Eugenio D’Ors describes the Baroque as “something multiple, diverse, enormous” that mirrors society’s rich multiplicity of expression. From Thai palaces and Indian Solkattu rhythms to Iranian mosques and Mayan sculptures, the Baroque emerges as a creative force—an impulse that reappears cyclically throughout history. Like Hispanic-American Baroque art, it often incubates mestizaje, the fusion of cultures and influences.

In contrast to Academicism—a style typical of settled and self-assured periods—the Baroque arises in times of transformation, mutation, and innovation. Baroque tendencies project themselves forward, flourishing at the height of a civilization, or when a new social order is on the verge of emerging. (Alejo Carpentier)

After exploring some maximalist writing inspired by pre-hispanic indigenous codexes aesthetics, Projection 1: The Tree of Life is the first piece I write inspired by “the baroque” as Alejo Carpentier describes it. More specifically 16th- to 18th-century mestizo art from Hispanic America’s Spanish viceroyal period. It is in these works that indigenous and mestizo artists blended Indigenous aesthetics with European baroque/renaissance practices. Like mayan art, some of the indigenous aesthetics are baroque, .

This deep mix constitutes the foundation of Hispanic-American culture, art, and belief. However, mosts of these indigenous and mestizo artists (and their contributions) remain entirely anonymous to the world, despite their colosal contributions to American (the continent) and European art. Besides causing a vacum of cultural and artistic identity in the concert halls and in academia, this historical amnesia steals indigenous and mestizo peoples from our history and our ancestor’s cultural and artistic contributions.