Searching for Mexico’s Mudejar Heritage

The defeat by the Moors that the Visigoths suffered in 711 gave rise to the Golden Islamic Age in Southern Spain. For almost 800 years, Spain’s life was influenced by the richness of Arab culture at the social, political and economic level, until the Catholic monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand, united Spain under one rule and religion in 1492. However, the deep mark the Moors left impregnated Spain’s culture and landscape was later reflected in one of Spain’s most important colonies, the viceroyalty of New Spain. The conquistadors brought with them this visually striking Arabic art form—Mudejar to colonial Mexico. Under the umbrella of the colonial enterprise, the Spanish Crown saw the need to preserve and exploit the arts, skills and products of Arab origin. Colonial buildings in Mexico such as the church of San Francisco in Tlaxcala and the Royal Chapel at Cholula in Puebla have the finest examples of Mudejar artistic and architectural elements. The emerging Mestizo society not only inherited from Spain the Mudejar Art form, but some of the biases and prejudices Spaniards had towards the Arab community.

Mexico’s architectural landscapes have been enriched across time by the peoples that have left their own unique cultural legacy. The indigenous peoples built architectural wonders such as Teotihuacán, Monte Alban, Chichen Itza, and Palenque. Alongside these pre-Hispanic monuments, pyramids, and temples, the Spanish architectural legacy stands with its imposing churches, convents and palaces. The hegemonic ideology of the conquistadors can be inferred through constructions such as the church of the Virgin de los Remedios built on top of the great pyramid of Cholula, and the majestic Mexico City cathedral, built by Hernan Cortes, which was constructed with some stones from the Templo Mayor, the great Aztec temple of Tenochtitlan.

Within the colonial architecture, a third artistic element stands out for its own visually striking components. This element, which is present in churches, convents, palaces and houses, has its origins in the artistic and architectural Mudejar legacy of the North African Arab community that inhabited Southern Spain. Mudejar influence in the colonial architecture is often regarded as simply Spanish without taking into account the Arabic influence. I was curious to find out how these Mudejar elements, which flourished in Medieval Spain, were transported to colonial Mexico. Later, while doing fieldwork in Mexico City, Oaxaca, Puebla, and Tlaxcala, I realized that the process that led to Mudejar artistic elements in colonial buildings is much more complex than the mere physical presence of Arabs in the viceroyalty of New Spain. The imprinted Mudejar architecture in Mexico’s landscape embodies the hybridization of the Arabic and Spanish cultures as well as the complex Spanish Crown’s colonial project.

A scant body of literature exists on Mudejar art in Mexico. My readings can be grouped in three clusters: description of Mexican culture elements of Arabic origin; possible explanations for the presence of Mudejar art in Mexico; and the colonial process that led to the denial of the Mudejar in Spain.

In her dissertation, Concepcion Barron gives a general overview of the arts, buildings and elements of Mexican culture of Arabic origin as well as a brief historical background as to how these Arabic elements reached Mexican soil (Barron, 1932). Furthermore, an issue of the magazine Artes de Mexico focused on the architecture, cuisine and historical growth of Puebla de los Angeles and explored the Mudejar techniques and artistic elements in the landscape of this beautiful colonial city (Artes de Mexico, number 81, 82, 1966). In addition, the art historian Manuel Toussaint describes in detail the different Mudejar artistic elements and techniques in Mexican colonial buildings (Toussaint, 2001; 1967). In his book titled Aztecs, Moors, and Christians: Festivals of Reconquest in Mexico and Spain, Max Harris traces the origin of the theatrical staged battles between Moors and Christians throughout Mexico and Spain.

Most scholars agree that hybridization as a consequence of 800 years of co-existence between Muslims and Christians is the primary reason why Mudejar elements can be found in Mexico (Barron, 1932; Henares Cuellar & Lopez Guzman, 2001; Leon A. Zahar, 2001). Moreover, Barron and Henares Cuellar & Lopez Guzman point out that despite the fact that King Charles V prohibited the migration of Moors to the New World, he made sure that products and skills of Arab origin were brought to the viceroyalty of New Spain. In rare cases and under strict conditions Moors were shipped to Mexico. On the other hand, the Moroccan scholar Aouad Lahrech argues that the presence of Arabs in Mexico dates back as far as the conquest. However, the presence and contributions made by Arabs during the colonization period is not acknowledged since it was not properly documented (Aouad Lahrech, 2001).

The Catholic monarchs, Isabelle and Ferdinand, led the Reconquest program that ended the period of Islamic Spain. It was during this time that the Moorish community was singled out as the enemy and infidel (Fuentes, 1992; Henares Cuellar & Lopez Guzman, 2001). Leon A. Zahar highlights how an attitude of denial and shame towards the Moorish legacy was prevalent in the discourse of Spanish art historians. Later on, the attitude towards the Mudejar art among the Spanish art historians shifted to one of acknowledgement and pride with a nationalistic agenda in mind (Zahar, 2001).

Before proceeding, I would like to make some distinctions among the terms I will be using throughout my paper. In the literature the arts that flourished during the Muslim rule in Spain (711 to 1492) are referred to as Mudejar, Moorish, Islamic and Andalusian. Andalusia was the name the Muslim people gave to Southern Spain when they settled there in the early eighth century. Most of the scholars used the term Moor to refer to the North African Muslim Arabs who conquered and inhabited Southern Spain. I prefer to use the term Mudejar because it emphasizes an ethnic group within the extensive Arab and Islamic community. It refers to the North African Arab and Berber community from Morocco.

In order to explore the possible explanations for the existence of Moorish artistic elements in Mexico’s colonial architecture, I combined fieldwork with historical research. Before going to the field, I did historical research at the University of California at Berkeley's library. Through this research, I learned about the history of Spain during the Arabic presence. I also learned about Mexican society during the colony, and which arts produced in Mexico and buildings come from the Mudejar art.

Then, I proceeded to make a list of the colonial buildings that displayed either Moorish artistic or architectural components in them. I decided to visit Mexico City, Oaxaca, Puebla and Tlaxcala after learning that these cities have outstanding examples of Mudejar architecture.

The beautiful geometric lines that adorn the Mexican colonial architecture hide a “package of moral and aesthetic values promoted by the Spanish Crown in the Americas through its royal foundations, in a process of conquest and acculturation” (Henares Cuellar and Lopez Guzman, 2001, p.86). The visually outstanding Mudejar decorative elements like ajaracas[1] and artesonados,[2] and structural components such as arches, open chapels and alfarjes[3] present in Mexico, are tangled with the complex socio-political and ideological reality of an emerging Mestizo society in the viceroyalty of New Spain.

The artistic style has been subject to shifting attitudes. The scholar, Leon R. Zahar in his article, The Vertex Defined: The Names of Islamic Art, describes the politics and shifting attitudes throughout time among the Spanish art historians with respect to the naming of the Arab artistic legacy. He states that “these works were characterized as barbarism left behind by the Mauretanians or Moors” (2001, p. 90); during “the nineteenth century, when the first histories of Spanish art were written, they were viewed as vestiges of foreign rulers, distant and undesirable” (ibid). Later on, Spanish historians and archaeologists began to speak of Hispano-Arabic, Hispano-Moorish or Arabic-Andalus in the early twentieth century, with a clear aim of assimilating the tradition into the national culture (ibid). The shift from excluding Mudejar art to begin including it in the art discourse had the purpose to appropriate this artistic style as part of the elements identified as national. Only then did it matter to acknowledge the Moorish imprint in the eyes of the art historians. Mexico, being a product of the process of hybridization that took place between Spaniards and the native population, inherited not only Spanish physical traits and culture, but the hegemonic ideological discourse of the time as well.

There are roughly two levels in which art served as a channel for three cultures (Arabic, Spanish and Mesoamerican) to meet. At one level the Spanish Conquistadors brought to the New World among many other things an artistic legacy—the Mudejar style, which flourished in Spain during the Muslim rule. As a result of their settlement in Spain in the early eighth century, Visigoth architectural styles were borrowed by the Arabs to enhance their own. For example, Abderraman I took advantage of the columns and other elements of the old Basilica of San Vicente to erect the Mosque of Cordoba, while Visigoth and Arab architectonic techniques were employed in this construction (Barron, 1932, p. 22). But there is another, more complex level of art serving as a common ground for the interaction of the Arabic, Spanish and Mesoamerican culture. Ignacio Henares Cuellar and Rafael Lopez Guzman explain how Mudejar elements were replicated in the New World:

Under the authority of Spanish artisans, indigenous people had to build religious and civil constructions in a fashion foreign to them. On some occasions, the materials employed in Spanish commissioned works came from dismantled native constructions. In this way, the final product was a hybrid display of the contribution of these three cultures—the indigenous peoples’ hard labor and resources; Spaniards’ yearning to recreate Spain in the viceroyalty of New Spain; and the Arabs’ Mudejar artistic legacy in Southern Spain.

I will describe in detail two buildings: the church of the Franciscan Monastery in Tlaxcala; and the Royal Chapel of the Franciscan Monastery in Cholula, two of the most outstanding examples of Mudejar fashioned colonial buildings in Mexico. The church of the Franciscan monastery in Tlaxcala was built in 1524 mostly of archeological stone. It houses, according to the art historian Manuel Toussaint, “the most splendid example of alfarje which has been preserved; it shows how fully this magnificent Mudejar technique was carried on in New Spain" (1967, p.84). It has a flat ceiling with a perfect artesonado featuring an harneruelo[4] with large sections decorated with gold stars and traceries. The roof ends are simple gables attached to the almarbate or truss. Splendid coupled tie-beams rest on sturdy corbels; they are joined by three crossbars with starts on the central one and rhomboidal designs on the other two (Toussaint, 2001, p. 92).

The Royal Chapel of the Franciscan monastery at Cholula in Puebla falls into the category of open chapels which, in plan and general appearance, recalls the well-known mosque of Cordoba (Toussaint, 1967, p.31). This beautiful building, famous for its 49 domes, was built in 1575, and has undergone some modifications, but its basic structure has remained the same since the sixteenth century. Leon R. Zahar highlights how a hypostyle structure with arches makes a mosque stand out. The Royal Chapel is an exceptional example of this stylistic feature (2001, p.95).

Hybridization played a crucial role for the presence of Mudejar elements in the colonial architecture of Tlaxcala and Puebla. Both cities were among the first places to be erected by the Spanish settlers. The selection and distribution of what would later be the Tlaxcala capital was completed in 1528 and the plan of what would constitute Puebla de los Angeles was laid out in 1531. Charles Gibson argues that Tlaxcala’s post-conquest privileges were a result of the Tlaxcalans struggle to maintain their independence throughout pre-conquest and their alliance with the Spaniards to defeat the Aztec empire (1952, p.26). Puebla de los Angeles was “part of a carefully considered plan, approved by the Crown, aimed at establishing a city in which Spaniards” (Artes de Mexico, 1966, p.21) could “feel a love for the land” (ibid). These two cities not only enjoyed having a fortunate position in the viceroyalty of New Spain, but the privilege to have the finest examples of Mudejar techniques in their structures as well. Maria Jesus Viguera summarizes how the process of hybridization between the Arabic and Spanish culture was brought by Conquistadors to the New World:

By the end of the fifteenth century, at the start of the Iberian peninsula’s relationship with America, the culture of Al Andalus had made a wide and profound impact on Spanish culture in several domains, and with the latter, as though embedded in it, Moorish culture traveled to America, while its imprint endured for centuries on the Iberian Peninsula (Henares Cuellar & Lopez Guzman, 2001, p.87).

The Moors influenced Medieval Spain in all domains: social, political and economic. The Mudejar art brought by the Spaniards came with this reality of co-existence and conflict. The complexity of the elaboration of the geometrical lines in the colonial buildings of Puebla and Tlaxcala was involved in the complexity of the socio-political and ideological colonial enterprise project.

Despite the lack of proper documentation “the anecdotal and legendary nature of the stories that fill the pages left blank by official history” (Lahrech, 2001, p.85) exemplify “in an important and symbolic way the strong Arab presence in America since the beginning of the conquest” (ibid). According to Oumama Aouad Lahrech, a Moroccan scholar who has explored the Andalusia culture and its outcome, Rodrigo de Triana, a Moor “neglected by official history” (ibid) was the first person to see American soil during Christopher Columbus’s first journey.

Since Mudejar was embedded in Spanish culture, there is little need to account for its establishment in Mexico by proving that Moors themselves traveled to Mexico. Nevertheless, it is known that under strict conditions and special circumstances some Moors did come to the viceroyalty of New Spain. Mudejars[5] and Moriscos[6] were banned from traveling to the New World, but in Mexico an order was issued to ship converts from Granada to cultivate mulberry trees and build a silk industry (Henares Cuellar & Lopez Guzman, 2001, p.87). Even though King Carlos V prohibited moors from migrating to the New World he promoted the migration of craftsmen who knew the Moorish “irrigation ditch or channel” skill as well as the flow of products of Arabic origin (Barron, 1932, p.37). The emphasis placed by the Spanish Crown in preserving and making sure that products and skills of Arabic origin circulated to the New World becomes clear. Also, the desire of conquistadors such as Cortes[7] of having access to products of Arabic origin in the viceroyalty of New Spain contributed to the presence not only of Mudejar artistic elements, but to a rich variety of products and knowledge. At the same time, the Spanish Crown was trying to prevent a mass migration of Moors to the New World, so that King Carlos V could control and exploit the skills of this community at his will.

There is a connection between the events that unfolded during fifteenth century Spain and the absence and presence of Mudejar elements in Mexico. The Spanish monarchs’ goal of territorial unity was becoming a reality (Fuentes, 1992, p.79) once the last standing Moorish Kingdom, Granada, was defeated in 1492. The “discovery” of the New World by Christopher Columbus that same year enabled the Spanish Crown to extend its rule overseas. Ignacio Henares Cuellar and Rafael Lopez Guzman point out how the Catholic monarchs appropriated the Moorish legacy to later impose it on the native populations of Mexico:

The church of the Franciscan monastery in Tlaxcala and the Royal Chapel of the Franciscan monastery at Cholula in Puebla highlight the fact that there is not a complete Mudejar structure in Mexico. The presence and absence of many Mudejar elements during the first hundred years of its bloom in Mexico reiterates the Spanish Crown’s aim in the viceroyalty. However, the Crown also imposed its religion, language, culture, ideologies and an artistic expression upon the native people of their colony. Therefore, underneath the Mudejar geometric lines lies a process of conquest and acculturation of two subjugated communities—the Arabic community back in Spain and the indigenous in Mexico. The Mudejar art became the vehicle in which two subjugated communities, otherwise separated geographically, met.

The conquistadors not only transported to colonial Mexico the visible Mudejar elements, but an equally important invisible prejudice against the community that produced this visually striking art. As I walked in Mexico City, Oaxaca, Puebla, and Tlaxcala and admired the Mudejar art in the buildings, I could not stop feeling that I was being transported to the glorious years of Islamic Spain. However, according to Oumama Aouad Lahrech, this aspect of Mexican culture remains “hidden in the depths of collective memory” (2001, p.86). Mexican writers have attempted to uncover “their shared roots, recovering the forgotten memory of their Arabic-Andalusian heritage” in order “to fill the gaps of a labyrinthine history” (ibid). The Andalusian heritage being excluded from the collective memory of Mexico is not merely accidental, but rather a process that has unfolded since the Spanish conquistadors left the Old World. From the very beginning of the conquest the conquistadors compared the pyramids and indigenous temples with mosques and the native population with Moors, in this way symbolizing the right to subjugate the Indians as they did with the Moors in Spain.

The “inherited” prejudice toward the Arab community is reflected in the theatrical spectacle of Moors and Christians staged annually throughout Mexico, of which the Morismas de Brancho[8] in Zacatecas is the largest. Max Harris, in his article titled Beheading the Moor (Zacatecas, 1996), explains the possible origins of this custom, “the tradition of morismas, which has its roots in late medieval Spain, is believed to have arrived in the region of Zacatecas in the early seventeenth century” (2000, p.3). The early conquistadors recreated their surroundings back in Spain into the viceroyalty of New Spain without leaving behind the bias and prejudice towards the Moorish community. Cultural aspects such as the Morismas, trace back some of the biases and prejudices that were taken unconsciously by the native people from the conquistadors. Therefore, it is not a surprise that today some Mexican scholars are beginning to seek their shared roots with the Arabic-Andalusian.

These findings illustrate how cultures travel across time and space, and how prejudice can be part of that cultural dissemination, leaving its mark in foreign lands. Yet cultural transfers can work to join, rather than divide communities. We can heed Oumama Aouad Lahrech’s call when he states “this profound Mexican Mudejarism is what allows us to build cultural bridges between the two shores of the Atlantic, bringing closer together what geography separated” (2001, p.87).

The presence of Mudejar techniques in colonial Mexican architecture was a result of 800 years of co-existence between Muslims and Christians in Spain. The Spanish settlers recreated the images they had of their surroundings back in Spain in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Mudejar art, therefore, was unquestionably present in the settlers’ minds when they commissioned the first buildings, houses, churches and convents to the indigenous craftsmen. It is important to acknowledge that there is not a single construction of this period that is completely Mudejar, but rather a construction would have a Mudejar architectural element such as an alfarje, a geometric carved decoration or an entire structure within a building.

Three different cultures—Arabic, Spanish and Mesoamerican were brought together in the construction of colonial buildings such as the Royal Chapel at Cholula in Puebla and the church of San Francisco in Tlaxcala. The beautiful complex designs of the alfarje inside the church of San Francisco in Tlaxcala express the coming together of three cultures at different levels in a complex social-political colonial project.

[8] “Officially, the mock battles, religious processions, secular parades, fireworks displays, and saint plays tell three interwoven stories: the martyrdom of John the Baptist, commemorated by the church each year on 29 August; a legendary crusade of Charlemagne and the Twelve Peers of France, said to have taken place in 770 and to have had as “its sole purpose the rescue of holy relics” captured by the Turks; and the historical battle of Lepanto (1571), in which a Christian fleet under the command of John of Austria decisively defeated the Ottoman navy at the entrance to the Gulf of Corinth” (Harris, 2000, p.3).