16th Century & Earlier
Art Gallery
Politcal Resistance throughout history
The Warrior Figurine
Aztec, Pre-Columbian
cast gold
1350-1519
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The Aztec Empire(c.1300-1521) was formed by the migration of Nahua people from the north to central Mexico. Codices from that period, such as Codex Boturini, shows the migration of the “Mexica” to the original place called “Aztlán” and later transformed into the Aztec Empire. One of the prominent characteristics of the Aztec is their fierce warriors, relating to strong military power. Many artworks of the Aztec verify this: Coyolxauhqui Monument shows the cruel execution of Aztec goddess by her brother Huiztlopochitli, the god of war and sun, showing Aztec’s advocacy of warfare and conquest.
The story began from the Spanish conquest of the Aztec: in 1519, Spanish man Hernán Cortés initiated the conquest of Aztec Empire starting at the coast of Mexico. The process was full of violence and deprivation, including massacres of Aztec people and the pillage of their jewels and gold artifacts. “The Spanish conquistadors kept careful records of the gold and other treasures transported to Spain,” says Margaret Young-Sanchez in the article “An Aztec Gold Warrior Figurine (From the Cleveland Museum)”. After the transportation, Spanish people melted those precious artworks into bullion and “few of the gold objects ultimately escaped the melting pot”(Sanchez 1996). Other golden artworks also prove the deprivation of Spaniards. For example, the Coricancha, also known as the “Golder Enclosure”, was originally covered by gold by has been pillaged by Spanish people.
How is this work relate to resistance?
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The warrior figurine, standing steadily, is a highly decorated and detailed artifact and also a representation of the surviving gold artifacts. According to artstor.org the warrior figurine is “the finest surviving example of Aztec gold work”. The material, cast gold, shows the elite status of the warrior in Aztec period and the preciousness of military force. The warrior is wearing exaggerated earrings and large headdress, similar to the decoration of Aztec major gods, showing its sacred status.
This artwork shows resistance in two different aspects. First, on the surface level, the object itself is showing a standing, stiff warrior. The gesture of it is powerful and unbowed, showing its resistance toward enemies and its power of protecting the homeland. Second, as mentioned above, its material shows its resistance of the Spanish conquest as well. As most gold are being deprived, the few surviving gold artworks represent the existence of Aztex culture and the non-extinction power of the culture. In a broader sense, this is the representation of Latin American resisting European colonization as a whole and their persistence on keeping their culture survive under the exploitation of colonial power.
Coricancha
Inca: Cuzco, Peru
Course Ashlar Masonry
1000 A.D
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The Coricancha, or Church of Santo Domingo as coined by Spanish
conquerors in the 16th century, is a religious complex known to Incans as the
“Golden Enclosure”. Located in the Hurin sector of Cusco, Coricancha acted
as as depository site for conquered peoples in which they could relinquish
their respective, local deities. Additionally, the Coricancha was one of the
most “sacred shrines” of the Incan culture, where they worshipped the god of the sun, or Inti, as their point of descendance (Scher). The Coricancha complex was immensely integral to the Incan people, as it signified both “the physical and the spiritual heartof Cusco”, and acted as the site of numerous religious ceremonies, rituals, and activities (Hirst). The structure was constructed using the Incan convention of course ashlar masonry, which involves the “finely cut” and fitting together of large blocks of stone without the use of any mortar, allowing for the creation of distorted, yet refined, geometric figures.
How is this work relate to resistance?
Originally covered in pure gold to reflect the splendor and worship of Inti and the “sun’s rays with a blinding brilliance”, these riches and flourishes were soon “taken in the looting of the city” by Spanish forces in 1532 (Scher). Upon the sacking of the exterior gold, the Spanish supplanted the Incan site of worship by constructing the entire Church of Santo Domingo on top of the structure. The church topped the traditional Incan structure with Spanish Baroque architectural features, including arches and columns, in a symbol of domination and a transferring of sacred power from the Incan way to the Christian aesthetic. A devastating earthquake in 1650, however, decimated most of the Spanish construction, leaving only the initial Incan foundations. In this light, resistance, over time, has been mediated through architectural power, as it signifies dominance over a conquered group. Further, this resistance Engenders opposing artistic conventions, but involves a push back of resistance that advocates for artistic, geo-political, and cultural independence and integrity. Despite the imposition of the Christian aesthetic, the traditional Incan architectural conventions, such as coursed ashlar masonry, trapezoidal doorways,
as well as windows and wall niches remained firm throughout the Spanish conquering, the 1650 earthquake, and through the present day. The Coricancha also signifies a resistance against Europeanized concepts of religiosity, and a resistance against architectural reinforcements of these frameworks as well. Through the inclusion of two different, yet seemingly intertwined, structures, the Coricancha acts as an Andeanization of Catholicism and Catholic aesthetics, showing a change in what Christianity looked like in the Americas, and a resistance towards the purely European.
How does this work represent resistance?
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The kneeling warrior figurine is a great example of artwork from the Moche culture because of the distinctives characteristics that made Moche ceramics unique. The figurine has a distinctive decorative technique that was the use of cream-to-white slipped surfaces as canvases on which the paint designs depicts a natural form, the waves in the ocean or the waves of sand in the desert (Quilter). Moreover, this bottle/ figurine shows a different aspect of warfare in the Moche culture because the warrior is carrying a shield in his left hand. Just like stated above, this figurine is more likely to depict the ritual aspect of warfare in the Moche culture.
This artwork shows resistance because it resist a Western notion of a warrior. The figurine is not showing the brutality and violence of warfare, but it is showing how warfare can be a ritual event that can connect them to their deities in a profound way that many westerns culture or even our own society cannot fully understand. Warfare in the moche culture seemed to be ritual because as depicted in the figurine, the shield seems to be very fragile, which are very inadequate for real combat but it is consistently showing in art. Other weapons such as slings or lances are depicted less frequently (Quilter). In a broader sense, this is the representation of Latin America cultures resistant to the Spaniard colonization and conversion to Christianity. The Spaniards wanted to shape the New World into their own image by destroying anything that goes against their ideas or beliefs. This was shown by the burning of codexes in Mexico, and the transformation of gold and silver artwork into currency. The preservation and existence of artwork that portray the ideas and beliefs or cultures native to the Americas such as the Moche culture, show their persistence on keeping their culture and the culture of their ancestors alive for new generations to see and reflect on what their cultures went through to keep an artifact like this away that shows an important as[pect of their culture from those who wanted it destroyed during the colonization of Latin America.
The Kneeling Warrior Figurative Bottle
Moche, Peru (Pre-Inca)
Ceramic
1st-9th Century
The Moche or Mochica culture emerged by 200-100 BCE. The Moche culture expanded over time about 330 miles of the north coast of Peru, including valleys from Lambayeque in the north to Nepaña in the south. Inland they controlled the valleys up to the point where the floodplain was no longer cultivable (McEwan).
Much of what is known of the Moche comes from their art. The best known are Moche ceramics, but Miche artist also wove textiles, painted murals, and worked in stone, wood, shell, and metal. Saline oil and increased moisture on the north coast has destroyed all but a few Moche textiles, but other art forms such as ceramics have survived in abundance. Moche artists developed a lifelike style that was so accurate that plants and animals are often easily identified. Realistic portraits of individuals show what the people looked like and provide a great amount of detail about costume. Almost every aspect of their culture was depicted in Moche art (McEwan).
The Moche appear to have been an aggressive, warlike people. Extensive iconographic studies of finelinepainted ceramics reveal that depictions of one-on-one battles, apparent trails of captured warriors, and the sac-rifice of captured warriors by anthropomorphic deities are common (Sutter). The most intriguing scenes portrayed in the ceramics are those with figures of warriors and combat scenes. Fine-line combat scenes appear on some Moche III ceramic vessels, but they are most numerous and detailed on Moche IV vessels. Most scholars who have described this scenes interpreted them as some form of ritualized combat among the Moche elite and not as a depiction of conquest or warfare. The scenes showing the display of captives and their sacrifice at rituals presided over the Moche supernaturals provide support to the idea that Moche combat was formalized and ritual in nature. However, there is a need for more evidence since most scholars would agree that convincing archeological evidence of Moche warfare and military conquest has yet to be found (Verano).
At the beginning of the Middle Horizon (540-900), the Moche polity appears to have suffered a series of severe crises that led to its collapse. A climatic fluctuation is often cited as a possible cause of these crises. Internal social stress resulting from reduced economic productivity is sometimes mentioned as a factor as well, Another frequently cited cause is the expansion of the Huari Empire from the south. It seems that all of these factors played some role in the disappearance of the Moche culture (McEwan).
How does this work relate to resistance?
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The figure of the woman carrying the olla is one of the few artifacts left intact after the colonization of the Inca Empire. Like stated above, many of the metalwork pieces were melted down and converted to bars of gold and silver to bring back to Spain. Objects using precious metals such as silver were made exclusively for Inca nobles. Moreover, silver was considered the tears of the moon. The figurine was most likely made for the burial ritual of a noble Incan because figuring of humans and llamas were often found in burial sites. Silver was also used to make religious pieces; however, they were usually representations of natural phenomena and places that Incas held sacred (Catwright).
This figure of woman carrying olla shows resistance because it resisted the fever of the Spaniards for gold and silver. The existence of this silver figurine show that the Spaniards were not capable of fully take away the cultural richness that the inca Empire had shown in many of these metalworks of art. The fact that the figurine was dated before and during the colonization of Peru show that this figurine was lucky enough not to be found by the Spaniards and turn into a bar of silver. This shows resistance to imperialism because it was not destroyed by the Spaniards and, up to this day, it depicts a small aspect of the Incan culture to the world. In a broader sense, the figure shows the resistance of the Inca culture that it is still part of Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia to the Spaniard colonization and conversion to Christianity. It shows that the Spaniards did not have the power to take away their identities away from them by still preserving some aspects of the Incan culture in their lives and, of course, artifacts that depicts the influence and power the Inca Empire had over South America.
Figure of Woman Carrying Olla
Inca, Peru
Silver
1435-1534 A.D.
The Inca Empire was the last in a series of dominant cultures to arise in the Andean Highlands and on the peruvian coast before the Spanish Invasion of 1532-1533. The Inca Empire stretched from modern Ecuador to the central valley of Chile, and eastward to the foothills of the Amazon Basin. The land that covered the empire was known as Tawantinsuyu or the Land of the Four Quarters (MacLeod).
The spanish conquest of the Inca Empire was led by Pizarro, who arrived in Peru in 1532 with 169 Spanish soldiers. A civil war had broken out between two brothers, Atahualpa and Huáscar, which greatly weakened the empire by the time the Spanish conquest began. Atahualpa won the civil war and took Huáscar as a prisoner. Despite the empire's weakened state, Pizarro's forces were small, so careful planning on his part was necessary in order for his conquest to be successful. Pizarro captured Atahualpa in the Battle of Cajamarca. As a way to escape Atahualpa offered to fill a room with gold and to give twice that amount in silver in exchange for his freedom. Pizarro accepted the ransom, but he did not release him. Pizarro ended up killing Atahualpa and, with his death, the Incan Empire collapsed by the hand of the Spanish colonizers (Sarmiento et. al).
Metalworking occupies a unique place within Inca artistic production. However, the colonization of Peru destroyed many of the metalworks that were evidence of the unique Inca artistic production. A surprising percentage of the surviving works in this high-value medium might be considered anthropomorphic or zoomorphic, making them singular in the Inca artistic corpus, famed for its avoidance of flora and fauna. The writings of Spanish Conquistadors supply an understanding of inca craftsmanship and Inca conceptualization of precious metals. Although their interest in gold and silver led to frequent references to Inca metalwork in the chronicles, it also resulted in the destruction of almost all Inca metalwork and reflected in the general description of the precious metals. The Spaniards only care whether or not it was silver or gold and the weight of the object (Floyd).
The Olmec Head
Olmec Civilization
Carved basalt
1200B.C.- 400B.C.
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The Olmec civilization was “the first elaborate pre-Columbian civilization of Mesoamerica” and settled the fundamental pattern for later civilizations such as Maya and Aztec. It was located in the lowlands of Gulf of Mexico and was famous for its stone monuments such as the colossal carved head. It was also notable for the jaguar figures in its sculpture and monuments, such as the altar 5 of La Venta, showing a figure holding a jaguar baby, and the figures of Las Limas, Xalapa, holding a jaguar baby(Kunz axes) as well. Main sites include San Lorenzo, La Venta, etc. All these artifacts show Olmec people’s idea of life cycle and rebirth.
The decline of Olmec civilization was a mystery that scholars have yet to determine. Some theories suggest that the decline was due to environmental problems while others suggest as population drop. According to Christopher Minster, the author of “The Decline of the Olmec Civilization”, the decline could also be caused by warfare between local tribes and over intense agricultural activities. The remaining artworks give us insights into this mysterious and great culture.
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How does this work relate to resistance?
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The colossal head is grand and well carved, showing a great extent of manufacture skill during Olmec period. The well-preserved figure of a face shows the realistic view of Olmec rulers. Its existence shows the resist of overtaking Olmec’s cultural identity by the conquest.
Some colossal heads are made out of the thrones of previous rulers, showing the recycle of life and power. This shows human’s resistance to the nature power of death, wishing to continue lives after death in the form of monuments and arts.
Human beings resisting to nature is a process of civilization development. As an early civilization, Olmec’s art shows both their revere and their resistance to the nature. Their revere is shown by the materials of the head, which is nature stone (basalt). However, Olmec’s people put effort in carving the stone and make it human-like, showing their wish to transform their own power into nature power. They have overcome the harshness of the environment and the hardness of stone carving, implanting their own thoughts and culture into the natural land.
The idea of life cycle also shows their resistance mortality and their respect to the ruler. In Olmec people’s mind, keeping the throne of the old ruler and transforming it to the colossal head is a way to create memory and to maintain the power. In a broader way, they are creating their collective memory and maintaining the culture from vanishing. In Mollenhauer Jillian’s “Sculpturing the Past in Preclassic Mesoamerica: Olmec Stone Monuments and the Production of Social Memory”, he says that, “Once recognized as a public monument, the context of a sculptural work, as well as its recarving, mutilation, or resetting may have implications for the trajectory of Olmec social development.” Therefore, the colossal head is also a form of recording social development and resisting future negation of their culture.
How does this artwork relate to resistance?
Although the Great Goddess is recognized as a female figure according to western perspective on gender, some scholars challenge that opinion. In Mendell Elisa’s “The New Analysis of the Gender Attribution of the ‘Great
Goddess’ in Teotihuacan”, she re-exams “what purportedly constitutes feminine and masculine in these representations” in the Great Goddess figure. She believes that gender is the identity constructed by the society, rather than the initial performance of the body. There are no secondary gender characteristics and “no systematic analysis has been published that defines and supports gendered attributes in representations of humans in Teotihuacan art”. Thus, the interpretation of the “Great Goddess” as a female figure is only the projection of western scholars’ understanding of masculine and feminine.
The existence of the Great Goddess figure and its asexual appearance clearly show the resistance to the western concept of gender. Even nowadays, the recognition of gender is world-wide problem because of the existence of trans-gender and asexual person. The figure of Great Goddess gives us the hint to consider “gender performative” rather than biological sex when judging a person (or a god).
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The Great Goddess Mural
Teotihuacan, Tepantitla apartment
True Fresco
ca AD 700
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Teotihuacan culture is one of the preclassic Mesoamerican cultures, located in the Valley of Mexico. Nowadays, the remains of the Teotihuacan city is in Mexico city. Famous sites include Pyramid of the Sun, Pyramid of the Moon and the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. These main architectures are spread alongside the main road “Avenue of the Dead”, mostly linearly, but they are also blended with residential areas such as the apartment compounds.
In Esther Pasztory’s “Utopian State” theory, the organized and intense city structure and the abstraction of their artworks manifest the utopianism of Teotihuacan society. As comparison to Aztec culture, which emphasize the glory of military, Teotihuacan aimed to from a harmonious society. As it was said in Pasztory’s article, “Although I cannot prove this precisely, I sense that the Aztec goal was military glory and staving off the collapse of the universe, whereas the Teotihuacan aim seems to have been the creation of paradise on earth.” Indeed, in the mural, the Goddess is standing peacefully, with a world tree growing out from her body, and she is giving birth to new lives. Water drops fall from her hands into the ground and penetrate through the underworld. However, the harmonious is only part of the story. There are also violence aspects in Teotihuacan culture. For example, in this mural, the underworld is dark and dank with some fighting going on. There are fire image of conquest, showing the violence aspect. Other Great Goddess figures such as the Goddess with claws also shows the violence layer of Teotihuacan culture.
The Great Goddess Mural is recognized as “Goddess” instead of “God” according to the western concept of gender and was first proposed by Esther Pasztory. In her article, she believes that the Great Goddess is equivalent to the Aztec fertility goddess Xochiquetzal, and “she is an image of benevolence, for seeds, water, and jade treasures flow from her outstretched hands.” Although the Great Goddess seems asexual in appearance, the quality of “giving” gives her the motherly aspect of being a femineme figure. She also compre the Great Goddess to other famous femineme figures around the world, although seemingly asexual, such as the Statue of Liberty. “The choice of a major female deity for veneration is, at the same time, a turning away from a possible male choice and everything that implies,” said Pasztory. In common sense, or general stereotype, female is the representation of giving and benevolence, whereas male represents violence and conflicts.
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Three Views of the Pigorini Cemi/ Belt, Featuring a Human Mask of Rhinoceros Horn
Tiano Culture, Early Colonial Carribbean
Cotton cemi figure/ belt adorned with indigenous shell beads, European glass, human mask made of rhino horn from West Africa
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The Pigorini Cemi, being one of only four surviving Taino cotton artworks in the world, and one of only two of these pieces integrating European materials, is a valuable work of art that was produced in a brief moment in history which indigenous Taino, European, and African cultures interacted with ech other, before a majority of the Taino people were killed off from European invasions, slavery, warfare, and European-introduced diseases2The Pigorini Cemi is currently kept in the Pigorini National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography in Rome.
The piece is made up of two parts– belt and a figurative top, which were made separately and attached later, but are seamlessly integrated to form one object. The figurative top has a human face on one side, with a human face mask carved from rhino horn, and a bat face made with green European glass beads on the other.
Carbon dating revealed that the human head and the bat head in the Cemi figure, and the belt were all made separately before being put together in a single object, and that perhaps the figure top and the belt were used for different purposes before being united into a single object. The belt decorated with shell beading, wrapped around the “body” of the figure, had ceremonial significance in Taino culture and was only work in special occasions, often worn on the male body or presented as gifts. While it is unclear what the figurative top was used for, one theory is that it was used as a headpiece, as descriptions of similar pieces being used as headpieces exist in the records.
The human mask carved out of rhinoceros horn is one of the most intriguing parts of the Pigorini Cemi/ Belt. While rhinoceros horn was a desired commodity in Europe and Asia and frequently imported from Africa, there are no documented instances of rhinoceros horn being imported in the early colonial Americas, save for this piece. Moreover, the facial features of the human mask seemed to be carved in a West African style with West African features, suggesting perhaps that the West African slaves introduced their artistic style to the Taino artists.
The Cemi is an object that embodies a spirit, ancestor, or deity in Taino culture. Cemi in a similar shape to the Pigorini Cemi were used as reliquaries, which both represented and held the remains of spiritually significant people, such as behuques (shamans) or ancestors, so that they continued to have a connection to the material world after death.3 However, this specific cemi has no hollow space that could contain human remains, and is instead held together by a wooden base made of palm wood, suggesting that the object may have been put together for display purposes, most likely with the purpose of being sent to Europe to serve as a “curiosity” for European audiences.2
Cemi were familiar objects in daily life, whether they were used as reliquaries housing the spirit and remains of your ancestors or sculptures. Cemi were also sacred, and as objects had spiritual autonomy– there are many stories of Cemi speaking or communicating with the human world. For example, small 3-pointed stone cemi sculptures embodying the spirit of Yucahuguama, the Supreme Being of Taino culture, also known as “cassava giver,” were often placed in cassava farms for a bountiful harvest, and the stone Cemi sculptures had the power to make cassava grow. There are other stories of Cemi speaking directly with humans in a form of divine intervention with the material world. In this way, Cemi were sacred objects where the profane world touched with the sacred, and through which deities and ancestors could bring about physical influence onto the human world.
How does this artwork relate to resistance?
The work of archeologist Dr. Joanna Ostapkowicz, who specializes in Caribbean art, greatly informed and shaped how I viewed the Pigorini Cemi/ Belt. Her paper which explored in depth the materials of the Cemi through carbon dating was titled “Integrating the Old World into the New: an ‘Idol from the West Indies.’” “Idol from the West Indies” refers specifically to the very generalized way this cemi was described by one of the many European museums which catalogued this piece, and symbolizes how many indigenous works of art made for European audiences were passed off as “curiosities,” with little focus on the specific cultural practices, historical context, and artistic skills which caused the work to come to fruition. The term “idol” is very non-specific phrase, which could be referring to any religious artifact, and in the Western context was often used derogatorily, to point to non-Christian religious practices which needed to be converted (despite Catholic practices utilizing ‘idols’ in their worship as well). The phrase West Indies also only points to a very general geographic location, the term which in itself was a European construct, and does very little to provide a context for the specific culture from which the work is from. The Pigorini Cemi was passed around from European institution to institution, with generalized or even inaccurate labels since the early 16th century, when this piece presumably travelled across the Atlantic, not officially recognized as being a Caribbean artifact until 1952. It is currently housed in the Pigorini National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography in Rome, a Western institution whose name suggests that cultures before encountering Western influence is “prehistory.”
Presenting the problematic way in which the Cemi was catalogued and exhibited is important in exploring its relation to the theme of resistance. The particular form of resistance I want to explore is resistance through resilience. While the Pigorini Cemi and belt were stored by many institutions who took little care in understanding its actual history or artistic value, there are many historical records of similar beaded artifacts from the Caribbean which travelled to Europe but did not survive. The intricate craft of beading, using over 20,000 shell beads in the case of this belt, is a laborious Taino craft which takes months, and even years to make. The belt being woven together with European beads and West African-style rhino horn carving, presenting an ephemeral moment of interaction between Europe, Africa, and Taino culture is significant, as the survival of the object through the centuries becomes a concrete, beautiful record for a brief but significant point in the history of globalization and colonization. The meticulous process and the intentional selection of materials to realize the cemi and belt, which can carefully be observed by any viewer who takes the time to closely study the object, resists the generalized label that was often placed upon this object, including “Idol from the West Indies.” The fact that there are ongoing extensive studies being done on this object currently, centuries after the work was produced and travelled to Europe, speaks to the inherent power of the artwork which embodies the energy of the laborious process and the materials of the cemi and belt. Because the work was resilient and survived for hundreds of years, we can now begin to study and re-contextualize our perspective on Taino art and culture.
The Pigorini Cemi also resists and challenges Western and Christian notions of art as a passive object. Both the Cemi figure piece on the top and the belt were originally used as adornments on a body, an object that is meant to be touched and interacted with to unleash its full power as a piece of art. While these pieces were eventually woven together and grounded with a wooden base to be sent over to European institutions, the work has not lost some of its dimensionality. The figure has two sides– a human face and a bat face, and the bat mask is folded over the human head and when unfolded, reveals the elaborate hat piece worn by the human figure that is concealed from plain sight. Even when encased behind glass containers in a Western institution, these delicate folds and creases seem to invite the viewers to touch and interact with the artwork.
Finally, the cemi figure is an important record of a religious practice of the Taino people, resisting its erasure from history and memory caused by Spanish-introduced colonization, warfare, enslavement, and diseases which killed 80-90% of the Taino population. When the Spanish arrived.3 Cemi figures were points of connection between the spirit world and the material world, connecting the Taino people to their ancestors and their land in which their deities manifested themselves. The Spanish noticed the spiritual significance of these figures and attempted to seize them or recontextualize them as a way to propagate Christian ideals, 3but the Pigorini Cemi continues to survive, and through closely studying the artwork and materials we can begin to challenge, deconstruct, and resist these constructed ideologies.
Relaciones Geograficas
San Agustin, Present-day Mexico City, Post-Columbian Art
ink on paper
1580
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The Relaciones Geográficas were a series of documents and maps ordered by the Spanish crown to serve as “primary sources of information about the Spanish conquest of Middle America” (University of Texas). These documents served as a sort of census or questionnare for the Spanish crown and colonial governments, covering topics such as “demographics, political administration,
Languages spoken, physical terrain, and vegetation” (World Digital Library, 2014). Specifically, the Map of Culhuacan depicts an original Aztec origin narrative on the landscape on a map of modern-day Mexico City. The migration story of the Aztecs details their migration from Aztlan, the imagined, mythical homeland. As the nomadic Aztec ancestors crossed over Lake Texcoco in canoes, they sought refuge in Culhuacan, the curved cave mountain, where they acted as outsiders coming into a new space. In the realm of Aztec lineage, the cave of Culhuacan, meaning “place of our grandfathers”, acts as a sort of womb from which ancestors emerged from the
Earth (Mundy, 24).
How does this artwork relate to resistance?
The Map of Culhuacan, and the Relaciones Geográficas in general, represents a sort of artistic resistance against the purely European aesthetic through a fusing of European cartographic and artistic conventions with Latin American ones. This tactic was achieved through the combining of perspectives, the use of Aztec place glyphs, and the inclusion of churches and other religious buildings in the map. In this light, indigenous and Latin American artists made a statement in regards to the durability of pre-Columbian artistic milieus and indigenous conventions. Iconographically and artistically, Relaciones Geográficas were hybrid documents, “reflecting the two worlds, Spanish and indigenous, that maintained two distinct realities within sixteenth-century New Spain” (Mundy, 62). European cartography, for example, assumes that the human is located at a bird’s eye view, while pre-Columbian forms have no particular point of reference in cartographic spheres, and have no fixed bodily orientation. Additionally, the artist “juxtaposes against European architectural forms” of churches by including customary Aztec place glyph representations, showing, for example, the cave of Culhuacan and the presence of footprints, which indicate an imprint on the land (Steinhilper, 13). The artist fuses these two conventions on a single document to show that although the arrival of the Spanish brought new and dissimilar artistic conventions, Latin American societies resisted against a total upheaval of pre-existing artistic conventions. Through the fusion of European notions of landscape painting with Aztec pictorial symbols, Relaciones Geográficas documents acted as a sort of resistance to how European colonizers viewed Aztec and native descendance, showing how Aztecs viewed their own story.
Hatuey's Rebellion: Cuba, 1490s- 1512
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Hatuey is an indigenous Tiano Cacique (Chief) who led an armed resistance movement for independence from colonialism. "Cuba's First National Hero"
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Hatuey's armed resistance began on the island of Hispaniola (today Hati and the Dominican Republic). It was the first island visited by Spanish Colonizer Christopher Columbus in 1492. Him and his comrades led a guerilla movement by united Africans and Indigenous peoples on the colonizing Spaniards who massacred Taino people and enslaved them.
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On 1511 Diego Velazquez set out from Hispaniola to conquer Cuba. After waging guerilla war on the Spaniards for a number of years, Hatuey and 400of his people fled to Cuba to assist the Caobana Tainos in their struggle against the colonizers.
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His guerilla methods in Cuba were able to halt Spanish troops for a time until his capture in 1512. Before he was buned at the stake, he was asked if he would accept Jesus Christ and go to heaven and Hatuey responded: he did not want to to heaven but to hell so as not to be where Spaniards were and where he would not see such cruel people.
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Hatuey's rebellion is celebrated as the first sustained resistance to European colonialism in the New World, which ignited the spirit of liberty and independence that would circle the globe for the next five hundred years.
Mixton Rebellion: Mexico, 1540- 1542
After having colonized the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, the Spanish colonizers (in 1529 led by Nuno Beltran de Guzman) led a force of 300-400 troops along with 5,000 to 8,000 Aztecs and Tlaxcalans to the Caxcan town Nochistlan.
The expedition attempted to extend Spanish colonialism to the decentralized Indigenous communities of the Mexican Northwest by establishing the encomiendas system.
In 1540, while the brunt of the occupying forces left the region for another expedition, the Caxacanes peoples formed a coalition with the Zactecos and other indigenous groups of the area to stage an uprising against the Spaniards.
For two years from the period 1540-1542 under the leadership of Tenamaxil, the indigenous resistance held out against Spanish forces at Mixton hill.
The war was named after Mixton, a hill in the southern part of Zacateccas state in Mexico which served as an Indigenous stronghold. The spark that set off the war was the arrest of 18 rebellious Indigenous leaders and the hanging of nine of them in mid 1540. Later in the same year the Indigenous peoples rose up to kill Juan de Arze.
Antonio de Mendoza called upon the experiences conquistador Pedro de Alvarado to assist in putting down the rebellion. Alvando declined to await reinforcements an attacked Mixton in June 154, which was unsuccessful. Subsequent attacks by Alvarado were also unsuccessful and on June 24 he was crushed when a horse fell on him.
Emboldened, the Indigenous people attacked the city of Guadalajara in September but were repulsed. The indigenous army retired to Nochistlan and the other strong points. The Spanish authorities were now thoroughly alarmed and feared that the revolt would spread. They assembled a force of 450 Spaniards and 30 to 60 thousand Aztec, Tlaxcalan and other Indigenous peoples.
Tenamaxtli escaped capture and was on the run to Mixton Hill, where her was captured in 1542.
San Miguel Slave Revolt, Spanish Florida, 1526
One of the very first European settlements on the North America continent was established by Spanish colonists in 1526. Traveling from the island of hispaniola, the 600 Spanish settlers and 100 enslaved people landed on the coast of modern day Georgia. This was the first European settlement in North America since the Vikings’ exploration around the year 1000 A.D.
The Spanish group was led by a wealthy Santo Domingo sugar planter named Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon who received a royal edict from King Charles V to lead a Spanish expedition into the North American interior. They named the land “ San Miguel de Gualdape” settlement.
This settlement only lasted three months. Two thirds of the 600 Spnaish colonizers died from the harsh winter, disease and starvation. Ayllon himself died before the end of October.
The indigenous Guale peoples waged attacks against the Spanish colonizers and, after Ayllon’s death, the enslaved people seized the opportunity to revolt. This was the first recorded slave uprising in North American history, with 100 enslaved Africans escaping to take refuge with the neighboring Guale people.
By the spring of 1527 the Sn Miguel settlement was completely destroyed and 200 of the settlers fled on two ships back to Hispaniola, one of which sank along the way.
Formerly Aftrican slaves and the Guale allies lived in the region undisturbed for nearly two centuries.