“El Yerro Barroco / The Baroque Error”

Baroque is defined as an irregular pearl, and it is described as an oddity. This oddity or kink, as defined in the dictionary, hints at how the baroque that Spain created transcended an artistic style. In Spain during the XVI century, including the conquest in 1521 in Mexico all the way to the beginning of the XVIII century, the “Spanishness” (hispanidad) merged the baroque worldview with culture, politics, society, and religion. Colonization provoked a clash of civilization between the new and the old, the modern and the savage (the calibán). My specific focus will be on the baroque in contemporary society in Mexico to explain how we understand social-historical phenomena and relationships. My project explores and connects the core cultural, theoretical, political, religious, artistic manifestations of baroque in contemporary Mexico, and by extension Latin American, where Brazil and Mexico for example, is one of the most Catholic countries in Latin American because their colonial heritage.

Faculty Supervisor:

William French

Student:

Carlos Colín

Partner:

Discipline:

History

Sector:

University:

University of British Columbia

Program:

Globalink Research Award