Mixpantli: Space, Time and the Indigenous Origins of Mexico

Corregidor Pedro Pérez de Zamora, Facsimile of Map of Zolipa Misantla, Veracruz, 1573, 2021, facsimile of the original in the collection of the Archivo General de la Nación by Tlaoli Ramírez Téllez, courtesy of the artist, commissioned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, © Tlaoli Ramírez Téllez

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents Mixpantli: Space, Time, and the Indigenous Origins of Mexico, coinciding with the 500th anniversary of the fall of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan (modern-day Mexico City). This exhibition subverts the traditional narrative of the conquest by centering the creative resilience of Indigenous artists, mapmakers, and storytellers who forged new futures and made their world anew through artistic practice. Nahua scribes and painters gave the name mixpantli, or “banner of clouds,” to the first omen of the conquest, depicting this omen as both a Mexica, or Aztec, battle standard and a Euro-Christian column enveloped in clouds. Mixpantli, then, reflects the bringing together of both Nahua and Christian worldviews, and the efforts of Indigenous peoples to reorient space and time in a new world and era.

Read an article about the exhibition in Unframed LACMA’s newsletter