The Aztec World Lecture Series-Presented by The Field Museum and Northwestern University

Apr 16, 2009 from 1:00pm to 2:30pm CDT
Location: The Field Museum
Latest Activity: Feb 26, 2021

Dr. David Carrasco, Neil L. Rudenstine Professor of the Study of Latin America, with a joint appointment with the Department of Anthropology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University"Finding Aztlan: Aztecs and Chicanos in Art and Resistance"David Carrasco will present an illustrated lecture on the ways contemporary Mexican American artists and activists re-imagine Aztlan, the Aztec place of origins. This talk will show how Chicano painters, organizers and writers draw on Aztec myths of the sacred mother, the hill of Aztlan and images of death and rebirth to inspire and construct political identity and social change.Davíd Carrasco is a historian of religions specializing in hermeneutics in the study of religion, Mesoamerican cities and religions, and the Mexican-American borderlands. He is director of the Moses Mesoamerican Archive and Research Project, which was founded at the University of Colorado, where he taught from 1977 to 1993. He then moved to Princeton University, where he taught from 1993 to 2001, when he came to Harvard. His work has been focused on the symbolic nature of cities in comparative perspective, utilizing his 20 years of research in the excavations and archives associated with the sites of Teotihuacan and Mexico-Tenochtitlan. This has resulted in publications on ritual violence and sacred space; the Great Aztec Temple, the myth of Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent; and the history of religions in Mesoamerica. Recent collaborative publications include Breaking Through Mexico's Past: Digging the Aztecs With Eduardo Matos Moctezuma (2007) and Cave, City, and Eagle's Nest: An Interpretive Journey Through the Mapa de Cuauhtinchan No. 2 (2007; gold winner of the 2008 PubWest Book Design Award in the academic book/nontrade category). His work has included a special emphasis on the religious dimensions of Latino experience: mestizaje, the myth of Aztlan, transculturation, and La Virgen de Guadalupe. He is co-producer of the film Alambrista: The Director's Cut, which puts a human face on the life and struggles of undocumented Mexican farm workers in the United States, and he edited Alambrista and the U.S.-Mexico Border: Film, Music, and Stories of Undocumented Immigrants (University of New Mexico Press). He is editor-in-chief of the award-winning three-volume Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures. His most recent publication is a new abridgement of Bernal Díaz del Castillo's memoir of the conquest of Mexico, History of the Conquest of New Spain (University of New Mexico Press). Carrasco has received the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest honor the Mexican government gives to a foreign national.The Field Museum1400 South Lake Shore DriveChicago, IL 60605fieldmuseum.orgPre-registration suggested—call 312.665.7400.$9, $8 students/educators, $5 membersWest EntranceMontgomery Ward Hall, Ground Level

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The Aztec World Lecture Series-Presented by The Field Museum and Northwestern University

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