The Road to Aztlan: Art from a Mythic Homeland

Published in conjunction with the major exhibition, The Road to Aztlan: Art from a Mythic Homeland explores the art derived from and created about the legendary area that encompasses the American Southwest and portions of Mexico long before they were separated by an international border. The book and accompanying exhibition view Aztlan as a metaphoric center and allegorical place of origin for the various peoples of the Southwest and Mexico. Cultural interactions between the two areas span two millennia, beginning with maize cultivation, which spread north from Mexico around BC 1200. The Road to Aztlan also investigates the relationship between myth and history as expressed in art and material culture of the region’s inhabitants over time and the relationship and continuities of cultural practices over the course of the pre-Columbian, colonial, and contemporary eras. Crucial to these changing relationships are aspects of tradition and innovation within cultures as! people sought to negotiate, maintain, and redefine their identities in the face of social disruption.

Nineteen essays by an international team of scholars and artists including Miguel León-Portilla, Ramón A. Gutiérrez, Polly Schaafsma, Stephen H. Lekson, and Victoria D. Vargas address the issues and concepts that revolve around a sense of place and the dynamic traditions of the past and what that means today.