Lienzo of Ihuitlan

Pictorial Mixtec genealogies from the early colonial period demonstrate that native societies had been highly stratified since the pre-Hispanic era. For indigenous people, hereditary status played a large part in one’s social standing, much as it did for their European counterparts.

In the center of this lienzo—a type of colonial southern Mexican manuscript that combined genealogical, cartographic, and historical information on a large woven cloth—the genealogies of the rulers of many communities in the Coixtlahuaca Valley in Oaxaca are represented, with their high status often indicated by jaguar mats. Footprints document historical relationships between dynasties. Within Ihuitlan, where it was kept until 1900, this lienzo served as a tangible record of communal identity throughout the colonial period.