Building Yanhuitlan: Art, Politics, and Religion in the Mixteca Alta since 1500

Through years of fieldwork in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, art historian and archaeologist Alessia Frassani formulated a compelling question: How did Mesoamerican society maintain its distinctive cultural heritage despite colonization by the Spanish? In Building Yanhuitlan, she focuses on an imposing structure—a sixteenth-century Dominican monastery complex in the village of Yanhuitlan.

For centuries, the buildings have served a central role in the village landscape and the lives of its peo...