The Lienzo de Tlapiltepec: A Painted History from the Northern Mixteca ed. by Arni Brownstone (review)

Few books survived colonization, but writing continued nonetheless. Brownstone's work presents a rare example of Mexican colonial pictorial narrative in all its vibrant detail. Unlike codices painted on paper or hide, this sixteenth-century history was painted on a large canvas of white cotton.

The book's lush visual landscape at first glance belies the lienzo's complex pictorial strategies. Elizabeth Boone's foreword clarifies our perspective, guiding us to a structural understanding of the methods used by indigenous writers. Boone perfectly frames the Lienzo de Tlapiltepec within the larger context of Mexican writing, notably a graphic system that transcends ethnic or linguistic boundaries. In identifying three distinct approaches to narrating history—by time, event, or place—she articulates the lienzo's conceptual map as an interweaving of two tactics. Thus, as this ambitious project recovers the red faded strokes once seen alongside bolder black lines, it does more than restore original pigments: it also restores historical connections between distinct historical people and places. Following these now-visible connections, the reader learns to decipher the previously hidden relationships between indigenous political leaders—the very women and men illustrated herein.

Large full-color examples fill nearly every page and draw the reader into intimacy with the text. Chapter 3 begins with a photograph of Nicholas Johnson standing next to a full-size tracing of the Lienzo de Tlapiltepec, taking us through the various quadrants in a way that orients us within its physical space and scale. The narrative grows from this intimate observation, and we are taken along an expert's journey, with an invitation to witness the power of graphic texts. Physical lines become "corridors" between mountains and rivers, between persons and polities, weaving together history and ceremony. Brownstone and Eckehard Dolinski explain the methods underpinning the photographs, tracings, and different versions of enhanced illustrations, allowing us a behind-the-scenes look at the decisions that undergird the present form. Processes, including digital tools, spectrophotometer analysis, and a battery of spectroscopy experiments reveal approaches—through surface coatings, paint medium, and range of color palette—to understanding the Lienzo de Tlapiltepec's materiality.

One of a rare group of 11 cloth manuscripts from the Coixtlahuaca Valley in Oaxaca, the Lienzo de Tlapiltepec well represents the skill of its creators. From a widespread class of writers known as escribanos during the Spanish colonial period, the contributors to this volume focus on Chocho and Mixtec pictorial narrators (the former group was closely related to the Popolocas of southern Puebla). Created as an aid in interpreting topograms, the Lienzo de Tlapiltepec was glossed in their own language. Michael Swanton and Van Doesburg identify the ten heretofore undecipherable words printed on the lienzo as belonging to the Chocho-Popoloca language, Chocholtec; this insight adds significantly to the extant research on indigenous escribanos. Johnson engages the novice and specialist alike by laying a thorough, wide-ranging groundwork for understanding the source. A chart of 20 day-signs, drawn in the local style, offers an essential key to decoding the Lienzo. Even beginning students quickly learn to read the calendrical birth and personal names and dates.

Further, Bas Van Doesburg incorporates 17 transcriptions of non-pictorial notarial documents, also written by indigenous escribanos, making the book an essential reference. These sources include land grants, petitions, licenses to ride horseback, and a power of attorney, alongside fully illustrated comparisons with other pictorial sources. This effort allows the book to be used to teach Mexican history through the evolution of writing, and as the seed of potentially groundbreaking research among many disciplines. Students and scholars interested in the diversity and depth of indigenous writing will find a beautiful presentation, carefully analyzed in context, transparently reconstructed, and ready for use in the research-oriented classroom. It is a worthy testament to enduring Chocho, Mixtec, and Aztec intellectual influences in local...