These days of Holy Week are a good opportunity to visit and revisit some of the museums managed by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), and appreciate the current temporary exhibitions that cover a great mosaic of pre-Hispanic art, religious and popular traditions and a wide range of pictorial works from Cristóbal de Villalpando, José María Velasco, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Raúl Anguiano, among others.
The greatness of Mexico, at the Museum of Anthropology
Due to the large influx of visitors, the dual exhibition The Greatness of Mexico will extend its stay until August 14, 2022 at the National Museum of Anthropology, where it has been visited since its inauguration and until April 9 by 71,974 people, and in the Ibero-American Hall of the building of the Ministry of Education (SEP), where it has received 16 thousand 661 visitors since the opening and until last April 7.
In the National Museum of Anthropology, in the Bosque de Chapultepec, works distributed in five thematic axes are exhibited: “The territory”, “Spirituality”, “The person”, “The symbolism” and “The paths of freedom”. Meanwhile, in the Ibero-American Hall of the SEP headquarters building, in the Historic Center, objects are displayed that give a vision of the country from the regions that make it up, plus a module that addresses social processes through collective struggle .
The greatness of Mexico is presented as an anthology of what we have been and are, a melting pot that melts millennia of our walk through an exotic and changing territory. The abundant collection of the paleontological, archaeological, historical and anthropological heritage of Mexico, which is gathered here, is testimony to this profound evolution.
The greatness of Mexico can be visited at the MNA from Tuesday to Sunday, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Meanwhile, the SEP headquarters building is open to the public, from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Free entry.
Altars of Sorrows
The making of Dolores altars was a widespread tradition in Mexico during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. People toured the churches, houses and streets to appreciate them and there was no shortage of places where they gave the attendees glasses of fresh water, chicha or oranges to cool off.
At present, this devotional ritual has been practically confined to churches; however, the federal Ministry of Culture, through various museums in the network of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), takes it up as part of a tradition that is attached to convent life, as is the case of the National Museum of Interventions (MNI), based in the former convent of Churubusco, in Mexico City.
The Altar of Sorrows exhibition. A tradition can be visited until May 15, at the National Museum of Interventions from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Free entrance.
The El Carmen Museum, in the San Ángel neighborhood, will also offer the exhibition The Pain of the Virgin, which takes up its traditional Altar of Sorrows. Hours are Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Other options
The Museo del Templo Mayor, in the Historic Center, offers the exhibition A Window to the Conquest from Tuesday to Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The entrance ticket also includes a tour of some available areas of the Mexica ceremonial precinct.
At the National Museum of World Cultures you can visit the temporary exhibition Memory of Miracles. Mexican votive offerings: heritage recovered until April 17. From Tuesday to Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.