Mexican Pink: Color, Museums, and Society

Abstract

Abstract:Traveling the Western world as a museumgoer, I have the habit of browsing through museum gift shops, looking for pencils and erasers as clues to identify international trends within the process of globalization. What I found in Mexico City in 2015 was an unusual concentration of items with the color pink (often followed by purple). Not only in museums but everywhere in the area, regardless of the cultural context; the color green was nowhere to be seen, in contrast to twenty years ago. This article intends to provide a transverse answer to that striking experience looking to museum practices as well as current trends in art and architecture. The study reveals that the country, and especially the capital, has recently made "Mexican pink" into something like an official brand. Current literature in art and architecture points to the past and present traditions of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, long appropriated by national elites. However, social realities show that while indigenous peoples are central to national identity they are in fact marginalized in practice.