New Book by Art History's Ana Pulido Rull Explores Mapping Indigenous Land and Native Land Grants

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Ana Pulido Rull

The School of Art at the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences congratulates art history associate professor Ana Pulido Rull on her new book, Mapping Indigenous Land. Native Land Grants in Colonial New Spain.

Pulido Rull received her art history doctorate from Harvard University and began teaching at the University of Arkansas fall 2012. A native of Mexico City, she holds a Bachelor of Arts in history from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where she began her indigenous painted maps and manuscripts research. 

Her research focuses pre-Columbian and colonial Mexico indigenous maps, specifically those designed and used as legal evidence in colonial courts of law. In her book, she analyzes the social function of native art in colonial Mexico through the examination of a corpus of maps known as Land Grant Maps or Mapas de Mercedes.

Pulido Rull also explores how, as persuasive and rhetorical images, these maps did more than simply record the disputed territories for lawsuits. They also enabled indigenous communities, and sometimes Spanish petitioners, to translate their ideas about contested spaces into visual form, offered arguments defending spaces and in some cases helped protect indigenous land against harmful requests.

"Professor Pulido Rull's new book is generating a huge amount of buzz among art and map historians, said Lynn Jacobs, program director of art history. "Her book, which draws on years of archival research, presents groundbreaking research — and, at the same time, communicates moving human stories about how the native people of New Spain used maps to assert their rights against Spanish colonizers."

Pulido Rull will be presenting her book and research at Stanford University Center for Latin American Studies at 2:45 p.m. today, Friday, Nov. 6. The presentation is open to the public, to attend please register through Stanford website.  

During her talk, Pulido Rull will narrate some of the stories she has found most remarkable and share how these maps impacted indigenous communities beyond courts of law.

"Indigenous artists from colonial Mexico created hundreds of painted maps and manuscripts to substantiate their claims in different legal arenas," said Pulido Rull. "They learned the main tenets of the Spanish legal system as a means for seeking justice in colonial courts of law. This seemed fascinating to me since I was a graduate student, especially the way in which they used images to voice their most pressing concerns. This book is the result of many years studying land grant maps and their court records. It also means to honor the resourcefulness and determination of the indigenous communities of colonial Latin America."