“The Museum of America is like being on another continent. It seems like crossing an ocean to get there,” says Izaskun Álvarez Cuartero, professor of colonial history at the University of Salamanca. Far from the art triangle in the city center, it is on the edge of the highway, in the Ciudad Universitaria. It only opens in the afternoon one day a week. With 63,651, it is the second largest state museum to record the fewest visits in 2022, ahead only of the Casa de Cervantes in Valladolid (21,006). And unless you go to the door and read the sign, it doesn’t look like a museum, not even a house museum. Perhaps most chilling is the outdated history, unintentionally tagged with short captions and an assembly that hasn’t changed since it reopened in the mid-1990s. Inside, time seems to have stood still. What puts him at the center of the debate that most moves the present and future of art: decolonization.
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Anthropologist Lucina Jiménez, director of the National Institute of Fine Arts and Letters (INBAL), on which Mexico’s 18 most important museum spaces hang, sums up the importance of a fresh perspective: “Cultural diversity is a haunting reality. We are living the revolution of women, of minority rights and of the south of the planet… It is important that museums are part of this movement. Many continue to formulate the history of art or of humanity only from the perspective of the hegemonic powers.” In the heart of America, in Madrid, a large part of Spain’s American heritage is preserved. In other words, a selection of archaeological pieces and viceroyal art giving an account of the arrival in these areas. It is the cultural representation of those chapters of history that have always been the subject of disputes between those who consider it a conquest and those who justify that they were Spanish kingdoms with full citizens. And from these discussions arise questions that concern the Museum of America and other centers around the world today, particularly the archaeological, ethnological, and anthropological ones: How are they decolonized? What remains must be returned? Do they need to be redefined? Should you? remain how and where they are?
“Decolonization is a relatively modern term, mainly used since World War II. First, it points to the need for museums to include in their structure and history the voice and professionals of the countries from which they include some content in their collection; The second element is the ban on illicit trade in works of art. Ultimately, it is also about the return of the illegally obtained pieces,” explains Roger Dedeu Pastor, a lawyer specializing in cultural law at the law firm Gabeiras. The New York metropolitan area, for example, just commissioned a team of four experts to trace the origin of suspicious parts. This newspaper raised this issue with the Ministry of Culture and Sports and asked several other questions to the new director of the Museum of America, Andrés Gutiérrez Usillos. However, the request was denied until the “agreement in office” month
At the entrance to the Madrid center, Isabel Bueno, a historian specializing in American anthropology and associate researcher at the University of Warsaw, refutes the premise: for her, the museum is “uncolonized.” The problem is different: “It’s an uninformed museum,” he says after a tour of the rooms. “An old museum with a non-existent, not even tendentious, discourse. Today’s public has a greater need for knowledge. In addition, it already looks decolonized.”
Historian Isabel Bueno Bravo poses in front of the entrance to the Museum of America. Andrea Comas
Bueno belongs to the current that defends that the American territories were not colonies and exposes the disagreement: “For some, Spain from 1796 was an imperialist and predatory state, and the cultures that existed there suffered genocide and plunder, for what they think of a decolonization. For others they were not colonies as this process did not take place until the 19th century and the original cultures were predatory even before that. “In addition, the people living there had a legal assessment that does not exist in colonialism,” defends Bueno. Mixed marriages, deputies representing the provinces called upon to adopt the Constitution of Cadiz, or the “relative uniformity” among citizens, according to Dedeu, support this thesis, although the lawyer admits that many situations are “abusive” from today’s point of view. appear. .
Lucina Jiménez from Mexico presents a different vision: “The so-called ‘conquest’ had its destructive phase and violated what is now called human rights. They took the gold and silver with them. Capitalism arose as a result of the exploitation of the wealth of the so-called new world. Out of the ashes or the exchange of goods, out of resistance came love and mutual joy, different cultural expressions and a Mexican culture in which we shared much, although this was also the result of exploitation. The colony needed an administration to take advantage of the fruits of the land this side of the coast. And then the story introduces us to events that have enriched the intellectual life of Mexico, such as the Spanish exile. But Criollismo and the ideology of the indigenous people as something of the past, forced to abandon their language, or the contempt for Afro-Colombian culture call us not to be Manichaeans.” The debate thus fills the museum halls with doubts. And he even questions the pieces that have been officially purchased, allocated or donated: Under what conditions?
Hundreds of them left Peru, Mexico or Colombia for the corridors of the Museum of America. When approaching the showcases, historian Isabel Bueno repeatedly laments such short cartouches: name of the piece, place of origin, approximate date and material. “One wonders: what will that be?” he continues, “I’ll write it down and look for it at home?” I like going to museums to understand and learn. This hint is useless to me. Jiménez believes that museums should strive to offer context and “multiple readings,” including those that challenge their own proposition.
One of the burial bundles of human remains on display at the Museum of America. Andrea Comas
The first section of the Museo de América, which housed Carlos III’s Royal Natural History Cabinet. is something like “a hodgepodge or a cabinet of curiosities” for the historian Isabel Bueno: “It looks very nice, but it’s not ‘I won’t give you any information’. Above is a reproduction of the Aztec calendar. In the absence of further explanation about the cartridges, Bueno laughs: “It will sound like Tomb Raider to some.”
The expert reflects on what a decolonization process should look like in a facility of this type, focusing on the archaeological pieces. “First: figuring out what artifacts are the subject of colonialism, knowing how they got into the museum, re-evaluating the interpretation of the object and the way it is displayed.” What changes is the point of view.”
The Trocortesian Codex, one of the most important pieces in the museum.Andrea Comas
The bulk of the museum’s funds come from donations, Izaskun Álvarez recalls, specifically pieces from the Hispanic monarchy from the 15th to 18th centuries, as well as from the natural sciences and archeology museums. “It’s hard to know if the donor has this piece from looting,” he says. Another palette of shades of gray is touched on here. In the legal field, due to the lack of national laws, there are a number of international treaties that were signed between the 1940s and 1970s in particular. However, they only concern the acceding countries and do not apply retrospectively. “What about the past? Unesco’s line is to seek agreement between countries. However, these are always pieces that left illegally. If they were bought like the Parthenon friezes, things get complicated. ’” emphasizes Dedeu.
A couple pass under a reproduction of the Aztec calendar.Andrea Comas
The process ends depending on each state’s will to decolonize. And the dialogue with the country of origin, which Unesco itself has been promoting for years with an intergovernmental body that is intended to facilitate talks and reimbursements. “I COM [Consejo Internacional de Museos] There is a very clear policy: part stolen when justified, part returned,” emphasizes Izaskun Álvarez. “INBAL will not accept any work, even as a donation, if its origin and the legal authority of the person making it are unclear,” adds Lucina Jiménez. But Dedeu raises other unknowns: “Let’s imagine the government of Cameroon demands something from France. And that the work in question still belonged to an earlier tribe, at a time when that state didn’t even exist. Who owns this?”. In the case of Spain, the questions return to the starting point: assuming that it was a matter of colonization and therefore plunder, would it then be necessary to return everything? But what would happen if the residents of the overseas provinces were Spanish citizens?
If it were determined that items needed to be returned, Isabel Bueno says it would have to be checked “whether the place of origin is willing to accept them and give them the validity they have.” I work with indigenous communities who have no idea about theirs historical past,” says the expert, whose work focuses on the indigenous people of Mexico. “You have to get rid of feelings, because history is data. Documentation tells you one thing: you have to show it and the opinion has to be given by whoever thinks about it. That’s why I believe knowledge is the true decolonization,” Bueno adds. And in this he agrees with his colleague Izaskun Álvarez: “The historian has no opinion; Analyzes from the documentation”.
The so-called caste paintings depict traditional scenes such as interracial marriages from the colonial era.Andrea Comas
One of the most controversial rooms in the Museo de América is that of the so-called box paintings, which depict moments of coexistence of mestizo marriages (both indigenous and Afro-Spanish marriages). Since there are no labels that provide information, all that remains is debate with the historian.
― Every marriage situation had a different legal concept. Because of this European, Asian and African immigration, in a vast territory where there were no restrictions on mixed marriages in terms of inheritance, it was necessary to legislate very well,” explains the expert.
― African immigration? It was ships full of slaves arriving in America.
“Okay, Spain has no excuse, but there were no slave ships,” Bueno continues. It was the Dutch who bought and sold them. We could buy them. Why were black people brought to America? Because since the Americans were Spaniards, the Spaniards could not be slaves and needed labor.
“Does that take away our responsibility?”
– No, of course. But in order to be able to speak without rush or insults, you have to know things. Of course, the indigenous reality has changed radically, but to know how much my country was involved in these horrors, I need to know history.
The Museum of America hosts temporary exhibitions commemorating American cultures.Andrea Comas
For Izaskún Álvarez, there are no half measures: “They were not equal, the Americans were subjects of the king but also subjects.” Spain was a formidable Hispanic monarchy and empire. But thanks to America, to extractivism. The emergence of racism in Spain is well illustrated by the Hispanic monarchy. It looks in this collection of box paintings. Here it is denied that we are racist. Topics related to slavery are not included in secondary school textbooks. They should also be decolonized.”
Despite their differences, historians agree on how complicated it is to appraise a museum like America’s. There is a difficulty in ignoring ideologies and the state of the technical officials of the staff of these museums: “They clear the space and can be here or in the Army Museum,” adds Álvarez.
In addition, “there are no decolonizing recipes,” says Lucina Jiménez. The anthropologist highlights the multitude of different visions, and only in Central and South America, which leads her to speak of “micro-project effervescence” rather than a uniform trend. As an example, the INBAL-sponsored exhibition Art of the Peoples, indigenous disruptions: “The project began with a dialogue in which leaders of different peoples from all over the country were invited to express their views, to listen and to understand the complexities of. “Their Points of View”.
The other crucial factor in completing this process is budget. Without money there is no decolonization. The Ministry of Culture does not make any breakdowns: According to the Ministry, the total budget for the museums for 2023 amounts to almost 29.5 million in personnel costs, 24 million in current expenses and two million in material investments. The only data on the Museum of America relates to its budget implementation in 2022: three million euros.
Miquel Iceta, the current culture and sport minister, has insisted on saying publicly that there is no order in his portfolio to decolonize museums. But the choice of Gutiérrez as the new director of the Museo de América seems to indicate the opposite. Several sources consulted, as well as statements in the media, claim that, barring the July 23 elections, his mandate will be aimed at repairing and re-reading the American collection. Maybe time has finally changed at the Museum of America.
A piece from the Museum of America. Andrea Comas
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