Colmenares to Give Keynote at M CIPEG
David Colmenares, Assistant Professor of Spanish, will give the keynote address at the upcoming M CIPEG online program on April 23. Colmenares will speak on Mexico: An American Egypt.
Prof. Colmenares describes the talk he will give:
In 1517, an expedition led by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba landed on the coast of Yucatan. At the ancient site of Ekab, the Spanish encountered monumental architecture that triggered deep seated cultural memory. They named the land “Great Cairo.” Since then, an Egyptian imaginary never ceased to haunt pre-scientific Mesoamerican archaeology. Whether mediated by Renaissance Egyptomania, the Napoleonic campaign, or Victorian exhibition culture, Egypt became Mesoamerica’s archaeological unconscious. This presentation charts the turning points and articulations that led to the imagined entanglement of these otherwise unrelated civilizations.