This award is the harvest of those who taught me to read the land: Rojas Rabiela
Daniel López Aguilar
La Jornada Newspaper, Sunday, June 8, 2025, p. 2
Teresa Rojas Rabiela has forged a career that spans generations and stands as a living testament to ethnohistory, capable of revealing a Mexico that endures in its roots and ancestral knowledge.
The 2024 National Prize for Arts and Literature, recently announced in the History, Social Sciences, and Philosophy categories, recognizes her persistent commitment to a dialogue that transcends eras and connects ancestral and contemporary knowledge.
In the shelter of her large garden, a space she cultivates with patience and where the plants seem to listen to her, she serenely recalled more than five decades dedicated to the Center for Research and Advanced Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS).
From that modest corner, he cemented a project that today resonates in multiple regions of the country and has awakened voices and memories that, thanks to his efforts, have been recovered.
Receiving this award is a moment of joy, but also a mirror that reflects the teachers, family, and public education that shaped me
, she shared in an interview with La Jornada. Her gaze, then, extends to all those who have walked the paths of collective knowledge.
His work addresses, among other topics, the agricultural and hydraulic systems that Mesoamerican peoples developed and perfected over centuries, reflecting a knowledge rooted in the land and water.
Much of his attention focuses on the 16th century, when the arrival of Europeans opened up a complex exchange, a fabric of culture, resistance, and a profound reconfiguration of indigenous societies.
Understanding the agricultural and hydraulic transformation of that time requires uniting deep knowledge of the indigenous world with a critical view of the European arrival, without losing the persistence of ancestral knowledge
, added Rojas Rabiela (Mexico City, 1947).
Hence her mixed method: archives, chronicles and codices are illuminated for her only when she contrasts them with the pulse of the countryside, sleeping in chinampa villages and conversing with peasants who still feel the mud between their toes.
The chinampas, artificial islands that emerged as oases of ingenuity, became the protagonists of his research.
He discovered how, from early times, the chinamperos integrated newly arrived crops, such as cabbage and lettuce, symbols of mestizo fertility that unites tradition and renewal. Now he is finishing a text on wheat, that other Old World plant, to unravel how a civilization without livestock or iron sustained a vast agricultural and social system.
Resilient management
During his time as director of Ciesas (1990-1996) he inherited a limited budget, rented premises and an academic staff with few postgraduate degrees.
He transformed that period, marked by crisis and cutbacks, into an opportunity: he brokered scholarship agreements for researchers, including some who traveled to Brazil, England, or the United States, and relied on the then-very effective talent repatriation and retention program that Conacyt had in place at the time. He also launched the center's first email service in partnership with UNAM and revived publishing.
It was a multi-track approach; resilience and strategic vision had to go hand in hand for the institutions to survive and find new horizons
, he said.
Declared a daughter of public education, Rojas Rabiela traces her steps back to the Mexican Social Security Institute's nursery school, elementary school, Prepa 1 in San Ildefonso, and the National School of Anthropology and History, then located on the upper floors of the recently inaugurated National Museum of Anthropology.
It was there, under the guidance of Guillermo Bonfil, that he discovered fieldwork at the Lenten fairs of Chalco-Amecameca and Morelos, while the National Archives (AGN), which then occupied a wing of the National Palace, became his second home.
Throughout his career, he has collaborated with the Mexican Academy of Sciences, the College of Ethnologists and Social Anthropologists, the AGN, and, of course, Ciesas, where he wove a network that nourishes Mexican anthropological thought.
Six books, individually authored, 13 co-authored, and 32 as editor or coordinator, reflect this commitment; along with these, projects such as the modernization of the National Agrarian Registry and the Historical Water Archive reflect her archival work. In 1987, she received the Mexican Academy of Sciences Award, then reserved for those under 40.
For the emeritus national researcher, history and ethnohistory are "a constant dialogue with the past, an echo that filters into the present and into the daily gestures of those who cultivate the land or reconstruct its memory.
Understanding agricultural and hydraulic technologies means understanding how communities maintain their balance with the environment, despite adversity and external attacks
, he stressed.
With the serenity of someone who has dedicated his entire life to listening, observing, and transmitting, he emphasized that this knowledge is vital and must be preserved. "That's what we must transmit to young people; this is one of the activities I find most rewarding."
This award is the harvest of many hands: my teachers, my colleagues, the farmers who taught me to read the land, and the students who today undertake their own sowing of memory. If this recognition leaves us with anything, it is the certainty that history does not sleep on the shelves; it germinates in every archive we open.
Swedish museum dedicates exhibition to Cuban artist Belkis Ayón and her challenging work
Mythologies focuses on Sikan, a place of African culture // The venue has had a decolonial discourse since the 1990s, says director Katarina Pierre
▲ The Dinner Installation, 1988, by Belkis Ayón, is on display at the Bildmuseet. Colography. © Belkis Ayón Estate. Photo courtesy of the Belkis Ayón Estate .
Alejandra Ortiz Castañares
Special for La Jornada
La Jornada Newspaper, Sunday, June 8, 2025, p. 3
Florence. The Bildmuseet (Sweden) presents Belkis Ayón: Mythologies, the first Nordic retrospective dedicated to the Cuban artist (1967–1999), focusing on her exploration of the female figure of Sikán, from African mythology. The exhibition, organized in collaboration with the Oxford Museum of Modern Art in England (where it was previously shown), will remain open until November 23, 2025.
Belkis Ayón: Mythologies presents more than 30 works and sketches created from 1985 to 1998. Among the earliest are the lithograph Sikán (1985) and a series of small-format color prints from 1986. Initially, Ayón experimented with graphic techniques, primarily lithography, before adopting black and white colography, which became her primary medium of expression.
Belkis Ayón, who delved into the deepest layers of Afro-Cuban syncretism, has experienced a strong resurgence in the European museum scene since her major retrospective at the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid (2021-2022) and at the Venice Biennale.
The exhibition at the Bildmuseet—Umeå University's museum of contemporary art in northern Sweden—is part of this wave of reappraisal, albeit with its own distinctive approach. Since 1988, Ayón has worked in large formats, joining multiple printed sections together, allowing him to create almost life-size figures with great precision and a strong three-dimensional presence.
"I was absolutely blown away when I saw Belkis Ayón's exhibition at the Reina Sofía in Madrid
," says Katarina Pierre, co-curator with Brita Täljedal and Sandra García Herrera, in a Zoom interview with La Jornada. " It was a physical experience to encounter these large-format collographs, executed with astonishing precision. I was unfamiliar with her work, and it shook me deeply with its visual and symbolic power
."
Pierre (born in 1962) is an art historian. She has worked at the Bildmuseet since 1995 as a curator and has served as its director since 2011. Under her leadership, the museum has established itself as a leading institution in Europe, committed to exploring the intersections between art, science, and society. Since the late 1990s, the kunsthalle has maintained an open and progressive stance. In 1998—well before the decolonial discourse gained traction—Pierre, as curator, organized an exhibition dedicated to South African artists and photographers, including the photojournalist Santu Mofokeng, thus initiating a curatorial line that would later include artists such as Zanele Muholi, Zineb Sedira, Grada Kilomba, John Akomfrah, and Ana Mendieta.
Pierre's interest in Ayón led her to the Belkis Ayón Foundation in Havana, and the exhibition took three years to materialize. Founded in 2003 by Katia Ayón (1968–2020), the artist's sister, the foundation has been instrumental in promoting her legacy, along with Cuban curator Cristina Vives, who curated a traveling exhibition in the United States (2016–2021).
Between myths, silences and power
Ayón's work revolves around the Abakuá secret society, a male brotherhood of African origin (Nigeria and Cameroon) established in Cuba in the 19th century. The paradox, Pierre points out, is that Ayón, a woman of African descent and an atheist, chose this closed universe as a symbolic framework to speak about herself.
“The central figure in her work is Sikán, a woman who, according to Abakuá legend, accidentally catches the sacred fish reserved for men, thus acquiring knowledge and power. For this, she is punished with death. Belkis said that Sikán was her alter ego,” explains Pierre. This marginalized yet essential female figure is reinterpreted by the artist, who places her at the center of her own version of The Last Supper, replacing Christ with Sikán and the apostles with mouthless women.
They can see, but not speak. They can observe, but they have no voice. They are silenced
, the director affirms. This visual metaphor runs throughout Ayón's work, where themes such as censorship, violence, exclusion, and inner struggle are expressed with disturbing beauty.
Ayón took the technique of colography—using textured materials to create relief images—to a monumental scale. When I first saw her works, I thought they were paintings. Her technical achievement is extraordinary
, Pierre recalls. As a professor at the Havana Academy of Art, she influenced a new generation of artists. She represented Cuba at the 1993 Venice Biennale, where she gained international recognition during her lifetime.
The use of humble materials, the expressive choice of black and white, and the absence of color to intensify the symbolic content, position his work as essential in the history of contemporary engraving.
Ayón's presence in academic contexts—such as the Fowler Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon, and now the Bildmuseet—responds, according to Pierre, to the aesthetic force of her work and the growing interest in postcolonial perspectives. Our institution has worked since the 1990s with African and Indigenous artists, including Sámi, such as the now renowned Britta Marakatt-Labba. Ayón fits naturally into that vision
.
Pierre acknowledges that issues of decolonization have become a curatorial focus in many exhibitions, but insists that this is a necessary evolution in the art world. In the case of the Bildmuseet, it represents a long-term commitment: "It's not a passing fad for us. Belkis is part of a curatorial line we've been developing for decades
."
In the current European context—marked by the rise of conservative and anti-immigration forces, including in Sweden—Ayón's work takes on renewed relevance. At first, I didn't see it that way, but after experiencing his work, I realized that it questions belief systems in general, and that is of pressing relevance: we may believe that myths are a thing of the past, but we continue to live under the influence of mythologies, whether religious, political, or ideological; these belief systems shape our lives and our societies
.
Ayón died tragically in 1999, at the age of 32. His legacy continues to grow. Exhibitions like this not only demonstrate his exceptional talent, but also invite us to confront a broader and more fruitful worldview.
Pianist Yuja Wang showcased the elegance of her art at the National Auditorium.
▲ The Mahler Chamber Orchestra accompanied the Chinese-born pianist and conductor. Photo by Omar González
Omar González Morales
La Jornada Newspaper, Sunday, June 8, 2025, p. 4
Pianist Yuja Wang performed at the National Auditorium accompanied by the nearly fifty musicians who make up the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Her performance is known, yes, for its polish, but also for its elegance, precision, and generosity.
On Friday night, before a nearly full house at the Reforma Theatre, bathed in a veil of light, Wang broke the silence with the Coriolanus Overture. She stretched her hands over the Steinway & Sons, focused and unperturbed.
She appeared with simplicity, wearing a typical—and, for some, even controversial—short dress, this time black; she was exuberant, she seemed liberated. Her smile was broad and contagious, like the music with which she routinely fills the audience with emotion.
The Chinese artist performed Ludwig van Beethoven's piece and, as usual, ascended and descended rapidly through the notes and flats.
Meanwhile, the audience watched her in rapture, as if ascending and descending the same staircase created by the black and white keys with which she recreated her performance. The challenge facing Yuja Wang is no small feat: she is on her debut tour as a conductor, a role she combines with that of soloist, which has earned her some criticism because she is open to error.
Her youth is a testament to the talent that accompanies her. She has received numerous awards and accolades, yet she quickly demonstrated why.
The pianist then fluently performed Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21. With masterful technique, her fingers executed the allegro vivace. She was thrilling; the audience was still, calm, stunned, as if watching her soar with euphoria. The performance of the accompanying orchestra was no less spectacular.
The piece ended, and the audience's silence ended. As if they were roses, they stood and applauded her promptly; no wonder. They returned her generosity, because she held nothing back. Her concentration was absolute; she conducted from the piano, stood and coordinated, and with her arms manifested the musical waves.
The repertoire continued with Igor Stravinsky's Dumbarton Oaks Concerto in E-flat major. Behind Wang was the violin of German violinist José Maria Blumenschein, another renowned maestro.
Born to Brazilian parents but in Germany, his exceptional accompaniment during the concert and his conducting of two pieces before Wang's two entrances on stage earned him applause from the audience.
At the interval, however, the pianist was slow to return to the stage; the Auditorium staff had to take time to constantly rearrange the orchestra's positions. Silence reclaimed the stage.
The delay displeased the audience, but all hints of anger vanished when the diva returned, wearing a new, elegant yellow dress, ready to play Stravinsky's piece with masterful precision.
In this performance, his liveliness and lightness stood out, interspersing his characteristic dizzying technique with moments of calm. He roamed the piano from beginning to end. The violins were his guardians.
The final piece, Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23, began with a tinkling sound, with Yuja Wang displaying the solemnity she always brings to Tchaikovsky's pieces. She accelerated, moved forward, and played around. Blumenschein accompanied her.
At that moment, the song of two birds was heard in the auditorium, joining the concert, captivating the audience. It was as if they were responding to the musical call of the Chinese artist and her orchestra. Wang assumed her role as conductor: she stood up, moved her arms, and directed the flutes, clarinets, horns, trumpets, and other instruments that accompanied her.
She finished and the audience gave her a standing ovation; she generously returned to congratulate her orchestra. Unexpectedly, she sat back down at the piano and gave another quick demonstration of her great technical prowess by performing a shorter version of Arturo Márquez's Danzón No. 2. It was just her alone; her colleagues also enjoyed the show. Thus concluded her busy day.
They offered flowers to the protagonist and José María Blumenschein, who accepted them and then gave them to their colleagues. They shared in the success and the applause.
That's Yuja Wang. No matter how long we have to wait to hear her, she's a modern piano diva.
jornada
