El Lienzo de Otla

The Lienzo of Otla is a pictorial manuscript on cloth, painted in the ancient Mesoamerican tradition during the early colonial period (mid-16th century). It belongs to the corpus of Lienzos from the Coixtlahuaca Valley (an area adjacent to the Mixteca Alta), Mexico, which constitutes an important chapter of ancient Mesoamerican pictography. It has been preserved with great care in its community, San Jerónimo Otla (State of Oaxaca), as a precious cultural patrimony. The Lienzo presents an interesting image of the village San Jerónimo Otla and its surroundings, in particular of the mountain range of the "Nudo Mixteco", an important point of orientation in the ritual landscape. In this way the Lienzo connects geographical and historical data (memory) with the ancient Mesoamerican cosmovision.--Cf. Prologue by prof. Dr. Willem Willems.