The Tlacuilos and the Construction of the Novohispanic Space in the XVI Century

Abstract

The Spanish colonization is a phenomenon of great interest to understand the culture in America. The colonization was a historical process where elements of western culture and American Indians were blended to construct common spaces. One of them was the hispanoindigena cartography created by tlacuilos. The tlacuilos were a group of artisans specialized in making maps. Their works became fundamental elements for judgments of lands and waters indigenous and also one instrument of representation that the indigenous used to approximate Spaniards to the geography reality of their petitions. Since then, the works of the tlacuilos are part of towns’ identity and memory in Mexico because these represent the origin of the rights over lands and water and they are the beginning of the territorialization of country. Therefore, it is important to ask: Who were the tlacuilos? What was their role in Colonial period? What was the significance of their works?