'Goddesses, warriors and governors': Exhibition on power of women in ancient Huastec society opens in Torreon

‘Goddesses, warriors and governors’: Exhibition on power of women in ancient Huastec society opens in Torreón



MND Staff
January 31, 2025



Clay figures of women in a museum display case

The Huastec were famously excellent ceramicists, and the power of women in their society can be seen in many centuries-old statues and figurines. (CNME INAH)


In pre-Columbian times, Huastec women living along the Gulf Coast were influential members of their society, holding significant roles in politics and other realms of public life. Now, a new exhibition coming to Torreón, Coahuila, is showcasing that power thanks to a collaboration with Chicago’s National Museum of Mexican Art.

Dubbed “Mesoamerican Huastec Women: Goddesses, Warriors, and Governors,” the exhibition examines 132 archeological objects through iconographic and symbolic analysis, showing women’s positions and influence within the social structure of their time.



A poster for an archaeological exhibition on women in Huastec society
The show will open Feb. 2 in Torreón. (CNME INAH)

This exhibition is the result of a bilateral collaboration between the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago (MNAMC) in the United States, that stemmed from the discovery of two sculptures of “La Joven de Amajac” (The Young Woman of Amajac) in Veracruz. One of the statues was unearthed in a citrus grove in 2021 while the other one was discovered below a street in 2023, in Hidalgo Amajac.

The project aims to explore the role of women in Mexican society over time.

The exhibition, led by museographer David Morales Gómez and INAH researcher María Eugenia Maldonado Vite, seeks to make visible the political, military, religious, social and family role of women in the Huastec culture before the Spanish colonization.

More:
https://mexiconewsdaily.com/culture/huastec-women-society-coahuila-exhibition/