On January 29, 2012, Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial
World completed its run at LACMA. Since then, we have been busy
planning the presentation of the exhibition at the Museo
Nacional de Historia (“Castillo de Chapultepec”) in Mexico City,
where it opens today as Miradas Comparadas en los virreinatos de
América. The Castillo is a special place. It is built atop the
Chapultepec hill (the word chapultepec comes from the Náhuatl
chapoltepēc, which means “at the grasshopper’s hill”). The hill
was a sacred place for the Aztecs. In colonial times it became
the site of the viceroys’ summer palace and during the
nineteenth century the home of the ill-fated Austrian emperor
Maximilian I and his wife Carolta. The place is filled with
history. Over the course of the last few months we have worked
closely with our partners from the Instituto Nacional de
Antropología e Historia (INAH) in redefining the checklist,
planning the installation, and completing the translation of the
book in Spanish. Some works displaye