Fusión de dos Culturas: The Pre-Columbian Symbol's role in forming Mexican National Identity in Modern, Contemporary Art and the Post-Colonial Landscape.

Abstract

An exploration of various examples of the role of Pre-Columbian symbology in the formation of a Mexican National identity, as applied mostly to modern and contemporary art, but also to various other forms of Media such as advertising, campaigning, signage, craft, and silversmithing industries. The atavistic resurrection of these symbols will be analyzed within a postcolonial framework and their contemporary utilizations in popular culture categorized as politically, socially, or aesthetically motivated. Whether they be, primitivist, iconoclastic, decolonial, or even a combination of all the aforementioned. Questions pertaining to the debate of transculturation vs. cultural imposition, national identity, conquest, colonization, the blurring of national / ethnic identity with indigeneity, and the repossession and repurposing of Indigenous image, heritage, art forms and cultural practice will be touched on as well.