The Macba delves into the myth of the Mixes, the people that could never be conquered

King Kondoy was born from an egg, like his sister the Horned Serpent; transformed into an adult in just three days, he grew up to be a relentless yet good-natured titan of strength who traversed mountains stealing cattle and sacks of gold from the rich, defending his people from the attacks of invading armies (arrows and bullets ricocheted off in his body, and he counterattacked throwing gigantic stones) and above all teaching him to fight, to sow and to work.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
09 November 2022 Wednesday 21:38
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The Macba delves into the myth of the Mixes, the people that could never be conquered

King Kondoy was born from an egg, like his sister the Horned Serpent; transformed into an adult in just three days, he grew up to be a relentless yet good-natured titan of strength who traversed mountains stealing cattle and sacks of gold from the rich, defending his people from the attacks of invading armies (arrows and bullets ricocheted off in his body, and he counterattacked throwing gigantic stones) and above all teaching him to fight, to sow and to work.

The legend of Kondoy, "a restorative figure that subverts the world: he appropriates the appropriation and defeats the victors", in the words of the Mexican historian Pablo Arreondo Vera, is the founding myth of the Mixe people, a community originating from Mexico that has never been conquered despite repeated attempts from Hernán Cortés, in 1529. Arreondo Vera himself approached there along with the artists Mariana Botey, Brian Cross, Taka Fernández and Dr. Lakra to learn through them a deity that for the Mixe It is a fundamental element of resistance. The Mixes maintain a model of communal organization, "an absolutely horizontal democracy with a very deep sense of criticism of alienation," Botey points out.

The result of that immersion is an immersive Ayuujkjä’äy ëy konk installation. A fable based on a Mixe myth, which can be visited at Macba until February 26. A "fairy tale", which is told scene by scene in twenty pictorial banners that hang from the ceiling, a medium-length film in which these same paintings are intertwined with images of the landscapes and their inhabitants, and a totem pole on a monumental scale. And as a backdrop, the music performed by the philharmonic of the Center for Musical Training and Development of the Mixe Culture (Cecam), located in the community of Tlahuitoltepec.