‘Greatness’ of Mexico displays pre-Hispanic artifacts in dialog with history

Mexico City, Oct 1 (EFE).- Mexico Friday inaugurated a massive exhibition of artifacts, some of them dating back to the pre-Hispanic era, for the people to know and revalue the “greatness of Mexico.”

It is the second exhibition opened by the government this week in the Ibero-American Hall of the public education ministry in the heart of Mexico City.

There are 1,145 artifacts, of which 879 were recovered from abroad in the last three years. Two of the displayed pieces are on loan from overseas museums.

“Time and space in the history of Mexico are brought together in the exhibition at the two venues,” curator Miguel Ángel Trinidad Meléndez, a specialist at the National Institute of Anthropology and History, told EFE.

The exhibition is part of the government move to commemorate 700 years of the founding of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, 500 years after the conquest of Hernán Cortés, called “indigenous resistance,” and 200 years of Mexican independence.

The curator said the exhibition housed in the Public Education Ministry building was significant because “it is a dialogue with history” that would finally find a place in the education system.

He said the first section of the exhibition displays collections grouped by regions that “come from pre-Hispanic times and historical moments.”

He said Mexican territory comprised southern Mexico, the west, the Gulf area, and the north.

“What we are looking for is that all corners of the country are represented in this space.”

He explained that the second section houses documents on the founding of the Mexican nation.

Regarding the recovery of pieces and objects from abroad, Trinidad Meléndez said the core objective was “to strengthen our identity as Mexicans.”

“I believe that as long as we have roots and have elements of identity, we can continue to have this cohesion that characterizes us Mexicans in all the world”.

The government on Monday inaugurated the dual exhibition at the National Museum of Anthropology displaying archaeological pieces and codices returned to the country from other nations to revalue pre-Hispanic culture.

“The Greatness of Mexico” displays more than 1,500 pieces, of which more than 900 are seen for the first time, coming from abroad in temporary transfers or from warehouses of safeguards and confiscations.

The exhibition of artifacts from the Mayan, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Aztec and Mixtec cultures are in two venues: in the Ibero-American Room of the Public Education Ministry -where 1,145 pieces are displayed, and in the National Anthropology Museum, where there are 380 pieces.

The artifacts were recovered from the United States, Italy, France, Germany, and the Netherlands.

The exhibition will be open at both venues for the next five months. EFE

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