Uploaded August 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
Presented in conjunction with the exhibitions, Mixpantli: Space, Time, and the Indigenous Origins of Mexico and Mixpantli: Contemporary Echoes, Rethinking Conquest is a recorded Zoom lecture series that features four scholars’ reflections on the moment of Mexico’s Conquest by Spaniards in the 15th century through three illustrated historical accounts and an analysis of the figure of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In this video, Dr. Angélica Afanador-Pujol explains and analyzes the significance of the images in the Relación de Michoacán, an account of Conquest and a pandemic.
Angélica Afanador-Pujol is associate professor at Arizona State University, where she teaches the history of Pre-Columbian and early Colonial Latin American art. She is the recipient of several awards including two fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies. She has published essays in leading art journals, and the University of Texas Press published her book, The Relación de Michoacán (1539-1541) and the Politics of Representation in Colonial Mexico in 2015. She is also the co-author of Don Antonio Huitzimengari: An indigenous noble in sixteenth-century Mexico published by the UNAM and the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo in 2019. She has been a contributing editor for the Library of Congress’ Handbook of Latin American Studies and she is currently working on representations of food and conquest in Pre-Columbian and early colonial Latin America. The Art Bulletin will be publishing one of her essays on this topic in June of this year.
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Mixpantli: Space, Time, and the Indigenous Origins of Mexico and Mixpantli: Contemporary Echoes are co-curated by Dr. Diana Magaloni the Deputy Director, Program Director and the Dr. Virginia Fields Curator of the Art of the Ancient Americas as well as the Suzanne D. Booth and David G. Booth Conservation Center Director at LACMA; and Alyce de Carteret, the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Art of the Ancient Americas Department at LACMA.
Both exhibitions were themselves conceived to rethink the traditional narrative of “conquest,” creating an opportunity on the 500th anniversary of the fall of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan to center instead the creative resistance of Indigenous artists.
Their works—illustrated histories, featherworks, stone sculptures, cartographic paintings—tell a story not of defeat but of perseverance, renewal, and an enduring commitment to an Indigenous future.
This program was originally presented on Zoom on March 22, 2022.
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About LACMA
Located on the Pacific Rim, LACMA is the largest art museum in the western United States, with a collection of nearly 140,000 objects that illuminate 6,000 years of artistic expression across the globe. Committed to showcasing a multitude of art histories, LACMA exhibits and interprets works of art from new and unexpected points of view that are informed by the region’s rich cultural heritage and diverse population. LACMA’s spirit of experimentation is reflected in its work with artists, technologists, and thought leaders as well as in its regional, national, and global partnerships to share collections and programs, create pioneering initiatives, and engage new audiences.
Connect with LACMA
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Presented in conjunction with the exhibitions, Mixpantli: Space, Time, and the Indigenous Origins of Mexico and Mixpantli: Contemporary Echoes, Rethinking Conquest is a recorded Zoom lecture series that features four scholars’ reflections on the moment of Mexico’s Conquest by Spaniards in the 15th century through three illustrated historical accounts and an analysis of the figure of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In this video, Dr. Angélica Afanador-Pujol explains and analyzes the significance of the images in the Relación de Michoacán, an account of Conquest and a pandemic.
Angélica Afanador-Pujol is associate professor at Arizona State University, where she teaches the history of Pre-Columbian and early Colonial Latin American art. She is the recipient of several awards including two fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies. She has published essays in leading art journals, and the University of Texas Press published her book, The Relación de Michoacán (1539-1541) and the Politics of Representation in Colonial Mexico in 2015. She is also the co-author of Don Antonio Huitzimengari: An indigenous noble in sixteenth-century Mexico published by the UNAM and the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo in 2019. She has been a contributing editor for the Library of Congress’ Handbook of Latin American Studies and she is currently working on representations of food and conquest in Pre-Columbian and early colonial Latin America. The Art Bulletin will be publishing one of her essays on this topic in June of this year.
___
Mixpantli: Space, Time, and the Indigenous Origins of Mexico and Mixpantli: Contemporary Echoes are co-curated by Dr. Diana Magaloni the Deputy Director, Program Director and the Dr. Virginia Fields Curator of the Art of the Ancient Americas as well as the Suzanne D. Booth and David G. Booth Conservation Center Director at LACMA; and Alyce de Carteret, the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Art of the Ancient Americas Department at LACMA.
Both exhibitions were themselves conceived to rethink the traditional narrative of “conquest,” creating an opportunity on the 500th anniversary of the fall of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan to center instead the creative resistance of Indigenous artists.
Their works—illustrated histories, featherworks, stone sculptures, cartographic paintings—tell a story not of defeat but of perseverance, renewal, and an enduring commitment to an Indigenous future.
This program was originally presented on Zoom on March 22, 2022.
___
About LACMA
Located on the Pacific Rim, LACMA is the largest art museum in the western United States, with a collection of nearly 140,000 objects that illuminate 6,000 years of artistic expression across the globe. Committed to showcasing a multitude of art histories, LACMA exhibits and interprets works of art from new and unexpected points of view that are informed by the region’s rich cultural heritage and diverse population. LACMA’s spirit of experimentation is reflected in its work with artists, technologists, and thought leaders as well as in its regional, national, and global partnerships to share collections and programs, create pioneering initiatives, and engage new audiences.
Connect with LACMA
Subscribe for our latest videos: lacma.org/videos
Explore our collection online: collections.lacma.org
Plan your visit to LACMA: lacma.org/visit
Support the museum and become a member: lacma.org/support
Follow us on social
Facebook: facebook.com/LACMA
Twitter: twitter.com/lacma
Tumblr: lacma.tumblr.com
Pinterest: pinterest.com/lacma
Instagram: instagram.com/lacma
