Walking through La mitad del mundo: Indigenous Women in Mexico felt less like visiting an exhibition and more like stepping into a living conversation—one that spans centuries, territories, and voices that refuse to be silenced.
In 2025, the Government of Mexico officially declared the Year of Indigenous Women, a gesture recognizing the original peoples who have inhabited this land for over three millennia and whose presence has fundamentally shaped the nation. At the heart of these cultures are Indigenous women: the backbone, the support system, and the keepers of memory. They are the guardians of languages, traditions, and ancestral knowledge—wisdom that has been preserved, reinterpreted, and adapted through the tides of time.
This powerful context frames the exhibition La mitad del mundo: Indigenous Women in Mexico, a project unfolding across four cultural institutions in Madrid: Casa de México, the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Instituto Cervantes, and the Museo Arqueológico Nacional (MAN). Moving between these spaces, time and culture intertwine, revealing the profoundly human dimension of Indigenous women’s worlds through more than 200 archaeological and ethnographic objects drawn from 25 different collections.
From the outset, the exhibition makes one thing clear: this is not a marginal history—it is a central one.
The journey begins by tracing the social contexts of Indigenous women from pre-Hispanic times to the present. What emerges is a story of continuity: roles that have evolved, yet endured, within family, community, economic, and ritual life. Women appear not only as mothers and caregivers, but also as providers, healers, weavers, shamans, knowledge keepers, warriors, and rulers. Their presence is constant, multifaceted, and powerful.
The first thematic section, Everyday Life, explores the central role Indigenous women have long played in the economic and social fabric of their families. While the domestic sphere has historically been their primary domain, it was never their only one. From ancestral times, women have educated their children from infancy, cared for elders, spun and woven textiles, shaped clay into pottery, delivered babies, healed the sick, offered counsel, and safeguarded both daily sustenance and spiritual practice. They have been responsible for care, maintenance, religious rituals, and the transmission of knowledge—an often invisible labor that has sustained entire communities.
What struck me most was how clearly the exhibition demonstrates that this is not merely history. Today, Indigenous women continue to expand their roles in community organization, political engagement, and the defense of their territories. Their strength is not a new discovery—it has always been present.
The second thematic section, Lineage and Power, opens a different yet equally compelling perspective. Here, the focus shifts to the spaces where women actively shaped political, military, and ritual life. In the courts of ancient lordships, Indigenous women played crucial roles in diplomacy, religion, and the arts. Some ruled in their own right, while others served as priestesses, diviners, and shamans—mediators between the human and the divine.
These figures are not portrayed as exceptions, but as part of a longstanding tradition of female authority that continues today. Contemporary Indigenous women leading movements in resistance, cultural preservation, and collective organization are presented as heirs to this enduring lineage of power.
As I moved through the exhibition, it became increasingly clear that La mitad del mundo is not merely an evocation of the past. Above all, it is a recognition of the present—a present embodied by Indigenous women who continue to carry history forward, sometimes quietly, sometimes defiantly, always with resilience.
Upon leaving the exhibition, I felt its title could not be more fitting. Indigenous women are not half of the story—they are half of the world, and often the very force that holds it together.
