The Mexican Museum Of San Francisco Papers 1971 2006

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The Mexican Museum of San Francisco Papers, 1971-2006

Author : Karen Mary Davalos
Publisher : University of Washington Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 228 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (31 download)

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Book Synopsis The Mexican Museum of San Francisco Papers, 1971-2006 by : Karen Mary Davalos

Download or read book The Mexican Museum of San Francisco Papers, 1971-2006 written by Karen Mary Davalos and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mexican Museum of San Francisco was founded in 1975 by artist Peter Rodriguez to "foster the exhibition, conservation, and dissemination of Mexican and Chicano art and culture for all peoples." Its holdings include some 14,000 objects with a historical range extending from pre-conquest Mexico to contemporary Mexican American and Latino communities in the United States. The Chicano Studies Research Center's collection includes a broad selection of the museum's administrative papers and related materials. Karen Mary Davalos draws on these documents to trace the origins of the museum and explore how its mission has been shaped by its visionary artist-founder, local art collectors and patrons, Mexican art and culture, and the Chicano movement. A detailed finding aid and a selected bibliography complete the volume.

Encyclopedia of Latino Culture [3 volumes]

Author : Charles M. Tatum
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 1465 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (161 download)

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Book Synopsis Encyclopedia of Latino Culture [3 volumes] by : Charles M. Tatum

Download or read book Encyclopedia of Latino Culture [3 volumes] written by Charles M. Tatum and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2013-11-26 with total page 1465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This three-volume encyclopedia describes and explains the variety and commonalities in Latina/o culture, providing comprehensive coverage of a variety of Latina/o cultural forms—popular culture, folk culture, rites of passages, and many other forms of shared expression. In the last decade, the Latina/o population has established itself as the fastest growing ethnic group within the United States, and constitutes one of the largest minority groups in the nation. While the different Latina/o groups do have cultural commonalities, there are also many differences among them. This important work examines the historical, regional, and ethnic/racial diversity within specific traditions in rich detail, providing an accurate and comprehensive treatment of what constitutes "the Latino experience" in America. The entries in this three-volume set provide accessible, in-depth information on a wide range of topics, covering cultural traditions including food; art, film, music, and literature; secular and religious celebrations; and religious beliefs and practices. Readers will gain an appreciation for the historical, regional, and ethnic/racial diversity within specific Latina/o traditions. Accompanying sidebars and "spotlight" biographies serve to highlight specific cultural differences and key individuals.

Chicana/o Remix

Author : Karen Mary Davalos
Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 1479849502
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (798 download)

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Book Synopsis Chicana/o Remix by : Karen Mary Davalos

Download or read book Chicana/o Remix written by Karen Mary Davalos and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2017-07-25 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rewrites our understanding of the last 50 years of Chicana/o cultural production. Chicana/o Remix casts new light not only on artists—such as Sandra de la Loza, Judy Baca, and David Botello, among others—but on the exhibitions that feature their work, and the collectors, curators, critics, and advocates who engage it. Combining feminist theory, critical ethnic studies, art historical analysis, and extensive archival and field research, Karen Mary Davalos argues that narrow notions of identity, politics, and aesthetics limit our ability to understand the full capacities of Chicana/o art. She employs fresh vernacular concepts such as the “errata exhibit,” or the staging of exhibits that critically question mainstream art museums, and the “remix,” or the act of bringing new narratives and forgotten histories from the background and into the foreground. These concepts, which emerge out of art practice itself, drive her analysis and reinforce the rejection of familiar narratives that evaluate Chicana/o art in simplistic, traditional terms, such as political versus commercial, or realist versus conceptual. Throughout Chicana/o Remix, Davalos explores undocumented or previously ignored information about artists, their cultural production, and the exhibitions and collections that feature their work. Each chapter exposes and challenges conventions in art history and Chicana/o studies, documenting how Chicana artists were the first to critically challenge exhibitions of Chicana/o art, tracing the origins of the first Chicano arts organizations, and highlighting the influence of Europe and Asia on Chicana/o artists who traveled abroad. As a leading scholar in the study of Chicana/o artists, art spaces, and exhibition practices, Davalos presents her most ambitious project to date in this re-examination of fifty years of Chicana/o art production.

In and Out of View

Author : Catha Paquette
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1501358707
Total Pages : 385 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis In and Out of View by : Catha Paquette

Download or read book In and Out of View written by Catha Paquette and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2021-09-09 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In and Out of View models an expansion in how censorship is discursively framed. Contributors from diverse backgrounds, including artists, art historians, museum specialists, and students, address controversial instances of art production and reception from the mid-20th century to the present in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Their essays, interviews, and statements invite consideration of the shifting contexts, values, and needs through which artwork moves in and out of view. At issue are governmental restrictions and discursive effects, including erasure and distortion resulting from institutional policies, canonical processes, and interpretive methods. Crucial considerations concerning death/violence, authoritarianism, (neo)colonialism, global capitalism, labor, immigration, race, religion, sexuality, activism/social justice, disability, campus speech, and cultural destruction are highlighted. The anthology-a thought-provoking resource for students and scholars in art history, museum and cultural studies, and creative practices-represents a timely and significant contribution to the literature on censorship.

Latinos in Libraries, Museums, and Archives

Author : Patricia Montiel-Overall
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1442258519
Total Pages : 311 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (422 download)

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Book Synopsis Latinos in Libraries, Museums, and Archives by : Patricia Montiel-Overall

Download or read book Latinos in Libraries, Museums, and Archives written by Patricia Montiel-Overall and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-12-17 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by three experienced LIS professionals, Latinos in Libraries, Museums, and Archives demonstrates the meaning of cultural competence in the everyday work in libraries, archives, museums, and special collections with Latino populations. The authors focus on their areas of expertise including academic, school, public libraries, health sciences, archives, and special collections to show the importance of understanding how cultural competence effects the day-to-day communication, relationship building, and information provision with Latinos. They acknowledge the role of both tacit and explicit knowledge in their work, and discuss ways in which cultural competence is integral to successful delivery of services to, communication with, and relationship building with Latino communities.

The Heart of the Mission

Author : Cary Cordova
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN 13 : 0812294149
Total Pages : 337 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (122 download)

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Book Synopsis The Heart of the Mission by : Cary Cordova

Download or read book The Heart of the Mission written by Cary Cordova and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2017-05-04 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An illustrated, in-depth examintion of the avant-garde and politically radical Latino art of San Francisco's Mission District In The Heart of the Mission, Cary Cordova combines urban, political, and art history to examine how the Mission District, a longtime bohemian enclave in San Francisco, has served as an important place for an influential and largely ignored Latino arts movement from the 1960s to the present. Well before the anointment of the "Mission School" by art-world arbiters at the dawn of the twenty-first century, Latino artists, writers, poets, playwrights, performers, and filmmakers made the Mission their home and their muse. The Mission, home to Chileans, Cubans, Guatemalans, Mexican Americans, Nicaraguans, Puerto Ricans, and Salvadorans never represented a single Latino identity. In tracing the experiences of a diverse group of Latino artists from the 1940s to the turn of the century, Cordova connects wide-ranging aesthetics to a variety of social movements and activist interventions. The book begins with the history of the Latin Quarter in the 1940s and the subsequent cultivation of the Beat counterculture in the 1950s, demonstrating how these decades laid the groundwork for the artistic and political renaissance that followed. Using oral histories, visual culture, and archival research, she analyzes the Latin jazz scene of the 1940s, Latino involvement in the avant-garde of the 1950s, the Chicano movement and Third World movements of the 1960s, the community mural movement of the 1970s, the transnational liberation movements in Nicaragua and El Salvador, and the AIDS activism of the 1980s. Through these different historical frames, Cordova links the creation of Latino art with a flowering of Latino politics.

Chicano and Chicana Art

Author : Jennifer A. González
Publisher : Duke University Press
ISBN 13 : 1478003405
Total Pages : 552 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (78 download)

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Book Synopsis Chicano and Chicana Art by : Jennifer A. González

Download or read book Chicano and Chicana Art written by Jennifer A. González and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-15 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This anthology provides an overview of the history and theory of Chicano/a art from the 1960s to the present, emphasizing the debates and vocabularies that have played key roles in its conceptualization. In Chicano and Chicana Art—which includes many of Chicano/a art's landmark and foundational texts and manifestos—artists, curators, and cultural critics trace the development of Chicano/a art from its early role in the Chicano civil rights movement to its mainstream acceptance in American art institutions. Throughout this teaching-oriented volume they address a number of themes, including the politics of border life, public art practices such as posters and murals, and feminist and queer artists' figurations of Chicano/a bodies. They also chart the multiple cultural and artistic influences—from American graffiti and Mexican pre-Columbian spirituality to pop art and modernism—that have informed Chicano/a art's practice. Contributors. Carlos Almaraz, David Avalos, Judith F. Baca, Raye Bemis, Jo-Anne Berelowitz, Elizabeth Blair, Chaz Bojóroquez, Philip Brookman, Mel Casas, C. Ondine Chavoya, Karen Mary Davalos, Rupert García, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Shifra Goldman, Jennifer A. González, Rita Gonzalez, Robb Hernández, Juan Felipe Herrera, Louis Hock, Nancy L. Kelker, Philip Kennicott, Josh Kun, Asta Kuusinen, Gilberto “Magu” Luján, Amelia Malagamba-Ansotegui, Amalia Mesa-Bains, Dylan Miner, Malaquias Montoya, Judithe Hernández de Neikrug, Chon Noriega, Joseph Palis, Laura Elisa Pérez, Peter Plagens, Catherine Ramírez, Matthew Reilly, James Rojas, Terezita Romo, Ralph Rugoff, Lezlie Salkowitz-Montoya, Marcos Sanchez-Tranquilino, Cylena Simonds, Elizabeth Sisco, John Tagg, Roberto Tejada, Rubén Trejo, Gabriela Valdivia, Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, Victor Zamudio-Taylor

Consuelo Jimenez Underwood

Author : Laura E. Pérez
Publisher : Duke University Press
ISBN 13 : 1478022930
Total Pages : 313 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (78 download)

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Book Synopsis Consuelo Jimenez Underwood by : Laura E. Pérez

Download or read book Consuelo Jimenez Underwood written by Laura E. Pérez and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2022-06-13 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consuelo Jimenez Underwood’s artwork is marked by her compassionate and urgent engagement with a range of pressing contemporary issues, from immigration and environmental precarity to the resilience of Indigenous ancestral values and the necessity of decolonial aesthetics in art making. Drawing on the fiber arts movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Chicana feminist art, and Indigenous fiber- and loom-based traditions, Jimenez Underwood’s art encompasses needlework, weaving, painted and silkscreened pieces, installations, sculptures, and performance. This volume’s contributors write about her place in feminist textile art history, situate her work among that of other Indigenous-identified feminist artists, and explore her signature works, series, techniques, images, and materials. Redefining the practice of weaving, Jimenez Underwood works with repurposed barbed wire, yellow caution tape, safety pins, and plastic bags and crosses Indigenous, Chicana, European, and Euro-American art practices, pushing the arts of the Americas beyond Eurocentric aesthetics toward culturally hybrid and Indigenous understandings of art making. Jimenez Underwood’s redefinition of weaving and painting alongside the socially and environmentally engaged dimensions of her work position her as one of the most vital artists of our time. Contributors. Constance Cortez, Karen Mary Davalos, Carmen Febles, M. Esther Fernández, Christine Laffer, Ann Marie Leimer, Amalia Mesa-Bains, Robert Milnes, Jenell Navarro, Laura E. Pérez, Marcos Pizarro, Verónica Reyes, Clara Román-Odio, Carol Sauvion, Cristina Serna, Emily Zaiden

Mujeres de Maiz en Movimiento

Author : Amber Rose González
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
ISBN 13 : 0816552940
Total Pages : 449 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (165 download)

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Book Synopsis Mujeres de Maiz en Movimiento by : Amber Rose González

Download or read book Mujeres de Maiz en Movimiento written by Amber Rose González and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2024-03-26 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Founded in 1997, Mujeres de Maiz (MdM) is an Indigenous Xicana–led spiritual artivist organization and movement by and for women and feminists of color. Chronicling its quarter-century-long herstory, this collection weaves together diverse stories with attention to their larger sociopolitical contexts. The book crosses conventional genre boundaries through the inclusion of poetry, visual art, testimonios, and essays. MdM’s political-ethical-spiritual commitments, cultural production, and everyday practices are informed by Indigenous and transnational feminist of color artistic, ceremonial, activist, and intellectual legacies. Contributors fuse stories of celebration, love, and spirit-work with an incisive critique of interlocking oppressions, both intimate and structural, encouraging movement toward “a world where many worlds fit.” The multidisciplinary, intergenerational, and critical-creative nature of the project coupled with the unique subject matter makes the book a must-have for high school and college students, activist-scholars, artists, community organizers, and others invested in social justice and liberation.

Building Sustainable Worlds

Author : Theresa Delgadillo
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 0252053540
Total Pages : 286 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (52 download)

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Book Synopsis Building Sustainable Worlds by : Theresa Delgadillo

Download or read book Building Sustainable Worlds written by Theresa Delgadillo and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2022-07-12 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Latina/o/x places exist as both tangible physical phenomena and gatherings created and maintained by creative cultural practices. In this collection, an interdisciplinary group of contributors critically examines the many ways that varied Latina/o/x communities cohere through cultural expression. Authors consider how our embodied experiences of place, together with our histories and knowledge, inform our imagination and reimagination of our surroundings in acts of placemaking. This placemaking often considers environmental sustainability as it helps to sustain communities in the face of xenophobia and racism through cultural expression ranging from festivals to zines to sanctuary movements. It emerges not only in specific locations but as movement within and between sites; not only as part of a built environment, but also as an aesthetic practice; and not only because of efforts by cultural, political, and institutional leaders, but through mass media and countless human interactions. A rare and crucial perspective on Latina/o/x people in the Midwest, Building Sustainable Worlds reveals how expressive culture contributes to, and sustains, a sense of place in an uncertain era.

VIVA Records, 1970-2000

Author : Robb Hernandez
Publisher : University of Washington Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 130 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (318 download)

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Book Synopsis VIVA Records, 1970-2000 by : Robb Hernandez

Download or read book VIVA Records, 1970-2000 written by Robb Hernandez and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robert Hernandez traces the history and assesses the impact of VIVA Lesbian and Gay Latino Artists, a nonprofit artists' coalition founded in 1987 in the Silverlake community of Los Angeles. Their aim was to increase the representation of lesbian Latina and gay Latino artists in the LA art scene. VIVA sponsored exhibitions, theatrical performances, and educational outreach. It worked closely with other gay and lesbian organizations in Los Angeles, using arts-based projects to address cultural and sociopolitcal issues that were of concern to their community and the AIDS crisis in particuar. The first organization of its kind in Los Angeles, VIVA offered a stage and a voice for artists who had been routinely marginalized. The VIVA collection of papers is housed at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center. It includes administrative papers, photographs, artwork, VIVA publications, and documents related to the organization's exhibitions, performances, educational projects, and other events.

The Latino Theatre Initiative/Center Theatre Group Papers, 1980-2005

Author : Chantal Rodriguez
Publisher : University of Washington Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 100 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (318 download)

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Book Synopsis The Latino Theatre Initiative/Center Theatre Group Papers, 1980-2005 by : Chantal Rodriguez

Download or read book The Latino Theatre Initiative/Center Theatre Group Papers, 1980-2005 written by Chantal Rodriguez and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Established in 1992 by Los Angeles's Center Theatre Group, the Latino Theatre Initiative sought to diversify audiences by diversifying theatrical programming. Until 2005, when it was suspended, the program resulted in the production of eleven new main-stage plays at the Mark Taper Forum. It was also key in the development of new and emerging Latino artists, the production of second-stage works, and the incorporation of community-based events into theater programming. Chantal Rodriguez draws on the extensive Latino Theatre Initiative/Center Theatre Group Papers, 1980-2005, housed at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, in this first extended historical account of the program. Rodriguez evaluates the initiative's successes and shortcomings and examines the roles played by its leaders and its significant roster of artists. A finding aid for the collection and a selected bibliography round out the volume.

Self Help Graphics & Art

Author : Colin Gunckel
Publisher : University of Washington Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 236 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (318 download)

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Book Synopsis Self Help Graphics & Art by : Colin Gunckel

Download or read book Self Help Graphics & Art written by Colin Gunckel and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This second edition of Self Help Graphics & Art brings the original edition up to date, adding breadth and depth to the history of the historic East L. A. arts center. Self Help Graphics has been a national model for community-based art making and art-based community making since its founding in the early 1970s. Known for its groundbreaking printmaking and art education programs, Self Help Graphics has empowered local artists and taught the world about the vibrancy of Chicano/Latino art. A comprehensive guide to the Self Help Graphics & Art archives at the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives (CEMA), University of California, Santa Barbara, and an expanded bibliography complete the volume. Contributors include Michael Amescua, Yreina Cervantes, Karen Mary Davalos, Armando Durón, Evonne Gallardo, Colin Gunckel, Kristen Guzmán, Leo Limón, Chon A. Noriega, Peter Toval, Linda Vallejo, and Mari Cárdenas Yáñez.

Flying Under the Radar with the Royal Chicano Air Force

Author : Ella Maria Diaz
Publisher : University of Texas Press
ISBN 13 : 1477312420
Total Pages : 367 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (773 download)

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Book Synopsis Flying Under the Radar with the Royal Chicano Air Force by : Ella Maria Diaz

Download or read book Flying Under the Radar with the Royal Chicano Air Force written by Ella Maria Diaz and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2017-04-11 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner, National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies Book Award, 2019 The Royal Chicano Air Force produced major works of visual art, poetry, prose, music, and performance during the second half of the twentieth century and first decades of the twenty-first. Materializing in Sacramento, California, in 1969 and established between 1970 and 1972, the RCAF helped redefine the meaning of artistic production and artwork to include community engagement projects such as breakfast programs, community art classes, and political and labor activism. The collective’s work has contributed significantly both to Chicano/a civil rights activism and to Chicano/a art history, literature, and culture. Blending RCAF members’ biographies and accounts of their artistic production with art historical, cultural, and literary scholarship, Flying under the Radar with the Royal Chicano Air Force is the first in-depth study of this vanguard Chicano/a arts collective and activist group. Ella Maria Diaz investigates how the RCAF questioned and countered conventions of Western art, from the canon taught in US institutions to Mexican national art history, while advancing a Chicano/a historical consciousness in the cultural borderlands. In particular, she demonstrates how women significantly contributed to the collective’s output, navigating and challenging the overarching patriarchal cultural norms of the Chicano Movement and their manifestations in the RCAF. Diaz also shows how the RCAF’s verbal and visual architecture—a literal and figurative construction of Chicano/a signs, symbols, and texts—established the groundwork for numerous theoretical interventions made by key scholars in the 1990s and the twenty-first century.

American Art Directory 2005-2006

Author : National Register Publishing
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780872178465
Total Pages : 1020 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (784 download)

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Book Synopsis American Art Directory 2005-2006 by : National Register Publishing

Download or read book American Art Directory 2005-2006 written by National Register Publishing and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 1020 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Return of Cultural Heritage to Latin America

Author : Pierre Losson
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000536939
Total Pages : 249 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (5 download)

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Book Synopsis The Return of Cultural Heritage to Latin America by : Pierre Losson

Download or read book The Return of Cultural Heritage to Latin America written by Pierre Losson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-02-10 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Return of Cultural Heritage to Latin America takes a new approach to the question of returns and restitutions. It is the first publication to look at the domestic politics of claiming countries in order to understand who supports the claims and why. Drawing on analysis of articles published in national newspapers and archival documents and interviews with individuals involved in return claims, the book demonstrates that such claims are inherently political. Focusing on Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, the book analyses how return claims contribute to the strengthening of state-sponsored discourses on the nation; the policy formation process that leads to the formulation of return claims; and who the main actors of the claims are, including civil society individuals, experts, state authorities, and Indigenous communities. The book proposes explanations for why Latin American countries are interested in specific objects held in Western museums and why these claims have come to light over the past three decades. The Return of Cultural Heritage to Latin America argues that return claims ought to be the object of public debate, allowing contemporary societies to address the legacy of colonialism. The book will be essential reading for scholars and students engaged in the study of museums and heritage, political science, history, anthropology, cultural policy, and Latin America.

Ancient Origins of the Mexican Plaza

Author : Logan Wagner
Publisher : University of Texas Press
ISBN 13 : 029274983X
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (927 download)

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Book Synopsis Ancient Origins of the Mexican Plaza by : Logan Wagner

Download or read book Ancient Origins of the Mexican Plaza written by Logan Wagner and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2013-04-04 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The plaza has been a defining feature of Mexican urban architecture and culture for at least 4,000 years. Ancient Mesoamericans conducted most of their communal life in outdoor public spaces, and today the plaza is still the public living room in every Mexican neighborhood, town, and city—the place where friends meet, news is shared, and personal and communal rituals and celebrations happen. The site of a community’s most important architecture—church, government buildings, and marketplace—the plaza is both sacred and secular space and thus the very heart of the community. This extensively illustrated book traces the evolution of the Mexican plaza from Mesoamerican sacred space to modern public gathering place. The authors led teams of volunteers who measured and documented nearly one hundred traditional Mexican town centers. The resulting plans reveal the layers of Mesoamerican and European history that underlie the contemporary plaza. The authors describe how Mesoamericans designed their ceremonial centers as embodiments of creation myths—the plaza as the primordial sea from which the earth emerged. They discuss how Europeans, even though they sought to eradicate native culture, actually preserved it as they overlaid the Mesoamerican sacred plaza with the Renaissance urban concept of an orthogonal grid with a central open space. The authors also show how the plaza’s historic, architectural, social, and economic qualities can contribute to mainstream urban design and architecture today.