  • 00:29:15
    uh mexican movies uh uh from the golden
  • 00:29:18
    age of mexican cinema
  • 00:29:20
    and that was where i first saw angelitos
  • 00:29:22
    negros which was produced in 1948
  • 00:29:24
    and it starred another iconic mexican
  • 00:29:27
    actor singer pedro infante
  • 00:29:30
    angelitos negros in brief is about
  • 00:29:33
    this a light-skinned upper-class mexican
  • 00:29:35
    young woman who marries
  • 00:29:37
    a boy from the wright family she gets
  • 00:29:39
    pregnant
  • 00:29:40
    uh everybody is happy for them her
  • 00:29:43
    mother apparently died
  • 00:29:44
    in childbirth so she was raised by her
  • 00:29:46
    black nanny
  • 00:29:48
    okay and her father and when she gives
  • 00:29:51
    birth
  • 00:29:51
    she gives birth this is like a white
  • 00:29:53
    mexican girl gives birth to a black baby
  • 00:29:56
    and all hell breaks loose okay she
  • 00:29:58
    rejects the child of course this is
  • 00:30:00
    mexican cinema from the mid-20th century
  • 00:30:02
    there's a moral
  • 00:30:03
    uh she discovers that her mother was
  • 00:30:06
    actually the black nanny
  • 00:30:07
    her white father had an affair with the
  • 00:30:09
    black nanny and her mother was not
  • 00:30:12
    the the white wife that had killed
  • 00:30:14
    herself it was her nanny all along
  • 00:30:17
    so by the end of the movie she comes to
  • 00:30:18
    accept her black mother and her child
  • 00:30:21
    uh so it has like a moral to it but
  • 00:30:23
    again here we could talk about blackface
  • 00:30:26
    in that no black actors were were hired
  • 00:30:28
    to work on this
  • 00:30:29
    there were mestizos and peoples who were
  • 00:30:31
    hired and painted to look black
  • 00:30:34
    and then of course uh a comic book
  • 00:30:36
    character that is incredibly popular not
  • 00:30:38
    just in mexico but throughout latin
  • 00:30:40
    america
  • 00:30:41
    mean penguin it was created in 1943
  • 00:30:45
    by yolanda vargas and sixto valencia
  • 00:30:48
    burgos
  • 00:30:48
    it appeared for years in a magazine
  • 00:30:51
    titled pepin
  • 00:30:52
    there were multiple editions of this and
  • 00:30:54
    the latest one was just in 2004 which is
  • 00:30:56
    very very recent
  • 00:30:58
    again we're talking about racist
  • 00:31:00
    caricature uh
  • 00:31:01
    offensive imagery you know and the fact
  • 00:31:03
    that these are so popular you know many
  • 00:31:05
    mexicans don't see anything wrong with
  • 00:31:07
    us
  • 00:31:08
    you know they see racism the way we
  • 00:31:10
    understand it as a gringo or u.s
  • 00:31:13
    thing you know they're so desensitized
  • 00:31:15
    to this kind of imagery that has become
  • 00:31:16
    naturalized to them
  • 00:31:18
    but that has a lot to do with the the
  • 00:31:20
    social structure that they grow up in
  • 00:31:21
    which has
  • 00:31:22
    colonial roots uh and this is one of the
  • 00:31:25
    things
  • 00:31:25
    that is sort of indirectly related to
  • 00:31:27
    what i'm talking about today
  • 00:31:29
    and we're talking about racial
  • 00:31:30
    stereotypes i have to talk about like
  • 00:31:32
    maria you know one of the most popular
  • 00:31:36
    and entertaining uh indigenous images in
  • 00:31:38
    film
  • 00:31:39
    uh maria nicolas cruz known as la
  • 00:31:42
    india maria indian mary was played by
  • 00:31:45
    the actress maria elena velasco from
  • 00:31:47
    1972 to 2015.
  • 00:31:49
    she first appeared in the movie tonta
  • 00:31:51
    tonta pero no tanto
  • 00:31:54
    1972 she's appeared in 16 films and
  • 00:31:57
    including a tv series a short-lived tv
  • 00:32:00
    series
  • 00:32:00
    and her last appearance was in a movie
  • 00:32:02
    called la ija de moctezuma in 2014
  • 00:32:06
    she passed away the year after that but
  • 00:32:08
    this is
  • 00:32:09
    another popular cultural mexican icon
  • 00:32:12
    that is beloved by people but that
  • 00:32:14
    really is based
  • 00:32:15
    on some really uh offensive caricatures
  • 00:32:18
    uh
  • 00:32:18
    not just indigenous people but
  • 00:32:20
    indigenous women particularly
  • 00:32:23
    going back to the question of black
  • 00:32:25
    artists mexican art history
  • 00:32:26
    this is where we have to have a lot of
  • 00:32:28
    work done there's not been anything
  • 00:32:30
    one artist in the colonial period that
  • 00:32:32
    we know was
  • 00:32:33
    black was juan correa and he's one of
  • 00:32:35
    the superstars
  • 00:32:36
    juan correa was one of the superstar
  • 00:32:38
    painters in late 17th century mexico
  • 00:32:41
    city
  • 00:32:42
    he's a a a a colleague of
  • 00:32:45
    cristova de villalbando who's really
  • 00:32:47
    well known
  • 00:32:48
    uh this is a work by juan correa it's a
  • 00:32:51
    biombo
  • 00:32:52
    which is a mixed media construction it's
  • 00:32:54
    a freestanding multi-panel screen that
  • 00:32:56
    is inspired by japanese
  • 00:32:58
    biobu screens both sides are painted
  • 00:33:01
    these would have been found in elite
  • 00:33:03
    homes
  • 00:33:03
    uh this particular biombo has sort of a
  • 00:33:06
    science
  • 00:33:07
    didactic subject on this side it's the
  • 00:33:09
    liberal arts
  • 00:33:10
    and on the other side are the four
  • 00:33:12
    elements a beautiful
  • 00:33:14
    beautiful object that is a result of
  • 00:33:16
    trade with asia
  • 00:33:18
    and the circulation of asian goods
  • 00:33:20
    throughout
  • 00:33:21
    the americas this is one of the artists
  • 00:33:24
    that we know was black
  • 00:33:25
    his father has been identified as a
  • 00:33:27
    mulatto physician from spain
  • 00:33:29
    he was a free black man from spain who
  • 00:33:31
    migrated to new spain where he met
  • 00:33:33
    his mother who was a free black woman in
  • 00:33:36
    mexico named pascuala de santoyo
  • 00:33:38
    this is uh something that i'm going to
  • 00:33:39
    talk about in my more formal
  • 00:33:40
    presentation coming up and that is the
  • 00:33:42
    presence and growing
  • 00:33:44
    community of free blacks not all blacks
  • 00:33:47
    in mexico were enslaved
  • 00:33:49
    many were but many were also free and
  • 00:33:51
    that has to do with the law coming out
  • 00:33:53
    of medieval spain
  • 00:33:54
    this is why i was saying when we talk
  • 00:33:56
    about constructions of race
  • 00:33:59
    and racialized representations we can't
  • 00:34:02
    impose
  • 00:34:03
    our views as they form in the u.s
  • 00:34:05
    because the spanish or latin american
  • 00:34:07
    world
  • 00:34:08
    is very very different so when it comes
  • 00:34:12
    one thing that you should be noticing is
  • 00:34:13
    when it comes to questions of race
  • 00:34:15
    and the recognition of black communities
  • 00:34:17
    in mexico there is a distinction
  • 00:34:19
    between official or national discourse
  • 00:34:21
    and
  • 00:34:22
    popular culture the black presence in
  • 00:34:24
    mexico wasn't entirely erased
  • 00:34:27
    but it was relegated to very specific
  • 00:34:30
    pockets of cultural production
  • 00:34:32
    okay we see images of afro-mexicans in
  • 00:34:35
    popular culture
  • 00:34:36
    however in official representations of
  • 00:34:39
    mexican history
  • 00:34:41
    and mexican national identity that's
  • 00:34:43
    where the black presence has been
  • 00:34:44
    removed
  • 00:34:45
    so it's important to make that
  • 00:34:46
    distinction is that the black presence
  • 00:34:49
    hasn't been completely erased it's there
  • 00:34:50
    in popular cultural forms
  • 00:34:53
    it's in official national
  • 00:34:55
    representations
  • 00:34:56
    where we see the absence of the african
  • 00:34:59
    mexican presence
  • 00:35:00
    you know hence the surprise that it's
  • 00:35:02
    the 2020 mexican census that will be the
  • 00:35:04
    first time
  • 00:35:05
    afro-mexicans are uh recognized and
  • 00:35:08
    there's a history to this there's a
  • 00:35:10
    reason i'm going to talk about
  • 00:35:11
    so the erasure or marginalization of the
  • 00:35:13
    black mexican presence in official
  • 00:35:15
    national historical identity
  • 00:35:17
    occurred in phases it didn't all just
  • 00:35:19
    happen at once
  • 00:35:20
    it starts in the late 18th century into
  • 00:35:23
    the early 19th century
  • 00:35:25
    and then we run into questions of race
  • 00:35:27
    and racial definitions in the early 20th
  • 00:35:30
    century
  • 00:35:31
    up to the present and here we can have a
  • 00:35:33
    whole conversation as well about the
  • 00:35:34
    mexican revolution
  • 00:35:36
    the indianism of movements la raza
  • 00:35:38
    cosmica by jose las gonzalos
  • 00:35:41
    that's a whole other conversation that
  • 00:35:43
    contributes to the marginalization of
  • 00:35:45
    not erasure of afro-mexicans
  • 00:35:47
    but my talk now i'm going to shift gears
  • 00:35:50
    i wanted to kind of set the stage for
  • 00:35:52
    you
  • 00:35:52
    uh so this work that i've been doing can
  • 00:35:55
    be considered a step
  • 00:35:56
    in sort of fleshing out that much longer
  • 00:35:59
    history
  • 00:36:00
    that contributed to the eventual erasure
  • 00:36:03
    or marginalization of the afro-mexican
  • 00:36:06
    presence
  • 00:36:06
    in official uh national discourse so
  • 00:36:09
    this is where i'm going to get kind of
  • 00:36:10
    scholarly and academic
  • 00:36:12
    because i'm going to be reading my paper
  • 00:36:17
    so the first art academy in the americas
  • 00:36:19
    the academia de san carlos in mexico
  • 00:36:21
    city was chartered in 1781
  • 00:36:24
    following a petition by the spanish
  • 00:36:26
    official geronimo antonio hill
  • 00:36:29
    who had been royally appointed head
  • 00:36:31
    engraver of the mint
  • 00:36:33
    in the vice regal capital
  • 00:36:37
    the petition was approved by the viceroy
  • 00:36:39
    martin de mayorga
  • 00:36:41
    and later confirmed by the king in 1783
  • 00:36:44
    following the arrival of the incoming
  • 00:36:46
    viceroy matthias de galvez who we see
  • 00:36:48
    here on the right
  • 00:36:49
    who acted as patron of the newly
  • 00:36:52
    established academy now for this part of
  • 00:36:54
    the presentation and with the objective
  • 00:36:56
    of examining how the image of the indian
  • 00:36:58
    was transformed
  • 00:36:59
    and of the black erased i focus on the
  • 00:37:02
    late colonial early national period so
  • 00:37:04
    we can roughly think about 1750 to 1850
  • 00:37:07
    a hundred year range that begins with
  • 00:37:10
    the decline
  • 00:37:11
    of spanish colonial role in the americas
  • 00:37:13
    and
  • 00:37:14
    ends with the first three decades of
  • 00:37:16
    independent mexico
  • 00:37:18
    the transition from spanish viceroyalty
  • 00:37:21
    to modern
  • 00:37:22
    nation was turbulent and destabilized
  • 00:37:24
    the region
  • 00:37:25
    economically and politically for decades
  • 00:37:31
    the united states invasion of mexico in
  • 00:37:34
    1847
  • 00:37:35
    and the subsequent annexation of the
  • 00:37:37
    northern half of mexican territory in
  • 00:37:39
    1848
  • 00:37:41
    further debilitated the struggling
  • 00:37:42
    nation examining the relationship
  • 00:37:45
    between
  • 00:37:45
    race and the art academy during this
  • 00:37:48
    period
  • 00:37:48
    reveals how institutional practices
  • 00:37:51
    reflected first
  • 00:37:53
    imperial and later national political
  • 00:37:56
    ideologies and attitudes
  • 00:37:58
    towards mexico's local unique racial
  • 00:38:01
    diversity
  • 00:38:02
    but first some historical background to
  • 00:38:05
    set the scene
  • 00:38:07
    when in 1519 spanish conquistador hernan
  • 00:38:10
    cortes
  • 00:38:11
    first set foot on the eastern gulf shore
  • 00:38:13
    of what today is mexico
  • 00:38:15
    it is estimated that approximately 25
  • 00:38:18
    million natives inhabited the region
  • 00:38:21
    a year later in 1520 an epidemic of
  • 00:38:24
    smallpox
  • 00:38:25
    introduced by the recent arrivals
  • 00:38:27
    quickly spread among the indigenous
  • 00:38:29
    population
  • 00:38:30
    which went from 25.2 million in 1519
  • 00:38:34
    to 1.2 million by 1620.
  • 00:38:38
    so just in a century span uh over
  • 00:38:41
    24 million natives perish as a result of
  • 00:38:44
    exposure to this disease
  • 00:38:47
    however in the mid 17th century the
  • 00:38:49
    native population gradually began to
  • 00:38:52
    recover
  • 00:38:53
    you know some historians estimate that
  • 00:38:55
    by the 19th century
  • 00:38:56
    the indigenous population had reached
  • 00:38:58
    pre-conquest numbers
  • 00:39:00
    so eventually the indigenous population
  • 00:39:02
    does recover
  • 00:39:04
    a decade after the conquest of mexico
  • 00:39:07
    the spanish crown decided to implement a
  • 00:39:09
    vice regal system in the americas as it
  • 00:39:12
    had done in parts of europe
  • 00:39:13
    at this point spain governed various
  • 00:39:16
    regions in italy
  • 00:39:17
    and various regions in northern europe
  • 00:39:20
    what were
  • 00:39:20
    spanish vice royalties or vice regal
  • 00:39:23
    territories
  • 00:39:24
    it's a very successful system in terms
  • 00:39:26
    of governing lands that are far away
  • 00:39:28
    from the capital and the government uh
  • 00:39:31
    because it was such a successful system
  • 00:39:33
    the spanish crown decided to implement a
  • 00:39:35
    vice regal system
  • 00:39:37
    in the americas the objective was to
  • 00:39:39
    strengthen the crown's authority in the
  • 00:39:41
    empire's distant territories
  • 00:39:43
    in part by improving oversight with the
  • 00:39:46
    arrival of the first viceroy antonio de
  • 00:39:49
    mendoza
  • 00:39:50
    and the gradual pacification and
  • 00:39:52
    restructuring of the territory that
  • 00:39:53
    followed
  • 00:39:54
    the migration of iberians to central new
  • 00:39:57
    spain grew
  • 00:39:58
    with the increased presence of spanish
  • 00:40:00
    women a new social class began to emerge
  • 00:40:03
    the cryos or creoles many of whom not
  • 00:40:06
    all
  • 00:40:07
    most of them were poor but many of whom
  • 00:40:09
    racially identified as white
  • 00:40:11
    came to form a new aristocracy in the
  • 00:40:13
    developing social hierarchy
  • 00:40:16
    so from approximately 1545 through
  • 00:40:19
    1600 the movement by diverse peoples
  • 00:40:23
    across the atlantic and the pacific to
  • 00:40:26
    the americas increased
  • 00:40:28
    the trade route between new spain and
  • 00:40:30
    the philippines established in 1565
  • 00:40:33
    facilitated the movement via the manila
  • 00:40:36
    galleon
  • 00:40:37
    not just of goods luxury materials and
  • 00:40:39
    food
  • 00:40:40
    but also of asian migrants from the
  • 00:40:42
    philippines
  • 00:40:43
    japan china and possibly even india
  • 00:40:46
    there are suggestions in colonial
  • 00:40:48
    documents that there may have been
  • 00:40:50
    people from india what today we call
  • 00:40:52
    india in mexico during this time
  • 00:40:55
    given the significant loss of native
  • 00:40:57
    life due to disease and physical abuse
  • 00:41:00
    the need for a new source of labor
  • 00:41:02
    became urgent
  • 00:41:03
    the importation of enslaved africans to
  • 00:41:06
    the spanish-american territories
  • 00:41:08
    began in 1501 but it was in 1518
  • 00:41:12
    that the spanish crown approved the
  • 00:41:14
    importation of slaves directly from
  • 00:41:16
    africa
  • 00:41:17
    initially via portuguese traders and
  • 00:41:19
    later via british traders
  • 00:41:21
    officially initiating the slave trade
  • 00:41:24
    with spain
  • 00:41:25
    and its american territories so between
  • 00:41:28
    1519 and 1580
  • 00:41:30
    approximately 36 500 enslaved africans
  • 00:41:34
    are estimated
  • 00:41:35
    to have been taken to new spain with the
  • 00:41:38
    height
  • 00:41:39
    of the slave trade occurring between
  • 00:41:41
    1580 and 1640
  • 00:41:43
    and the estimated black population in
  • 00:41:46
    new spain
  • 00:41:46
    in 1650 at 140 000.
  • 00:41:50
    however given the spanish legislative
  • 00:41:52
    code known as the sierte partidas
  • 00:41:55
    which provided avenues for the
  • 00:41:57
    manumission of slaves
  • 00:41:58
    mexico's population of free blacks grew
  • 00:42:01
    considerably
  • 00:42:02
    throughout the 18th century by 1821
  • 00:42:06
    when mexico declared its independence
  • 00:42:08
    from spain 3 000 blacks were enslaved
  • 00:42:11
    with the majority of individuals of
  • 00:42:13
    african descent living as free people
  • 00:42:15
    it is estimated that in its 300 year
  • 00:42:18
    colonial period
  • 00:42:19
    approximately 200 000 enslaved africans
  • 00:42:22
    were taken to mexico
  • 00:42:24
    uh it's important to understand here
  • 00:42:26
    that the black presence in mexico isn't
  • 00:42:28
    just a result of enslavement or the
  • 00:42:30
    slave trade
  • 00:42:31
    remember that there were blacks coming
  • 00:42:33
    with the spanish
  • 00:42:35
    you know spain's history the moorish
  • 00:42:37
    occupation of spain for 800 years
  • 00:42:40
    these are north africans who were
  • 00:42:42
    dominating on the iberian peninsula
  • 00:42:44
    so spain has a very very long history of
  • 00:42:47
    an african presence
  • 00:42:48
    you know on the peninsula which makes it
  • 00:42:51
    very different from the rest of europe
  • 00:42:53
    okay so when the spanish started coming
  • 00:42:56
    uh
  • 00:42:56
    via expeditions to the americas they
  • 00:42:58
    were black individuals accompanying the
  • 00:43:00
    conquistadors like juan garrido who we
  • 00:43:03
    already talked about
  • 00:43:04
    and then of course then you have the
  • 00:43:06
    importation of enslaved africans and
  • 00:43:07
    then much later
  • 00:43:08
    then you have people migrating uh to
  • 00:43:11
    modern mexico
  • 00:43:12
    i just kind of want to point that out
  • 00:43:14
    that the black presence is also informed
  • 00:43:16
    in part historically
  • 00:43:17
    by blacks that were coming from spain
  • 00:43:21
    all right
  • 00:43:25
    by 1600 new spain was home to a diverse
  • 00:43:28
    population
  • 00:43:29
    consisting of a mostly rural majority
  • 00:43:32
    native or indigenous demographic
  • 00:43:34
    itself diverse ethnically and culturally
  • 00:43:38
    a growing primarily urban white creole
  • 00:43:41
    population
  • 00:43:43
    a small but diverse asian presence
  • 00:43:46
    a small but growing also primarily urban
  • 00:43:50
    black
  • 00:43:50
    community mostly slaves but also
  • 00:43:53
    including free blacks
  • 00:43:55
    and an increasing stream of peninsulares
  • 00:43:57
    from spain
  • 00:43:58
    these are the spanish coming migrating
  • 00:44:00
    from the iberian peninsula
  • 00:44:02
    throughout the 17th century and into the
  • 00:44:04
    18th augustas
  • 00:44:06
    or castes mixtures of european and
  • 00:44:09
    indian
  • 00:44:10
    european and black and indian and black
  • 00:44:12
    and on and so forth
  • 00:44:13
    increased exponentially
  • 00:44:17
    following the death in 1700 of the last
  • 00:44:20
    spanish habsburg charles ii
  • 00:44:22
    the newly installed bourbon monarchy
  • 00:44:25
    found itself inheriting a bankrupt
  • 00:44:27
    global empire
  • 00:44:28
    that was facing external threats and
  • 00:44:31
    various
  • 00:44:31
    internecine conflicts in the americas
  • 00:44:35
    bourbon officials encountered a vast
  • 00:44:37
    territory
  • 00:44:38
    populated by large urban centers spread
  • 00:44:41
    across
  • 00:44:41
    thousands of miles and inhabited by
  • 00:44:44
    pluralistic societies
  • 00:44:46
    where racial mixing was the norm
  • 00:44:48
    especially among the larger population
  • 00:44:50
    from the french bourbon perspective
  • 00:44:53
    corruption
  • 00:44:53
    inefficiency and lack of adequate
  • 00:44:56
    oversight during the preceding
  • 00:44:58
    habsburg period had resulted in
  • 00:45:00
    significant economic economic losses
  • 00:45:03
    and lack of adequate regulation the
  • 00:45:05
    bourbons
  • 00:45:06
    critical of how the habsburgs had
  • 00:45:08
    mismanaged spain's vast empire
  • 00:45:10
    sought to strengthen imperial authority
  • 00:45:13
    to restructure the territories
  • 00:45:15
    to fortify the empire's defenses
  • 00:45:18
    primarily in the provinces
  • 00:45:20
    and to increase efficiency and
  • 00:45:22
    productivity
  • 00:45:23
    the policies that were implemented to
  • 00:45:25
    actualize these changes
  • 00:45:27
    collectively known as the bourbon
  • 00:45:28
    reforms although motivated by economic
  • 00:45:31
    and political
  • 00:45:32
    concerns extended to the cultural sphere
  • 00:45:35
    which implicated the arts
  • 00:45:36
    given the arts utility in terms of
  • 00:45:39
    generating tax revenue
  • 00:45:41
    circulating imperial propaganda and
  • 00:45:44
    actualizing the crown's
  • 00:45:46
    civilizing and modernizing objectives
  • 00:45:49
    bourbon officials throughout the 18th
  • 00:45:51
    century were critical
  • 00:45:52
    of what they found in the american
  • 00:45:54
    territories
  • 00:45:55
    among the various concerns and those
  • 00:45:57
    relevant to this talk
  • 00:45:59
    where the rampant miscegenation in
  • 00:46:01
    particular with blacks
  • 00:46:02
    encountered throughout the vice regal
  • 00:46:04
    territory and also what they perceived
  • 00:46:06
    as a lack of stylistic uniformity and
  • 00:46:08
    quality and local art production
  • 00:46:10
    which they believe was due to the
  • 00:46:12
    distance of the american
  • 00:46:14
    viceroyalties from european cultural
  • 00:46:15
    centers the bourbon crown
  • 00:46:17
    was supportive of indigenous rights and
  • 00:46:19
    privileges this
  • 00:46:21
    interest in improving the standing of
  • 00:46:22
    natives is exemplified for example by
  • 00:46:25
    the awarding of scholarships to eligible
  • 00:46:27
    native youths
  • 00:46:29
    for whom several places were reserved at
  • 00:46:31
    the new academy of san carlos
  • 00:46:33
    the same however did not apply to blacks
  • 00:46:36
    for example
  • 00:46:37
    in 1778 the colonial government
  • 00:46:40
    implemented a law known as the royal
  • 00:46:42
    pragmatic
  • 00:46:43
    or the pragmatic sanction which gave
  • 00:46:46
    parents
  • 00:46:46
    legal authority to prevent the marriage
  • 00:46:49
    of their children
  • 00:46:50
    if there was substantial social
  • 00:46:52
    inequality between them and their chosen
  • 00:46:54
    partners a law that effectively impeded
  • 00:46:57
    racial mixing with blacks
  • 00:46:59
    given the proliferation of workshops led
  • 00:47:02
    by artists of varying backgrounds
  • 00:47:04
    training and skill colonial art
  • 00:47:06
    production was diverse
  • 00:47:07
    in style and quality something that the
  • 00:47:10
    bourbons judged to be inferior
  • 00:47:12
    a sign of decadence and a result of the
  • 00:47:14
    lack of proper institutional
  • 00:47:16
    controls for example in 1799
  • 00:47:20
    various artists working these are creole
  • 00:47:23
    artists working in mexico city
  • 00:47:25
    uh filed a petition a grievance with the
  • 00:47:28
    viceroy complaining
  • 00:47:29
    that there were too many untrained
  • 00:47:31
    artists and they were talking about
  • 00:47:33
    artists who were indigenous mestizo
  • 00:47:35
    mulatto and blacks
  • 00:47:36
    including poor spanish artists who were
  • 00:47:39
    untrained
  • 00:47:40
    and selling art they're trying to get
  • 00:47:43
    rid of competition
  • 00:47:44
    you know so the artist affiliated with
  • 00:47:46
    the academy
  • 00:47:47
    appeal to the viceroy to make it illegal
  • 00:47:50
    for these artists who were working
  • 00:47:52
    outside of the academy and you know it
  • 00:47:54
    was primarily creoles and peninsulars
  • 00:47:56
    whites
  • 00:47:56
    who were allowed in the academy with the
  • 00:47:58
    few native students who were allowed in
  • 00:48:01
    uh when they're trying to pass a law to
  • 00:48:03
    prohibit or make it illegal for artists
  • 00:48:05
    not affiliated with the academy to sell
  • 00:48:07
    art they're primarily targeting artists
  • 00:48:09
    of color
  • 00:48:10
    you know who had never been led into the
  • 00:48:12
    academy but were making a living
  • 00:48:14
    and they were also wanting to get rid of
  • 00:48:15
    competition because based on records
  • 00:48:17
    that one of the complaints is that
  • 00:48:18
    people
  • 00:48:19
    do a lot of business with them you know
  • 00:48:21
    and one of the complaints was that
  • 00:48:23
    because they're not trained
  • 00:48:24
    they are producing sacrilegious
  • 00:48:26
    religious images they don't know how to
  • 00:48:28
    properly paint religious images
  • 00:48:30
    uh so that's an interesting kind of
  • 00:48:31
    complaint that kind of underlines some
  • 00:48:33
    of the politics the racialized politics
  • 00:48:35
    i'm talking about here
  • 00:48:37
    as the 18th century proceeded the
  • 00:48:40
    exuberant
  • 00:48:40
    and highly ornamental churrieresco style
  • 00:48:43
    that had been
  • 00:48:44
    introduced and promoted by the bourbons
  • 00:48:46
    fell out of favor
  • 00:48:48
    as the more restrained neoclassical
  • 00:48:50
    aesthetic to hold in spain
  • 00:48:52
    the academy of san carlos founded by
  • 00:48:55
    peninsular petition
  • 00:48:56
    was meant to be a tool with which the
  • 00:48:58
    bourbon crown could implement
  • 00:49:00
    programs at civilizing or modernizing
  • 00:49:03
    its american territories
  • 00:49:05
    okay in other words this kind of highly
  • 00:49:07
    ornamental chugaresco late baroque style
  • 00:49:10
    was seen as bad taste
  • 00:49:11
    as out of date as obsolete and they
  • 00:49:14
    wanted to modernize
  • 00:49:16
    or update the american territories via
  • 00:49:18
    the academy
  • 00:49:19
    by removing these older baroque altar
  • 00:49:22
    pieces and replacing them
  • 00:49:23
    with the more austere neoclassical style
  • 00:49:26
    altarpieces that you see exemplified in
  • 00:49:28
    the right image
  • 00:49:30
    these objectives included centralizing
  • 00:49:32
    arts education
  • 00:49:33
    and artistic training in one institution
  • 00:49:36
    significantly given that the academy was
  • 00:49:38
    founded during a period of revolutions
  • 00:49:40
    and growing american
  • 00:49:41
    unrest san carlos was also seen as a
  • 00:49:44
    mechanism the bourbon government could
  • 00:49:45
    use
  • 00:49:46
    to disseminate pro-monarchy propaganda
  • 00:49:49
    in an attempt to diffuse
  • 00:49:50
    increasing hostility toward spain and
  • 00:49:53
    its colonial government
  • 00:49:54
    in light of these objectives and other
  • 00:49:56
    bourbon concerns
  • 00:49:58
    local culture local politics were not
  • 00:50:01
    the focus of the academic institution
  • 00:50:03
    and its artistic production instruction
  • 00:50:07
    at the academy of san carlos
  • 00:50:09
    promoted a more rigorous emphasis on
  • 00:50:11
    classical models
  • 00:50:12
    and drawing focused on the copying of
  • 00:50:15
    prints
  • 00:50:16
    on studies made after plaster
  • 00:50:18
    reproductions of classical and
  • 00:50:20
    renaissance sculpture
  • 00:50:21
    and on drawing from life painting
  • 00:50:24
    followed the practice of european
  • 00:50:26
    academies with a focus on
  • 00:50:28
    academic history painting portraiture
  • 00:50:30
    and still-life painting
  • 00:50:31
    although in new spain religious subjects
  • 00:50:33
    continue to comprise
  • 00:50:35
    a major part of academic art production
  • 00:50:38
    the subject matter across
  • 00:50:39
    media and genres including sculpture and
  • 00:50:41
    printmaking
  • 00:50:42
    was overwhelmingly classical with prints
  • 00:50:45
    and public monuments
  • 00:50:47
    often employed to disseminate imperial
  • 00:50:49
    imagery
  • 00:50:51
    representations that reference daily
  • 00:50:53
    subjects
  • 00:50:54
    or that gave form to local racial
  • 00:50:56
    realities were absent
  • 00:50:58
    from academic art of the late colonial
  • 00:51:00
    period
  • 00:51:01
    with one notable exception a major
  • 00:51:04
    commission of the spanish instructor of
  • 00:51:06
    painting rafael jimenez
  • 00:51:08
    who you see here on the left was his
  • 00:51:10
    painting el milagro del posito
  • 00:51:13
    which you see to the right the painting
  • 00:51:17
    intended for the chapel of the palacio
  • 00:51:19
    de mineria
  • 00:51:21
    an academic history format one of the
  • 00:51:23
    miracles tied to the story of the
  • 00:51:25
    apparition
  • 00:51:26
    of the veterinary to the indian juan
  • 00:51:28
    diego in 1531.
  • 00:51:30
    so here is an image of the the palace uh
  • 00:51:32
    that's a mining palace
  • 00:51:34
    it's about engineering and mining uh and
  • 00:51:36
    then on the right is a photograph of a
  • 00:51:38
    chapel that's in the palace
  • 00:51:40
    and many planets canvases are on the
  • 00:51:42
    roof they're
  • 00:51:43
    intended to be installed in the ceiling
  • 00:51:47
    in the painting three figural groups
  • 00:51:49
    inhabit a rocky landscape
  • 00:51:51
    the main group is centered on the figure
  • 00:51:53
    of juan de sumarega
  • 00:51:54
    the first archbishop of mexico who
  • 00:51:56
    points to a fountain of water that has
  • 00:51:58
    miraculously appeared from a stone
  • 00:52:01
    he is flanked by religious officials a
  • 00:52:03
    group of peninsulars or creoles and a
  • 00:52:05
    figure on horseback
  • 00:52:07
    kneeling to the archbishop's immediate
  • 00:52:08
    right is juan diego
  • 00:52:10
    to the right we see a group of natives
  • 00:52:13
    gathered next to a tree
  • 00:52:15
    but it's the figural group to the left
  • 00:52:16
    that is of interest
  • 00:52:18
    standing on a wagon is a white male
  • 00:52:20
    figure who faces away from us
  • 00:52:22
    and looks directly at sumarra the figure
  • 00:52:24
    raises his arm in response to the
  • 00:52:26
    archbishop who is addressing him
  • 00:52:28
    seated on the wagon directly behind the
  • 00:52:30
    standing figure is a darker skinned
  • 00:52:32
    individual
  • 00:52:33
    possibly indigenous who rests his foot
  • 00:52:36
    on the back of a black man lying on the
  • 00:52:39
    ground partially beneath the wagon
  • 00:52:42
    now this is an interesting kind of thing
  • 00:52:44
    to add to an image of the apparition
  • 00:52:46
    because it's so anomalous uh there was
  • 00:52:48
    no casta system in
  • 00:52:50
    the 1530s yet okay and acostas don't
  • 00:52:54
    really have anything to do with the
  • 00:52:55
    story of the operation so the fact that
  • 00:52:57
    he integrated
  • 00:52:58
    clearly a hierarchy here white native
  • 00:53:01
    and black
  • 00:53:03
    brings to mind this okay the racial
  • 00:53:06
    content and the hierarchical arrangement
  • 00:53:08
    appear to reference the caste system of
  • 00:53:10
    new spain
  • 00:53:11
    particularly as codified in pintu
  • 00:53:12
    pinturas augusta
  • 00:53:14
    a genre of 18th century painting the
  • 00:53:16
    pinturas de gusta depicts the results of
  • 00:53:18
    the mixing between spaniards indians and
  • 00:53:20
    blacks
  • 00:53:21
    a popular subject costa paintings gave
  • 00:53:23
    visual form to the racial dynamics
  • 00:53:25
    unique to central new spain seen by
  • 00:53:28
    bourbon officials as a curiosity at best
  • 00:53:31
    and definitely is detrimental to the
  • 00:53:33
    social and cultural integrity of the
  • 00:53:35
    viceroyalty
  • 00:53:36
    as a genre of painting pinkudas augusta
  • 00:53:39
    did not correspond to the types of
  • 00:53:41
    subjects that were recognized by and
  • 00:53:42
    promoted by the academy
  • 00:53:44
    i mean the academy doesn't teach gasta
  • 00:53:46
    painting that is not a recognized
  • 00:53:47
    subject
  • 00:53:48
    given their interest in promoting
  • 00:53:50
    imperial ideas
  • 00:53:52
    and these grand subjects that are
  • 00:53:54
    historical and religious
  • 00:53:56
    the production of pinturas de casta not
  • 00:53:58
    coincidentally diminished and ultimately
  • 00:54:00
    disappeared
  • 00:54:01
    once the academy was founded jimenro
  • 00:54:04
    iplanes inclusion
  • 00:54:06
    of a racialized gusta reference in this
  • 00:54:08
    painting
  • 00:54:09
    of one of mexico's foundational myths a
  • 00:54:12
    narrative tied to a religious icon
  • 00:54:14
    that had taken on political symbolism
  • 00:54:16
    during this period
  • 00:54:17
    has led certain scholars to suggest that
  • 00:54:20
    this painting could be read as
  • 00:54:21
    privileging or monumentalizing the
  • 00:54:23
    creole
  • 00:54:24
    possibly signaling kimeni planet's
  • 00:54:26
    support of mexico independence
  • 00:54:29
    the independence movement in mexico
  • 00:54:30
    began in 1810 when the creole priest
  • 00:54:33
    miguelis
  • 00:54:33
    hidalgo mobilized rural indigenous
  • 00:54:36
    communities
  • 00:54:37
    and led the first rebellion against the
  • 00:54:39
    peninsular presence in new spain
  • 00:54:41
    the movement culminated in 1821 when
  • 00:54:44
    mexican military leaders declared
  • 00:54:46
    mexico's official independence from
  • 00:54:48
    spain
  • 00:54:49
    after 1821 the mexican government passed
  • 00:54:52
    two
  • 00:54:52
    important laws that we have briefly
  • 00:54:54
    mentioned in the intro
  • 00:54:56
    the first law approved in 1822
  • 00:54:59
    prohibited
  • 00:55:00
    the identification of mexican citizens
  • 00:55:02
    by racial status
  • 00:55:04
    in any official documents or official
  • 00:55:07
    representations
  • 00:55:08
    that became a law in 1822 remember what
  • 00:55:11
    i said early on
  • 00:55:12
    that under the plan of iguala under the
  • 00:55:14
    the leadership of agustin lituride in
  • 00:55:16
    guerrero
  • 00:55:17
    one of the the goals was to abolish the
  • 00:55:20
    racialized systematic augustas from the
  • 00:55:22
    colonial period
  • 00:55:23
    so they passed this law in 1822
  • 00:55:26
    making it illegal to identify a mexican
  • 00:55:29
    citizen
  • 00:55:30
    by race okay
  • 00:55:33
    it's very important uh
  • 00:55:36
    and the second law that is important for
  • 00:55:38
    this conversation was proposed in 1829
  • 00:55:41
    by mexico's first black president
  • 00:55:43
    vicente gadder
  • 00:55:44
    abolish slavery as we've already noted
  • 00:55:47
    the first law
  • 00:55:48
    was proposed as a way of countering the
  • 00:55:50
    hierarchical caste system identified
  • 00:55:52
    with spanish colonialism
  • 00:55:54
    and reflected an interest in promoting
  • 00:55:56
    the idea
  • 00:55:57
    that all inhabitants of mexico were
  • 00:56:00
    equal citizens
  • 00:56:02
    now while these political developments
  • 00:56:03
    were unfolding mexico was in dire
  • 00:56:05
    economic circumstances
  • 00:56:07
    the country's bankrupt status rippled
  • 00:56:09
    throughout mexican society and came to
  • 00:56:11
    affect the academy
  • 00:56:13
    during this period circa 1822-1835
  • 00:56:17
    enrollments decreased and faculty
  • 00:56:19
    salaries disappeared
  • 00:56:21
    causing the academy to shut its doors
  • 00:56:24
    for a period of time
  • 00:56:26
    from 1826 to 1834 the mexican sculptor
  • 00:56:30
    pedro patino estolinke who had been a
  • 00:56:33
    professor of sculpture at the academy
  • 00:56:35
    served as the institutions director of
  • 00:56:38
    indigenous heritage
  • 00:56:40
    he had been awarded one of the
  • 00:56:41
    scholarships reserved for indigenous
  • 00:56:43
    students at the academy prior to
  • 00:56:45
    independence
  • 00:56:46
    during his time as head of the academy
  • 00:56:49
    martino esto lincoln produced two of his
  • 00:56:51
    most well-known works
  • 00:56:52
    which were intended for a funerary
  • 00:56:54
    monument dedicated to jose maria morelos
  • 00:56:57
    another afro-mexican hero of the
  • 00:56:59
    independence movement
  • 00:57:01
    the sculptures which were to frame the
  • 00:57:02
    entrance to the tomb were titled liberty
  • 00:57:05
    libertad
  • 00:57:06
    and america america which you see on the
  • 00:57:08
    right is an allegorical representation
  • 00:57:11
    of the american
  • 00:57:12
    continent neoclassical in form the
  • 00:57:14
    figure wears symbolic objects associated
  • 00:57:17
    with american indigeneity
  • 00:57:19
    such as the feathered headdress and a
  • 00:57:21
    quiver filled with arrows
  • 00:57:23
    representations of living and or
  • 00:57:26
    culturally accurate indigenous figures
  • 00:57:28
    were absent
  • 00:57:29
    in the art production of the academy
  • 00:57:31
    during this time
  • 00:57:32
    when a visual reference to an indian is
  • 00:57:35
    found as seen here
  • 00:57:36
    it is either allegorical and symbolic or
  • 00:57:40
    it's idealized and historical
  • 00:57:43
    okay so the current contemporary indians
  • 00:57:45
    erased from representation
  • 00:57:47
    instead the image of the indian becomes
  • 00:57:49
    a symbol
  • 00:57:50
    it's either allegorical or it's
  • 00:57:52
    historical
  • 00:57:53
    during the period that the academy of
  • 00:57:55
    san carlos was shut down
  • 00:57:57
    european and american visitors to mexico
  • 00:57:59
    city noted the deplorable state of the
  • 00:58:01
    academy
  • 00:58:02
    and lamented the absence of a national
  • 00:58:04
    art museum
  • 00:58:06
    mexican president antonio lopez santana
  • 00:58:09
    yes that's santana although he's
  • 00:58:11
    vilified historically he actually did a
  • 00:58:13
    couple of things that weren't that bad
  • 00:58:14
    you know thanks to him uh art museums
  • 00:58:17
    were founded
  • 00:58:18
    and art history started you know mexican
  • 00:58:20
    president antonio lopez
  • 00:58:22
    santana concerned that this observation
  • 00:58:24
    reflected badly
  • 00:58:26
    on mexico requested the construction of
  • 00:58:28
    a gallery of mexican national art
  • 00:58:30
    initiating the academy's remodeling and
  • 00:58:33
    eventual reopening in 1846
  • 00:58:36
    as sun godless was being refurbished and
  • 00:58:38
    expanded
  • 00:58:39
    a search was conducted in europe for new
  • 00:58:42
    faculty
  • 00:58:43
    so even though it's independent mexico
  • 00:58:45
    they're reopening the academy
  • 00:58:47
    they're still looking at europe as a
  • 00:58:48
    model and they are hiring they want to
  • 00:58:51
    hire
  • 00:58:51
    european artists to teach mexican
  • 00:58:54
    students
  • 00:58:55
    two of the hires included the spanish
  • 00:58:57
    painter pelegrin clave
  • 00:58:59
    and the sculptor manuel billard
  • 00:59:02
    now pelegrin we see here on the left had
  • 00:59:04
    traveled to rome
  • 00:59:05
    as a student as students normally did
  • 00:59:07
    you always go to rome
  • 00:59:09
    to study for a period of time and it was
  • 00:59:11
    in realm that he encountered
  • 00:59:13
    the nazarene movement the nazarenes were
  • 00:59:16
    a group of primarily
  • 00:59:18
    austrian artists led by johann friedrich
  • 00:59:21
    overbeck
  • 00:59:22
    who looked back at the religious art of
  • 00:59:24
    the medieval and renaissance period
  • 00:59:26
    which they emulated
  • 00:59:28
    in their own work arriving in mexico
  • 00:59:31
    city in 1846 just as the academy was to
  • 00:59:34
    reopen
  • 00:59:35
    gladwell primarily focused on history
  • 00:59:37
    and religious painting
  • 00:59:38
    and on promoting the nazarene principles
  • 00:59:41
    he had learned in rome
  • 00:59:43
    so he arrives as the new professor of
  • 00:59:45
    painting and what does he promote
  • 00:59:46
    religious painting which reflects his
  • 00:59:49
    interest
  • 00:59:50
    you know uh which is based on the
  • 00:59:52
    nazarene training
  • 00:59:53
    he got in rome uh
  • 00:59:56
    from 1846 through the 1850s much of the
  • 00:59:59
    painting and sculpture produced by the
  • 01:00:01
    academy faculty and students
  • 01:00:03
    were either historical or religious in
  • 01:00:05
    nature the latter
  • 01:00:06
    primarily drawn from the old testament
  • 01:00:09
    so what we're seeing here in terms of
  • 01:00:11
    history
  • 01:00:11
    the history paintings tend to focus on
  • 01:00:13
    columbus and ferdinand and isabella the
  • 01:00:16
    beginning of empire
  • 01:00:17
    or they're religious primarily from the
  • 01:00:20
    old testament
  • 01:00:20
    like we're seeing here on the right
  • 01:00:24
    race was nowhere to be found as had been
  • 01:00:26
    the case before images of natives were
  • 01:00:28
    either historical or allegorical
  • 01:00:31
    or the subjects were religious
  • 01:00:33
    references to blacks or other racial
  • 01:00:35
    groups in
  • 01:00:35
    academic instruction and our production
  • 01:00:37
    were absent
  • 01:00:39
    okay representations of race and racial
  • 01:00:42
    types by the mid-19th century were
  • 01:00:44
    widely produced
  • 01:00:45
    but as was the case with 18th century
  • 01:00:47
    pinturas de casta
  • 01:00:49
    they circulated outside of the academy
  • 01:00:51
    in the forms of costumbrista imagery
  • 01:00:55
    inspired by european artists such as
  • 01:00:58
    carl nebel
  • 01:00:58
    who traveled to mexico after 1821 and
  • 01:01:01
    expressed interest in the natural
  • 01:01:03
    landscape the local culture and ethnic
  • 01:01:05
    types
  • 01:01:06
    non-academic mexican artists began to
  • 01:01:08
    paint the world around them
  • 01:01:10
    starting in the 1830s
  • 01:01:15
    the scenes of daily life painted by
  • 01:01:17
    costumvista artists did not reflect or
  • 01:01:19
    cohere with the types of subjects taught
  • 01:01:22
    or promoted by the academy of san carlos
  • 01:01:24
    the focus on daily life and ethnic types
  • 01:01:27
    was considered inferior
  • 01:01:28
    to the grand historical and religious
  • 01:01:31
    themes that were the focus of the work
  • 01:01:32
    of academy faculty and students
  • 01:01:34
    so the academy represents the official
  • 01:01:37
    artistic arm of the government and
  • 01:01:39
    they're emulating european institutions
  • 01:01:41
    so they're copying what european
  • 01:01:42
    institutions are doing and european
  • 01:01:45
    academic institutions
  • 01:01:46
    aren't producing artworks you know
  • 01:01:49
    looking at the local environment they're
  • 01:01:50
    producing historical subjects religious
  • 01:01:52
    subjects
  • 01:01:53
    and they're promoting sort of imperial
  • 01:01:55
    or nationalistic imagery
  • 01:01:58
    so in conclusion i'm going to wrap this
  • 01:02:00
    up
  • 01:02:03
    a preliminary survey of the
  • 01:02:05
    intersections of race in the academy of
  • 01:02:06
    san carlos from roughly 1750 to 1850
  • 01:02:09
    indicates that the academy
  • 01:02:11
    actively avoided racial representations
  • 01:02:13
    during the first century of its
  • 01:02:14
    existence
  • 01:02:15
    but for different reasons in the late
  • 01:02:17
    viceregal period
  • 01:02:18
    the academy functioned as a branch of
  • 01:02:20
    the spanish imperial government
  • 01:02:22
    and was founded specifically to
  • 01:02:24
    introduce the neoclassical idiom
  • 01:02:26
    and its ideas to the american
  • 01:02:28
    territories in an attempt
  • 01:02:30
    to civilize and modernize american vice
  • 01:02:33
    regal cities and their inhabitants
  • 01:02:35
    so if the intent is to modernize you
  • 01:02:38
    know these distant territories there
  • 01:02:39
    would be no interest
  • 01:02:40
    in this kind of local subject that we
  • 01:02:42
    see in bintu
  • 01:02:44
    given the academic principles that were
  • 01:02:46
    deployed local subjects were not of
  • 01:02:47
    interest
  • 01:02:48
    since they did not correspond to or
  • 01:02:50
    reinforce imperial objectives
  • 01:02:53
    after the independence movement new
  • 01:02:55
    objectives tied to nation formation
  • 01:02:57
    shifted the focus of academic subject
  • 01:02:59
    matter but still within a neoclassical
  • 01:03:02
    vocabulary
  • 01:03:03
    the only racialized presence is of the
  • 01:03:05
    indian as a palatable
  • 01:03:07
    abstracted symbol of the nation's past
  • 01:03:10
    when the academy reopened in the
  • 01:03:11
    mid-19th century the background and
  • 01:03:14
    interest of its european faculty
  • 01:03:16
    in tandem with the current politics in
  • 01:03:18
    the capital specifically conservative
  • 01:03:20
    politics
  • 01:03:21
    promoted history painting and religious
  • 01:03:23
    images in academic art production
  • 01:03:26
    in both cases the late colonial and the
  • 01:03:28
    early national depictions of race were
  • 01:03:30
    of interest
  • 01:03:31
    but they were produced and circulated
  • 01:03:34
    independently of the academy
  • 01:03:36
    again they're produced more in the
  • 01:03:37
    popular cultural realm
  • 01:03:39
    not in the official institutional spaces
  • 01:03:42
    okay
  • 01:03:43
    as a former colonial territory mexico
  • 01:03:46
    found itself in a predicament
  • 01:03:48
    through its institutions it aimed to
  • 01:03:51
    emulate european models
  • 01:03:52
    as a demonstration to the rest of the
  • 01:03:54
    world of its accomplishments and
  • 01:03:55
    worthiness
  • 01:03:56
    however its history cultural forms and
  • 01:04:00
    its inhabitants were not european
  • 01:04:02
    how to negotiate its racial realities
  • 01:04:05
    became a challenge
  • 01:04:06
    one that its institutions avoided but
  • 01:04:08
    that artists working
  • 01:04:10
    outside of the limits imposed by those
  • 01:04:12
    very same institutions tackled head-on
  • 01:04:15
    after 1850 and into the 1870s
  • 01:04:18
    this process of transformation and issue
  • 01:04:20
    erasure continues
  • 01:04:22
    and it culminates in the early 20th
  • 01:04:24
    century with the re-centering of the
  • 01:04:26
    indian subject in national discourse
  • 01:04:28
    in response to the indigenism movement
  • 01:04:31
    with the concomitant promotion of
  • 01:04:32
    mestizake
  • 01:04:34
    as the mythologized foundation of modern
  • 01:04:36
    mexican national identity
  • 01:04:38
    but again that's another paper and i'm
  • 01:04:40
    gonna go ahead and conclude here
  • 01:04:42
    and take any questions you may have
Tags
  • Afro-Mexican
  • Race and Art
  • Mexican Art History
  • Academy of San Carlos
  • Casta Paintings
  • Indigenous Representation
  • Cultural Erasure
  • Art Education
  • Mexican Independence
  • Interdisciplinary Research