The heart of Aztlan, the Aztec mythic homeland, has been captured by The Albuquerque Museum's latest exhibit that chronicles life from the 1300s to that of the modern Chicano.
The Road to Aztlan: Art From a Mythic Homeland includes 2,000 years of art in Aztlan, a legendary region that the Aztecs left in 1325 to follow one of their gods, Huitzilopochtli, and established Tenochlitan, a city the Aztecs built outside of modern-day Mexico City. The Aztecs established an extensive city that was later conquered by the Spaniards. With the fall of the empire, the memory of Aztlan faded until it was revived in the 1960s by Chicano activists deeming the southwest their spiritual homeland.
This rich history spawned the idea for the extensive, interactive exhibition that is in its final leg of a three-city tour.
The exhibit features more than 250 rare examples of art and archaeological artifacts, including pre-Columbian objects, paintings and sculpture from the colonial era, and videos and mixed-media works by contemporary artists.
The exhibition is configured to present a historic overview of the relationships between the American Southwest and Mexico. It is divided into three chronological periods: the pre-Columbian years, the colonial period and contemporary times.
The exhibit begins with introductions to Aztec art, pottery and an impressive variety of gods. Ancient bowls, bells, pots and jewelry are the most common artifacts that set this portion of the exhibition apart. A large "Rattlesnake tail with Maize ends" and "Caracol," which translates to shell, are two of the larger pieces of Mesoamerican art that are identical to ruins found today in Tenochlitan outside of Mexico City.
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Moving forward in time, the exhibition chronicles the Casas Grandes region of Mexico with smoother pottery that still clearly draws from Aztec roots, which includes portrayal of humans and animals as short, rounded figures that mirrored the indigenous group's appearance.
The exhibit then focuses the conquest and, more notably, the introduction of the Catholic Church. This section offers a large map of New Mexico from the 19th century on oil and canvas that is incredibly detailed. Colorful, hand-woven serapes also adorn this portion of the exhibition.
Saints and religious art are very prominent, but the artists' indigenous roots remain strongly represented by the use of popular Aztec quetzal feathers to paint most of the pieces.
The exhibit is transformed into a beautiful box of saints with the display of oil on canvas and oil on wood depictions of San JosÇ, Santa Teresa de Avila, the Virgin of Guadalupe, Santa B†rbara, San Miguel and San Lorenzo.
The last portion invokes images from the 1950s to modern-day artists with a variety of renditions of Chicano imagery that move beyond popular Mexican artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.
These artists more directly challenge issues of identity, acceptance and culture in what is portrayed as a splintered vision of Aztlan. Roberto Gil de Montes' "L.A. Aztec" illustrates his view of the world through a mixed-media piece that depicts Mexico above the United States and uses icons from the Aztec era to modern Chicano boxers who now are his inspiration.
James Luna's three black and white photos on Masonite titled "Half Indian and Half Mexican" is basically the head shot of a man with long hair on one side and short on the other.
The strikingly simple contrast illustrates the artist's struggle with the blending of two cultures that are celebrated throughout the exhibit - indigenous and Spanish to form the Mexican and Hispanic cultures.
The most striking piece that stands out despite being tucked away at the end of the exhibit is Yolanda L¢pez's "Nuestra Madre." It embodies Chicana art and the resurgence of Aztec imagery in the face of Catholicism. The border of the oil on canvas piece is the halo that traditionally adorns the Virgin of Guadalupe, but in place of the virgin, L¢pez invokes Coatlicue, the Aztec female deity associated with mythic origins of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
While its exact physical location is unknown, Aztlan has had a profound influence on the people of both Mesoamerica and the American Southwest.
Road to Aztlan embraces the long history of Aztlan lore and views the mythical place as a metaphoric center reflecting sacred geography and imagined social systems that incorporate economics, religion, history and art in the worldviews of people of the Southwest and Mexico.
The museum also is offering a film series in conjunction with the exhibit, which will include eight films.
The first film, "≠Que Viva MÇxico!" is a black and white documentary focusing on Mexican history and culture from pre-Columbian times to the 1910 revolution. It will be showing Friday from 7-9 p.m.at the museum, 2000 Mountain Rd.
The exhibition opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and traveled to Austin before arriving in Albuquerque.
The Road to Aztlan: Images from a Mythic Homeland will be on display through April 28 and should not be missed.
