HispanicBusiness

CHICAGO, Aug. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- The Newberry Library presents The Aztecs and the Making of Colonial Mexico, a free exhibition that offers a fresh perspective on the Aztecs in Colonial Mexico and their impact on the heritage and culture of Mexico, Mexicans, and Mexican-Americans.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060828/CGM035 )

The Aztecs and the Making of Colonial Mexico expands traditional conceptions of Aztec civilization and challenges the idea that the Spanish completely destroyed Aztec society and culture. The exhibit insightfully addresses the 300 years after the conquest that Aztec-Nahua colonial communities, artists, scholars, writers, landowners, and religious leaders worked, litigated, published, wrote, and interacted with Spaniards. The result was a rich cultural exchange of economic, intellectual, and artistic labor.

"We want this exhibit to vividly reveal the Colonial Aztecs (the Nahua) as people of great intelligence, creativity, and perseverance whose contributions to the making of Colonial Mexico were essential," said Ellen Baird, co-curator and professor of art history at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "The items in the exhibit make apparent to viewers what words can only suggest: they are learned works and often of great beauty."

Approximately 60 items will be on display, and will reveal some of the most spectacular illustrated sources from Colonial Mexico.

Highlights from the exhibit include: -- The 1524 Map of Tenochtitlan (from Cortes' letter to the Hapsburg Emperor Charles V, King of Spain) -- Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagun's religious and historical writings in Spanish, Latin and Nahuatl -- A four-generation pictorial genealogy and the pictorial wills of a 16th century indigenous family -- The Codex Zempoala, an 18th century pictorial manuscript documenting indigenous village land claims -- Early colonial accounts of Mexican history, culture, and language -- The screenfold manuscripts of contemporary Mexican-American artist Enrique Chagoya

"One of the exhibit's most ambitious goals is to demonstrate how the persistent vitality and creativity of Aztec culture continues to shape Mexico, Mexicans and Mexican-Americans today," Baird explained.

ABOUT THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY

The Newberry Library is an independent library open to the public for research and reference in the humanities. One of the largest independent research libraries in the United States, the Newberry holds an extraordinary collection of more than 1.5 million books, 5 million manuscript pages and 300 thousand historic maps. As one of the world's leading repositories of a broad range of books and manuscripts relating to the civilizations of western Europe and the Americas, the Library's mission is to acquire and preserve research collections of such materials, and to provide for and promote their effective use by a diverse community of users. Visit the Newberry online at http://www.newberry.org/ . Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060828/CGM035AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.comThe Newberry Library

Web site: http://www.newberry.org/