Juan Brenner

Pedro de Alvarado #1

The photographic series Tonatiuh (The Son of the Sun) by Juan Brenner is an in-depth visual study of current Guatemalan society from the perspective of miscegenation and the incalculable consequences of the Spanish conquest. Establishing Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado as a central figure, not only in the conquest of Guatemala, but also in the formation of a complex, segregated society, Brenner proposes a series of images that re-establish the lens through which to consider both a historical and contemporary Guatemala. Tonatiuh is a visual essay on the state of a country on the verge of failure and its incapacity to address its own history and learn from it.

In the photograph Mano de chamán the artist zero’s in on the weathered and bejeweled hand of a man, clasping a small, empty bottle. Mecapal en Chuitinamit features a bundle of firewood and wool blanket poised atop a rocky landscape. In Pedro de Alvarado #1 a person poses in the elaborately embroidered attire of the infamous conquistador, complete with a mask, feathered hat, and sword. 

The group of images capture the complexities of cultural hybridization and, more poignantly, the way power, hierarchical structures, and inequality are instrumentally reproduced through time. The images in the series suggest that rather than an inevitable event, the Spanish conquest was a deliberate effort to gain territory and enslave a population in order to uphold a power system. With a critical eye and empathy for its subjects, these photographs provide not only a thorough if sometimes painful portrait of Guatemala, but also an interpretation of the consequences of the conquest and long-standing colonial systems.