Alex Hidalgo’s innovative study of Indigenous mapmaking and intellectual history considers some sixty painted maps produced for legal proceedings in Oaxaca spanning across three centuries, from the 1570s to the 1730s. From the perspectives of patrons and painters, as well as the materials and modes of authentication that were applied to maps, Hidalgo masterfully demonstrates that Indigenous mapmaking evolved over the course of the colonial period, as opposed to declining at the end of the sixteenth century as scholarly narratives have tended to argue. By placing Indigenous maps at the center of the study and presenting a distinct perspective with each chapter (patrons, painters, materials, and authentication), Hidalgo puts forth a compelling and comprehensive view of Indigenous mapmaking that highlights the nuances and complexities of how Indigenous maps were understood and used, arguing that Indigenous maps fostered new ways of thinking about the rationalization, spatialization, and acquisition of land for...
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January 1, 2023
