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			ACADEMY, ACADEMIC TRADITION A body of established opinion in any particular field, widely accepted as authoritative; a society of learned individuals united for the advancement of the arts. ACLLAS, OR "VIRGINS OF THE SUN" In the Inca culture, these were young women who were offered as tribute to the empire. Some were given as wives to high officials and others lived and served in the Temple of the Sun in Cuzco or other temples which were dedicated to the solar deity. These "Virgins of the Sun" were sworn to celibacy, performed religious rites, and served the state by weaving ceremonial cloth and brewing chicha beer. Although their lives were tightly controlled, they lived in relative luxury and enjoyed deep respect as symbolic wives of the sun. ADOBE Bricks of sundried earth and straw; a building made of adobe bricks. AGROPASTORALISM Complementary farming and herding. ALPACA An animal like a llama, with fine, long woolly hair, domesticated in Peru; a fine lightweight yarn or cloth of alpaca hair ANTHROPOMORPHIC Resembling human form AQUEDUCT, ACEQUIA An artificial channel for carrying water. ARCHULETA, FELIPE New Mexican woodcarver (1910-1991). ART NOUVEAU A decorative art style of the last two decades of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th which featured curvilinear shapes based on plant forms. ATLANTEANS Named for Atlas, a Titan of Greek mythology who bore the heavens on his shoulders, atlanteans are male figures used as columns to support an architectural structure, such as a roof or altar. ATAHUALPA Inca ruler at the time of the Spanish conquest of Peru (c. 1498-1533). AVANT-GARDE Those who create, produce, or apply new and original ideas, designs, and techniques. AYLLU Community organizations based on kin collectives that could trace their roots to a common ancestor and that made up the basic social unit of Andean society. AZTEC Late postclassic (c. 1300-1521) peoples of central Mexico. In the Nahuatl language, the word Azteca means "Those of Aztlan." Aztlan was the name for the Aztecs' mythological place of origin.
			BACKSTRAP LOOM Also called a belt loom, the backstrap loom has been used in the Americas since pre-Columbian times. It consists of five sticks and a belt which passes behind the weaver when the loom is in use. Warp threads are strung on the sticks, and one end of the loom is attached by rope to a house post or tree. With the backstrap held around her hips, the weaver is able to maintain tension on warp threads as she weaves in the weft. The backstrap loom is simple to construct and very portable. When the weaver wishes to stop weaving, she merely rolls up the loom and puts it aside. BAR AND DOT NUMERICAL SYSTEM The numbering system of the ancient Maya used bars to denote the number five and a dot for a single number. For instance, the number 9 would be represented by a bar and four dots; a maltese cross was used to denote "0." BAROQUE The dominant style of European art from 1600-1750, Baroque art was a continuation of the ideals of the Renaissance and was often characterized by its tendency to stir the emotions by the use of strong colors and value contrasts, bold scale, dramatic use of light, and elaborate ornamentation. BASILICA An oblong church consisting of a broad nave flanked by aisles, and ending in a transept from which a semicircular apse projects. In early churches the vaulted apse held the bishop's throne. The lay-out of a basilica resembles a cross; the transept crosses the greatest length between the nave and the apse. BATIK Process of dying fabric which uses a form of resist, such as wax, to keep selected areas from accepting the dye in order to create designs. BLANCO, TEODORO Mexican ceramic artist (1928-1980). BOLIVAR, SIMON The hero of the 1824 South American revolution against the Viceroyalty of Peru. BORGES, JORGE LUIS Argentine writer and poet (1899-1986). BORGES, JOSE FRANCISCO 20th century Brazilian folk poet and graphic artist. BRANCUSI, CONSTANTIN Romanian sculptor (1876-1957). BRETON, ANDRE Founder of the European surrealist movement. French (1896-1966). Breton wrote his first "Manifesto of Surrealism" in 1924. BULLION Uncoined gold or silver in the shape of bars or other masses measurable by weight. BURNISH Polish by rubbing.
			CACAO/CHOCOLATE In an ancient Toltec myth, Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent god also known as "the giver of the drink of the gods, chocolate," is credited with planting cacao trees in the tropics of southern Mexico. "Cacao" is an Aztec word, which refers to the tree and the seeds, or beans, from which chocolate is made. "Chocolate" is also an Aztec word, which means "bitter water" and refers to the unsweetened drink which was popularly consumed at the time of the arrival of Cortés in Mexico. It was considered a refreshing stimulant and, after arriving in Spain, chocolate was sweetened with sugar and flavored with cinnamon. CACIQUE Native Indian chief or local political leader around whom religion and power was centered in Lower Central American communities. CAJAMARCA A town in northern Peru where Pizarro made contact with the Inca Atahualpa in 1532. The name of the town is derived from a Quechua word that means "place or town of cold." CALABAZA/CALABASH Squash or pumpkin. The seeds and flesh are edible. CALAVERAS Skeletons, often shown engaged in everyday-life activities in Mexican popular art. CALENDA A religious standard carried in procession. A calenda is also a procession held on Christmas Eve in the region of Oaxaca. The artists who make calendas generally own the standards and rent them annually to religious brotherhoods for use in ceremonies honoring various patron saints. CALMECAC An Aztec school that prepared the sons of nobles for the duties of the priesthood or high offices of state. CANARY ISLANDS Islands in Atlantic Ocean, southwest of Spain and off the coast of Africa. CAPACOCHA An Inca celebration which took place every four years in honor of the sun. CARRANZA, VENUSTIANO Revolutionary leader in Mexico's struggle against dictatorship in the Revolution of 1910, he was recognized as president "de facto" by the United States. CASASOLA, AGUSTIN VICTOR Mexican photographer, who was a newspaper reporter for El Imparcial, the semiofficial publication of the Diaz government. He became a photographer in 1900 in order to accompany his stories with pictures. He documented the pre-Revolutionary and Revolutionary years. CAST The process of making an object by pouring liquid material such as clay or molten metal into a mold and allowing it to harden. CASTANON, JOAQUIN Bolivian painter of the 19th century. CASTAS Racial mixtures that resulted from intermarriages in the Spanish Americas, including mulattos (children of black and white parents), mestizos (children of white and Indian parents), and children of black and Indian parents, as well as additional racial intermingling, such as moriscos (children of a Spanish father and a mulatto mother). CASTELLANOS, JULIO Mexican artist (1905-1947). "CATHOLIC KINGS, THE" Popular name for Ferdinand V and Isabella of Castile, the King and Queen of Spain during the late 15th century who helped to reclaim the Iberian Peninsula from the Moors and also financed Columbus' searches for a new route to India that led to the Spanish discovery of the New World CHAGALL, MARC Russian artist (1887-1985). CHARLES V (1500-1558) As the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella, he became the King of Spain as Charles I (1516-1556), and as the grandson of the Emperor Maximilian of the Austrian Hapsburgs, he was Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1519-1556). CHARRO OUTFITS Charros are skillful horseback riders who perform on equally skillful horses. Both riders and horses wear outfits that are elaborately decorated with silver ornaments. CHAVIN DE HUANTAR An archaeological site in the Mosna Valley in Peru's northern highlands; from 900-200 B.C., an important religious and economic center in Andean culture. CHIA SEED OIL Oil made from the edible seeds of several plants of the genus Salvia in Mexico and the Southwestern United States. CHICHA BEER A beverage made chiefly from fermented maize in Central and South America. CHICOMECOATL Aztec corn goddess. CHIMU Between 900 and 1460, the north coast of Peru was controlled by the empire of the Chimu culture, which was conquered by the Incas c. 1460-1470. CHIPPENDALE, THOMAS English furniture designer (c.1718-1779). CHUSPA A small textile bag used to carry belongings by native peoples in South America. COCA/COCA LEAF The dried leaves of a South American shrub that have a narcotic effect when chewed. CODEX/CODICES A painted or inscribed book on long sheets of fig-bark paper or deerskin coated with plaster and folded into accordion-like sheets. COLUNGA, ALEJANDRO Mexican artist (born 1948). CONCEPTUAL ART In conceptual art the idea or thought is more important than the object. Conceptual works of art provide a document of the artists' thinking. Thus, any activity or thought is a potential work of art, without necessarily being translated into pictorial or sculptural form. For example, a conceptual work of art might consist of words written on a wall that emphasize the artist's thinking rather than his or her manipulation of materials. Conceptual art arose in the mid-1960s through 1970s in reaction against the commercialized art world of the 1960s. Conceptual artists draw on semiotics (signs and symbols used in languages), feminism, story telling, and images from both art history and popular culture to create non-traditional works. CONQUISTADOR A Spanish conqueror of Mexico and Peru in the 16th century. CORTES, HERNAN Born in Estremedura, Spain (1485-1542), Cortés landed near the present-day site of the city of Veracruz in 1519 and is credited with the conquest of Mexico. The Aztec leader Moctezuma mistook Cortés for the legendary Toltec deity Quetzalcoatl. COSTUMBRISTA Concerned with customs and manners; this term is often applied to novels and paintings of the 19th century. COUNTER-REFORMATION The reaction of the Roman Catholic Church against the Protestant Reformation of Northern Europe, dating from about the middle of the 16th century and continuing into the 17th. COVARRUBIAS, MIGUEL Mexican artist (1904-1957). CRANIAL DEFORMATION The Olmec practice of shaping the soft skulls of infants as marks of beauty or distinction. CREOLES Persons of European descent born in the New World. CUBISM An art form pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in the early 20th century. These artists experimented with breaking down their subject matter into geometric planes, which they rearranged to create new pictorial realities that might show more than one side of an object simultaneously for instance, the front, back, and side views all at once. CUIDADELAS Vast palace compounds where the ruling elite classes of the Chimu culture in the Andes lived. CUICACALLI Aztec school, where song, poetry, dance, and oratory skills were taught. CURING STICKS (ORSUALAS) Staffs carried by important Kuna men in Panama as symbols of authority. CUZCO Inca capital which, according to legend, was founded by Manco Capac around the year A.D. 1200.
			DAY OF THE DEAD/EL DIA DE LOS MUERTOS Celebrated from October 31 through November 2, this Mexican fiesta honors ancestors and combines the ancient Indian festival of Death and Flowers with the European Spanish festival of All Souls' Day. DE HERRERA, FR. ALONSO LOPEZ Spanish member of the Dominican Order who became one of Mexico's leading painters during the colonial period, known as "El Divino." DE LA CRUZ, SOR JUANA INES Mexican poet (1651/1648-1695). A major poet of the Spanish colonies. DE SAHAGUN, FATHER BERNARDINO Spain (1499/1500-1590); a Franciscan friar who went to New Spain in 1529 and became one of the key interpretors of the Nahuatl (Aztec) language and Nahua culture. He produced the 12 part Historia general de las cosas de Nueva Espana (Florentine Codex) based on testimony and codices made by people prior to European contact. DIAZ, BERNAL Bernal Díaz de Castillo, one of the men in Cortés' group of conquistadors who wrote an account of the meeting between Cortés and Moctezuma. DIAZ, PORFIRIO 19th century president/dictator of Mexico from 1876-1911, he did much to modernize Mexico but little for the common man. DOLOMITE A limestone mineral consisting of a calcium magnesium carbonate, often crystalline granular and either white or clouded. DOWRY CHEST A wooden chest that held the goods that a wife would bring to her marriage.
			EARTHENWARE Ceramic ware, usually coarse and reddish in color, fired in the lowest temperature ranges. EFFIGY A figure representing a person. EL NINO A warm inshore air current annually flowing south along the coast of Ecuador. Every 7 to 10 years it extends down the coast of Peru, where it has a devastating effect on weather, crops, fish, etc. It is so-named because of its occurrence near Christmas, when the Christ child, El Niño, was born. EL TAJIN Archaeological site in northeastern Mexico dating from around A.D. 250-1100, located in the present-day state of Veracruz. ENCARNACION A process for painting wooden statues in multiple layers to create realistic-looking faces and hands. ENCOMIENDA Land or office held from the King of Spain. ESTOFADO A process in which a wooden statue is gilded and then covered with colored paint; the final surface is incised to reveal the gold leaf below and to create the impression of a richly patterned surface. EX-VOTO Votive offering that acknowledges favors received from spirits or saints.
			FELINE CULT Worshippers of the jaguar god. FERDINAND Ferdinand V (1452-1516); as Isabella's consort, he was one of "The Catholic Kings" of Spain. He was King of Castile (1474-1516) and King of Aragon (1479-1516). FIERRO, MARTIN The white gaucho hero of the 19th century narrative poem by José Hernandez, Fierro is the Argentinian equivalent of the idealized North American cowboy. FLEMISH Although Flanders is only one principality of the Netherlands, much of Netherlandish art is generically referred to as "Flemish." A distinctive feature of Flemish art is the use of translucent oil glazes, gradually applied in layers over an underpainting, which gives a glowing quality to the rich colors as light actually passes through the layers of glazes. Another important feature of this art is its tendency toward naturalism and genre scenes, that is, scenes of everyday life that appealed to the growing middle class of well-to-do merchants who could afford to buy paintings. FRESCO A method of applying color directly into wet plaster, especially used in mural painting.
			GAUCHO A cowboy of the South American pampas. GAUDI, ANTONIO Spanish-Catalonian architect (1852-1926). GLAZE A glassy coating bonded by heat onto a ceramic surface. GOTHIC European art and architecture of 12th through 15th centuries were mistakenly named after the Goths by later generations of art critics during the Renaissance, critics who felt that the style fell short of the standards of classical Greece and Rome. Gothic architecture is especially notable in many fine cathedrals that generally feature pointed arches and ribbed vaults, as well as large windows of stained glass. GRAPHIC ARTS Any of the two dimensional visual arts, such as painting, drawing, photography, etc., sometimes used specifically to refer to the art of printmaking. GUAYASAMIN, OSWALDO Ecuadorian painter (born 1919). GUILD An association of craftsmen or merchants.
			HACIENDA A large piece of land used for farming or ranching; a landed estate; a country house. HIDALGO, FATHER MIGUEL Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla (1733-1811); "The Father of Mexican Independence." On September 16, 1810, Father Hidalgo issued the Grito de Dolores, calling for freedom and justice for the common man, and for land, liberty, justice, and equality for the mestizos and Indians. HEMATITE A stone of iron ore often used decoratively. HEMISFAIR 1968 world trade and culture fair held in San Antonio, Texas. HIEROGLYPH/GLYPH A character or symbol used in picture writing. HORIZONS In the reckoning of pre-Columbian Andean history, horizons refer to eras during which several cultures were united by a common government, religion, and/or art style. HUACAS ADORATORIOS Sacred places to worship supernatural forces such as the sun, thunder, and earth. HUACAS SEPULTURAS Places where ancestors and the ruling elite were buried and their mummies venerated. HUARI The earliest recognized pre-Columbian empire in Peru and the name applied to a large middle horizon (c. 650-1000) city located in the eastern Ayacuche Valley. HUIPIL/HUIPIL GRANDE A blouse or upper body covering worn by women, made of one, two, or more rectangles sewn together, with a hole for the head. It may be woven on either a backstrap or a foot loom. A huipil grande, worn by Tehuana women on special occasions, is a jacket of silk mesh or lace with lace ruffled collar and sleeves, worn in various ways, depending on the occasion.
			ICHPOCHALLI Aztec schools for girls. ICON/ICONOGRAPHY/ICONOGRAPHIC A symbol or the story depicted in a work of art; people, places, events, and other images in a work, as well as the symbolism and conventions attached to those images by a particular religion or culture. IMPRESSIONISM An art style of the late 19th century, practiced originally in France by artists who sought to capture in paint the quickly changing effects of light, shade, and color on natural forms, especially out of doors. INCA Ethnic group that ruled the major part of Andean South America at the time of Pizarro's arrival in 1532. Their empire was Tahuantinsuyu, the "Land of the Four Quarters." INLAY/INLAID A technique in which small pieces of material, such as wood, stone, or shell, are attached together to make a pattern on another object. INSTALLATIONS In everyday use, the hanging of pictures or arrangement of separate objects in an art exhibition. More recently, installation refers to a work created specifically for a particular gallery or outdoor site that creates an entire environment. Installation art provides viewers with a sense of being surrounded by art, or of being within the art work themselves. Installations are usually exhibited for a short period of time and then dismantled, leaving only documentation. ISABELLA (1451-1504) Married to Ferdinand V, she was one of "The Catholic Kings" of Spain; Queen of Castile (1474-1504). Isabella financed the voyages of Christopher Columbus. IZQUIERDO, MARIA Mexican painter (19021955).
			JAGUAR The jaguar was considered a noble hunter and the lord of the animals and was used as an important symbol in many pre-Columbian cultures. JUAREZ, BENITO (1806-1872) Zapotec Indian who rose to the Presidency of Mexico and fought to preserve the country united under principles of justice and freedom for all.
			KAHLO, FRIDA Mexican artist (1907-1954). KARAKAS In Andean society, kings or rulers. KILN A large stove or oven in which pottery is fired. KLEE, PAUL Swiss-German artist (1879-1940).
			LABYRINTH A confusing, winding network of passages or paths. LACQUER A hard glossy varnish. LENERO, FRANCISCO CASTRO Mexican artist (born 1954). LIBATION VESSEL A container for a liquid offering to a god. LLAMA A South American woolly-haired, humpless animal related to the camel, used in the Andes as a beast of burden and as a source of wool and milk. LOTERIA A bingo game played on feast days and during regional fairs since the colonial period. LOZA DEL OLOR Ceramic ware made from aromatic clay native to Tonalá, Jalisco, which imparts its flavor to the water stored within it.

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