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			MAGIC REALISM A term coined in 1925 by Franz Roh to describe German realism, this is a variation of surrealist art which features disquieting depictions of everyday objects in a naturalistic style. In 20th century literature, it applies to the realistic treatment of fantastic situations, as in the works of many Latin American writers such as Isabel Allende, Jorge Luis Borges, and Gabriel García Marquez. MAIZE Corn. A nutritious member of the cereal family like wheat, rice, and oats, corn is indigenous to the Americas where it was the primary food source for many thousands of years. MAJOLICA A glazed pottery which was originally produced in Spain. MAMA OCCLO HUACO In Inca mythology, the daughter of Father Sun and the Moon. She presided over the lower half of the city of Cuzco and taught the women to spin and weave. MANCO CAPAC In Inca mythology, the son of Father Sun and the Moon. He presided over the upper half of the city of Cuzco and taught the men agriculture and how to build irrigation canals. MANIOC The cassava root, native to Brazil, where it was named manihot. Also known as tapioca, it is a bland vegetable which is used extensively in Caribbean, Central American, and South American cooking. MANNERISM Mannerists turned for their models to the masters of the High Renaissance, taking art as their teacher rather than nature. They were inspired by the Platonic Idea, which they referred to as the "inner design," to further abstract the forms of previous artists and idealize them into studied, artificial compositions. MAYA Peoples of Guatamala, as well as the language they speak; the Maya are one of the oldest indigenous groups of the Americas. MEDRANO, CANDELARIO 20th century Mexican ceramic artist. MENDICANT FRIARS Friars who depend upon alms (charity) for a living. MERIDA, CARLOS Guatemalan artist (1891-1984). MESTIZO, MESTIZAJE Of mixed heritage, having one European and one American Indian parent. METATE A corn grinding stone. MEXICAN MURALISM Art movement of the 1920s and 1930s that was directed toward social and political ends, it emphasized the ties of modern Mexico to its pre-Columbian past and was pioneered by the artists Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros, with the patronage of the Mexican minister of culture, José Vasconcelos. MIRO, JOAN Spanish-Catalan artist (1893-1983). MIXTEC The language and indigenous people of western Mexico. MOCHE The Moche, or Mochica, culture of Peru originated about 200-100 B.C. and collapsed about 600-750 A.D. MOCTEZUMA Moctezuma II (1502-1520) was the emperor of the Aztecs at the time of the arrival of Hernán Cortés. MOLA A decorative textile art of the Kuna people of Panama that uses appliqué and reverse appliqué to create colorful designs. Several layers of fabric are stacked and the design is created by cutting through the various layers to the desired color and carefully stitching around the design. MOLDED DECORATION A decoration formed by the use of a premade shape that allows the same design to be repeated over and over again. MOLDS/MOLDMADE A hollow form used to shape liquid clay or molten metal, allowing the same form to be recreated many times. MONDRIAN, PIET Dutch artist (1872-1944). MONOLITHIC Composed of a single very large block, usually stone. MONTE ALBAN Ancient capital of the Zapotecs located in the present-day state of Oaxaca, founded about A.D. 500. MOORS A people of mixed Arab and Berber ancestry who inhabited ancient Mauritania in North Africa and conquered Spain in the 8th century A.D. MORISCO The child of a Spaniard and a mulatto (a mulatto is the child of a Spanish father and a black mother). MOSAIC Small pieces of glass, tile, or stone fitted together and embedded into a background to make a pattern or image. MULATTO The child of a Spanish white father and a black mother. MUMMIES/MUMMIFICATION Bodies preserved by the process of dessication (removing all of the moisture from the body). MURAL Any large-scale wall decoration in painting, fresco, mosiac, or another medium.
			NAHUALES Protective animal spirits. NAHUAT, NAHUATL A Uto-Aztecan language widely spoken in central and western Mexico. NAPOLEON French ruler who crowned himself Emperor of France in 1804, he invaded Spain in 1808 and placed his brother on the Spanish throne. NEOCLASSICAL A 19th century Western art style, neoclassicism looked back to the art and architecture of Classical Greece and Rome as its model. Some characteristics of neoclassical art are sharp outlines, cool colors, and emotional reserve; compositions are often based on geometric forms. NICHE/NICHO A recessed space or hollow, as in a wall for a statue. NUEVA MEXICANIDAD A mixture of surrealism and fantasy in 20th century Mexican art.
			OBSIDIAN Dark, volcanic, rocklike glass. O'GORMAN, JUAN Mexican artist (1905-1982). OLMEC Mesoamerican people whose culture existed from c. 1500 B.C.-300 B.C. ONE REED In the Aztec calendar, the year One Reed was the time that was prophesied for the return of the Toltec god Quetzalcoatl, an event that coincided with the arrival of Hernán Cortés off the coast of Veracruz in 1519. OROZCO, JOSE CLEMENTE Mexican artist (1883-1949), one of the Mexican muralists. OROZCO ROMERO, CARLOS Mexican artist (1898-1984). ORSUALAS Curing sticks, or staffs, which are carried by important Kuna men in Panama as symbols of authority.
			PACHA MAMA/MOTHER EARTH Earth mother goddess of the Incas, an agricultural deity worshipped with regard to fertility and the protection of the crops. CASTRO PACHECO, FERNANDO Mexican graphic artist (born 1918). PAMPAS The great treeless plains of South America. PATRIMONY An inheritance from a father. PENINSULARES Spaniards born in Spain. PERFORMANCE ART Since the late 1970s, the most popular term for art activities that are presented before a live audience and encompass music, dance, poetry, theater and video. PERIODS In pre-Columbian Andean history, periods are blocks of time during which individual cultures developed in relative isolation. PHILIP III (1578-1621) King of Spain, Naples, and Sicily and King of Portugal (1598-1621). PICASSO, PABLO Spanish artist (1881-1973). PICTOGRAPH A picture representing an idea. PIGMENT Finely powdered coloring matter mixed with a binder to form paints, crayons, and other drawing or painting media. PIZARRO, FRANCISCO Born in Estremadura, Spain (c.1478-1541), Pizarro conquered Peru in 1532-33. PLEISTOCENE A period of geological time which includes the rise and dominance of man. POLYCHROME Decorated with three or more colors. POMA, GUAMAN Guaman Poma de Ayala, born c. 1535 in Peru, a member of the Yarovilca dynasty from Huanuco, was the author and illustrator of the Nueva coronica I buen gobierno (New Chronicles and Good Government) written between 1585 and 1615, as an illustrated letter to the King of Spain, Philip III. No word is known of Poma after 1615. POSADA, JOSE GUADALUPE Mexican printmaker 18521913), he is best known for his images of calaveras (skeletons). POTOSI City and region of southern Bolivia that was the most famous silvermining center of the Spanish Empire. PUNA A high, cold, arid plateau in the Andes.
			QUECHUA Principal Andean language. QUETZAL The national bird of Guatamala. The male quetzal bird has brilliantly colored tail feathers more than three feet long. Only chiefs and priests were allowed to wear the bird's plumes, and any person who killed a quetzal was sentenced to death. QUETZALCOATL/FEATHERED SERPENT A principal god of the Aztecs, symbolized by a feathered serpent. QUINOA A perennial indigenous to the highlands of the South American Andes, a staple and principle food of the native inhabitants of Peru, Chile, and Bolivia. The nutritious seeds are made into soup and bread, or they can be fermented with millet to make a kind of beer. QUIPU A recordkeeping system developed in Andean civilizations. The quipu was a length of cord held horizontally from which hung a variety of colored yarns on which were entered different kinds of knots of colored yarn. Knots in the yarns recorded census figures, tax data, and imperial history.
			REBOZO A rectangular shawl. RENAISSANCE Beginning in Italy around the 14th century, there was a renewed interest in the classical past, that is, the art, architecture, literature, and philosophy of ancient Greece and Rome. Renaissance is the French word for "rebirth" and signifies a new interest in humanity, in contrast to the emphasis on the life of the spirit during the Middle Ages. RETABLO Religious folk paintings on tin, copper, wood, or canvas, which are found on walls behind altars to saints or other sacred figures. Many were painted by itinerant artists who traveled from town to town filling individual orders. Retablos also refers to the immense and ornately sculptured altarpieces which were constructed in pieces at special workshops and sent to churches throughout the provinces, where they were assembled in final form. RIVERA, DIEGO Mexican artist (1886-1957), one of the Mexican muralists. ROJO, VICENTE Spanish-born painter (born 1932) working in Mexico since 1949. ROMANESQUE Romanesque architecture was popular in Europe from the ninth to the 12th centuries and is so-named because of the use of Roman-style round arches and barrel vaults. ROMANTIC A 19th century Western art movement, which was more or less opposed to neoclassicism; romantic art is characterized by intense colors, complex compositions, exotic settings, and turbulent emotions. RUPTURA Mexican art of the 1950s and 1960s that was a reaction against the nationalistic, realist painting style inherited from the muralists, initiated by José Luis Cuevas (born 1934).
			SABOGAL, JOSE Peruvian artist (1888-1956), a prominent member of the Generation of 1919 and later the director of the official School of Fine Arts in Lima and founder of the Free Institute for Peruvian Art. DE SAHAGUN, 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. SAHUMADOR Incense burner. SANTA TERESA DE AVILA A Spanish mystic, writer, and founder of the Carmelite order known as the Descalzos, or Barefoot Nuns. SALTILLO Sarape woven with geometric patterns. SANTERO A folk artist who carves wooden figures of saints. SANTOS Saints, particularly carved wooden figures of saints. SARAPE A rectangular blanket, often with an opening for the head. SAVANNA A treeless plain covered with low vegetation. SCREENFOLD BOOK A book made by folding long strips of paper or paper-like material like an accordion to form pages. SECULAR ORDERS Members of the Christian clergy who are not bound by monastic vows and do not live in a religious community. SERF, SERFDOM A person attached to and dependent upon the estate on which he or she lives. SHAFT TOMBS Chamber tombs, some with multiple chambers, reached from the surface by shafts up to six meters or more in depth. SHAMAN A priest of a religion that requires the intervention of the shaman in order to contact and influence supernatural spirits. SICAN (Lambayeque) Indigenous name in the Muchik language for an area on the north coast of Peru, it means "the house or temple of the moon." SIERRA A mountain range or chain. SIQUEIROS, DAVID ALFARO Mexican artist (1896-1974), one of the Mexican muralists. SLIP Extremely fine clay in liquid form used like paint to decorate the surface of ceramic ware; also clay in liquid form used to pour into molds. SOCIAL REALISM Leftist political art of the 1920s and 1930s primarily produced in the United States, Mexico, Germany, and the Soviet Union, with a distinct bias against abstraction and a tendency toward the illustration of political subjects with the purpose of educating the viewer. SOLAR, XUL Born Oscar Agustín Alejandro Schultz Solari, Argentinian artist (1887-1963) who developed a pictographic language he called criollismo, based largely on Spanish and Portuguese. STAMP MOLD A mold which can be used to press a design into wet clay. STUCCO Fine plaster or cement used as a coating for walls or as a decoration. SURREALISM An early 20th century painting style that emphasized imagery from the unconscious and was influenced by the budding science of psychology. It often draws its subject matter from dreams and fantasies and is sometimes painted in a spontaneous manner, although it may also be fairly naturalistic in its form.
			TAHUANTINSUYU Inca empire, the "Land of the Four Quarters." TAMALES One of the oldest of indigenous American foods, tamales are made from coarse cornmeal dough spread with a seasoned filling, such as beans or meat, and then wrapped in corn husks and steamed. TAMAYO, RUFINO Mexican artist (1899-1991). TELPOCHCALLI Aztec schools run by experienced warriors to train boys in the art of war. TENOCHTITLAN Capital of the Aztec empire and the site upon which present-day Mexico City was built. According to legend, the Mexica tribe founded the Aztec city in 1325, where they were led by their god Huitzilopochtli to a place where an eagle perched atop a prickly pear cactus, or tenochtli. Tenochtitlan means "by the prickly pear fruits." TEOTIHUACAN An important center of religious, economic and political power in central Mexico from about 100 B.C. to A.D. 750, Teotihuacan is located near present-day Mexico City. TEQUITQUI Art made by Indian craftsmen that mixed pre-Conquest motifs with European style; also known as IndoEuropean style. The Nahuatl word means "one who pays tribute." TEZCATLIPOCA Aztec deity of rulership, destruction, the night, and the magic arts. His name means "smoking mirror," and he was a shaman, as well as a nahualli (shapechanger), whose hidden self was the jaguar. TIEDYE Patterns created by folding and tightly binding portions of fabric before it is dyed in order to stop the dye from penetrating into the bound areas. TILMATLI Cloaks worn by men in pre-Columbian Mexico with a square shape that resembles that of today's sarape. TIWANAKU Pre-Columbian Andean empire located in Bolivia around A.D. 100-1200. TLALOC "He who has earth." A major god of rain, fertility, and agriculture and one of the most ancient of the Mesoamerican supernaturals. TOLTEC Peoples who dominated central Mexico in the years A.D. 950-1150/1200. TORRES-GARCIA, JOAQUIN Uruguayan painter and sculptor (18741949), a leader of universal constructivism. TRIPOD VESSEL A container with three legs. TROPHY HEAD CULT A cult in pre-Columbian regions of Central and South America in which ritual offerings of decapitated enemy heads were made to assure fertility of the land.
			UNIVERSAL CONSTRUCTIVISM The Latin American synthesis of 20th century European modernist movements which was pioneered by the Uruguayan artist Joaquín Torres-García.
			VAQUERO A herdsman or cowboy. VARGAS, EUGENIA Chilean artist (born 1949). VASCONCELOS, JOSE The first Mexican minister of culture after the bloody revolution of 1910-1920, he was the true founder of the Mexican muralist movement, serving as the patron of Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros. VATER, REGINA Brazilian artist (born 1943). VELASCO, JOSE MARIA Mexican painter (1840-1912), the foremost Mexican landscape painter of the 19th century. VERACRUZ City on Mexico's east coast where Hernán Cortés landed in 1519. VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE The Virgin of Guadalupe is revered as the patron saint of Mexico. According to 16th century accounts, the Mother of God appeared to an Indian named Juan Diego in 1531 at the hill of Tepeyac. Tepeyac was a holy site to the Aztecs who considered it the home of Tonantzin, Mother of the Gods. The Virgin spoke to Juan Diego in his native language, Nahuatl, and asked for a shrine to be built in her honor. Three days later she performed a miracle by imprinting her image on Juan Diego's tilma, a cactus-fiber cloak, which convinced the bishop to build the shrine. The Virgin of Guadalupe evolved into a symbol of Mexican-born citizens whether Creole, Indian, or mestizo. Her image flew on the banners of the independence movement in 1810 and a century later on the banners of the Mexican Revolution. The Virgin of Guadalupe is represented wearing a turquoise cloak studded with stars and is surrounded by brilliant sunrays. She wears a rose-colored robe, and she stands on an angel-held crescent moon. The colors turquoise and rose, and the images of sun and moon, were associated by the Indians with Aztec nobility and religion. The Spanish saw in her an image of the Lady of Guadalupe popular in Spain. She thus represents a fusion of the two cultures.
			WARP AND WEFT The vertical (warp) yarns which are attached to the weaving loom and the horizontal (weft) yarns which are alternately interlaced across the warp to create a piece of woven fabric. WRIGHT, FRANK LLOYD American architect (1867-1959).
			ZAPATA, EMILIANO One of the revolutionary leaders of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. ZAPOTEC Indigenous people of southern Mexico in the state of Oaxaca. ZARATE, FELIX Mexican painter of the 19th century.

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