80 mm f. 5.6 1/30 sec

Luis Gonzáles Palma is a contemporary Guatemalan visual and conceptual artist who works on photography and installation. His poetic portraits of Mayan Indians combine elements from European visual culture and pre-Colombian spirituality, reflecting on the hybrid nature of Guatemalan cultural identity as both the legacy and the tragedy of colonization. In this work, the artist juxtaposes layers of meanings in order to structure the image as a point of encounter between two cultures, sharing iconographic and spiritual codes within a system that perpetuates colonial structures of power. The sepia tone recalls nineteenth-century photographs of native subjects as both documents of ethnographic interest—also suggested by the headdress made out of measuring tape—and records of a confrontational and dignified presence. Here, González Palma conveys the complexity underlining the encounter with the "other" as an emotional response as well as an imposed set of categories. The four names of Spanish origin appearing on the right side evoke a sense of indeterminacy and displace the subject’s identity, while the golden, engraved letters on the red fabric recall both Catholic and pre-Columbian sign systems. Across his work, González Palma bridges past and present in order to call attention to indigenous people and their ongoing struggle for social justice and cultural preservation.

This text was created in collaboration with the University of Maryland Department of Art History & Archaeology and written by Patricia Ortega-Miranda.