More than Military: Decolonial Approaches to Defensive and Militaristic Architecture in Colonial Mexico

Hooten, Lauren Elizabeth

Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation

More than Military: Decolonial Approaches to Defensive and Militaristic Architecture in Colonial Mexico Public Deposited

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Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/5x21th17s

Abstract

Art and architectural history’s disciplinary inclination has traditionally been to assign value to works of architecture based on a binary categorization scheme wherein some buildings are understood to be works of “architecture,” while others are termed “utilitarian” and thus are of little interest to the art historian. Fortifications and buildings constructed in a militaristic style are, more often than not, relegated to the space of this latter category. Yet, if we acknowledge that art and architectural history’s purpose is, at least in some part, to enable us to understand the ideas and experiences that shape societies, we would be remiss in excluding defensive and militaristic constructions from study given their often prominent role at points of political, social, and cultural conflict.

This dissertation takes a decolonial approach to analysis of sixteenth-century colonial Mexican defensive and militaristic architecture and its adornment, examining the fortress of San Juan de Ulúa in Veracruz and the fortress monasteries of San Miguel el arcángel in Huejotzingo and San Salvador in Malinalco and their relationships to pre-Hispanic architecture at Teotihuacan, Xochicalco, Cacaxtla, and Malinalco. I put forth interpretations that yield new and different perspectives on the historical significance and cultural relevance of these sites. These interpretations intentionally decenter Europe and disrupt the Eurocentric perspectives characteristic of foundational studies of the architecture of colonial Latin America. I argue that examples of defensive and militaristic architecture and its adornment in pre-Hispanic and early colonial Mexico are critically important cultural artifacts that illuminate the common importance of ritualized militarism prior to the Spanish invasion in 1519 and in the decades that followed.

Creating a decolonial avenue for understanding this style of architecture is also important because it is infrequently analyzed from the perspective of those who were not victorious in the conflicts associated with colonialism. Thus, this dissertation furthers the efforts of scholarship in the field of Latin American art history to elevate Indigenous knowledge and architectural traditions that preceded and coincided with the Spanish occupation of the Americas to advocate for a re-envisioning of the history of defensive and militaristic architecture from the perspectives of the Global South.

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